d abundantly all the way along the
Northwest Coast, and especially in the passages about Sitka. It is now
nearly extinct.

The Russians had been gathering the skins of the sea-otter in the
northern waters for years, ever since Chirikof made his voyage to Sitka,
and they were truly an El Dorado, in fur, to the traders who plied their
trade along the coasts. Captain Cook and his sailors, when on their
voyage in these waters, bought skins for mere trifles, some for a
handful of iron nails. These same skins sold for as much as sixty
dollars each in China where they visited on their way home. The story of
the furs went over the world and English, French and American traders
thronged to these waters to sail their ships into the straits and barter
for the rich pelts. To secure a profit of $50,000 on a voyage was not
unusual. Ingraham, the lieutenant of Captain Gray whom we all know so
well for his discovery of the great River of the West, sailed to near
Sitka before his principal entered the river which he named for his
ship, the Columbia. The French ship "Solide," in 1791, sailed from
France to gather a portion of the harvest. Her captain, Etienne
Marchand, anchored in Sitka Bay, and called it _Tchinkitinay_, as
he declares it was known to the natives. To his ship flocked the painted
and skin-clad natives with their peltries for barter. On their persons
he saw articles of European manufacture, showing that other ships had
visited there, and in the ears of one young savage were hanging pendant
two copper coins of the colony of Massachusetts. His success in trade
was not such as he might have wished, so he sailed way, remarking that,
"The modern Hebrews would, perhaps, have little to teach to these people
in the art of trade."

March 31st, 1799, the Yankee skipper, Cleveland, of the merchant ship
"Caroline," sailed into the bay, dropped anchor and fired a cannon shot
as a signal. He was one of those shrewd, lean traders, skilled in
navigation, who sailed from Boston round the Horn, with their bucko
mates, who could drive a tack with the prow of a ship, so to speak, and
in those days there were no corners of the earth where they might not be
found seeking for profit. He was wise to the ways of the sharp trading
canoemen of these waters, and their aggressive proclivities, so he
prepared his ship with regard for all the possibilities of the business.
Around it as a bulwark he stretched a barrier of dry bull hides brought
from th