There Were Some Ten Or A Dozen Houses, All Told, In The Village.
The
count made by the chief for Mr. Young showed some seven hundred and
twenty-five persons in the tribe.
Chapter X
The Discovery of Glacier Bay
From here, on October 24, we set sail for Guide Charley's
ice-mountains. The handle of our heaviest axe was cracked, and as
Charley declared that there was no firewood to be had in the big
ice-mountain bay, we would have to load the canoe with a store for
cooking at an island out in the Strait a few miles from the village.
We were therefore anxious to buy or trade for a good sound axe in
exchange for our broken one. Good axes are rare in rocky Alaska. Soon
or late an unlucky stroke on a stone concealed in moss spoils the
edge. Finally one in almost perfect condition was offered by a young
Hoona for our broken-handled one and a half-dollar to boot; but when
the broken axe and money were given he promptly demanded an
additional twenty-five cents' worth of tobacco. The tobacco was given
him, then he required a half-dollar's worth more of tobacco, which
was also given; but when he still demanded something more, Charley's
patience gave way and we sailed in the same condition as to axes as
when we arrived. This was the only contemptible commercial affair we
encountered among these Alaskan Indians.
We reached the wooded island about one o'clock, made coffee, took on
a store of wood, and set sail direct for the icy country, finding it
very hard indeed to believe the woodless part of Charley's
description of the Icy Bay, so heavily and uniformly are all the
shores forested wherever we had been.
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