320 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



products. They might live in a half-barbarous way upon fish. No 

 traders would go near them, and their condition would be very wretched 

 indeed. 



In that connection it is well for the Government, and whosoever may 

 have the lease of the set>l islands, to consider what will be the condi- 

 tion of the people of the Aleutian chain proper, ai)art from the Pribylov 

 Islands ; whether or not certain consideration should not be given them 

 in any future arrangement that may be made looking to the support of 

 the people of those and other islands in connection with the working 

 of the Pribylov group. Unless one has had his attention called to this 

 subject carefully, by association of past years, he would hardly realize 

 the condition of things. These people may be reduced to starvation, 

 because when the sea-otter business is gone there is nothing else on 

 any one of those islands. From the seal islands proper it is demon- 

 strated there could be derived a sufidcient amount of seal meat to feed 

 this Aleutian population. The question is not one of production, but 

 it is one of distribution, and it should be taken into account by the Gov- 

 ernment that the possibilities of those people in the future should be 

 considered and the distribution made from the seal islands of the seal 

 meat which now goes to waste and which would sustain these people. 

 It would involve, possibly, the necessity of erecting, by whatever com- 

 pany may have the business^ cold storage on the island in which to keep 

 this seal meat. It is something which is worthy of consideration in 

 this connection, and the future of the natives of the Aleutian chain will 

 dei)eud very considerably upon the action that the future lessees of the 

 seal islands may be inclined to take with regard to these peoi)le. 



Q. Can the meat be preserved and distributed in any other form that 

 would make it edible except by means of cold storage ? — A. Cold storage 

 suggests itself to me as the simplest method, but Dr. Mclntyre thinks 

 he knows a great deal better way. Vast quantities of seal meat go to 

 waste. The time will come very shortly when the natives of the Aleutian 

 chain must be assisted in some way, and if they should be assisted by 

 the company that may have the lease of the seal islands or by the Gov- 

 ernment, by a proper distribution of this food, and at the same time if 

 there could be some way of employing them — I can not at this time say 

 what — some kind of occupation which would give them nominal re- 

 sponsibility and make them feel that they were laborers rather than 

 paupers, it would vastly help them. The Alaska Commercial Company 

 has always endeavored, as far as possible, to notice those people and 

 look after them. 



Q. One witness testified — perhaps more ; Mr. Tingle, I am sure, re- 

 ferred to it — as to the condition of the inhabitants of Attoo as being 

 already almost destitute, without sufficient game to support them, and 

 suggested the idea of a permit being given for the removal of the pop- 

 ulation, or a portion of it, to the Pribylov Islands, where they could be 

 employed by the companj', as it felt the necessity for a little more labor 

 than the native population of the islands can give, and thereby extend- 

 ing them relief in that way. What do you say as to that ? — A. That 

 is one point that I had in my mind. For the past three years the com- 

 pany visited that island and distributed supplies there, and they have 

 not received any returns from that station sufficient to pay even the 

 cost of the coal used in steaming up and back. 



At the beginning of this tease the natives of St. Paul who were avail- 

 able for working must have been 130 to 140, I should think, and if I 

 am wrong Mr. Slorgan or some other gentleman can correct me — and 

 now they are reduced to somewhere about 80 by natural processes. If I 



