158 FUR-SEAL FISHEKIES OF ALASKA. 



in our cities ? — A. Yes, sir. Their condition is very much better than 

 that of the laboring classes in any city of the United States today. 



Q. Is there any suffering or pauperism among them f — A. There is not 

 a pauper upon the island. They all partake of this distribution fund. 



Q. Men, women, and children f — A. No, not the children. Last sea- 

 son six men died and left widows, who were paid $250 each out of the 

 native fund. 



Q. You are now reading from a statement accompanying your report 

 to the Secretary of the Treasury ? — A. Yes, sir ; which will appear in 

 this written statement that I have already promised to furnish the com- 

 mittee. Widows whose husbands had not died during the killing sea- 

 son are supported by the company out of their store. They go to the 

 store twice a week and draw groceries and other necessaries of life just 

 as though they had money to pay for them. The company give to them 

 groceries and other supplies. They did not pay anything for them. 



Q. How long does that continue? — A. As long as they live and re- 

 main widows. 



Q. Do you mean that the widows of the natives after the deaths of their 

 husbands are provided by the company, instead of having an allowance 

 set apart from the earnings of the takers of the seals ? — A. I do ; they 

 are provided with the necessaries of life only, free of cost. 



Q. I thought it was in evidence here that a certain percentage of 

 this $40,000 was set apart for the support of the widows?— A. That is 

 a fact. Widows who lose their husbands, say since the last sealing 

 season began, are paid out of the distribution an amount that the Gov- 

 ernment agent, company's agent, and the chief may agree on, out of the 

 $40,000. 



Q. They get seal meat free, do they not ? — A. Yes, sir ; seal meat is 

 free, of course, to all. 



Q. It is free to all the natives ?— A. It is as long as the seals remain 

 there, and after the company closes the taking of its 100,000 seal skins, 

 every week they make a little drive of seals for food. 



Q. What class of seals '!— A. They kill only such as the company will 

 accept the skins of. They kill for food and save the skins. They only 

 kill what they will require for three, four, or five days, so that it will be 

 fresh, until towards the end of December, when the seals are likely to 

 leave, they drive up and kill largely of the killable seals, so that the 

 natives may accumulate a stock to last them as long as possible into the 

 winter. These skins are accepted by the com})any's agent, are counted 

 into the salt-houses, and charged up in the daily record to the company. 

 The food skins go into the next year's quota. 



Q. Are there any methods adopted to preserve seal meat for the na- 

 tives ? — A. There has never been any method adopted. Last year we 

 talked the matter over, and this year Dr. Mclutire and myself agreed 

 upon a plan for building meat-houses. 



Q. Cold storage ? — A. Yes, sir ; where we have a quantity of these 

 carcasses, and preserve them during the season when the skins are 

 stagey. 



Q. If you do that, can you not preserve from the one hundred thou- 

 sand sufficient meat ? — A. That would not be asaving, because when we 

 take seals for food after the company closes its catch, the more accept- 

 able seals we can kill the more we have on the next year's quota. 



Q. Then they are destroyed merely for food ? — A. No, sir : as the 

 seals are still there upon the island, it is a saving to secure their skins 

 before they go to sea, as some are killed by their natural enemies in 

 the water and do not return. 



