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diff --git a/22965-8.txt b/22965-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7019d88 --- /dev/null +++ b/22965-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12518 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled, by Hudson Stuck + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled + A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska + +Author: Hudson Stuck + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #22965] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH A DOG SLED *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net and +the booksmiths at http://www.eBookForge.net + + + + + + + + + + + +TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH A DOG SLED + + + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + +THE ASCENT OF DENALI (MT. McKINLEY). + +A narrative of the first complete ascent of THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN +NORTH AMERICA and the most northerly high mountain in the world. + +Profusely illustrated. 8vo. $1.75 _net_ + + "Few climbers have had such good fortune on a + supreme occasion, but few have better deserved + it." + + --_London Spectator._ + +[Illustration: Handwritten: Hudson Stuck.] + + + + + TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH + A DOG SLED + + A NARRATIVE OF WINTER TRAVEL IN INTERIOR ALASKA + + BY + + HUDSON STUCK, D.D., F.R.G.S. + ARCHDEACON OF THE YUKON + AUTHOR OF "THE ASCENT OF DENALI (MOUNT McKINLEY)" + + ILLUSTRATED + + SECOND EDITION + + NEW YORK + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + 1916 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1914, 1916, BY + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + + + + + TO + GRAFTON BURKE, M.D. + AND + EDGAR WEBB LOOMIS, M.D. + + PUPILS, COMRADES, COLLEAGUES, + COMPANIONS ON SOME OF THESE JOURNEYS, + ALWAYS DEAR FRIENDS, + + AND TO + + THE MOTHER OF THE THREE OF US + + SEWANEE + + THE COLLEGE ON THE MOUNTAIN-TOP + WHERE THE OLD IDEALS ARE STILL + UNFLINCHINGLY MAINTAINED + + THIS VOLUME + IS + AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED + BY + THE AUTHOR + + + + +PREFACE + + +THIS volume deals with a series of journeys taken with a dog team over +the winter trails in the interior of Alaska. The title might have +claimed fourteen or fifteen thousand miles instead of ten, for the book +was projected and the title adopted some years ago, and the journeys +have continued. But ten thousand is a good round titular number, and is +none the worse for being well within the mark. + +So far as mere distance is concerned, anyway, there is nothing +noteworthy in this record. There are many men in Alaska who have done +much more. A mail-carrier on one of the longer dog routes will cover +four thousand miles in a winter, while the writer's average is less than +two thousand. But his sled has gone far off the beaten track, across the +arctic wilderness, into many remote corners; wherever, indeed, white men +or natives were to be found in all the great interior. + +These journeys were connected primarily with the administration of the +extensive work of the Episcopal Church in the interior of Alaska, under +the bishop of the diocese; but that feature of them has been fully set +forth from time to time in the church publications, and finds only +incidental reference here. + +It is a great, wild country, little known save along accustomed routes +of travel; a country with a beauty and a fascination all its own; mere +arctic wilderness, indeed, and nine tenths of it probably destined +always to remain such, yet full of interest and charm. + +Common opinion "outside" about Alaska seems to be veering from the view +that it is a land of perpetual snow and ice to the other extreme of +holding it to be a "world's treasure-house" of mineral wealth and +agricultural possibility. The world's treasure is deposited in many +houses, and Alaska has its share; its mineral wealth is very great, and +"hidden doors of opulence" may open at any time, but its agricultural +possibilities, in the ordinary sense in which the phrase is used, are +confined to very small areas in proportion to the enormous whole, and in +very limited degree. + +It is no new thing for those who would build railways to write in +high-flown style about the regions they would penetrate, and, indeed, to +speak of "millions of acres waiting for the plough" is not necessarily a +misrepresentation; they are waiting. Nor is it altogether unnatural that +professional agricultural experimenters at the stations established by +the government should make the most of their experiments. When Dean +Stanley spoke disdainfully of dogma, Lord Beaconsfield replied; "Ah! but +you must always remember, no dogmas, no deans." + +Besides the physical attractions of this country, it has a gentle +aboriginal population that arouses in many ways the respect and the +sympathy of all kindly people; and it has some of the hardiest and most +adventurous white men in the world. The reader will come into contact +with both in these pages. + +So much for the book's scope; a word of its limitations. It is confined +to the interior of Alaska; confined in the main to the great valley of +the Yukon and its tributaries; being a record of sled journeys, it is +confined to the winter. + +There is no man living who knows the whole of Alaska or who has any +right to speak about the whole of Alaska. Bishop Rowe knows more about +Alaska, in all probability, than any other living man, and there are +large areas of the country in which he has never set foot. There is +probably no man living, save Bishop Rowe, who has visited even the +localities of all the missions of the Episcopal Church in Alaska. If one +were to travel continuously for a whole year, using the most expeditious +means at his command, and not wasting a day anywhere, it is doubtful +whether, summer and winter, by sea and land, squeezing the last mile out +of the seasons, travelling on the "last ice" and the "first water," he +could even touch at all the mission