The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-01-18
A Pitable Race.

The story recently published of the
astonishing results of volcanic erup-
ton which occurred near Onalaska,
October 16, has not only brought out
confederation from another source, but
has evoked the recital of other phenome-
ma of similar character. The new
narrator is NJ. Malowanski, who has
been for many years a resident of the
trading post of Petropaulovski; and, as
the bulk of the incidents which he re-
lated had their scene in the Kurile
Islands, few words of description of
this almost unknown archipelago will
be pc tinent. the Kurile Islands. then
droop like chain of small links from
Kamschatka down to the Japanese
Island of Yesso, so closing in the
Ukhotsk Sea from the Northern Pacific.
Russia claimed them as part of her
Arctic possessions, but they have re-
Gently been coded by the Gar to the
Mikado in exchange for the large Island
of Saghalien. Russia has p Gifted by
the transaction, for Sagha.ien affords ex-
cellent fishing-grounds, while the Kur-
lie Islands, rich as they once were with
the costly fur of the sea-otter, are now
little more than ba rem reef. The sea-
offers have been exterminated, and the
Kurileans have almost become extinct.
The islanders are a small race. hardy,
honest and peaceable. By the Aleuts
they are called the "hairy men," but
whether this is because they dress en-
tirely in skins or because they are spar
ingly provided with that Arctic rarity,
III 10 AM hiv1np
cherries and unlovely than the lives Of
the Kurileans can scarcely be imagined.
Living on what is not much more than
succession of huge stepping-stones
from Kamschatka to Japan, they are
exposed to the full fury and rigor of the
winters of the far North. The late
spring is comparatively pleasant, but
with the summer come on sucn fogs
that an impenetrable wall seems to be
raised between the islands and the rest
of the world. The fogs clear off, there
is a brief glimpse. of low sun, and
then the bleak winter comes down
blackly again. Not a thing grows on
the islands except moss, the whole
group being destitute of tree, or shrub,
or blade of grass. For food the natives
depend on whatever they may catch in
their fishing and hunting expeditions,
with the rare addition of little bears
meat whenever bruin is adventurous
enough to swim off from the mainland.
Just as the islands are destitute of
foliage, so they are of animals-the only
creature on them besides the natives be-
ing a breed of small, swift foxes. The
habits of the Kurileans are in keeping
with their surroundings.
Hardy and adventurous, having no
such word as home in their meagre Ian
guage and no appreciation of such an
institution, they roam in their canoes
from island to island, killing whatever
breathes, putting up rude 'huts when
they are forced into winter quarters. but
generally despising anything like shell
ter and living in their boats. So little
are they used to the art of construction
that, unlike their fellow-natives, they
do not build skin canoes, but make up
what are called baidara, a class of craft
that is as primitive as the rest of their
habits. Wrecks are not infrequent, and
the islanders wandering along the shore
pick up whatever driftwood may be
sea tered about, the women being gen.
orally engaged in this harvest of flotsam
and jetsam. The pieces are rudely tied
together with thongs in the shape Of a
long box and calked with moss. The
roughness of the elements and the
roughness of the work are not Darticu-
larry conducive to seaworthiness. and
they generally spring heavy leak an
hour after they are Ia Inched. To keep
them afioat the Kurileans always put a
load of moss and q couple of women on
b ard, the moss being to stop up what
ever cracks may open, and the women
being employed in this work with q