FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 17 



TESTIMONY OF H. A. GLIDDEN. 



H. A. Glidden, sworn and examined. 

 By the Chairman : 



Q. State whether or not you were at any time an agent of the Treas- 

 ury Department charged with the duty of overlooking the contract of 

 the Government with the Alaska Commercial Company ; and if so, 

 when. — A. I arrived there the 31st of May, 1882, and I left there about 

 the 8th of June, 1885. 



Q. Kow will you state the locations of these islands? — A. They are 

 located in about the middle of the Bering Sea. I suppose they are 57 

 degrees 30 minutes north latitude and 170 degrees west longitude. 



Q. How far are they from the main-laud'? — A. I should judge it is 

 about 500 miles ; but my information is only what the boys said to 

 me. I judge they were 500 miles from our coast, and about 700 miles 

 from the Kamchatkan coast. 



Q. What condition were the natives in when you got there — I mean 

 the natives on the islands ? — A. In what respect ? Their general con- 

 dition ? 



Q. Just state thier general^ condition and appearance. — A. I do not 

 know how to answer that. They are of Esquimaux andEussian descend- 

 ants. Some of them look like Chinese, as they have the almond eye. 



Q. How did they live? How were they provided for? — A. Well, 

 they lived in frame houses. There were about sixty frame houses there 

 on St. Panl Island. I know more about that island than about St. 

 George, although I went to St. George every year while I was there. 

 They were dressed as well as laboring people here are generally dressed. 



Q. Do you mean well-to-do laboring people? — A. Yes, sir. 



Q. How were their houses furnished — with what degree of comfort 

 inside ? — A. Their houses, as a rule, had beds and ordinary wooden-bot- 

 tom chairs, tables, stoves, and such things as that. 



Q. How were they supplied with other comforts inside of their 

 houses ? — A. The Alaska Company furnished them 60 tons of coal a 

 year — 40 tons for St. Paul and 20 tons for St. George — which it dis- 

 tributed to thom free of cost. They burned, in addition to that, blub- 

 ber from the seals. The seal first is skinned, then under that is a layer 

 of fat, which is blubber, and that blubber is cut off from the rest of the 

 carcass. They use that food for fuel, and during the killing season they 

 pile that up and the comijauy draw it to them in their wagons. 



Q. Do they make any charge for that?— A. They make no charge 

 for that at ail. Then tjiiey have salt to preserve it in hogsheads or bins 

 in the ground. This they use for fuel. When the seals are kdled dur- 

 ing the year they take as much of their carcass as they want and us(» 

 that for food, and whenever it is out of season to kill them, and when- 

 ever they want seal meat, a drive of seals is made, and they are al- 

 lowed to kill two or three hundred for food. 



Q. Are these the young or old seal? — A. They are the same age at 

 which they kill in the killing season — from two to five years old ; that 

 is what the killing age is when they kill them for fur. The skins of 

 these are salted, when they are good, and go to the account with the 

 company. In addition to this the natives are great love-s of crackers. 

 There are comparatively few of them that make bread — a lew of them 

 pan make bread apd do m^ke it — and they will go to the store and buy 

 ^984 2 



