"Travels in Alaska 



containing perhaps a man, a woman, and a child or 

 two, all paddling together in natural, easy rhythm. 

 They are going to catch a fish, no difficult matter, and 

 when this is done their day's work is done. Another 

 party puts out to capture bits of driftwood, for it is 

 easier to procure fuel in this way than to drag it down 

 from the outskirts of the woods through rocks and 

 bushes. As the day advances, a fleet of canoes may 

 be seen along the shore, all fashioned alike, high and 

 long beak-like prows and sterns, with lines as fine as 

 those of the breast of a duck. What the mustang is 

 to the Mexican vaquero, the canoe is to these coast 

 Indians. They skim along the shores to fish and hunt 

 and trade, or merely to visit their neighbors, for they 

 are sociable, and have family pride remarkably well 

 developed, meeting often to inquire after each other's 

 health, attend potlatches and dances, and gossip con- 

 cerning coming marriages, births, deaths, etc. Others 

 seem to sail for the pure pleasure of the thing, their 

 canoes decorated with handfuls of the tall purple 

 epilobium. 



Yonder goes a whole family, grandparents and all, 

 making a direct course for some favorite stream and 

 camp-ground. They are going to gather berries, as 

 the baskets tell. Never before in all my travels, north 

 or south, had I found so lavish an abundance of berries 

 as here. The woods and meadows are full of them, 

 both on the lowlands and mountains — huckleberries 

 of many species, salmon-berries, blackberries, rasp- 

 berries, with service-berries on dry open places, and 

 cranberries in the _bogs, sufficient for every bird, 



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