FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 197 



biin make any notes or refer to it, at the dose of the talk he was asked 

 by the interpreter what he av anted to do Avith the book — wliat he liad 

 there. He then showed ns the following- written statement (in Ilussian) 

 which he said he made for me, as he was not certain whether we should 

 meet and talk or not, before I left the island : 



[Translation.! 



August 6, 1890. 



Pardon me, Mr. Elliott, I never call myself a big ni:in, but now I shall talk what 

 I know, and will not tell what I do not know. 



I think that as the hauling grounds were they will be if the drives were made 

 !ind the killing made from small ones, the large ones spared. If that is done, I think 

 all will be well. If that is not done, more harm will come to the rookeries so that 

 there will be no more hauling out on the rookeries. If a zapooska is made, I think 

 all will be well. If the zapooska is not made, then we will lose the laud if the 

 Treasury does not look out. If the hauling grounds could sustain the company, 

 then the grass and everything like it would not grow there now. This loss will 

 fall upon us and upon our children. We can not longer sit quiet and talk about 

 there being lots of seals. 



GENERAL MEMORANDA CONCERNING THE SEAL ISLANDS. 



St. CtEORGE Village, July 39, 1890. 



In many respects a resident here enjoys a far more pleasurable life 

 than if stationed at St. Paul. He has a finer view of the sea, which 

 in storms, boils at his feet in surf of surprising" power, or laves the 

 black basaltic base of the village clifl", in low rippling murmurs when 

 calm days prevail. He can see from morning until night, endless flocks 

 of Avaterfowl, from the 20th of every April until the end of every Octo- 

 ber, flying to and from the uplands and cliffs, some days beating- their 

 way stubbornly against a stiff" head wind or darting off through the 

 fog or mist like bullets from a gun. 



I notice a great increase in the floral display over that exhibited 

 here in 1873-74; indeed, I think that the flowers at Garden Cove are as 

 numerous and as beautiful as can be seen on St. Paul. They were not 

 so in 1873. 



The grass in and around the village here is the finest turf in Alaska; 

 it is a close-growing fine-speared species or variety that very closely 

 resembles the blue grass of Kentucky. The seal "road" leading to the 

 eastern rookery is of this sod, sodded smoothly, and it crops out on 

 the south side at Garden Cove especially attractive. 



Such a compact, smooth, glassy green turf makes the little hamlet 

 here look attractive, as it is kept clean everywhere and not littered or 

 strewn. The water here is abominable, however — nothing but the 

 seepage from the hilly tundra back of the village — and perhaps owes 

 much of its "flatness" to that drainage which it represents of the 

 " Choochkie " ridges, which breed here by millions fi'om June to August 

 30 and September 10, all over the uplands around the town. 



On St. George in 18()8 no regular list was made of the number of 

 seals taken, but it seems likely from all I can gather that at least 30,000 

 were killed. On St. Paul, also, no regular count was made, but H. M. 

 Hutchinson and Daniel Webster, Avho were on the ground then sealing" 

 there, assure me that the number did not exceed 240,000. This was 

 followed in 1809 by the killing of 00,000 or a few more on St. Paul and 

 St. George for natives' food, the skins being salted, and finally taken 

 by the Alaska Commercial Comi)any next year — i. e., most of them — 

 since they did not get possession until August, 1870, and then the seal- 

 ing season was substantially ended for the year. 



The comlition and api)eaTance of this little town of St. George is 

 one of good order and cheerfulness. The 21 native houses here are occu- 



