CHAPTER IV. 



TKADE m THE TERRITORY, AND THE TRADERS, 

 STATIONS, STATISTICS, ETC. 



Trade is devoted cliiefl^' to furs, with occasional dealings 

 in oil and ivory ; it is divided among a lew i)arties, the Alaska 

 Commercial Company having a large preponderance, by virtue 

 of greater resources and greater energy, than any or all of its 

 competitors combined; the sagacity of its traders, and the kind- 

 ness with which they treat the natives, have resulted in even 

 Inore than quadrui)ling the yield of furs in the Yukon and 

 Onnalashka districts, as reported by the Russian American Fur 

 Company at the time of the transfer. Tlie o[)eration of this 

 company is confined to the country west from Kodiak, embracing 

 the Aleutian Islands, where they at the present time have but 

 little competition ; on the Yukon, Koskoquim, and Onnalash- 

 ka they are o])poscd by Charles Jansen, and by David Shirpser 

 at Belcovskie and Kodiak, anJ a number of small traders and 

 whalers in Kotzebue Sound. The trade east of Kodiak, up 

 Cook's Inlet, down the coast back of Sitka, to Fort Simpson, 

 is, so far as is known — for I was unable to examine this dis- 

 trict — given up to small traders who j^ly in and out in light 

 schooners, canoes, &c., and, doubtless, is quite extensive and. 

 largely illicit, for the natives will not trade at Sitka for money ; 

 so the inference plainly is that they dispose of their furs for 

 whisky, &c., in the inshore passages, where smuggling can be 

 carried on. 



When the Russian traders first opened up the country the 

 natives were everywhere found engaged in fierce intestine wars, 

 and not prosecuting the chase of fur-bearing animals more 

 than enough to supply themselves with skins for manufac- 

 ture into garments ; depending on the sea for their principal 

 means of subsistence. 



They used the skin of the sea-otter and beaver generalh' for 

 cloaks, employing usually three sea-otters for one cloak ; one of 

 these skins was cut into two pieces and afterward sewed to- 

 gether, so as to form a square, and were loosely tied about the 

 shoulders with small leather strings, fastened on each side; it 



