60 FUE-SEAL FISHEEIES OF ALASKA. 



Q. How many years have you spent in Alaska; when did you go 

 there and when did you leave there ? — A. 1 first went to Alaska in 

 1868. 



Q. When did you leave there the last time ? — A. Last August a year 

 ago. 



Q. Have you been in Alaska every year since 1868! — A. No, sir; the 

 summer of 1868, the winter of 1868, the suiamer of 1869, up to the 4th 

 of August, 1869, when I left there, and I returned to the United States, 

 and remained in the United States until the spring of 1874, when I re- 

 turned to the seal islands, and I have been there every seal season 

 since 1874. 



Q. That is, for the last fourteen years ? — A. The last fourteen years. 



Q. What part of Alaska have you visited ? — A. Sitka, Kodiak, Oona- 

 laska, and the Pribylov group. 

 ■ Q. Have you been to St. Michaels ? — A. No, sir. 



Q. Are you an employe of the Alaska Commercial Company ? — A. 

 Yes, sir ; I was until last September, and I suppose I am now, on a 

 leave of absence. 



Q. I would like you to take these photographs showing the condition 

 of the natives. You brought these with you f — A. I brought these 

 large ones. The stereoscopic views were taken by a gentleman in 1870, 

 I think. 



Q. I want you to state whether you know them to be correct views 

 of the original habitations of the natives on St. Paul and St. George 

 Islands"? — A. These stereopticon views are all of St. Paul Island, and 

 they are a correct representation of the dwellings and buildings on St. 

 Paul, as I knew them in 1868 and 1869. 



Q. You were there before the company's lease went into operation at 

 all — before they had a lease! — A. I was there when the American ensign 

 was first raised on St. Paul Island. That was in April, 1>S68. 



Q. State whether you have there any correct representation of the 

 present abodes of those natives, of houses built by the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company ? — A. The larger photographs here were taken last 

 year. 



Q. Are they a correct representation of the homes of those people ? — 

 A. They are* 



Q. Who built those houses ! — A. The Alaska Commercial Company. 



Q. Were any charges made the natives for these houses, or the use 

 of them ! — A. None, except the church. 



Q. I mean the residences. — A. No charges for the residence or school 

 buildings. 



Q. What are furnished in the houses ? Are stoves furnished them 1 — 

 A. When the natives were first put into these frame hoiises a number 

 of the buildings were built on the site of the old huts on Barabracas. 

 Now, the old dwellings had no stoves; their cookiu-g was done in ymall 

 turf houses over an open blubber fire. Their bread was baked in Kus- 

 sian ovens, something like what we call the old Dutch oven in this coun- 

 try. These were all the cooking ovens they had. When tlie company's 

 employes destroyed their huts and erected the frame houses some of 

 the natives who used them wanted pay for the habitations destroyed. 

 They had no stoves, and the company made a rule that when a man 

 moved into a new house he was to be furnished a cooking stov^e, and 

 those were furnished them. When they became worn out, if the native 

 was able, he purchased a new stove. Widows and children who were 

 not able to purchase a stove were furnished them. Sometimes it was a 

 second-hand stove, and sometimes a new one. 



