232 ALASKA. 



loff group have been under exceptional conditions for several 

 years. They have had schools, (after a fashion,) steady and 

 remunerative employment, a resident physician, and are able 

 to purchase provisions and other necessaries at a reasonable 

 price ; hence they cannot be compared with the others who 

 have had none of these advantages. That the former show the 

 good effects of their situation, it is hardly necessary to state. 



The relations between these people and the traders, or, more 

 strictly, with the one trading company which has at present an 

 overwhelming predominance throughout the Aleutian region, 

 are peculiar, and require a word of explanation. 



The Aleuts, except on the Pribiloff Islands, gain a livelihood 

 by hunting the seaotter and by fishing. None of the islands 

 afford any subsistence except that drawn from the sea. 



To hunt or fish, in fact to live, the Aleut is totally depend- 

 ent on his siiin-canoe. To make this canoe he must have hair- 

 seal or sea-lion skins. From various causes the sea-lions are 

 not now to be found, as formerly, within reach of the large set- 

 tlements, except on the Piibiloflf Islands. This made no differ- 

 ence under the Eussian rule, as the sea-lion skins were taken 

 under the company's direction at the Pribiloff Islands, and were 

 then distributed to the various points where they were needed, 

 and were given to the Aleuts gratis. Now, on the contrary, 

 they are obliged to buy them, and to buy them of the company, 

 who hold the lease of the Pribiloff Islands, except in very rare 

 cases. As the company's agents, in the natural course of busi- 

 uess, will sell these materials only to those natives who are 

 known to bring all their furs to the company's store for sale, it 

 follows that the lease of the fur-seal islands carries with it a 

 practical monopoly of all the fur-trade of the Aleutian nation, 

 that is to say, the sea-otter as well as the seal trade.(3) 



Thougli questions may arise in the minds of those less famil- 

 iar with the subject than myself as to the necessity of this mo- 

 nopoly, it is sufficient to say that it is a fact, and, joined with 

 the Very great profits of the seal-trade, gives such a weight to 

 a company possessing these advantages as lo enable them to 

 kill out all opposition traders, or to reduce their business and 

 influence to a nullity. In point of fact, then, except in Belkoff- 

 sky and the Shumagins, where sea-lion are yet obtainable by 

 the natives without the intervention of the company, the latter 

 is in the possession of absolute and unchecked power over the 

 whole Aleut nation. 



