AYAN MOOSE ARROW.
Most of the Ayan men, and especially the younger members, were armed with bows and arrows, but there was quite a considerable sprinkling of old flintlock Hudson Bay Company muskets among them, which they had procured by trade many years ago when Fort Selkirk flourished, or by intertribal barter, and their cost to these poor savages was almost fabulous. The Company's manner of selling a gun was to set it upright on the floor of the trader's store, and then to pile up furs alongside of it until they reached the muzzle, when the exchange was made, many of the skins being those of the black and silver-gray fox, and their aggregate value being probably three to four hundred dollars. Their bows and arrows were of the stereotyped Indian make, with no distinguishing ornament or peculiarity of construction worthy of notice.
The moose arrows used by this tribe, shown in illustration on this page, have at the point the usual double barb of common arrows, while one side is prolonged for two or three inches into a series of barbs; these latter they claim have the effect of working inward with the motions of the muscles of the animal if it be only wounded. Once wounded in this manner these sleuth-hounds of savages will remain on the trail of a moose for days if need be, until this dreadful weapon has reached a vital point, or so disabled the animal that it easily succumbs to its pursuers. In hunting moose in the summer time, while these animals are swimming across the lakes or broad streams, I was told by one of my interpreters who had often traded among them, and was well acquainted with their habits and customs, that these Ayans (and in fact several tribes below them on the river), do not hesitate to jump on the animals' back in the lake or river, leaving the canoe to look after itself, and dispatch the brute with a hand knife, cutting its throat or stabbing it in the neck as illustrated on page [261]. Of course, a companion in another canoe is needed to assist in getting the carcass ashore, and secure the hunter's canoe. They often attack the moose in their canoes while swimming as described by previous explorers on the lower river, but say that if by any unskillful movement they should only wound the animal it may turn and wreck their vessel, which is too great a loss for them to risk. A flying moose will not turn in the water unless irritated by wounds. The knives they use in hunting are great double-edged ones, with flaring ornamental handles, well illustrated in the upper left hand corner of the picture mentioned. They tell me these knives are of native manufacture, the handles being wrapped with moose leather so as to give the hand a good grip. Altogether, they are most villainous and piratical looking things.
CROSS-SECTION THROUGH AYAN WINTER TENT.
Only one or two log-cabins were seen anywhere in the Ayan country, and these had the dilapidated air of complete and permanent abandonment, although this whole district of the river is teeming with timber appropriate for such use. Probably the nomadic and restless character of the inhabitants makes it irksome for them to dwell in such permanent abodes, in spite of the great comfort to be derived in their almost Arctic winters from such buildings, if well constructed. The severity of the winter is shown by the moist banks of the river, the appearance of which indicates that they have been frozen some six or eight feet in depth. In winter the Ayans live mostly in tents, but by an ingenious arrangement these ordinarily cold habitations are made reasonably comfortable. This winter tent is shown in cross-section above, I being the interior, and P P the tent poles well covered with moose or caribou skins. A second set of poles, P P, are given a wider spread, inclosing an air space, A S, a foot or two across. These, too, are covered with animal skins, and a thick banking of snow, ss, two or three feet deep is thrown over the outside tent during the coldest weather of winter, making a sort of hybrid between the Eskimo igloo, or snow house, and the Indian skin lodge.
Many of the Ayans were persistent beggars, and next morning, the 16th of July, we got an early start before many of them were about, for as a tribe they did not seem to be very early risers.
Nearly directly opposite the Kah-tung village the perpendicular basaltic bluffs shown in the view at the mouth of the Pelly cease; and from this point on, the hills on both sides of the river were higher and even mountainous in character; "the upper gates of the upper ramparts."
From this point on down through the ramparts small black gnats became annoyingly numerous and pugnacious, while the plague of mosquitoes seemed to abate a little. The mosquito-bars, which were some protection from the latter, were of no use against the former, the little imps sailing right between the meshes without even stopping to crawl through. Veils with the very finest meshes would be needed to repulse their onslaughts, and with these we were not provided.
That day, the 16th, we drifted forty-seven miles, through a most picturesque section of country, our journey being marred only by a number of recurring and disagreeable thunder showers that wet us to the skin.