MURDOCH.) SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS—OTHER ESKIMO. 49 
tions with the eastern people are now perfectly friendly. We heard 
‘nothing of the precautionary measures described by Dr. Simpson, and 
the women talked frequently of their trading with the Kanmda/dlii and 
even with the Kupttmiun.2 We did not learn definitely whether they 
met the latter at Barter Point or whether they went still farther east. 
Some of the Point Barrow parties do not go east of the Colville. The 
articles of trade have changed somewhat in the last 30 years, from the 
fact that the western natives can now buy directly from the whalers iron 
articles, arms, and ammunition, beads, tobacco, ete. The Nunataimiun 
now sell chiefly furs, deerskins, and clothing ready made from them, 
woodenware (buckets and tubs), willow poles for setting nets, and some- 
times fossil ivory. The double-edged Siberian knives are no longer in 
the market and appear to be going out of fashion, though a few of them 
are still in use. Ready-made stone articles, like the whetstones men- 
tioned by Dr. Simpson,’ are rarely, if ever, in the market. We did not 
hear of the purchase of stone lamps from the eastern natives. This is 
probably due to a cessation of the demand for them at Point Barrow, 
owing to the falling off in the population. 
The Kanmi/‘dlin no longer furnish guns and ammunition, as the west- 
ern natives prefer the breech-loading arms they obtain from the whalers 
to the flintlock guns sold by the Hudson Bay Company. The trade with 
these people seems to be almost entirely for furs and skins, notably 
black and red fox skins and wolverine skins. Skins of the narwhal or 
beluga are no longer mentioned as important articles of trade. 
In return for these things the western natives give sealskins, ete., 
especially oil, as formerly, though I believe that very little, if any, whale- 
bone is now carried east, since the natives prefer to save it for trading 
with the ships in the hope of getting liquor, or arms and ammunition, 
and various articles of American manufacture, beads, kettles, ete. Iwas 
told by an intelligent native of Utkiavwin that brass kettles were highly 
prized by the Kupaitmiun, and that a large one would bring three wolver- 
ine skins,‘ three black foxskins, or five red ones. One woman was anxious 
to get all the empty tin cans she could, saying that she could sell them to 
the Kaitmit/dlit for a foxskin apiece. We were told that the eastern na- 
tives were glad to buy gun flints and bright-colored handkerchiefs, and 
that the Nunatanmiun wanted blankets and playing-cards. 
Indians.—They informed us that east of the Colville they sometimes 
met “Itkii/dlin,” people with whom they could not converse, but who 
were friendly and traded with them, buying oil for fox skins. They 
were said to live back of the coast between the Colville and the Macken- 
zie, and were described as wearing no labrets, but rings in their ears and 
noses. They wear their hair long, do not tonsure the erown, and are 
dressed in jackets of skin with the hair removed, without hoods, and 
1Op. cit., p. 265. 
2In the Plover’s time they were left a day's journey in the rear. 
3Op. cit., p. 266. 
4T. Simpson saw iron kettles at Camden Bay which had been purchased from the western natives 
at two wolverine skins apiece. Narrative, p. 171. 
9 ETH——4 
