40 THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



less ambitious, and, therefore, to most people, less attractive than the latter, whose 

 gaiety and whim make a very favorable impression on the visitor. This difference 

 seemed more marked during my visitt o the islands last year than on the former 

 occasion, and, on the whole, it seemed as if the Bering Islanders had deteriorated. 

 Even theft was not uncommon among the younger generation on Bering Island, though 

 an almost unknown thing fourteen years ago. But even now real criminal offenses are 

 not frequent. Occasionally a serious offender has to be sent to Vladivostok for punish- 

 ment, but ordinarily deportation from one island to the other, extra service at the 

 south rookery, or lines, are resorted to. The kossaks have often to arrest disturbers 

 of the peace, resulting from the general spree on great holidays, or jjraswi/^s; but a 

 night's lodging in the lockup sobers them up, and neither island has thus far needed a 

 jail. As an illustration of the patriarchal ways of justice in vogue not many years ago, 

 the following literal abstract from the station log of Bering Island is both instructive 

 and amusing: 



Decemijer 3, 1877. — A married, woman was on trial for stealing a, petticoat from ii clothesline. 

 As slie would not confess, the judges (natives) took two pieces of paper, on one of which was written 

 "I have stolen," and on the other "I did not"; and it happened that she drew the one with the 

 inscription "I have stolen." She was sentenced to wash the floor in the church. 



The moral decline of the people I attribute largely to the recent introduction of 

 intoxicating liquors. In 1882 it was forbidden the natives both to import spirits and 

 to brew "beer" of sugar. As a result, they were tractable and contented, except as 

 to this particular point. I was then told a story, the literal truth of which 1 can not 

 guarantee, however, but it is to the point: A "revisor" arrived at the island to inquire 

 if the natives were treated well, and he called a meeting to receive any complaints 

 that they might have to make. The chief, after consulting with the other men, finally 

 declared that they had absolutely nothing to complain of except the discrimination 

 made against them, among all the children of the tsar, that they were not allowed to 

 get drunk on the great church and state holidays, and that they were not conscious of 

 any conduct which would merit such an unusual and severe punishment. 



Whether this petition had any weight, or whether the American company, which 

 had been instrumental in establishing the prohibition, was losing its influence, I do not 

 know; certain it is that at my second visit to the islands the natives were allowed 

 to import and consume many hundred dollars' worth of alcohol, the result being the 

 usual one. 



Until within the last few years the condition of these natives has been the enviable 

 one of being the richest and most prosperous community in Bering Sea or along any of 

 its shores, Not only the increase in the number of seal skins taken, and later on the 

 increased payments for the skins when the number began to fall off, contributed to 

 this end, but also the flourishing condition of the sea-otter and blue-fox hunt, due to 

 the enforcement of wise regulations for the protection and chase of these animals. 



The sea otter long ago became extinct on Bering Island, but on Copper Island it 

 is still common. The "rookeries" or breeding places of this valuable animal, which 

 furnishes the costliest of all furs,' are guarded and protected with jealous care. The 

 animal, which is now Hearing its extermination on all the American islands and shores, 



' A single first-class sea-otter skin brought at auction in London, spring of 1895, $1,100. 



