120 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



seal-island hogs, and proceeded to shoot them right and left, until the 

 extermination of the si)ecies soou followed. The natives offered no 

 resistance, but they still plead for permission to keep hogs.' Last but 

 not least in this statement of native food resources, is the annual unlim- 

 ited snpply of water fowl from May until November — auks,arries, gulls, 

 raauy ducks, and a few geese, the flesh and eggs of which are extensively 

 consumed. After the dead silence of a long ice-bound winter the arrival 

 of large flocks of those sparrows of the north, the "choochkies" [Pha- 

 leris mieroeeros), is most cheerful and interesting. Those plump little 

 auks are bright, fearless, vivacious birds, with bodies round and fat. 

 They come usually in chattering flocks on or immediately after the 1st 

 of May, and are caught by the people with hand scoops or dip nets to 

 any number that may be required for the day's consumption. Their 

 tiny, rotund forms make pies of rare, savory virtue, and they are also 

 baked, I'oasted, and stewed in every conceivable sliai)e by the Kussian 

 cooks; indeed, they are equal to the reed birds of the South. These 

 welcome visitors are succeeded rapidly by thousands and countless tens 

 of thousands of guillemots or "arries" [Lomvia arra). This bird is the 

 great i'^g producer of that region. 



These i)eoi)le are singularly affectionate and indulgent toward their 

 children. There are no '■bald-headed tyrants" in our homes as arbi- 

 trary and ruthless in their rule as are those snaffly babies and young 

 children on the seal islands. While it is very young, the Aleut gives 

 up everything to the caprice of his child, and never crosses its path or 

 thwarts its desire. The "deetiah" literally take charge of the house. 

 But as soon as these callow members of the family become strong 

 enough to bear burdens and to labor, generally between 12 and 15 years 

 of age, they are then pressed into hard service, relentlessly, by their 

 hitherto indulgent parents. The extremes literally meet in this appli- 

 cation. The urchins play marbles, spin tops, and fly kites intermit- 

 tently with all the feverish energy displayed by the youth of our own 

 surroundings; they frolic at baseball and use "shinny" sticks with 

 much volubility and activity. The girls are, however, much more 

 repressed: and, though they have a few games and play quietly with 

 quaintly dressed dolls, yet they do not appear to be possessed of that 

 usual feminine animation so conspicuously marked in our home life. 



One of the peculiarities of these people is that they seldom undress 

 when they go to bed, neither the men, women, nor children; and also 

 that at any and all hours of the niglit during the summer season, when 

 I have passed in and out of the village to and from the rookeries, I 

 always found several of the natives squatting before their house doors 

 or leaning against the walls stupidly staring out into the misty dark- 

 ness of the fog or chatting one with the other over their i)ipes. A 

 number of the iidiabitants by this disjjosition are always up and around 

 throughout the settlement during the entire night and day. In olden 

 times, and even recently, these involuntary sentinels of the night have 

 often startled the whole village by shouting at the toj) of their voices 

 the pleasant and electric announcement of the "ship's light!" or have 

 frozen it with superstitious horror by the recital at daybreak, of ghostly 

 visions. 



The inherent propensity of man to gamble is developed here to a 

 very appreciable degree: but, it in no way suggests the strange gaming 

 love and infatuation with which the Indians and Eskimo elsewhere of 

 Alaska are possessed. The chief delight of the men and boys of the 

 two villages is to stand on the street corners pitching half dollars. So 



' I tliink that they should be permitted to keep a few, if they will peu theiu up 

 aud care for theiu properly. 



