50 THE ASIATIC FUK-SEAL ISLANDS. 



Islanders, especially the females; but I am not certain that their more cheerful and 

 independently open character, as contrasted with the more sulky and indifferent aspect 

 of the Bering Island natives, is not due to the competition on one hand and the 

 paralyzing communism on the other. The Copper Island population also forms a 

 "community," of course, but its income and expenses are very different from that of 

 Bering Island. The amount and manner of raising the income varies according to 

 the decision of the natives. Sometimes a certain drive of seals is set aside for the 

 community fund, sometimes the proceeds of sea otters killed with the rifle, etc. The 

 expenses are few and small; as, for instance, the salary to the clerk or secretary (5 

 rubles a mouth), but the chief outlay is for whisky (or spirits), which is bought for 

 the community by the barrel and divided on the great church and imperial holidays. 



The religion of the natives is, of course, the orthodox Russian Greek Catholic faith. 

 They have built a fine and expensive church on each island. They also support a 

 priest on each island, and on Bering Island an assistant priest or " diakon." The 

 moral plane of the church — its methods, men, and members — is similar to that of the 

 same institution in Alaska. 



Schools are provided for both islands and housed in roomy and well-lighted build- 

 ings, very creditable iu every respect. The children are provided with all the modern 

 improvements in school furniture, as well as apparatus for object lessons, maps, and 

 colored charts of animals and plants decorating the walls, on which, over the teacher's 

 rostrum, also hang the portraits of the Tsar and the Tsarina. Whether the knowledge 

 received by the boys and girls is up to the flue apparatus I am not able to say. Any 

 way, the boys used to write a good hand, at least when the late Mr. Volokitin taught 

 them. I also saw the apparatus of a modern-school gymnasium, but as it was outside 

 the schoolhouse and being painted dead black, I surmise that the authorities had come 

 to the conclusion that it was carrying coal to Newcastle to give the outdoor children 

 o^ Aleut extraction the additional physical exercise of indoor gymnastics. 



A doctor, appointed and paid by the Government, is now stationed on Bering Island, 

 with a good drug store on each island. He has for an assistant a " feltcher " or hospital 

 steward located on Copper Island. The midwife, sent out from St. Petersburg by the 

 authorities there, must also be regarded as the doctor's assistant. 



a. BERING- ISLAND. 

 GENERAL DESOEIPTION. 



Bering Island, the northwestern island of the Commander group, is situated 

 between (approximately) 55° 22' and 54° 42' north latitude, and 165° 40' and 166° 41' 

 east longitude (pi. 9 1 ). Its greatest length from northwest to southeast is a little less 

 than 50 miles, the average width being about 10 miles. 



Two outlying islets, both not far from the northwestern extremity, properly 

 belong hQTe—ToporJcof Island, a flat topped, low island, about 2 miles west of the 

 main village, and Ari Kamen, on older charts usually called Sivutchi Kamen,a higher 

 basaltic rook (173 feet high), with a two-peaked top, 4| miles farther west. 



The southern two thirds of Bering Island are exceedingly mountainous, with 

 peaks rising to about 2,200 feet. The maximum elevation is nearer the western side 

 than the eastern, and the rise from the sea consequently more abrupt along the 



