Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1884-01-09
Kurileans.

Anything more cheerless and unlove-
ly than the lives Of the Kurileans can
scarcely be imagined. Living ON what
is not 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 comes
on such fogs that an impenetrable wall
seems to be raised between the islands
and the rest Of the world. The fogs
clear off, there is brief glimpse of a
low sun, and then bleak winter comes
down blackly again. Not thing grows
on the island but moss, the whole group
being destitute Of tree, or shrub, or
blade of grass. For food the natives
depend upon 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 foli-
age, so they are of animals, the only
creature on them, besides the natives,
being a breed of small swift foxes. The
habits of Kurileans are in keeping with
their surroundings.
Hardy and adventurous, having no
such word as home in their meager 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
shelter, and living III their boats. So
little are they used to the art of con-
struction that, unlike their fellow-na-
tives, 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 drift
wood may be scattered about, the wo-
men being generally engaged in this
harvest of hotSam 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 particularly conducive to
seaworthiness, and they generally spring
Il heavy leak an hour after they are
launched. To keep them atioat the
KurIleans always put a load OF moss and
a couple of women OH board, the moss
being to stop whatever cracks may open,
and the women being employed in this
work with bunch of moss and piece
of stick, daubing any particularly obSti-
nate crevice with lump of seal-fat.
Nomadic as they are, the Kurileans
have still same sort of capital, and make
infrequent and erratlc visits to the VIII
lage of Shumshn, which, after all, is
little more than a collection of hutS,
now rapidly falling into decay and
nearly desersted. at some unrecorded
time or other few Jealous priests of
the Greek Church, fired with proselyti-
Zing zeal, made q visit to the islands
and converted the quiet natives. They
still occasionally kneel to the highly
colored prints of the Holy Mother
y Ich .dosn the walls of the Shumshu
huts, but no similarly Jealous mission
ary has ever returned to these inhospi-
table shores to keep the faith alive.
But it is not alone by the priests that
the kurile Islands have been deserted.
Time was when they were visited by
trading schooners and steamers, when
the poor fur hunters cheaply bartered
the sea otter pelts for guns, powder,
lead and knives. All that has ceased /;
the otters have Dearly disappeared, and
all the islands do not contain twenty
five families OF hunters. Inter-mar-
riage, a hard lot and the dangers of the
chase have gradually brought the mum
bers down to this handful. A disaster
of terrible nature, however, occurred
four years ago, which more than deci-
mated the already sparse population.
According to the narrative of NJ.
Malowanski. a great limiting expedition
was to be made on the island Of ShioSh-
Katan and the fourteen best hunters of
the KurileS were taken there by ira
ding 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 disappeared
and in its place was level stretch of
scoria. 4 boats crew was landed and
the interior of the island was found as
much altered as the contiguration of
the shore. The ground, instead of
showing the moss patches, was covered
with ashes and the sailors had to plow
through soft gray dust that was some
times knee high. Rocks, great and
small, lay all around and what had
been an almost level reef now sloped
up to bare hill of fair proportions.
Mounting this, the sailors found it to
be still rumbling volcano. No trace
of the hunters could be seen, nor were
they ever atterward heard of, and the
conclusion was inevitable that crater
had suddenly opened in the island and
that under its terrible shower Of lava
and pumiee they had been buried with
out a chance of escape or the opport tu-
nifty to leave sign Of their miserable
fate. There they still lie and will ire
main until some far future archaologist
shall dislnter them as evidences of an
Arctic Herculanedm.