110 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



of Ooiialaska and Atkba — passive, docile Aleuts. They founded their 

 first village a quarter of a mile to the eastward of one of the princiital 

 rookeries on St, George, now called Starry Arteel, or Old Settlement. 

 A village was also located at Zapadnie, and a succession of barraboras 

 planted at Garden Cove. Then, during the following season, more men 

 were brought up from Atkha and taken over to St. Paul, where five or 

 six rival traders posted themselves on the north shore near and at 

 Maroonitch, and at the head of the Big Lake, among the sand dunes 

 there. 



They were then, as they are now, somewhat given to riotous living 

 if they only had the chance : and the ruins of the Big Lake settlement are 

 pleasantly remembered by the descendants of those pioneers to day on 

 St. Paul, who take off" their hats as they pass by, to aif ectionately salute 

 and call the place "Vesolia Mista,'' or "Jolly Spot." The elder men 

 told me, with great unction, that "in those good old days they had 

 plenty of rum." But, when the pressure of competition became great, 

 another village was located at Polavina, and still another at Zapadnie, 

 until the activity and unscrupulous energy of all these rival settlements 

 well-nigh drove out and eliminated the seals in 1796. Three years later, 

 the whole territory of Alaska passed into the hands of the absolute 

 power vested in the Kussian-American Company. These islands were 

 in the bill of sale, and early in 1799 the competing traders were turned 

 oft" neck and heels from them, and the Pribilov grouj) passed under the 

 control of a single man — the iron-willed Baranov. The people on St. 

 Paul were then all drawn together, for economy and warmth, into a 

 single settlement at Polavina. Their life in those days must have been 

 miserable. They were mere slaves, without the slightest redress from 

 any insolence or injury which their masters might see fit, in petulance 

 or brutal orgies, to inflict upon them. Here thej^ lived and died, unno- 

 ticed and uucared for, in large barracoons half under ground and dirt 

 roofed, cold and filthy. Along toward the beginning or end of 1825, in 

 order that they might reap the advantages of being located best to load 

 and unload ships, the Polavina settlement was removed to the iiresent 

 village site, as indicated on the map, and the natives have lived there 

 ever since. 



On St. George, the several scattered villages were abandoned and 

 consolidated at the existing location some years later, but for a different 

 reason. The labor of bringing the seal skins over to Garden Cove, 

 which is the best and surest landing, was so great; and that of carrying 

 them from the north shore to Zapadnie, still greater : so, it was decided 

 to place the consolidated settlement at such a ijoint between them on 

 the north shore that the least trouble and exertion of conveyance would 

 be necessary. A better place, geographically, for the business of gather- 

 ing the skins and salting them down at St. George, can not be found on 

 that island, but a poorer place for a landing it is ditficult to pick out: 

 though in this respect there is not much choice outside of (larden Cove. 



The Aleutian stock on the islands, as it appears to day, has been so 

 mixed up with Russian, American, and Kamschadale blood, that it 

 presents characteristics, in one way or another, of all the various races 

 of men, from the negro up to the Caucasian. The i)redominant features 

 among them are small, wide set eyes: broad and high cheek bones, 

 causing the jaw, which is full and square, to often appear peaked; 

 coarse, straight black hair : small, neatly shaped feet and hands, together 

 with brownish yellow complexion. The men will average in stature 5 

 feet 4 or 5 inches: the women less in proportion, although there are 

 exceptions to this rule among them, some being over G feet in height 



