BERING SEA— THE ALEUTS. 



273 



walls bathing their precipitous sides in the emerald waters, and clothed with 

 dense pine forests wherever a tree can grow. 



A number of islets scattered over the surface of the bay add to the beauty 

 of the scene. The furs collected by the company are chiefly those of sea- 

 bears, sea-otters, foxes, beavers, bears, lynxes, American martens, etc., and are 

 partly furnished by the subjects of its own territory (Aleuts, Kadjacks, Ke- 

 naizes, Tchugatchi, Aliaskans), who are compelled to hunt on its account, and 

 partly obtained by barter from the independent tribes of the mainland, or 

 from the Hudson's Bay Company. The greater part is sent to Ochotsk or 

 the Amoor, and from thence through Siberia to St. Petersburg ; the rest to the 

 Chinese ports, where the skins of the young sea-bear always find a ready 

 market. 



Of all the aboriginal tribes which inhabit the vast territory of Russian 

 America, the most worthy of notice is that of the Aleuts. Less fortunate 

 than their independent relatives, the Esquimaux of the north — who in the 

 midst of privations maintain an imperturbable gayety of temper — these isl- 

 anders have been effectually spirit-broken under a foreign yoke. In 1817 

 the cruel treatment of their masters had reduced them to about a thousand ; 

 since that time their number has somewhat increased, the company having at 

 length discovered that man is, after all, the most valuable production of a 

 land, and that if depopulation increased still further, they would soon have 

 no more hunters to supply them with furs. 



Every Aleut is bound, after his eighteenth year, to serve the company 

 three years ; and this forced labor-tax does not seem at first sight immode- 

 rate, but if we consider that the islanders, to whom every foreign article is 

 supplied from the warehouses of the company, are invariably its debtors, we 

 can not doubt that as long as the Aleut is able to hunt, he is obliged to do so 

 for the wages of a slave. The Bishop Ivan Weniaminow, who resided ten 

 years at Unalaska, draws a picture of this people which exhibits evident 

 marks of a long servitude. They never quarrel among each other, and their 

 patience is exemplary. Nothing can surpass the fortitude with which they 

 endure pain. On the other hand, they never show excessive joy ; it seems 

 impossible to raise their feelings to the pitch of delight. Even after a long 

 fast, a child never grasps with eagerness the proffered morsel, nor does it on 

 any occasion exhibit the mirth so natural to its age. 



In hunting the marine animals, the Aleuts exhibit a wonderful skill and in- 

 trepidity. To catch the sea-otter, they assemble in April or May at an ap- 

 pointed spot, in their light skin boats, or baidars, and choose one of their most 

 respected chiefs for the leader of the expedition, which generally numbers 

 from fifty to a hundred boats. Such hunting-parties are annually organized 

 from the Kurile Islands to Kadjack, and consequently extend their operations 

 over a line of 3000 miles. On the first fine day the expedition sets out and 

 proceeds to a distance of about forty versts from the coast, when the baidars 

 form into a long line, leaving an interval of about 250 fathoms from boat to 

 boat, as far as a sea-otter diving out of the water can be seen, so that a row 

 of thirty baidars occupies a space of from ten to twelve versts. When the. 



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