blockhouses
with openings for cannon. As it happened, however, no occasion
ever arose for the use of the ten cannon with which the fort was
supplied. The post was given the name Ross, a word which forms
the root of the word Russia.

The Spanish, of course, claimed the territory by right of discovery,
and watched the work of the Russians with jealous eyes. They were
not strong enough to drive the Russians away by force, although
they protested more than once against the unlawful occupation of
the land. Some trading was carried on between the Russians and
the Spanish, and occasionally loads of grain and cattle were sent
north.

The number of people at Fort Ross varied from one hundred and fifty
to five hundred. The population consisted of Russians, Aleuts,
and other Indians. The Aleuts were the hunters and sealers. They
spent their time upon the ocean, sometimes entering San Francisco
Bay, but usually hunting in the region of the Farralone Islands,
which were originally inhabited by great herds of fur seal. There
were also otters, sea-lions, and an infinite number of seabirds. A
station was maintained upon the Farralones, where a few men stayed
to gather birds' eggs and kill seagulls. Many thousands of gulls
were taken each year, and every part of their bodies was utilized
for some purpose.

[Illustration: FIG. 71.--FORT ROSS FROM THE SEA

Schooner loading wood]

Kotzebue, a Russian navigator, whose name has been given to a sound
upon northern Alaska, visited Fort Ross and also San Francisco Bay.
He considered it a great pity that the Russians had not gained
possession of this territory before the Spaniards, for the magnificent
bay of San Francisco, in the midst of a fertile country, would have
been a prize worth working for.

Year after year the Russian Fur Company sent expeditions to California
to trade and bring back provisions. They tried to extend the area
under their jurisdiction, but the geographical conditions of the
country were unfavorable. The narrow strip of land next the coast
was cut off from the interior valleys by mountain ridges and canons.
If the Sonoma Valley had opened westward instead of toward San
Francisco Bay, it would have been easy to extend their territory
gradually. As it was, the Spanish, who were in control of the bay,
had easy access to all of the fertile valleys of central California.

As the sealing industry decreased in importance, and as the maintenance
of Fort Ross was expens