48 ALASKA. 



(plenty,) marten, land-otter, (abundant,) bears, brown and 

 black. The people of this district keep traveling all the year 

 round. 



NUSHAGAK : 



About the same as at Koskoquim, but the quality of sable 

 or marten deteriorates very much and rapidly as the trader 

 goes sonth from this region. Thepeople are also great travelers, 

 always on the move. This section closes the Yukon district, 

 which forms the western boundary of that of the Peninsula 

 and Kodiak. In this country, between Kotzebue and its smith- 

 ern boundary back into the interior as far as a thousand miles, 

 furs are gathered as follows : 



Beaver are taken of the very best quality and in the greatest 

 quantity, and an immense number of musk-rat skins, for the 

 trader must buy everything, (these musk-rat skins are princi- 

 pally shipped to France and Germany, for poor people wear 

 them;) of red foxes, quite a large number are taken. Black 

 foxes are seldom obtained, perhaps three or four on an average 

 during the year. Silver-gray foxes, a small number annually. 

 Mink and marten of very fine quality from Koskoquim to the 

 northward, but from this point to the southward this fur deteri- 

 orates rapidly. Land-otter, quite a large number of the best 

 quality. Black and hro7.cn bear, a few ; a small trade in swans^- 

 doicn. Eifler-doicn, with profit, cannot be sold in San Francisco, 

 but it is valuable in Eussia. (German goose-down is used by 

 our upholster rs in preference, as it is much cheaper and just 

 as good.) Beindeer-skins ave dried 5 quite a large number of 

 these which go east are tanned, and make a very superior 

 leather. 



Figures to show the number of skins taken out of the coun^ 

 try might easily be obtained were it under the control of a sin- 

 gle corporation, as it was under the Eussian rule, but as it is 

 now, witii ten or a dozen independent traders, large and small, 

 all studionsly concealing or purposely exaggerating their trans- 

 actions in order to draw or divert trade, the figures, were they 

 furnished, wonld be quite unreliable. The following table, how- 

 ever, showing the yield of this district during a period of 

 twenty years, between 184l> and 18G1, as given by Russian au- 

 thority, nmy be deemed correct; and I was assured by Father 

 Shiesneekov, of Ounalashka, a Eussian priest, born and raised 

 in this country, that the present yield of furs is at least four 



