white-fox skins and
all sorts of stuff--beaver, marten, and mink--and some mighty good fur
at that. But those people haven't seen any white men's goods for at
least a year, and yet they act as if they hadn't an intention in the
world of parting with their furs. Look here," he continued, holding
out his hand.

The boys bent over curiously to see what he had.

"Stone things," said John. "What are they?"

"What they call 'labrets,'" said his uncle, taking up one of the
little articles. "They make them out of stone, don't you see?--with a
groove in the middle. If you will look close at some of these Eskimo
women, or even men, you will find that they have a hole through their
lower lip, and some of them wear this little 'labret.' Here also are
some made out of walrus ivory."

"Well, now I know what it was I saw that tall Husky had in his face
awhile ago," said John. "Something was sticking through his lower lip,
and I know now it was the glass stopper of a bottle of Worcester
sauce."

Uncle Dick laughed. "Correct!" said he. "I saw the same fellow, and,
now that you mention it, I gave him three dollars for that glass
stopper from the bottle! I don't suppose any one will believe the
story, but it's true.

"If you get a chance to trade any of these Huskies out of one of their
pipes, do it, boys," said he, "especially if you can get one of the
old bluestone pipe bowls. Pay as much as five dollars for it--which
would be ten 'skins' up here. I don't suppose you could find one for a
hundred dollars anywhere in the museums of our country, for they are
very rare. I have my eye on one, and I hope before we get out of this
northern country to close a trade for it, but the old fellow is mighty
stiff."

"You say that five dollars is ten 'skins' up here, Uncle Dick,"
commented Rob. "At Fort Smith and Fort Simpson a 'skin' was only
thirty cents--three to the dollar."

"That custom varies at the different posts," was Uncle Dick's reply.
"Of course you understand that a 'skin' is not a skin at all, but
simply a unit of value. Sometimes a trader will give an Indian a
bowlful of bullets representing the total value in 'skins' of the fur
which he has brought in. Each one of those bullets will be a 'skin.'
The Indian doesn't know anything about dollars or cents, and indeed
very little of value at all. You have to show him everything in an
objective way. So when the Indian wants to trade for white men's
goods, he asks for his particul