498	FUR TRADE.
is more noticeable because of the thousands of bodies of seal which are scattered over the islands. If these were composed in large part of muscular fibre, as is the case with the walrus, the decaying bodies would breed a pestilence. As it is, the odor is sufficiently perceptible, though a month or two shows the skeleton nearly clean.
The flesh of a young fur-seal, placed in running water over-night and then broiled, is far from disagreeable. In fact, it tastes almost exactly like mutton-chop. The young sea-lion is said to be even better eating, and both present a marked contrast to the fetidity of the flesh of the hair-seal (Phoca) of Norton Sound. The Aleuts make boot-soles, which are very durable, of the skin of the flippers. The fat cut from the nearest carcass serves them for fuel. The blubber of the fur-seal makes oil of the first quality, and is worth about two dollars a gallon; yet for many years hundreds of barrels have fertilized the hillsides, for want of some one to preserve it. Each seal will make half a gallon, which would give for one hundred thousand seal about a thousand barrels of oil, worth at least sixty thousand dollars, which has always been wasted. In fact, the oil is worth as much as the skin at the islands.
The second branch of the fur trade now demands our attention. The principal fur-bearing animals, which are not marine in their habits, are the fox, marten, mink, beaver, otter, lynx, black bear, and wolverine.* Beside these, the skins of the whistler, marmot, reindeer, mountain sheep and goat, wolf, musk-rat, and ermine, have a certain value, though hardly to be classed as furs.
The foxes are of several varieties. The stone foxes are blue, gray, and white ; the red fox is found of various colors, known as silver, black, cross, and red foxes.
The white stone foxes are the most valuable of the varieties of that species at present. They are found in the more northern part of the territory, especially in the Kaviak peninsula, on the Arctic coast, and near the Yukon-mouth.
The most common variety is the blue fox. It is of a slate color with a purplish tinge, and very abundant on the Pribyloff and Aleutian islands. They have been introduced upon most of the islands by the Russian American Company, and only a cer-
* These animals are mostly caught in dead-fall traps by the natives. There are no white trappers and very few steel traps in the vicinity of the Yukon.