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. Iii early clays, 

 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 Siwashes 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 



