40 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. in. No. 54. 



Sentries regularly paced the walks by day 

 and night, the sullen Indians were system- 

 atically watched, and the little batteries 

 kept in readiness for use. 



The needs of the business of the company 

 made Sitka a lively manufacturing town, 

 in spite of the multitudinous Russian holi- 

 days. Society there was like a bit of old 

 Russia, with the manners, vices and sturdy 

 qualities of sailor, peasant and courtier fully 

 exemplified within its narrow limits. A 

 fishery at Deep Lake, a few miles away, 

 furnished fresh salmon in abundance, which 

 was freely distributed to all comers, twice 

 or thrice a week during the season. The 

 company furnished each employee with 

 certain stated rations of flour, sugar, tea, 

 etc., at fixed prices ; the hai-bor, within a 

 few yards of the stockade, contained abun- 

 dance of seafish, and the Indians' price for 

 a deer, skinned and dressed, was a silver 

 dollar or a glass of vodka. The primeval 

 forest came close to the town ; the demand 

 for firewood and timber had made little im- 

 pression upon it. White settlements in the 

 Alexander archipelago were confined to a 

 few small fortified trading posts. Fort 

 Wrangell and Fort Tongass alone could be 

 regarded as approximately permanent. The 

 parties sent out to trade or hunt worked 

 from a temporary camp or an armed vessel 

 as a base, and, owing to the ill feeling 

 which existed between the natives and Rus- 

 sians, smuggling and illicit trading were rife. 

 Missionary efiTort did not exist outside of 

 Sitka, and even there amounted to little 

 more than the bribery of some greedy 

 savage, to perform for a consideration 

 some rites which he did not understand. 



The law of Russia which prevented a 

 permanent severance of a subject from his 

 native soil (except for crime) operated to 

 encourage temporary unions of the com- 

 pany's servants with native women. Mar- 

 riages were not allowed between full-blooded 

 R.ussians and natives, as, at the expiration 



of his term of service, the Russian must re- 

 turn to his own parish in Russia, and the 

 native could not be carried away from the 

 place of her nativity. After the transfer of 

 Alaska to the United States many of these 

 Russians elected to remain in the country 

 and were married to the mothers of their 

 children ; but at the time of our first visit, 

 the most surprising social fact to us was 

 the perfect equality which appeared to sub- 

 sist between these irregular partners and 

 the married women who had come from 

 Russia. So far as we could perceive, both 

 classes behaved with equal propriety and 

 were treated with equal respect by the com- 

 munity, and the only restriction which the 

 authorities insisted upon was that no Rus- 

 sian should take to himself a partner who 

 had not been duly baptized. The issue of 

 these unions, being of Alaskan birth, were 

 free to marry in the country, and with 

 their descendants constituted the class to 

 which the Russians gave the name of 

 'Creoles.' Some of them rose to eminence 

 in the service, and one at least became 

 governor of the colonies. 



At the time of our visit the business of the 

 colony was exclusively the development of 

 the fur trade. Agriculture was confined to 

 a trifling amount of gardening verj^ im- 

 perfectly performed. The fisheries were 

 utilized only to supply food for the people 

 in the company's employ, or to insure sub- 

 sistence for the natives whose time was de- 

 voted to hunting the sea otter or preparing 

 skins for the authorities. The fur trade of 

 southeastern Alaska was not very pro- 

 ductive. The natives were disposed to 

 trade with the Hudson Bay Company or il- 

 licit traders rather than with the Russians, 

 partly because they obtained better prices 

 for their skins and partly because the Rus- 

 sians refused to trade intoxicating liquors, 

 while the outsiders were not troubled with 

 any scruples in such matters. The furs 

 were divided by the Russians into two 



