30 COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1905. 



stocks of goods to travel among those more distant tribes which can 

 not reach the stations. The prices paid are regulated by the stand- 

 ard price of red fox or marten, called 1 skin, which in 1890 was about 

 $1.25. In 1890 a prime beaver was put in as 2 skins; black bear, 4 

 skins; lynx, 1 skin; land otter, 2 or 3 skins. Five yards of drilling or 1 

 pound of tea or 1 pound of powder, or half a pound of powder with 1 

 box of caps and 1 pound of shot, are given for 1 skin; 50 pounds of 

 flour for 4 skins; 5 pounds of sugar for 1 skin. In the mining districts 

 the prices are much higher, to conform to those paid by the miners. 

 Beaver. — This is the most valuable of the fur-bearing aquatic ani- 

 mals of the interior waters of Alaska, and since the district was 

 acquired by the United States has been hunted with such vigor 

 that its numbers are very much diminished and diminishing. The 

 range of this animal covers all of the mainland of Alaska, excepting 

 only the belt of barren-coast country bordering the Arctic Ocean 

 from Point Hope north and east to the Canadian line. The numer- 

 ous lakes and ponds and the clear streams of the interior, especially 

 those bordered by alders and willows, are the beaver's favorite resorts. 

 It generally avoids the large rivers, owing to the great change in level 

 likely to occur at different seasons. The natives catch beavers in 

 steel traps set at a frequented spot or shoot them from a concealed 

 place near their house or dam. The natives of eastern Siberia prize 

 the fur of the beaver very highly for trimming their fur clothing, and 

 during the summer months many of the skins are taken across Bering 

 Straits by the Eskimos and traded to the Siberian natives for the skins 

 of the tame reindeer. Castoreum, an oily odorous compound secreted 

 by the preputial glands of the animal, also the dried preputial follicles 

 and their contents, are sometimes prepared and find a sale in China, 

 where they occupy a place in the pharmacopoeia. In 1905 but 5 

 pounds, valued at about $16, were prepared. From 1745 to 1867, the 

 period covered by the Russian occupation of Alaska, 413,356 beaver 

 skins were secured by her traders. 



Muskrat. — Wherever bogs and ponds or running water occur on the 

 mainland, except along the extreme northern coast line, this animal 

 will be found; it is also found upon Nunevak and St. Michaels islands. 

 It is trapped in small steel traps or in wicker fish traps. The greater 

 part of the skins are bought by the traders for the purpose of bartering 

 them off in other localities for more valuable furs, hence but few of 

 them reach the outside world. They are used by the natives for 

 making fur clothing and blankets or robes. 



Land, otter. — This species is one of the most widely distributed in the 

 district, being found on the whole coast of Alaska from the southern 

 boundary to the northern shore of Norton Sound. It also occurs on 

 all the islands inside of these limits as far as Unimak in the west and 

 Nunivak in the north. Within the Arctic Circle it is confined to the 



