APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 323 



iiig, with scales of gold becomiug coarser and coarser, instead of being 

 scarcely visible as at first. 



It does not appear tliat the discoveries on Cook's Inlet were pursued, 

 but it is reported that the Hudson Bay Company, holding the country 

 about the Bay of Jakutat under a lease from the Russian Company, have 

 found the diorite in that neighbourhood valuable. This incident has 

 given rise to a recent controversy. Russian journals attacked the 

 engineer for remissness in not exjjloring the Jakutat country. He has 

 defended himself by setting out what he actually did in the way of dis- 

 covery, and the essential difficulty at the time in doing more; all which 

 will be found in a number just received of the work to which I have so 

 often referred, the "Archiv von Russland," by Erman, for 1866, vol. xxv, 

 p. 229. 



Thus much for the mineral resources of this new-found country as 

 they have been recognized at a few i^oints on the extensive coast, leav- 

 ing the vast unknown interior without a word. 



FURS. 



VI. I pass now to Furs, which at times have vied with minerals in 

 value, although the supply is more limited and less permanent. Trap- 

 pers are ''miners" of the forest, seeking furs as others seek gold. The 

 parallel continues also in the greed and oppression unhappily incident 

 to the pursuit. A Russian officer who was one of the early visitors to 

 this coast remarks that to his mind the only prospect of relief for the 

 suffering natives "consists in the total extirpation of the animals of the 

 chase," which he thought, from the daily havoc, must take place in a 

 very few years. This was at the close of the last century. The trade 

 still continues, though essentially diminished, an important branch of 

 commerce. 



Early in this commerce desirable furs were obtained in barter for a 

 trifle, and when something of value was exchanged it was much out of 

 proportion to the furs. This has been the case generally in deal- 

 78 ing with the natives, until their eyes have been slowly opened. 

 In Kamtchatka, at the beginning of the last century, half-adozen 

 sables were obtained in exchange for a knife, and a dozen for a hatchet; 

 and the Kamchatkadales wondered that their Cossack conquerors were 

 willing to pay so largely for what seemed worth so little. tSimilar inci- 

 dents on the north-west coast are reported by the early navigators. 

 Cook mentions that in exchange for "beads " the Indians at Prince Wil- 

 liam Sound "gave whatever they had, even their tine sea-otter skins," 

 which they prized no more than other skins until it ajipeared how much 

 they were prized by their visitors. Where there was no competition 

 prices rose slowly, and many y-ears after Cook, the Russians at Kodiak, 

 "in return for trinkets aTid tobacco," received twelve sea-otter skins and 

 fox-skins of different kinds to the number of near 600. 



These instances will show in a general way the spirit of this trade 

 even to our own day. 



On the coast, and especially in the neighbourhood of the factories, 

 the difference in the value of furs is recognized, and a projiortionate 

 price is obtained, which Sir Edward Belcher found in 1837 to be " for a 

 moderately good sea-otter skin from six to seven blankets, increasing to 

 thirteen for the best, together with sundry knickknacks." But in the 

 interior it is otherwise. A recent resident in the region of the Youkon 

 assures me that he has seen skins worth several hundred dollars bartered 

 for goods worth only 50 cents. 



