lo BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



exception of the natives on Kodiak and Afognak Islands, 

 the dwellers along the shores of Cook's Inlet were by natural 

 instinct the best hunters encountered during my expedition. 

 Here, however, the same spirit of independence as else- 

 where is evinced, and their feeling of equality with white 

 men is freely displayed in their manner and conversation. 

 They expect to live on the same luxuries, and to furnish their 

 houses in a manner similar to those of their employers. The 

 introduction of new diseases, and the sale of bad spirits, etc., 

 have largely diminished the native population of Alaska in 

 recent years. A few seasons ago an epidemic of measles 

 killed them off" like flies, and during 1903 almost every 

 native along the Alaska Peninsula and Cook's Inlet was 

 attacked by mumps. 



Sea- fishing is still an extensive business along the 

 Alaskan coast, and employs men of all nationalities from 

 Europe and America. They are a hardy class of men, 

 particularly along the Bering Sea shores, where they are 

 exposed for weeks at a time to all kinds of bad weather 

 while cod-fishing in their small open sailing dories. Although 

 generally within reach of some vessel carrying supplies of 

 food, etc., only men of the toughest possible type can stand, 

 for any length of time, the daily exposure to wet and cold 

 which their profession necessitates. It is by no means 

 uncommon for a small fleet of dories to sail 100 or 200 miles 

 to the nearest local store. Here their jovial crews, bearing 

 unmistakable signs of their calling in their weather-beaten 

 faces, at once raid the store, soon to emerge from it laden 

 with all kinds of small luxuries, and often with the necks of 

 suspicious-looking bottles, suggestive of spirits, protruding 

 from their pockets. The exact place whence the latter have 

 been obtained is generally discreetly left as a matter of con- 



