146 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



170, but during this period there are 2^}4 days of vacation, 4 American holidays and 21^ 

 Russian Church holidays. These reduced the school days last year (1913-14) by i8>^ 

 days. Besides this many name days fall in the school period, and as these are religiously 

 observed, they cause each child an additional absence once a year. One of the teachers 

 in particular has complained much about these holidays, but they are not more numerous 

 than in German schools, which do not seem to have been seriously afifected by them. 

 In one respect the school year might be changed to advantage. The holiday period 

 centers around the Russian Christmas (Jan. 6-14), a time of year when the days are 

 very short and the light poor. A vacation covering these holidays might be given at 

 this period, and the time thus taken might be added to the school year, in part at the 

 beginning and in part at the end, thus increasing the year at periods when the season is 

 more favorable than in the dark winter. 



The subject most taught in the schools is English, and the exercises deal with speak- 

 ing, reading, and writing this language. Besides this, arithmetic, some geography, history, 

 personal hygiene, and a little natural history have been tried. Mr. G. Dallas Hanna, the 

 teacher on St. George, noticed that though the native children could learn with great 

 ease to write after a copy and even spell difficult words, their real understanding of their 

 performances was very slight. They were remarkable imitators, but otherwise of very 

 low intelligence. He therefore spent much time in teaching them words and their uses. 

 But even so simple a matter as this is not easily accomplished. Most schoolbooks are 

 written and illustrated for children who live in a land where tree, river, dog, train, etc., 

 are already things of experience. Not one of these objects is on the Pribilofs, and it is 

 not surprising that a new language about strange things, many absolutely unknown to 

 them, should be troublesome to inculcate. But the matter is rendered still more difficult 

 from the fact that the native child on leaving school for the day hears nothing but Aleut 

 and speaks nothing but Aleut till he returns to school the next morning. The daily 

 speech of the native is Aleut with a few Russian and English words, and to such a 

 native the English school must seem a most impractical and academic affair. 



This side of the educational situation was recognized by the teachers on both islands, 

 and instruction in sewing and dressmaking for the girls and in making nets, working 

 ropes, and working and tempering steel for the older boys and men were begun. It 

 would seem that if the educational aim could be made more practical and the English 

 language made incidental to this training, a more secure advance might be made. 

 Certainly the common-school aims and methods in the States are not well adapted 

 to the natives of the Pribilofs. 



Some improvement could doubtless be attained by the use of special readers, deal- 

 ing more generally with objects which are familiar to the native child. 



The ability of the natives to use English is quite different on the two islands. On 

 St. Paul about six, mostly old people, can speak no English, but about two-thirds of 

 the total population speak the island's capacity of this tongue. About half the popu- 

 lation can answer simple English questions, and five or six speak English well. It is 

 easy to get an English answer on St. Paul; it is rather difficult on St. George. This 

 difference is probably due to the greater frequency with which Government vessels call 

 at St. Paul than at St. George. The native on St. Paul has considerable use for his 

 Enghsh as compared with his brother on St. George. 



