FUR-SEAL FISHEKIES OF ALASKA. 35 



at the time. He said he had taken a vessel dowu once and never got 

 anything from the Government and he would not go in it, especially with 

 such a crew as they had. They had nine Japs and four tough-looking 

 white men. I would not have gone with them for all the surplus in the 

 Treasury, and I could not keep the vessel at St. George for the rea- 

 son that there is no place to anchor safely and if she had gone oe the 

 rocks uuder my charge, of course I would be to blame for it. I had an 

 idea that if the company would be responsible and take her down from 

 the island I would seize her, but I did not intend to go in her myself. 



Q. Was that an American vessel or a foreign vessel? — A. It was an 

 American vessel plying from San Francisco. She sailed from San Fran- 

 cisco in 1881 for hunting and fishing. That is the way they clear, and 

 they go off and shoot seals around the Bering's Sea and then they slip 

 over to Yokohama and sell them. There is no question about that. 

 Then they go back to San Francisco. 



Q. Do you know whether seals are killed in the Pacific on any island 

 south of the Aleutian Islands? — A. They are killed off British Colum- 

 bia, because I met evidences of it from Vancouver to Sitka; because they 

 sell fur-seals in Sitka and in Fort Wrangel ; I saw them myself; and I 

 think some at Kodiak. Sometimes on the killing-ground when a skin 

 comes off we find the bullet which goes through the skin and is between 

 the skin and the blubber. I had quite a collection of slugs, bullets, and 

 buckshot which the natives had taken out of the seals in skinning 

 them. 



Q. Have you any knowledge of the condition of the natives on the 

 island compared with what it was before the Territoiy was ceded to 

 the United States ? — A. Yes, sir; we had there a very intelligent half- 

 breed native. He spoke very good English, and he could read and 

 write English very well. His name was Peter Eesanzoff. He had been 

 educated at Sitka under the Russian rule, when he was a boy. I think 

 Ids father was going to put him in the church, but he never v/ent in. 

 He seemed to be a pretty bright fellow and he was better educated 

 than any of the children who had been to school on the island. He 

 used to read Dickens's stories. He can make a pair of pump-soled boots; 

 he is a first-class carpenter, and can make a gun-tube out of a rat-tail 

 file; he is a pretty good blacksmith, and could cutyour hair as well as 

 a barber, and he was a pretty clever fellow. He said that those fellows 

 didn't like to work, but under the Eussian rule they had to pack every 

 skin from the village over to Garden Cove, which is 3 miles across the 

 island. They had a landing on the south side of the island and they 

 used to make the natives pack all the skins over there. They lived in 

 barabakies at that time. A barabakie is a sort of dirt house. They 

 lived at " Staroi Steel," or old village, and the Eus&ians made them 

 pack skins from there clear acros sthe island, 3 miles, to a vessel on the 

 other side. The Americans have put in better facilities for shipping- 

 skins. Peter said the natives all lived in barabakies at that time, and 

 now they live in frame houses. 



Q. Will you state how those houses were built and what they were ^ 



A. A barabakie is first dug down about 2 feet below the surface of the 

 earth and the earth is thrown out of that space. Then they put up a 

 frame, usually made of drift-wood, and then they cover the whole busi- 

 ness with earth. That is what is called in the eastern part of this coun- 

 try " root houses," where they put i)otatoes and such things to keep them 

 from freezing. They still live in such places at Attoo, Athka, and 

 Kishka. Here is a rough drawing of the village of Attoo which I made 



