NELSON] TRADE AND TRADING VOYAGES Bait 
he was satisfied. This may be an extreme case, but it illustrates their 
general metheds of trading. 
In July, 1881, we found at Hotham inlet a row of over 150 conical 
lodges set up for over a mile along the beach, which were occupied 
by Malemut from Selawik lake and natives from Kowak and Noatak 
rivers. In 1880 Captain Hooper found about twelve hundred of these 
people encamped at Cape Blossom, but in 1881 the main camp had 
been located at Hotham inlet.. When we arrived there we saw a small 
trading schooner lying off the village, surrounded by umiaks three or 
four deep and the deck crowded by a dense mass of the Eskimo. 
Tobacco, drilling, knives, ammunition, and other small articles were 
used to buy from them the skins of reindeer, wolves, black bear, arctic 
hare, red, white, and cross foxes, etc. As we proceeded up the coast a 
number of umiaks were seen on their way to the camp at Hotham inlet, 
and at many points we saw umiaks on trading trips up the coast, and 
some of the people told. us that they had bought rifles and cartridges 
from the men of Cape Prince of Wales. 
At many places from Point Hope to Point Barrow we were offered 
whalebone, ivory, the skins of reindeer, mountain sheep, Parry’s mar- 
mot, whistlers, and many white and red fox skins. Whisky and car- 
tridges seemed to be about the only articles desired by these people in 
exchange. This was unfortunate, considering the fact that the object 
of our visit to the coast was to prevent the sale of these very articles 
to the natives. 
Near Cape Lisburne we met nine umiaks containing about one 
hundred people from Point Hope, who were on their way to the vicinity 
of Point Barrow to trade. Their dogs were running along the shore, 
keeping abreast of the boats but stopping occasionally to howl dolefully. 
We obtained two photographs of their camp near our anchorage. 
While we were anchored in Kotzebue sound in September, several 
umiaks passed on their way back to Cape Prince of Wales from a 
trading voyage up the coast. One came alongside the Corwin that 
had a huge sail made by sewing numberless pieces of deerskin into a 
strange patchwork. 
To show the difficulty attending the navigation of these frail boats in 
Bering strait I will state that, although we made six passages through 
the strait during the summer of 1881, only once was it clear enough from 
fog to permit the high land of both shores to be seen. Among the 
islanders of Bering strait the main articles they had for barter were 
coils of rawhide line, tanned sealskins, and handsomely made, water- 
proof sealskin boots. At Hast cape and along the Siberian coast, 
including St Lawrence island, the articles of trade among the Eskimo 
were walrus ivory, whalebone, and the skins of white foxes and rein- 
deer. The St Lawrence islanders make frequent trading voyages to 
the Siberian coast, where they obtain reindeer skins for clothing. 
Formerly these people went along the American coast as far as Cape 
