140 REPORT OP BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



settlement, that on Oliiclingoff Harbour, Attn Island, at a farther dis- 

 tance of no less than 480 juiles. The Aleuts resident at these places, 

 however, during the summer months, hunt from island to island along 

 ahnost the entire chain, with all parts of which they are consequently 

 more or less familiar. 



534. At Atka Island, fur-seals are occasionally seen. In former years, 

 they sometimes were observed to pass on their way north, between Atka 

 and Amlia Islands, but never of late. Grey i)ups are not infrequently 

 taken about Atka in November. The Aleuts here do not make a busi- 

 ness of hunting the fur-seal at any time, but when seen kill them with 

 sea-otter spears. The flesh is i)rized for food. At Attn grey pups are 

 never seen, but larger seals are occasionally got. They are generally 

 speared, as at Atka Island. The spear employed in both cases has a 

 small detachable ivory or copper head, and is impelled by means of a 

 throwing-stick. The bidarka is used in hunting by these as by the 

 other Aleut tribes. 



535. Innuit. — The Kaniagmut Innuit people, inhabiting Kadiak 

 Island, kill a few fur-seals in the earlier part of the sunmier, when they 

 are engaged in hunting the sea-otter. They employ the skin bidarka 

 or kayak, and use an ivory-tipped arrow with detachable head, shot 

 from a bow. The same style of weapon is used along the Aliaska penin- 

 sula, and is probably co-extensive with the limits of the Innuit peoples 

 of this region. In Prince William Sound, the Chaga-Ohigmut tribe 

 formerly made a special business of the pursuit of the fur-seal, often 

 getting, within recent years, as many as 200 skins in a season. In 1891, 

 the number obtained was aboui fifty only. 



536. TlinMt. — To the eastward and southward of the Aleut and 

 Inuuit ])eoples, the skin boat is replaced by the wooden dug-out canoe, 

 which, though comparatively rude, as made among the Tliukit peoples, 

 is nevertheless a serviceable craft, and with the Haida and other north- 

 ern tribes of the coast of British Columbia, becomes perfected in con- 

 struction, and assumes lines of almost ideal form. 



537. In the neighbourhood of Sitka, the Indians systematically hunt 

 the fur-seal in the spring and early summer. They form camps at suit- 

 able spots on the outer coast for this i)urj)ose, the favourite places being 

 between Cross and Salisbury Sounds, particularly about Cape Edwards. 

 In some years as many as 700 skins are got, but in 1891 about 300 only 

 were obtained. Three or four Indians man a canoe, and when the 

 weather is favourable start about two o'clock in the morning for the 

 hunt. They continue paddling or sailing until near noon, and believe 

 that they often get thus as far as sixtj'' miles from the shore. They 

 then hunt for six or seven hours before setting out on their return, and 

 reach the land early the following morning. Such a trip is made about 

 once a-week when the weather is fine, and the hunters consider them- 

 selves fortunate if they can make ten trips in all during the season. 



538. The Indians here first saw schooners hunting off the coast about 

 ten years ago, but heard of them before this. Some of these people 

 are employed in sealing- schooners sailing from Sitka. 



539. The seals were formerly killed with spears: rifles were after- 

 wards employed to some extent, but in late years the gun, with buck- 

 shot, has been adopted by almost all. The Indians state that the seals 

 sometimes sink when shot, the proportion thus lost being sometimes 

 one, sometimes two, out of ten. One man informed us that he had in 

 1891 got nineteen skins and had lost four in addition, all of which he 

 felt sure he killed. 



