Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-01-25
habits. Wrecks arc confinement. and

habits. Wrecks are not infrequent, and
the islanders wandering along the shore
pick up whatever driftwood may be
scattered about, the women being gen
orally engaged in this harvest of tlotsam
and ietsam. 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 particu-
larly conducive to seaworthiness, and
they generally spring a. heavy leak an
hour after they are launched. 70 keep
them atloat the kurileans always put a
load of moss and a couple of women on
board, the moss being to stop up what,
ever cracks may open, and the ONE
being employed in this work with a
bunch of moss and Il piece of stick,
daubing any particularly obstinate crew.
ice with a lump of seal fat.
Nomadic as they are. the Kurileans
have still some sort OF a Capital, and
make %infrequent and erratic visits to the
Village of Shumshu. which, after all, is
little more than a collection OF huts,
now rapidly falling into decay and
nearly deserted. AT some u%nrecorded
time or other a few Jealous priests of
the Greek Church, fired with proselytiz-
ing zeal. made a visit to the island and
converted the quiet natives. They still
occasionally kneel to the highly-colored
prints of the Holy Mother Which adorn
the walls of the Shumshu huts, but
no similar Jealous missionary has ver
returned to these inhospitable shores to
keep the faith alive. But it was not
alone by the priests that the Kurile
Islands have been deserted. Time was
when they We're visited by trading
schooners and steamers. when the poor
f%ur-hunters cheaply bartered the sea
otter pelts for guns, powder, lead and
knives. All that has ceased; the offers
have nearly disappeared, and all the
islands do not contain twenty-five fam
lilies Of hunters. Intermarriage, a hard
lot, and the dangers OF the chase have
gradually brought the numbers down
to this handful. A disaster of a terri
bic nature, however. occurred four years
ago. which more than decimated the
already sparse population.
According to the narrative of M.
Malowanski, a great hunting expedi-
ton was to be made on the Island of
Shlosh-Katan, and the fourteen best
hunters of the Kuriles We're taken there
by a trading steamer, with the promise
to call for them in a month. When at
the expiration of that time the steamer
returned her captain was unable to
recognize the spot. The roadstead in
which he had anchored had disap-
peared, and in its place was a level
stretch of scoria. A boats crew was
landed, and the interior of the island
was as much altered as the contigura-
ton of the shore. The ground, instead
of showing the moss-patches, was COW
cred with ashes, and the sailors had to
pillow through a soft gray dust that was
sometimes knee-high. Rocks, great
and small, lay all around, and what
had been an almost level reef now
sloped up to a bare hill of fair proper
tions. Mounting this the sailors found
it to be a still-rumbling volcano. No
trace of the hunters could be seen, nor
were they ever afterwards heard of,
and the conclusion was inevitable that
a crater had suddenly opened up in the
island, and that under it's terrible
shower of lava and pumice they had
been buried, without a chance of es-
cape or the opportunity to leave a sign
OF their miserable fate. There they still
lie, and will remain until some far
future archaologist shall disinter them
as evidence OF an Arctic herculaneum.
San Francisco Chronicle.