144 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



them in Sau Francisco, and the Treasury agents are bound to do their 

 duty, and do it. Therefore, if any more skins were taken the natives 

 would have to be paid. They never like to take a skin more than is nec- 

 essary, and if the>' did they would want something for it. If they were 

 paid anything this year, they would want more next year. So the natives, 

 being familiar with the United States sealing laws and regulations, and 

 the limit of the catch, generally notify the company's agent when they 

 have got their catch. If more skins were taken than the law allows, 

 these people would talk of it, and it could not be kept a secret. 



By the Chairman : 



Q. Will you give us an account of the character and habits of the 

 native inhabitants of these islands, past and present, and the relations 

 existing between them and the Alaska Commercial Company? — A. The 

 character of the natives of St. Paul Island, I think, would be very prop- 

 erly summed up as one of docility and apathy. They are amiable, they 

 are respectful, but they are indolent. There are among them a few ex- 

 amples of thrift, but most of them are very improvident. But living 

 as they do, reared as they are, I think they are admirably fitted for the 

 surroundings of their existence. I do not know any better behaved 

 people that are idle nine mouths of the year. Our people, of course, 

 could do the work quicker, but they could not decently live there. If 

 our people lived there, in nine months of enforced idleness, they would 

 "raise Cain," to use a biblical expression. 



Q. What was their condition prior to the cession of the territory to 

 the United States? — A. From some statements made to me by the old 

 men of the villages, they lived very much as dogs might have lived in 

 the kennel of their master. They were ordered about, treated without 

 the slightest reference to their physical condition; very little attention 

 was paid to them. They vegetated in earthen houses with damp inte- 

 riors and leaky exteriors. They were puny, feeble, and broken-spirited. 



Q. How were they provided for during that time ? — A. TheEussians 

 had a little store up there, but what little they had was mostly beyond 

 the reach of the natives. They paid the natives as they lined. They 

 paid them an average of i)erhaps 10 cents a skin ; but records of the 

 Eussian work are very unsatisfactory. Bishop Veniaminov, in his work, 

 " Zapieska ob Ostrovah Oonalashkenskaho Otdayla (St. Petersburg, 

 1840), thus states the relation and compensation of the seal island na- 

 tives under Eussian control ; it was in this shape when we assumed 

 charge in 18G8 ; the bishop says : 



The Aleuts serving the company here sustain the following relations between 

 themselves and it, to wit: Each of them worked without solicitation, were ordered 

 to do whatever was found, and to which they were directed, or at that Avhich they 

 understood best. Payment for their toil was not established hy the day, or by the 

 year, but in general for each thing taken by them, or standing or put to their credit 

 by the company, for instance, especially, the skins of anijiials, the teeth of walrus, 

 barrels of oil, etc. These sums, Avhatever they mig-ht be, were placed by the com- 

 pany to their credit, for all general working and hunting was established or fixed for 

 the whole year fairly. These Aleuts, in general, receive no specific wages and they 

 are all not alike or equal, their being usually three or four classes. 



In these classes, to the last or least the sick and old workmen are counted in, although 

 they are onljr burdens, and therefore they receive the smaller shares, about 150 rubles 

 (i. e.,$40) a year, and the other and better classes receive fi-om 220 to 250 rubles per 

 year ($55 to $60). Those who are zealous are rewarded by the company with 50 to 

 100 rubles ($10 to $25). The wives of the Aleuts who worked at the seal hunting re- 

 ceived from 25 to :35 rubles ($6 to $9) per annum. 



When this statement of the wages paid seal island natives by the 

 old Eussian company is made the basis of a comparison with what the 



