NELSON] TRADE AND TRADING VOYAGES 231 



he was satisfied. This may be an extreme case, but it ilhistrates their 

 general methods of trading. 



In July, 1881, we found at Hotham inlet a row of over 150 conical 

 lodges set up for over a mile along the beach, which were occupied 

 by Malemut from Selawik lake and natives from Kowak and ^N^oatak 

 rivers. In 1880 Captain Hooper found about twelve hundred of these 

 people encamped at Cape Blossom, but in 1881 the main camp had 

 been located at Hotham inlet. When we arrived there we saw a small 

 trading schooner lying off the village, surrounded by umiaks three or 

 four deep and the deck crowded by a dense mass of the Eskimo. 

 Tobacco, drilling, knives, ammunition, and other small articles were 

 used to buy from them the skins of reindeer, wolves, black bear, arctic 

 hare, red, white, and cross foxes, etc. As we proceeded up the coast a 

 number of umiaks were seen on their way to the camp at Hotham inlet, 

 and at many points we saw umiaks on trading trips up the coast, and 

 some of the people told us that they had bought rifles and cartridges 

 from the men of Cape Prince of Wales. 



At many places from Point Hope to Point Barrow we were offered 

 whalebone, ivory, the skins of reindeer, mountain sheep. Parry's mar- 

 mot, whistlers, and many white ajid red fox skins. Whisky and car- 

 tridges seemed to be about the only articles desired by these people in 

 exchange. This was unfortunate, considering the fact that the object 

 of our visit to the coast was to prevent the sale of these very articles 

 to the natives. 



Near Cape Lisburne we met nine umiaks containing about one 

 hundred people from Point Hope, who were on their way to the vicinity 

 of Point Barrow to trade. Their dogs were running along the shore, 

 keeping abreast of the boats but stopping occasionally to howl dolefally. 

 We obtained two photographs of their camp near our anchorage. 



While we were anchored in Kotzebue sound in September, several 

 umiaks passed on their way back to Cape Prince of Whales from a 

 trading voyage up the coast. One came alongside the Coricin that 

 had a huge sail made by sewing numberless pieces of deerskin into a 

 strange patchwork. 



To show the difiBculty attending the navigation of these frail boats in 

 Bering straiit I will state that, although we made six passages through 

 the strait during the summer of 1881, only once was it clear enough from 

 fog to permit the high land of both shores to be seen. Among the 

 islanders of Bering strait the main articles they had for barter were 

 coils of rawhide line, tanned sealskins, and handsomely made, water- 

 proof sealskin boots. At East cape and along the Siberian coast, 

 including St Lawrence island, the articles of trade among the Eskimo 

 were walrus ivory, whalebone, and the skins of white foxes and rein- 

 deer. The St Lawrence islanders make frequent trading voyages to 

 the Siberian coast, where they obtain reindeer skins for clothing. 

 Formerly these people went along the American coast as far as Cape 



