XIII ON THE HOMEWARD TRAIL 275 



what is called the " dug-out," or the Siwash canoe, seen on 

 the coasts of British Columbia. These natives brought on 

 board a number of curios in the way of fancy-worked skins and 

 baskets. The latter were far inferior to the really hne work 

 which is done by the natives in the Aleutian Isles, and to 

 the far west of the Alaska Peninsula. This basket-work is 

 done in very fine grass, and looks somewhat similar to the 

 plaiting of the best Panama grass. I have seen many of 

 these made in former years by the Aleut natives, which are 



ViKW IN THE Fjords near Wrangell Narrows, S.W. Alaska. 



SO cleverly woven that they will hold water, and although 

 very common a few years ago, such numbers have been 

 bought up by the curio-collectors that to-day in New York 

 some of these genuine old baskets will fetch as much as $30 

 and $40 each, and until quite recently they were purchased 

 from the natives for a few cents. 



On the following day after leaving Yakutat we entered 

 the narrows in Icy Straits, and our troubles on the open sea 

 were at an end. The evening before entering the Straits we 

 had a rare tossing in a rough sea, and in the storm we passed 



