American Big Game in its Haunts 



by pouring water on stones previously heated 

 very hot. 



The women are frail and many die of consump- 

 tion. When once sick, they appear to have no 

 physical or mental resistance. They must be at- 

 tractive, however, as there is a considerable popu- 

 lation of white men here who have taken native 

 wives. From a condition of comparative wealth, 

 eight or ten years ago, when fur was plenty and 

 money came easily, and was as promptly spent on 

 all sorts of unnecessary luxuries, these people are 

 now rapidly coming down to salmon, codfish and 

 potatoes. When a native wants anything, he will 

 sell whatever he owns for it, even to his rifle or 

 wife. They almost all belong to the Greek 

 Church, the Russians, when we bought Alaska, 

 having reserved the right to keep their priests in 

 the country. 



The baidarka, the most valuable possession of 

 the native in a country so cut up by waterways that 

 little traveling is done by land, deserves a word. 

 These are trusted in the roughest water more than 

 any other craft, except the largest. A trip from 

 Kadiak to Seattle in a baidarka is in fact on record. 

 With a light framework of wood, covered, bottom 

 and deck, excepting the hatches, with the skin of 

 the hair seal, it is lighter than any other canoe, 



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