ALASKA. 223 



latter, which they make up into " parkies" or sacks for clothing ; 

 this is, however, a poor garment when made of bird-skins; it 

 is always giving way at the seams, feathers flying, &:e. ; the 

 skin is usually turned outside and the feathers worn next to the 

 body. Furs are nearly all worn in this way; and the garments 

 worn were principally made of reindeer-skins, procured from 

 the Asiatics in exchange for wood and ivory and tanned hair- 

 seal. 



They were poor, and had nothing for trade but clothing 

 made from the intestines of the walrus, walrus-teeth, and some 

 whalebone; but they had an ample supply of food, such as it 

 was, and their desire that we should taste of it was almost equal 

 to our determination not to do so. 



They were exceedingly anxious to trade, and I noticed that 

 the women seemed to have equal rank with the men, doing 

 more than half the talking, and barter solicitation ; they seemed 

 to be warmly attached to one another. The females all had their 

 fiices curiously tattooed iu pale-blue lines on the cheeks and 

 chin, and the arms. 



They had a few dogs, very large, with long, shaggy hair, 

 pointed ears, and short, bear-like tails ; they were of a mild 

 and inoffensive disposition, and were highly valued by their 

 owners. 



They took us to a place where they had six polar-bear skulls 

 placed on the sand, side by side, with a post at the head, which 

 they gave us to understand we could not touch ; for I wanted 

 to carry off one of the bear-skulls, which was 17 inches long 

 and measured 10 across the zygomatic arch ; it was undoubt- 

 edly a grave where some one of their number had perished by 

 the agency indicated by the skulls. Bears, however, rarely 

 visit this island, and foxes are the only land-animals. 



The natives were supplied with coarse, smooth-bore muskets, 

 which, I thought, they seldom used. All the birds, such as 

 murres and geese or ducks, are caught in large nets stretched 

 over the brows of cliffs, or across the lagoons. These nets are 

 very neatly made of walrus-hide. 



No animals were seen by us in the water about the island 

 save an occasional hair-seal thrusting its head out from the 

 sea. A few cod-fish were caught, aud when the natives came 

 aboard, on the 18th, the cods' heads and intestines lying in 

 the ship's scuppers, where the cook had been cleaning the 



