190 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



my life there during the fifty-four days we waited for 

 the wished-for schooner. 



I have determined to go out on a salmon-spearing 

 expedition, but meantime a couple of Indians have 

 arrived to trade from Tateekluk, a little Indian village 

 in P.W.S., in their bidarky. This is a beautiful canoe 

 to hold three, made of seal or sea-lion skin. They 

 wear coats of whales' guts or bears' guts, which are 

 tied to the rim of each circular opening in the deck, 

 in which they sit. The paddles glitter in the sun- 

 light as they shoot shorewards like an arrow, and 

 leaping out carry the craft above high-water mark, 

 and take from the interior a bear's hams, a heron, a 

 " silver" salmon, some wild goats' meat, and a bundle 

 of furs sea- otter, land-otter, red and white fox, 

 mink, marten, beaver, musk-rat, and lynx. These 

 are sold for trade dollars to the trader, and are soon 

 paid back again in exchange for tea, sugar, flour, 

 tobacco, cloth, and various other articles. Presently 

 I leave in my bidarky, with an Indian, for the 

 nearest river, about three miles distant. Tied along- 

 side are our spears, the barbs loose, and secured to 

 the shaft by a thong. The river is a shallow little 

 stream, only four inches deep in places, but crowded 

 with u hog-back" salmon, the only kind " running" 

 at this time of year, except a few "red" salmon, a 

 much superior kind for edible purposes. There are 

 four other kinds named and known to the traders in 

 these parts. First, the " chavicha," or king salmon, 

 six feet long, and weighing about one hundred 



