CHAPTER IX.

The Seal Islands-The Rookeries-How the Seals are Killed-St. Paul Village-Nushegak River-Home of the King Salmon-Prolific Fishery-Fort Alexander -Eskimos, Their Habits and Customs-The Kashiina-Physical Character of Nushegak Region-Luxuriant Vegetation-The Kuskokwim-Inviting Field for Mineral Exploration.

Assuming that we have the permission of the government, or of the agent of the corporate monopoly created and fostered by it, we may now make a visit to the Prybiloff, or, as they are more generally styled, the Seal Islands. There are four islands in this group-St. Paul, St. George, Walrus and Otter-St. Paul being the largest and most northerly, and distant from Unalaska about 230 miles. It is upon this island that the seals have heretofore been wont to congregate in by far the largest numbers, and upon which the lessees have taken more than twothirds of the skins obtained. The lessee Corporation-North-American Commercial Company -has its headquarters at Dutch Harbor, near Unalaska, where it has erected wharves and substantial buildings, including a coaling station, from which government steamers are supplied

with fuel when cruising in Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

The Island of St. Paul is, at its greatest length, from southwest to northeast, thirteen miles long, about six miles wide at points of greatest width, and has something over forty miles of coast, about one-half of which is, or was at one time, occupied by the seals. It is evidently of volcanic origin, one or two extinct craters marking the highest ridges, which rise to a height of 600 or 800 feet in the interior, the grounds upon which the seals land being a volcanic tufa, thickly strewn with blocks of lava. There are no harbors in the island where ships can lie in safety during a storm, except it be at the village, where the anchorage, about a mile off shore, is comparatively safe, except when there is a strong blow from the south. The same disadvantages exist at the other islands of the group, even to a greater extent.

The village of St. Paul lies on the south slope of a hill which drops from an elevation of 100 feet or more gradually down to the beach, along which there is a single terraced street running east and west, upon which the houses are placed, all facing to the north, the upper row fronting upon the rear of the one below. There are between eighty and a hundred native houses, all one-story frame buildings, set sufficiently far

apart from each other to insure safety from fire, all presenting a neat, tidy exterior, and all well and cleanly kept on the inside. These houses were built by the company for the use of its native employes, by whom they are occupied without other consideration than that they shall be kept clean. In addition to these there are ten or twelve company buildings, large and small, including the agent's residence, company's store, salting house, workshop, etc. Then there is the Greco-Russian church, a very neat structure, with well-kept grounds; the priest's residence, the office and residence of the treasury agent, and last, but not least, the best appointed school house in the territory, with one or two exceptions. The village as a whole is a very pretty one; the streets are hard and dry, and the sanitary conditions are better than those usually enforced in regularly incorporated well-governed eastern towns and cities.

The resident inhabitants of St. Paul and St. George are Aleuts. When the islands were first discovered by the Russians in 1786, they were uninhabited; for the purpose of killing the seals and curing the skins, Aleuts were imported and settled at several points, both on St. George and St. Paul, of whom some of those still residents of the islands are the descendants. By far the larger number, however, were taken there by the

Alaska Commercial Company after it obtained the lease of the islands, a few others being carried up every spring from Unalaska and returned home again when the killing season is ended. What has been written concerning the natives of Unalaska will apply equally as well to their brethren in the Seal Islands. They are practically a civilized people, not in the sense of being fully educated, but in that they are converts to the Christian religion, and have adopted civilized ways in the matter of dress and mode of living. Quite a number among them can speak the English language fluently, while a few can both read and write in Russian. They are devout members of the Greco-Russian church, and very polite and civil.

Prior to the depletion of the seal herd, which led to a limitation of the number of seals allowed to be killed annually to a mere fraction of the maximum limit, the few people on St. Paul and St. George earned larger wages than are usually paid to the same number of skilled mechanics in the States, and the more provident among them had very considerable amounts standing to their credit on the company's books, upon which they were allowed interest at the rate of four per cent. They were paid 40 cents for each and every seal killed and flayed, at which rate, prior to the limitation of the number allowed to be

taken to less than 100,000, gave them an aggregate of $40,000 for not more than three months' work.

The permanent population of St. Paul, exclusive of the few white men employed by the company, the priest and government agents, does not exceed 200 men, women and children, that of St. George being less by at least one-half. Not more than one-fourth are adult males. There is no business other than sealing transacted on the islands; no commerce, no trade, except that carried on by the company, and which extends only to supplying the few residents with food and supplies, at much more reasonable prices than have as yet obtained anywhere else in Alaska. The natives draw cash for their labor, and pay cash for what they buy at the store, the only restriction being that each and every one is required to leave with the company a sufficient amount of his earnings to insure subsistence through a long period of idleness. If the sealers do any extra work, they are paid for it; there are a great many blue and white foxes. on St. Paul, of which they are permitted to trap not to exceed 500 during the winter, and for the pelts of which the company pays them each forty and sixty cents respectively. There is no gardening, though some parts of the island are covered with a heavy vegetation, and there is a soil