20 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



aifectionately salute, aud call the place "Vesolia Mista", or "Jolly Spot"; the old men telling uie, in a low wbisper, 

 tliat "in those Rood old days they had plenty of rum". But, when the pres.sure of competition became great, another 

 vilLige was located at PohiAiua, aud .still another at Zapnduie, until the activity and uu.scrui)ulous energy of all these 

 rival settlemcuts well-nigh drove out and eliminated the seals in 179G. Three years later the whole territory of 

 Alaska passed into the hands of the absolute power vested in the Itussiau-Americau Company. These islands were 

 in the bill of sale, and early in ll'M the competiug traders were turned oif neck and heels from them, and the Pribylov 

 group 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 iusoleuce or injury which their masters 

 might see fit, in petulance or brutal orgies, to inflict upon them. Here they lived aud died, uuuoticed and uncared 

 for, in large barracoons half under ground aud dirt roofed, cold, and filthy. Along toward the beginuiug or end of 

 1825, in order that they might reap the advantage of being located best to load aud unload ships, the Polavina 

 settlement was removed to the present village site, as indicated on the map, aud 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 diSerent reason. The labor of bringing the seal-skins over to Garden cove, which is the best 

 and surest landing, was so great, aud that of carrying them from the north shore to Zapadnie still greater, that it was 

 decided to i)lace the consolidated settlement at such a point between them, on the north shore, that the least trouble 

 and exertion of conveyance would be necessary. A better place, geograidiically, for the busis ess of gatheriug the 

 skins and saltiug them dowu at St. George cannot be found on the island, but a poorer place for a landing it is 

 difQcult to pick out, though in this respect there is not much choice outside tf Garden cove. 



Contrast in the condition of the inhabitants under Russian and Ajieeican rule. — Up to 

 the time of the transfer of the territory aud leasing of the islands to the Alaska Commercial Company, in August, 

 1870, these native inhabitants all lived in huts or sod-walled and dirt roofed houses, called " barrabkies," partly 

 under ground. Most of these huts were damp, dark, and exceedingly filthy: it seemed to be the policy of the 

 short-sighted Kussiau management to keep them so, aud to treat the natives not uear so well as they treated the few 

 hogs and dogs which they brought up there for food aud for comi)any. The use of seal-fat for fuel, caused the 

 deposit upon everything within doors of a thick coat of greasy, black soot, strongly impregnated with a damp, 

 moldy, and indescribably otfensive odor. They found along the north shore of St. Paul and at Northeast point, 

 occasional scattered pieces of drift-wood, which they used, carefully soaked anew in water if it had dried out, split 

 iuto little fragments, aud, trussing the blubber with it when making their fires, the combination gave rise to a 

 roariug, spluttering blaze. If this drift wood failed them at auy time when winter came round, they were obliged 

 to huddle together beneath skins in their cold huts, aud live or die, as the case might be. But the situation to-day 

 has changed marvelously. We see here now at St. Paul, tind on St. George, m the place of the squalid, filthy 

 habitations of the immediate past, two villages neat, warm, aid contented. Each family lives in a snug frame- 

 dwelling; every house is lined with tarred paper, painted, furnished with a stove, with out-houses, etc., complete; 

 streets laid out, and the foundations of these habitations regularly plotted thereon. ' There is a large church at St. 

 Paul, and a less pretentious but very creditable structure of the same character, on St. George; a hospital on St. 

 Paul, with a full and complete stock of drugs, and skilled physicians on both islands to take care of the people, 

 free of cost. There is a school-house on each island, in which teachers are also paid by the company eight inonths 

 in the year, to instruct the youth, while the Russian Church is sustained entirely by the pious contributions of the 

 natives themselves on these two islands, and sustained well by each other. There ai'e ; fiimilies, or 80 houses, on 

 St. Paul, in the village, with 20 or 2-1 such houses to as many families at St. George, aud 8 other structures. The 

 large ware-houses and salt-sheds of the Alaska Commercial Company, built by skillful mechanics, as have been the 

 dwellings Just referred to, are also neatly painted ; and, taken in combination with the other features, constitute a 

 picture fully equal to the average i)resentation of any one of our siuall eastern towns. There is no misery, no 

 <lowncast, dejected, suffering humanity here to-day. These Aleuts, who enjoy as the price of their good bcluniour, 

 the sole right to take and skin seals for the company, to the exclusion of all other jieople, ai-e known to and by 

 their less fortunate neighbors elsewhere in Alaska as the " Bogatskie Alontov", or the "rich Aleuts". The example 

 of the agents of the Alaska Commercial Company, on both islands, from the beginning of its lease, and the course 

 of the treasury agents* during the last four or five years, have been silent but powerful promoters of the welfare 

 of these people. They have maintained perfect order: they have directed neatness, and cleanliness, and stimulated 

 industry, such as those natives had never before dreamed of 



NujiBER AND condition OF THE ISLANDERS IN 1S80.— The population of St. Paul is, at llie present writing, 

 298. Of these, 14 are wTiites (13 males and 1 female), 128 male Aleutians, aud 15C females. On St. Geoige we 

 have 92 souls: 4 white males, 35 male Aleutians, aud 53 females, a total populatiou on these islands of 390. This 

 is an increase of between 30 and 40 people since 1873. Prior to 1873, they had neither much increased nor 

 diminished for 50 years, but would have fallen off rapidly (for the births were never equal to the deaths) had not 



'Messrs. Morton, Falconer, Otis, Moultou, Scribuer, aud Beaman. 



