20 



one that has been conscientiously and laboriously finished, for it is a 

 labour requiring great patience and skill, will not rub off nor " crock. " 

 the whitest linen when moistened ; and it will wear the weather for six 

 or seven seasons without showing the least bit of dimness or raggedness. 

 The unhairing, in which the over-hair is deftly combed out and off from 

 the skin, is done by healing the skin to a certain point so that the roots 

 of the fur are not loosened, while those of the coarser hirsute growth are. 

 If this is not done with perfect uniformity, the fur will never lie smooth, 

 no matter how skilfully dyed ; it will always have a rumpled, ruffled look. 

 In dyeing, the liquid dye is put on with a brush and the skins hung up 

 and dried. The dry dye is then removed, and o on until eight to twelve 

 coats have been applied to produce a good colour. The skins are then 

 washed clean, the fur dried, while the pelt is moist. 



The fur-seal is a voracious eater. Its food is fish to the practical 

 exclusion of all other diet. Cod, herring and salmon must lay tribute to 

 its insatiable appetite, and the great North Pacific, 5,000 miles across, 

 between Japan and the Strait of Fuca is its fishing pond. A low estimate 

 of the annual consumption of fish by seals visiting the Pribilov islands, 

 sjives the enormous quantity of six million tons. As Prof. Elliott says : 

 " The fishing of man, both aboriginal and civilized, in the past, present, 

 and prospective, has never been, is not, nor will it be, more than a drop 

 in the bucket contrasted with the piscatorial labour of these ichthyophagi 

 in those waters adjacent to their birth." 



The most valuable of all furs is that of the sea-otter, which, however, 

 is becoming year by year scarcer. Its haunts formerly extended along 

 the whole coast of Alaska and further south, but the animal is now 

 seldom met with. A prime skin is worth upwards of $300. 



Of land furs may be mentioned the land-otter, the brown and black 

 bears, the beaver, the red, the black, the silver and the Arctic fox, and 

 the mink and martin. The red fox is the most widely distributed fur 

 bearing animal in Alai.ka. In southeastern Alaska the principal fur 

 obtained is the black bear. For hunting, the Indians are provided with 

 rifles, and they have generally a very exalted idea of the value of their 

 game. It is not an uncommon thing for an Indian, after not receiving 

 the price demanded at Juneau, to start off with his canoe for Port 



