CHAPTER IV. 



TEADE IN THE TEUIMTORY, AXI) TUE TKADERS, 

 STATIONS, STATISTICS, ETC. 



Trade is devoted cliielly to furs, with occasioiuil dealings 

 in oil and ivory ; it is divided among a lew i)arties, the Alaska 

 Commercial Company Laving a large preponderance, by virtue 

 of greater resources and greater energy, than any or all of its 

 competitors combined; the sagacity of its traders, and the kind- 

 ness with which they treat the natives, have resulted in even 

 more than quadrupling tbe yield of furs in the Yukon and 

 Ounalashka districts, as reported by the Eussiun American Fur 

 Company at the time, of tbe transfer. The operation of this 

 company is confined to the country west from Kodiak, embracing 

 the Aleutian Islands, where they at the present time have but 

 little competition ; on tiie Yukon, Koskoquim, and Ounalash- 

 ka they are opposed by Charles Jansen, and by David Shirpser 

 at Belcovskie and Kodiak, an*.! a number of small traders and 

 whalers in Kotzebue Sound. The trade east of Kodiak, up 

 Cook^s Inlet, dovrn tbe coast back of Sitka, to Fort Simpson, 

 is, so far as is known — for I was unable to examine this dis- 

 trict — given up to small traders who ply in and out in light 

 schooners, canoes, &c., and, doubtless, is quite extensive and 

 largely illicit, for the natives will not trade at Sitka for money ; 

 so the inference plainly is that they dispose of their furs for 

 whisky, &c., in the inshore passages, where smuggling can be 

 carried on. 



When the Eussian traders first opened up the country the 

 natives were everywhere found engaged in fierce intestine wars, 

 and not i)rosecuting the chase of fur-bearing animals more 

 than enough to supply themselves with skins for manufac- 

 ture into garments ; depending on the sea for their principal 

 means of subsistence. 



They used the skin of the sea-otter and beaver geuerall}" for 

 cloaks, employing usually three sea-otters for one cloak ; one of 

 these skins was cut into two pieces and afterward sewed to- 

 gether, so as to form a square, and were loosely tied about the 

 shoulders with small leather strings, fastened on each side; it 



