APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN, TO7 
(B.)—Report of Joseph Murray. 
OrFICE OF SPECIAL AGENT, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 
St. George Island, Alaska, July 31, 1890. 
Str: I have the honour to report that the health of the natives here has been 
unusually good during the past year, and is at present far better than any other 
time in many years. ‘There is not a case of sickness on the island, excepting those 
of Jong standing, due to scrofula and other chronic diseases. 
With one single exception all the workmen are well and hearty. 
We had a full term of school from September until May, and under the care of 
the teacher, Dr. L. A. Noyes, it was as well conducted as any public school of its 
size in the country; but, after all, I find the children made next to no progress in 
acquiring the simplest rudiments of our language. It seems incredible, but it is 
true, that young men and women who have been to school here for seven years do 
not know how to speak or read a sentence of the English language. Looking over 
their shoulders as they write in their copy-books, and observing the ease with which 
they follow the head-lines, one would think they were making rapid progress, but 
ask any one of them to read what he or she has been writing, and they cannot do it. 
It was long suspected that the older people secretly influenced the children against 
American schools, and encouraged them to learn the Russian language in preference 
to any other; but I find that they are just as ignorant of Russian as they are of 
English, and as backward in learning it. ° 
There has been one day of each week devoted to the Russian school, which, in my 
opinion, has a bad effect upon the children in their attempt to master the English 
tongue, and I therefore respectfully suggest that the practice of teaching Russian to 
the school children be abolished. After a year’s residence here, I am able to say that 
the people as a whole have conducted themselves very well indeed; not a lond, vul- 
gar, or angry word has been spoken in my hearing or to my knowledge by a native 
man or woman on the Island of St. George. Not one case of drunkenness or drink- 
ing, nor anything approaching to it, has come to my knowledge. A case of wrong- 
doing by two white men, employés of the Alaska Commercial Company, compelled 
me and my assistant, Mr. A. P. Lond, to complain to Mr. Sloss, the President of the 
Company, who immediately removed and discharged the offenders. Excepting one 
instance, there has not been one word of complaint from any quarter. 
The men who wintered in the service of the Alaska Commercial Company are all 
good and worthy, especially the agent, Mr. Daniel Webster, and the physician, 
19 Dr. A. L. Noyes. I take pleasure in thus testifying to their worth, for I have 
found them to be upright and honourable at all times, in all their transactions 
with the natives, with whom they are deservedly very popular. 
I have endeavoured to promote a more perfect sanitary system in the village, and 
I find it is not so hard, as was expected, to prevail on the people to adopt. better 
methods, if one will be patient and treat them kindly. 
It will be an impossibility, however, to do much toward establishing a sanitary 
system of value until we have better water and a more abundant supply than is pos- 
sible under existing conditions. 
The present supply of water for domestic purposes is obtained from a well into 
which the drainage of half the village finds its way, and the wonder to me is that 
the people are not constantly sick while they have to use such drinking water. 
There is a nice fresh-water lake within 2,000 feet of the village, and fully 50 feet 
higher, from which a constant and never- failing supply of good water can be taken 
if you can have 2,000 feet of 2-inch pipe and the necessary hy drant and fixings sent 
here. 
A drain is the next essential to success, and one of 700 feet in length can be dug 
easily, and will suffice to carry all the dirt and offal of the village into the sea. It 
will be necessary to have 700 feet of 12-inch drain-pipe. 
The total absence of water-closets on this island is a disgrace. and is beyond all 
question the cause of more immorality, disease, and death than all other things com- 
bined. That such a state of things has been allowed to exist for twenty years is a 
disgrace to our civilization, and Tdo hope you will insist on the present lessees or 
on the Department to have it altered at once. 
The subject is so abominable I dare not write it in a public Report. 
It is absolutely necessary, too, that at least six of the dwelling-houses be enlarged, 
as the families now occupying them have not room to live as human beings should. 
It may be true, as many assert, that under Russian rule the natives were not housed 
one-half so well as they are now; but such arguments are of no avail ina country 
like ours. When a family of seven persons, of all ages and sexes, are packed in a 
sleeping apartment measuring 10 by 10 feet they are not treated right, nor does our 
Government intend to have such things existing where it has jurisdiction. 
The dwelling-houses are badly in need of repairs, and the attention of the local 
agent, Mr. Webster, has been called to their condition; but as he is to leave the 
