By this means, they save
themselves the trouble of carrying the skins and have the flesh at hand.
This is thrown in heaps, and when the season for skinning is over,
they take out the entrails and make one heap of the blubber. This, with
drift-wood, serves for fuel, for the island is entirely destitute of
trees. They make another heap of the flesh, which, with the eggs of
sea-fowls, preserved in oil, an occasional sea-lion, a few ducks in
winter, and some wild roots, compose their food.
Mr. Hunt found several Russians at the island, and one hundred hunters,
natives of Oonalaska, with their families. They lived in cabins that
looked like canoes; being, for the most part formed of the jaw-bone of
a whale, put up as rafters, across which were laid pieces of driftwood
covered over with long grass, the skins of large sea animals, and earth;
so as to be quite comfortable, in despite of the rigors of the climate;
though we are told they had as ancient and fish-like an odor, "as had
the quarters of Jonah, when he lodged within the whale."
In one of these odoriferous mansions, Mr. Hunt occasionally took up his
abode, that he might be at hand to hasten the loading of the ship. The
operation, however, was somewhat slow, for it was necessary to overhaul
and inspect every pack to prevent imposition, and the peltries had then
to be conveyed in large boats, made of skins, to the ship, which was
some little distance from the shore, standing off and on.
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