Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/394

380 their game and do their hunting and trapping during this season. In the summer they descend the rivers to the coast for the purpose of meeting the whalers and traders, and bartering the furs caught during the winter. The principal furs of the interior are the black and silver-gray fox-skins, black and brown bear, wolf, lynx, beaver, otter, and numerous smaller skins, as marten, ermine, etc. For these skins the Indians receive in exchange powder and lead, tobacco, cotton drilling, and various small articles. Rifles are highly prized, and, although they are contraband, nearly every Indian possesses one. Deer are caught in great numbers, but their skins are valuable only among the natives for clothing.

A deer-hunt which we witnessed was so different from our previous conceptions that I think it worthy a description. Upon this occasion, while sledging with a party of Indians, a herd of deer was sighted. The natives took their rifles and started, some going in one direction and some in another, but all keeping to leeward of the deer. Those who went directly toward the herd waited until the others had got partly around before starting. The first shot was the signal, whereupon all hands rushed toward the frightened animals, who separated and plunged blindly in every direction. The Indians shouted, making all the noise possible, the fleeing animals in their fear mistaking Indians for deer, and rushing on until a shot showed them their error, when they would turn and flee as blindly as before. Even after the first fright they circled around the danger, trying to get together, and in this way many more were killed. As much meat as could be carried was loaded upon the sleds, while the remainder was cached in the snow, to be sledged for at some future time.

The Indians spend their winters in the mountains. They are generally found in villages consisting of from two to a dozen houses. The winter house of these people consists of a hemispherically shaped hut, made by bending willow saplings or cutting spruce to the desired shape. The framework is covered with brush, and over this dried moss and turf to the depth of a foot or more. There is an ice-window on either side of the entrance. In the roof is a hole just over the fireplace for the smoke. Inside, the center of the hut is used as the fireplace, the fire being made the same as in the open air. At the back of the hut is a meat-stand, upon which several hundred pounds of deer-meat are kept, so that a quantity will be on hand sufficiently thawed for use. Upon entering a hut when traveling, some of this partially thawed meat is always offered to the new-comer. The floor of the hut is covered with brush, upon which they sit during the day, and spread skins to sleep upon at night. Meat is cooked but once a day. About 5 a large fire is started and the pots are put on. These are the ordinary kettles of civilization which they get in trade, or, in