stations. So, when a man from Nome +speaks of Alaska he means his part of Alaska, the Seward Peninsula. When +a man from Valdez or Cordova speaks of Alaska he means the Prince +William Sound country. When a man from Juneau speaks of Alaska he means +the southeastern coast. Alaska is not one country but many, with +different climates, different resources, different problems, different +populations, different interests; and what is true of one part of it is +often grotesquely untrue of other parts. This is the reason why so many +contradictory things have been written about the country. Not only do +these various parts of Alaska differ radically from one another, but +they are separated from one another by almost insuperable natural +obstacles, so that they are in reality different countries. + +When Alaska is spoken of in this book the interior is meant, in which +the writer has travelled almost continuously for the past eight years. +The Seward Peninsula is the only other part of the country that the book +touches. And as regards summer travel and the summer aspect of the +country, there is material for another book should the reception of this +one warrant its preparation. + + * * * * * + +The problems of the civil government of the country will be found +touched upon somewhat freely as they rise from time to time in the +course of these journeys, and some faint hope is entertained that +drawing attention to evils may hasten a remedy. + +Alaska is not now, and never has been, a lawless country in the old, +Wild Western sense of unpunished homicides and crimes of violence. It +has been, on the whole, singularly free from bloodshed--a record due in +no small part to the fact that it is not the custom of the country to +carry pistols, for which again there is climatic and geographic reason; +due also in part to the very peaceable and even timid character of its +native people. + +But as regards the stringent laws enacted by Congress for the protection +of these native people, and especially in the essential particular of +protecting them from the fatal effects of intoxicating liquor, the +country is not law-abiding, for these laws are virtually a dead letter. + +Justices of the peace who must live wholly upon fees in regions where +fees will not furnish a living, and United States deputy marshals +appointed for political reasons, constitute a very feeble staff against +law-breakers. When it is remembered that on the whole fifteen hundred +miles of the American Yukon there are but six of these deputy marshals, +and that these six men, with another five or six on the tributary +rivers, form all the police of the country, it will be seen that +Congress must do something more than pass stringent laws if those laws +are to be of any effect. + +A body of stipendiary magistrates, a police force wholly removed from +politics and modelled somewhat upon the Canadian Northwest Mounted +Police--these are two of the great needs of the country if the liquor +laws are to be enforced and the native people are to survive. + +That the danger of the extermination of the natives is a real one all +vital statistics kept at Yukon River points in the last five years show, +and that there are powerful influences in the country opposed to the +execution of the liquor laws some recent trials at Fairbanks would leave +no room for doubt if there had been any room before. Indeed, at this +writing, when the pages of this book are closed and there remains no +place save the preface where the matter can be referred to, an impudent +attempt is on foot, with large commercial backing, to secure the +removal of a zealous and fearless United States district attorney, who +has been too active in prosecuting liquor-peddlers to suit the wholesale +dealers in liquor. + +There are, of course, those who view with perfect equanimity the +destruction of the natives that is now going on, and look forward with +complacency to the time when the Alaskan Indian shall have ceased to +exist. But to men of thought and feeling such cynicism is abhorrent, and +the duty of the government towards its simple and kindly wards is clear. + +A measure of real protection must be given the native communities +against the low-down whites who seek to intrude into them and build +habitations for convenient resort upon occasions of drunkenness and +debauchery, and some adequate machinery set up for suppressing the +contemptible traffic in adulterated spirits they subsist largely upon. +The licensed liquor-dealers do not themselves sell to Indians, but they +notoriously sell to men who notoriously peddle to Indians, and the +suppression of this illicit commerce would materially reduce the total +sales of liquor. + +Some measure of protection, one thinks, must also be afforded against a +predatory class of Indian traders, the back rooms of whose stores are +often barrooms, gambling-dens, and houses of assignation, and +headquarters and harbourage for the white degenerates--even if the +government go the length of setting up co-operative Indian stores in the +interior, as has been done in some places on the coast. This last is a +matter in which the missions are helpless, for there is no wise +combination of religion and trade. + +So this book goes forth with a plea in the front of it, which will find +incidental support and expression throughout it, for the natives of +interior Alaska, that they be not wantonly destroyed off the face of the +earth. + + HUDSON STUCK. + + NEW YORK, + _March, 1914._ + + + + +PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION + + +IT is gratifying to know that a second edition of this book has been +called for and it is interesting to write another preface; it even +proved interesting to do what was set about most reluctantly--the +reading of the book over again after entire avoidance of it for two +years. It was necessary to do it, though one shrank from it, and it is +interesting to know that after this comparatively long and complete +detachment I find little to add and less to correct. Upon a complete +rereading I am content to