26 BUFFALO LAND. 



furs. For the remainder of our party, however, life 

 under the Alaskan's tent-pole had no charms. Our 

 decision may have been influenced somewhat by the 

 seafaring man with whom our friends were to sail. 

 The real name of this son of Neptune was Samuels, 

 but our party called him, as it savored more of salt 

 water, Captain Walrus, of the bark Harpoon. This 

 worthy, according to his own statement, had been 

 born on a whaler, weaned among the Esquimeaux, 

 and, moreover, had frozen off eight toes "trying to 

 winter it at our recent purchase." He evidently dis- 

 liked to have scientific men aboard, intent on studying 

 eclipses and seals. "A heathenish and strange people 

 are the Alaskans," Walrus was wont to say. "What 

 is not Indian is Russian, and a compound of the latter 

 and aboriginal is a mixture most villainous. One por- 

 tion of 'the partnership anatomy takes to brandy, while 

 the other absorbs train-oil, and so a half-breed Alaskan 

 heathen is always prepared for spontaneous combus- 

 tion, and if rubbed the wrong way, flames up instantly. 

 He is always hot for murder, and if you throw cold 

 water on his designs, his oily nature sheds it." 



And many a yarn did the captain spin concerning 

 their strange customs. Sealing a marriage contract 

 consisted in the warrior leaving a fat seal at the hole 

 of the hut, where his intended crawled in to her 

 home privileges of smoke and fish. Their favorite 

 game was "old sledge," played with prisoners to 

 shorten their captivity. 



All this, and much more, probably equally true, we 

 had picked up of Alaskan history, and at one time 

 our chests had been packed for a voyage on the Har- 

 poon; but at the final council the west carried it 



