THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 
27 
small bay just back of Cape Zholti.^ They did not do well there, and during the last few 
years (1888) were transferred to Bering Island, their number helping to swell the total 
of the Commander Islands {)opnlation. This was not a very desirable addition, how- 
ever, and has not resulted in elevating the morals of the former inhabitants. 
The other addition consists in a number of girls from Petropaulski. It was found 
that the inbreeding of the natives on the two islands was not only having a deleterious 
effect upon the health and vitality of the community, but intermarriage had made the 
inhabitants so interrelated that it was diflicult to tind people who could be married at 
all without violating the intricate laws of the Bussian Church governing marriage 
between relatives. Under these circumstances a number of unmarried young men 
from both islands were encouraged to go to Petropaulski and provide themselves with 
brides. 
The following tables of the population on the islands are derived from various 
official returns, i^ublished and unpublished. The figures for 1800 are from Tikhmeuiefs 
book. The figures for 1895 have been mislaid, but the total for both islands is believed 
to be about OoOC?). The tables are meant to show only the native population, and 
not to include those temporarily living there, as the administrator, his assistant, tlie 
doctor, the midwife, the priests, the deacon, the kossaks and soldiers, the company’s 
agents, or their families. They would increase the total about 20; and the entire ])op- 
ulation of the Commander Islands in 1895 may therefore be set down as about 070 of 
both sexes. 
Native population of Commander Islands, 18G0 to 1892. 
Tear. 
Bering Island. 
Copper Island. 
Total, 
l)oth 
islands. 
Male. 
Female. 
Total. 
Male. 
Female. 
Total. 
I860 
300 
90 
390 
1870 
126 
Ill 
237 
80 
73 
153 
390 
1875 
139 
132 
271 
90 
81 
171 
442 
1880 
1C4 
145 
309 
91 
101 
192 
501 
1881 
310 
203 
513 
1883 
164 
155 
319 
93 
114 
207 
526 
1892 
336 
300 
636 
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 since 1870. 
This is rather interesting in a mixed population of but indifferent vitality and, more- 
over, 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 during the 
years 1868 to 1881 has been studied by Dr. B. Dybowski,^ whose tables relating to 
births and deaths are interesting enough to deserve a place in this connection. 
‘I have partly traced the history of these natives in an article in Science (u. s. ii, July 19, 1895, 
pp. 62-63). When that was written, I little thought that on the very day of its publication I should 
be living among these same natives on Bering Island. 
*As a result, the native population of Bering Island, according to Dr. Sluuin (Prom. Bog. Kamch., 
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. 
3\Vyspy Komandorskie, pp, 78-87. 
