MOUNT ST. ELIAS AND PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND. 189 



lady over," or " grand right and left with double 

 swing." This latter was rather a complicated convo- 

 lution for the Indian intellect, and invariably ended 

 in hilarious collisions. 



And then the supper ! One's hat, of course, was 

 never taken off. The refreshment was a collation of 

 " pilot-bread " and strong tea, and what appetites we 

 had ! Men first, ladies afterwards. So much for our 

 evening dissipations. 



When the money was all gone the whole tribe 

 would start out for a sea- otter hunt, if the weather 

 was fine, after filing into the church for the priestly 

 blessing on the expedition, without entering their 

 huts again. The bows and blood-painted arrows are 

 immensely strong, and I brought a number with me 

 to England. For each sea-otter skin, large or small, 

 whatever its value might be, the trader paid them a 

 fixed price. The pursuit of the animal, its exhaus- 

 tion, and its death, have been fully described by 

 Petroff (" United States Tenth Census "). The value 

 of a good skin is now about 20. They are becoming 

 scarcer gradually, and in all probability will soon be 

 almost unprocurable. The value has varied from 

 10 dollars in the time of the Eussians up to 200 dol- 

 lars, or 40. From 1870 to 1880 the Company 

 bought 40,283 sea-otter skins for 60 dollars each 

 from the native hunters. By becoming acquainted 

 with new luxuries and new wants, the Indians become 

 more assiduous in procuring skins. 



Let me describe a day at Nuchuk as a sample of 



