ETHNOGRAPHICAL DEDUCTIONS 97 



shirts with sleeves, very neatly sewed together, which reach to 

 the calf of the leg. Some had the shirts tied below the navel with 

 a string, but others wore them loose. Two of them had on boots 

 and trousers which seemed to be made after the fashion of the 

 Kamchadals out of seal leather and dyed brownish-red with 

 alder bark. Two had hanging on their belt, like the Russian 

 peasants, a long iron knife in a sheath of very poor workmanship, 

 which may have been their own and not a foreign ^i* invention. 

 Although I asked that one of these knives might be obtained in 

 exchange by offering 215 three or more of ours, of which our stores 

 had plenty, because it was very important and perhaps marks 

 might be found on them from which it might be possible to 

 conclude with what nation these islanders had communication, 

 nevertheless this also was not done. From the distance I observed 

 the nature of this knife very carefully as one of the Americans 

 unsheathed it and cut a bladder in two with it. It was easy to 

 see that it was of iron and, besides, that it was not like any Euro- 

 pean product. From this, then, might be concluded that the 

 Americans not only have iron ore, of which thus far few or no 

 traces at all have been discovered in Kamchatka, but that they 

 also know how to smelt and work it. And it would seem indis- 

 putable from the smooth workmanship observed, [both] on the 

 arrows found at Cape St. Elias and on the hut there, that the 

 savages must have knives, ^i^ whether they be of iron or of 



2" MS: "European." 



«if The MS from here on has slightly different expressions, as follows: 

 "by offering two, three, or more of ours, as it was very important, be- 

 cause, in case it was not their own work, it might be possible to ascertain 

 from some mark stamped on it with what European nation they were in 

 communication, nevertheless this was not done, although there were 

 several hundred [knives] among the gifts in our stores." 



216 It is more than probable that Steller did see iron knives. A party 

 of Russian hunters who spent the years 1759 to 1763 among the Aleuts 

 of Unimak and Unalaska reported that the inhabitants "made knives 

 out of iron, which iron they obtain from the islands to the eastward, 

 which islands are wooded, in exchange for furs and clothing." In 1767 

 the officers of the Krenitsin and Levashev expedition saw and sketched 

 these knives. It is not likely that the natives to the eastward knew how 



