ALASKA. INDUSTRIES. 151 



Value of the intestines. — A peculiar value is attached to tlie 

 intestines of the sea lion, which, after skinning, are distended with 

 air and allowed to dry in that shape. Then they are cut into ribbons 

 and sewed strongly together into that most characteristic Avaterproof 

 garment of the world, known as the "kamlaika,"^ which, while being 

 fully as waterproof as India rubber, has far greater strength and is 

 never affected by grease and oil. It is also transparent in its lifting 

 over dark clothes. The sea lions' throats are served in a similar man- 

 ner, and, when cured, are made into boot tops, which are in turn soled 

 by the tough skin that composes the palms of this animajl's fore flippers. 



tache bristles. She then cut out its gullet from the glottis to its junction with the 

 stomach, carefully divested it of all fleshy attachments and fat. She then cut 

 out the stomach itself, and turned it inside out, carelessly scraping the gastric 

 walls free of copious biliary secretions, the inevitable bunch of ascaris. She then 

 told the boy to take hold of the duodenum end of the small intestine, and as he 

 walked away with it she rapidly cleared it of its attachments, so that it was thus 

 uncoiled to its full length of at least (30 feet. Then she severed it, and then it was 

 recoiled by the "melchiska" and laid up with the other members just removed, 

 except the skin, which she had nothing more to do with. She then cut out the 

 liver and ate several large pieces of that workhouse of the blood before dropping 

 it into the meat pouch. Slie then raked up several handfuls of the "leaf lard.' or 

 hard, white fat that is found in moderate quantity around the viscera of all these 

 pinnipeds, which she also dumped into the flesh bag. She then drew her knife 

 through the large heart, but did not touch it otherwise, looking at it intently, 

 however, as it still quivered in unison with the warm flesh of the whole carcass. 

 She and the boy then poked their fingers into the tumid lobes of the immense 

 lungs, cutting out portions of them only, which were also put into the grimy 

 pouch aforesaid. Then she secured the gall bladder and slipped it into a small 

 yeast-powder tin, which was produced by the urchin. Then she finished her eco- 

 nomical dissection by cutting the sinews out of tlie back in unbroken biilk from 

 the cei'vical vertebra to the sacrum. All these were stuffed into that skin bag, 

 which she threw on her back and supported it by a band over her head. She then 

 trudged back to the barrabkie from whence she sallied a short hour ago like an old 

 vulture to the slaughter. She made the following disposition of its contents: Tlie 

 palms were used to sole a pair of tarbosars, or native boots, of wliich the uppers 

 and knee tops were made of the gullets — one sea-lion gullet to each boot top. The 

 stomach was carefully blown up, and left to dry on the barrabkie roof, eventually 

 to be filled with oil rendered from sea-lion or fur-.5eal blubber. The small intes- 

 tine was carefully injected with water and cleansed, then distended with air, and 

 pegged out between two stakes, GO feet apart, with little cross slats here and there 

 between to keep it clear of the ground. When it is thoroughly dry it is ripped 

 up in a straight line with its length and pressed out into a broad band of parch- 

 ment gut, which she cuts np and uses in making a waterproof "Icamlaikia," 

 sewing it with those sinews taken from the back. The liver, leaf lard, and lobes 

 of the lungs were eaten without further cooking, and the little gall bag was for 

 some use in poulticing a scrofulous sore. The mustache bristles were a venture 

 of the boy, who gathers all that he can, then sends them to San Francisco, where 

 they find a ready sale to the Chinese, who pay about 1 cent apiece for them. 

 When the natives ctit up a sea- lion carcass or one of a fur seal on the killing 

 grounds for meat, they take only the hams and the loins. Later in the season 

 they eat the entire carcass, which they hang up by the hind flippers on a " laabas" 

 by their houses. 



' The Aleutian name for this garment is unpronounceable in oiir language and 

 equally so in the more flexible Russian; hence the Alaskan " kamlaika,"' derived 

 from the Siberian "kamlaia." That is made of tanned reindeer skin, unhaired, 

 and smoked by larch bark until it is colored a saffron yellow, and is worn over the 

 reindeer-skin undershirt, which has the hair next to the owner's skin and the 

 obverse side stained red by a decoction of alder bark. The kamlaia is closed behind 

 and before and a hood, fastened to the back of the neck, is drawn over the head 

 when leaving shelter; so is the Aleutian kamlaika; only the one of Kolj-ma is used 

 to keep out x)iercing dry cold, while the garment of the Bering Sea is a perfect 

 water repellant. 



