rainfall the island is a very
comfortable place of existence; existence, because that is the limit
reached by most of the people. The few connected with the mission and
the two fur companies are necessarily busy people, the latter especially
so on steamer days, but a deep, unbroken peacefulness permeates the
island and its people; it is a place so apart that outside happenings
awaken but little interest, and time is not weighed in the balance. Some
of the rare old Kadiak repose seems to have come down to the present
people from the time when Lisiansky first visited the island and found
the natives sitting on their mud houses, or on the shore, gazing into
space, with apparent satisfaction.

[Illustration: SUNSET IN ENGLISH BAY, KADIAK.]

On the other hand, if there is any sailing, fishing or shooting to be
done, you will find the Kadiakers keen enough, and in trying situations
they will command your respect, and will quite reverse your impression
of them, gathered in the village life. The Eskimo inhabitants of the old
times are gone, and the population is now made up of Russians, Creoles
(part Russian and part Aleut), and a handful of Americans.

The natives are good-natured but not prepossessing in looks or
cleanly. They live in dwellings kept very hot, and both men and women
injure themselves by immoderate indulgence in the banya, a small Turkish
bath, often attached to the barabaras, or native huts. It is made like a
small barabara, except there is no smoke hole, has a similar frame, is
thatched with straw, and can be made air-tight. The necessary steam is
furnished by pouring water on stones previously heated very hot.

The women are frail and many die of consumption. When once sick, they
appear to have no physical or mental resistance. They must be
attractive, however, as there is a considerable population of white men
here who have taken native wives. From a condition of comparative
wealth, eight or ten years ago, when fur was plenty and money came
easily, and was as promptly spent on all sorts of unnecessary luxuries,
these people are now rapidly coming down to salmon, codfish and
potatoes. When a native wants anything, he will sell whatever he owns
for it, even to his rifle or wife. They almost all belong to the Greek
Church, the Russians, when we bought Alaska, having reserved the right
to keep their priests in the country.

The baidarka, the most valuable possession of the native in a country so
cut up by