38 



THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



I have made a careful and detailed copy of the Bering Island church census on 

 January 1 (old style), 1883, showing 165 males and 154 females, total 319, which 

 agrees very closely with Savitch's figures for 1882. It is therefore probable that his 

 figures are meant to represent the population at the end of the year. During that 

 same year (January 1, 1883) there resided on Bering Island 16 persons not classed as 

 natives. 



Mr. Grebnitski has kindly furnished me with the following table relating to age 

 and sex on the two islands, January 1 (old style), 1896: 



At the end of the year 1896 there were on the Commander Islands, in addition to 

 the 605 natives specified above, a foreign population amounting to 59 souls, classified 

 as follows : 



A total population on December 31, 1896 (old style) of 664 souls. 



Apart from the sudden increase, due to the importation of the Zholti Mys natives, 

 a pretty steady, though slow, increase of the population is noticeable from 1870 to 

 1893. This is rather interesting in a mixed population of but indifferent vitality, and, 

 moreover, afflicted by a tendency to scrofulous and pulmonary diseases, the more so 

 since a couple of rather severe epidemics of influenza and scarlet fever have swept 

 over the islands of late years.' The question of the movement of this population 



1 As a result, the native population of Bering Island, according to Dr. Slunin (Prom. Bog. Kamqli., 

 etc., p. 57), between 1886 and 1891 suffered a decrease of 16, there being 111 births only against 127 

 deaths. His statement, however, that the population of Copper Island has not increased during the 

 20 years from 1872 to 1892 is not in conformity with the facts as shown in the above table. 



