38 OUR AKCTIC PJIOVINCE. 



eloquently discourses as he strokes each pelt out on the counter, in 

 turn praising its size and its quality ; the trader in the meanwhile 

 sharply keeps one eye on the savage and one eye on the furs, and, 

 after the story of their capture and quality has been told over the 

 third or fourth time, he asks, " How much ? " The crafty hunter 

 promptly demands more than they would retail at in London ; the 

 trader answers with great emphasis and a most disgusted head- 

 shake, " no ; " he then offers just half or one-third the sum named, 

 whereupon the Indians, affecting great contempt, both shout out 

 '•■ klaik ! " which sounds like Poe's "Raven " — roll up their furs and 

 hustle out in a huff, still repeating, in sonorous unison, " klaik, 

 klaik " — (no, no). Then they go to the rival trader's establishment, 

 and to all of them in turn, even if there are half a dozen, not 

 leaving one of them unvisited ; they finally finish the rounds in the 

 course of a week or two, and then quietly march back to that 

 trader who offered the most, and laying their peltries down in 

 perfect silence on his counter, hold out a grimy hand for the exact 

 sum he had previously proffered. 



In this shrewd and aggravating manner does the simple untu- 

 tored savage of the northwest coast deal with white traders — are 

 they swindled, do you think? From the beginning to the end of 

 any transaction jon may have with an Alaskan Indian you Avill be 

 met with the keenest understanding on his part of the full value in 

 dollars and cents of whatsoever he may do for you or sell. When, 

 however, the Hudson Bay or the Russian Company held an ex- 

 clusive franchise in this district, then the Indian had no alterna- 

 tive but the single post-trader's terms ; and then the white man's 

 profits were enormous. But now, with the keen rivalry of com- 

 peting stores, the trader barely makes a living anywhere in Alaska 

 to-day, while the Indian gets the best of every bargain^ — ^vastly 

 better compared with his former experience. 



The fur trade, however, in the whole Sitkan district is now of 

 small commercial importance ; thirty or forty thousand dollars an- 

 nually will more than express its gross value. This great shrinkage 

 is due to the practical extermination of the sea-otter in these 

 waters, while the brown and black bears, the mink and marten, the 

 beaver and the land-otter skins secured in this archipelago and its 

 mainland coast are not highly valued by furriers, inasmuch as the 

 climate here is never cold enovigh to give them that depth and 

 gloss of fur desired and so characteristic of those animals which 



