MOUNT ST. ELIAS AND PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND. 185 



skin may command a fancy price. It bears a fur 

 unmatched for softness, colour, thickness, and dura- 

 bility. Their capture is generally effected by means 

 of nets laid during the winter near their haunts in 

 the water, generally some surf-swept rock which can 

 oaly be approached during intervals of calm. When 

 two are taken in the same net they invariably kill each 

 other, and are so powerful that they are able to carry 

 nets, leads, and all with them to the surface of the 

 water in order to breathe, being warm-blooded air- 

 breathing animals. The Indians, on the contrary, 

 hunt this animal as a rule only during summer, and 

 instead of guns or rifles prefer bows and arrows, the 

 latter with detachable barbs. It was not from any 

 love of solitude that these Swedes had sought this 

 remote and savage spot, but owing to the number of 

 rival white sea-otter hunters near their last place of 

 residence on a small island named Gusina, near 

 Bellkoffsky, a trading post at the extremity of the 

 Alaskan peninsula. Nils also informed me of facts 

 about seal-skins of which I was previously unaware, 

 namely, that fur seal-skins are dyed best in London 

 by a certain firm, where they are consequently sent 

 from San Francisco, the secret never having been 

 discovered. 



After passing a fortnight on the island, I prepared 

 to continue the journey this time in an Indian 

 canoe to Prince William Sound. I was to be 

 accompanied by two of the white men, who it seemed 

 were returning to Sweden for a last visit, as they 



