ABORIGINAL LIFE OF THE SITKANS. 



39 



are taken, away back in the interior, where the temperature ranges 

 from 20 to 40 below zero for months at a time. In early days, 

 the Sitkan savages acted as middlemen, receiving these choice pelt- 

 ries from the back-country Indians, who were never permitted by 

 the coast tribes to come down to the sea and then trading the 



The Sitkan Chimes. 



stock anew in their own right over to the Russian and English 

 posts, they reaped a large advance. Now, however, the indepen- 

 dent white trader penetrates to the interior himself, and the Alas- 

 kan Si washes mourn the loss of those rich commissions which once 

 accrued to their emolument and consequence. The irruption, also, 

 of the restless, tireless, wandering miners throughout Alaska and 



