280 



NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIOIfS IN ALASKA. 



have returned, and throwing aside the cover the hunter spears one of the Beavers. If the one 

 nearest the exit is struck the passage is blocked and the others are easily killed. In this way 

 sometimes all of the occupants of a house, numbering a half dozen or so, are taken. 



Another and very strange way of hunting them is sometimes practiced on the Lower Yukon. 

 As winter advances and all of the lakes are covered with a heavy layer of ice, some of the small 

 ponds drain away so that a sheet of ice covers the empty bed of the pond like a flat roof. The 

 hunters cut a hole through the ice, and if beaver tracks are seen in the mud on the bottom, they 

 tak^ stout clubs and descend under the ice in search of the animals. The house is usually at one 

 end of the lake, and the poor animals are soon routed therefrom. They are then pursued over the 

 floor of their icy prison and brained by the hunter. The peculiar conditions required for this 

 work, and the danger of the icy covering falling in upon the hunter, render this style of hunting 

 rather uncommon. 



The natives of Eastern Siberia prize the fur of the Beaver very highly for trimming their fur 

 clothing, precisely as the Alaskan Eskimo prize the fur of the wolverine. As a consequence a 

 large number of Alaskan beaver-skins are taken across Bering Straits every summer by the Eskimo 

 and traded to the Chukchees for the skins of the tame reindeer, which are much finer and make 

 more durable clothing than the skins of the wild reindeer. 



The Siberian natives come for several hundred miles in the interior to be at the annual meet- 

 ings, which occur at Bering Straits for this purpose. 



Even before the discovery and occupation of Alaska by the Russians, this intercontinental 

 trade existed, and various articles of Siberian produce or trade were carried across the straits and 

 highly prized by the Eskimo. 



Among the fur traders of British America the beaver-skin has long served as the unit of trade, 

 and one skin (or 25 cents in value) refers to the former value of a beaver-skin. Opposition and the 

 growing scarcity of the beaver now renders a beaver-skin more valuable. 



In Alaska the unit of trade called "a skin" is the pelt of a marten or American Sable. 



Castoreum was an article of commerce some years ago, but is not collected at present. There 

 is oflcial record of nearly half a million beaver-skins being shipped from Alaska since it was oc- 

 cupied by the Russians, but this is far below the actual number. 



ScrtJEiis nuDSONixJS HTiDSONitrs (Pallas). Red Squirrel (Esk. Ei'-gu-ilc). 



This, the common squirrel of Alaska, is represented in the collection by a series of eleven 

 skins, having the normal coloration with one exception. This latter specimen was taken with a 

 number of the others at Fort Reliance, September 17, 1878. The color of the back, instead of 

 being tawny, approaches Indian red, and there is a tinge of this color over all the upper parts. 

 A similar color obtains in 8. gerrardi, but in that species it is far deeper and more fiery. Two 

 additional specimens depart from the normal coloration of S. Imdsonius, and belong to the variety 

 of that species next mentioned. 



List of specimens. 



