26 BUFFALO LATs^D. 



furs. For the remainder of our party, however, life 

 under the Ahiskan's tent-pole had no charms. Our 

 decision may have been influenced somewhat by the 

 seafaring man with whom our friends were to sail — 

 Captain Walrus, of the bark Harpoon. This worthy, 

 according to his own statement, had been born on a 

 whaler, and weaned among the Esquimeaux, and, 

 moreover, had frozen off eight toes "trying to winter 

 it at our recent purchase." He evidently disliked to 

 have scientific men aboard, intent on studying eclipses 

 and seals. "A heathenish and strange people are the 

 Alaskans," Walrus was wont to say. "What is not 

 Indian is Russian^ and a compound of the latter and 

 aboriginal is a mixture most villainous. One portion 

 of the partnership anatomy takes to brandy, while 

 the other absorbs train-oil, and so a half-breed Alas- 

 kan heathen is always prepared for spontaneous com- 

 bustion. Rubbed the wrong way, he flames up in- 

 stantly. He is always hot for murder, and if you 

 throw cold water on his designs, his oily nature 

 sheds it" 



And many a yarn did the captain spin concerning 

 their strange customs. Sealing a marriage contract 

 consisted in the warrior leaving a fat seal at the hole 

 of the hut, where his intended crawled in to her 

 home privileges of smoke and fish. Their favorite 

 game was "old sledge," played with prisoners to 

 shorten their captivity. 



All this, and much more, probably equally true, we 

 had picked up of Alaskan history, and at one time 

 our chests had been packed for a voyage on the Har- 

 poon; but at the final council the west carried it 



