FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OP ALASKA. 409 



as I have said, had done aud was doing much more for the comfort and welfare of 

 the natives than its agreement enjoins upon it. 



I found the natives all comfortably housed in neat one-story frame houses built for 

 them by the company, aud which they are permitted to occupy for no other consid- 

 eration than that the i)remi8es shall be kept clean. There are about sixty of these 

 native houses in the village of St. Paul, all presenting a neat, tidy exterior, and, so 

 far as my observation extended, all well and cleanly kept on the inside. No otial or 

 offeusive refuse of any kind is allowed around the houses. The streets are kept cleau, 

 and the sanitary regulations and conditions are better than those usually enforced in 

 eastern villages. 



The school-house is large enough to accommodate all the children of school age on 

 the island, and will compare most favorably in all respects with similar buildings in 

 the States aud Territories. The school was having its annual vacation at the time 

 of my visit, but I met a number of native children who could speak English, and a 

 few comparatively young men who could read and write, and was informed by the 

 teacher aud the Government agents that the school, which is kept open from September 

 to May, was making excellent progress. 



A dispeusary in charge of a skillful jihysician is maintained by the company on 

 each of the islands, both medical attendance and medicines being supplied free of 

 charge. The agreement with the Government requires the company to furnish the 

 inhabitants of the two islands with 60 cords of tire-wood annually, but for some rea- 

 son, or under some arrangement, coal is being furnished them instead of wood, the 

 allowance being 10 pounds per day to each house. This would be a little more than 

 If tons for the year to each house, and allowiug that only thirty of the houses are 

 occupied, the cost to the company would be more than the value of the wood it origi- 

 nally agreed to furnish. This amount of coal is of course insufficient, and the people 

 are compelled to buy enough fuel to make up the deficiency ; that the company sells 

 to them at the rate of $1.50 per 100 pounds for coal, or three sticks of cord-wood for 

 50 cents. 



lu the event of a renewal of the company's lease, or the leasing of the islands to 

 any other corporation or individual, I think a much more liberal provision for a free 

 supply of fuel to the natives should be made. From the stores at St. Paul and St. 

 George I assume that the conditions at St. George are the same as at St. Paul, the 

 same general agent being in control. The natives are furnished goods and provisions, 

 if indeed not as the company claims at only 25 per ceut. advance on San Francisco 

 wholesale prices, most assuredly at very much lower figures than have yet obtained 

 anywhere else in Alaska. 



There are 219 meu, women, and children, exclusive of the few whites on St. Paul, 

 and 112 on St. George. These 331 people, of whom it is safe to say less than one- 

 third are adults, are paid by the company each year, for not to exceed three mouths' 

 actual labor, $40,000, which is divided among them, not exactly on a community plan, 

 but in shares of the first, second, third, and fourth class, the classes being arranged 

 by and among themselves, and founded upon the relative skill of the workmen and 

 value of labor performed. 



As, for instance, of the $34,000 paid the present year for killing and flaying the 

 85,000 seals taken ou St. Paul, the men of the first class received $526 each, those of 

 the second class perhaps $50 less, and the other two classes from $300 to $400 per man. 

 These amounts, after the division is agreed upon, are placed to the credit of the in- 

 dividual persons composing the several classes ou the books of the company, and can 

 be drawn in cash whenever wanted, except that either on its own motion, or at the 

 request of the Government agents, the company insists upon retaining an amount 

 sufficient to iiMsnieeach individual $3 per week during the long period of enforced 

 idleness which intervenes between the close of one killing season aud the commence- 

 meut of another. 



A number of the more provident natives have very considerable amounts standing 

 to their credit with the company, on which they are allowed 4 per cent, interest, and, 

 by the means just stated, the improvident ones are compelled to save enough for the 

 support of themselves and families. If they do any extra work they are paid for it; 

 the compauy likewise pays them 40 cents each for skins of the pup-seals, of which the 

 law permits them to kill as many as may be needed for food — at least for as many as 

 they desire to sell for that price after they are neatly tanned. Many of these pup 

 skins, however, they make up into blankets, coats, caps, etc., which are eagerly 

 sought for by the officers of the revenue steamers, but I was informed they were not 

 allowed to sell them except through the office, and not even then without first having 

 obtained the Government agent's permission. 



There are a great many blue aud white foxes on St. Paul Island, and of these they 

 are permitted to trap not to exceed 500 each winter, for the pelts of which the com- 

 pany allows them 40 and (iO cents each, res])ectively. The people are seemingly much 

 attached to the company's general agent, who struck me as being a man of the most 

 humane and kindly feelings, and I heard no complaints from the natives concerning 