let the book stand, with two or three +footnotes thrown in, and the correction of the one printer's error it +contained from cover to cover--an error that a score of kind +correspondents pointed out, for it was conspicuous in the title of a +picture. + +The tendency to which attention is drawn in the original preface, the +pendulum swing from the old notion that Alaska is a land of polar bears +and icebergs to the new notion that it is a "world's treasure-house of +mineral wealth and unbounded agricultural possibilities" is yet more +marked than it was two years ago. The beginning of the building of the +government railway has given new impetus to the "boosting" writers for +magazines and newspapers. Quite recently it was stated in one such +publication that we need not worry about the destruction of our +forests, for had we not the inexhaustible timber resources of the +interior of Alaska to draw upon? + +And in the North itself--though no one there would write about the +timber resources of the interior--in certain shrill journals the man who +does not confidently expect to see the Yukon Flats waving with golden +grain and "the lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea" of the Koyukuk and +the Chandalar is regarded as a traitor to his country and his God. But +it must be remembered that there are a number of journalists in Alaska +who know nothing of the country outside their respective towns, and that +"boosting" grows shriller, as Eugene Field found red paint grow redder, +"the further out West one goes." When they get a newspaper at Cape +Prince of Wales what a clarion it will be! + +Truth, however, is not more wont than of old to be found in extremes, +and the author of this book believes that those who desire a sober view +of the country it deals with will find it herein. He claims no more than +that he has had adequate opportunity of forming his opinions and that he +has a right to their expression. It is now twelve years since he began +almost constant travelling, winter and summer, in the interior of +Alaska. He has described nothing that he has not seen; ventured no +judgment that he has not well digested, and has nothing to retract or +even modify; but he would repeat and emphasise a caution of the original +preface. Alaska is not one country but many countries, and so widely do +they differ from one another in almost every respect that no general +statements about Alaska can be true. The present author's knowledge of +the territory is confined in the main to the interior--to the valley of +the Yukon and its tributary rivers, which make up one of the world's +great waterways--and nothing of his writing applies, with his authority, +to other parts. + +The matter of the preservation of the native peoples still presses, and +is nearer to the author's heart than any other matter whatever. The +United States Congress, which voted thirty-five millions of dollars for +the government railroad, strikes out year by year the modest additional +score or two of thousands that year by year the Bureau of Education asks +for the establishment of hospital work amongst the Indians of the +interior, and the preventable mortality continues to be very great. + +In the last two years, largely as the result of the untiring efforts of +Bishop Rowe on behalf of the natives, two modern, well-equipped +hospitals have been built, with money that he and his clergy have +gathered, on the Yukon River, one at Fort Yukon and one at Tanana; and +these are the only places of any kind, on nearly a thousand miles of the +river, where sick or injured Indians may be received and cared for. + +Amongst men of thought and feeling there is noticeable revulsion from +the supercilious attitude that used not to be uncommon toward the little +peoples of the world. It begins to be recognised that it is quite +possible that even the smallest of the little peoples may have some +contribution to make to the welfare and progress of the human race. What +is the Boy Scout movement that is sweeping the country, to the enormous +benefit of the rising generation, but the incorporating into the nurture +of our youth of the things that were the nurture of the Indian youth; +that are a large part of the nurture of the Alaskan Indian youth to-day? +And the camp-fire clubs and woodcraft associations and the whole trend +to the life of the open recognise that the Indian had developed a +technique of wilderness life deserving of preservation for its value to +the white man. While as for the Esquimaux, the author never sees the +extraordinary prevalence amongst them of the art of graphic delineation +displayed in bold etchings of incidents of the chase upon their +implements and weapons (though not upon the articles made by the dozen +for the curio-venders at Nome and Saint Michael) without dreaming that +some day an artist will come from out that singular and most interesting +people who shall teach the world something new about art. + +Whatever the future may hold for the interior of Alaska, the author is +convinced that its population will derive very largely from the present +native stocks, and this alone would justify any efforts to prevent +further inroads upon their health and vitality. + + April, 1916. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + PREFACE vii + + I. FAIRBANKS TO THE CHANDALAR THROUGH CIRCLE + CITY AND FORT YUKON 3 + + II. CHANDALAR VILLAGE TO BETTLES, COLDFOOT, AND + THE KOYUKUK 34 + + III. BETTLES TO THE PACIFIC--THE ALATNA, KOBUK + PORTAGE, KOBUK VILLAGE, KOTZEBUE SOUND 63 + + IV. THE SEWARD PENINSULA--CANDLE CREEK, COUNCIL, + AND NOME 102 + + V. NOME TO FAIRBANKS--NORTON SOUND--THE KALTAG + PORTAGE--NULATO--UP THE YUKON TO TANANA 125 + + VI. THE "FIRST ICE"--AN AUTUMN ADVENTURE ON THE + KOYUKUK 157 + + VII. THE KOYUKUK TO THE YUKON AND TO TANANA--CHRISTMAS + HOLIDAYS AT SAINT JOHN'S-IN-THE-WILDERNESS 188 + + VIII. UP THE YUKON TO RAMPART AND ACROSS COUNTRY + TO THE TANANA--ALASKAN AGRICULTURE--THE + GOOD DOG NANOOK--MISS FARTHING'S BOYS AT + NENANA--CHENA AND FAIRBANKS 219 + + IX. TANANA CROSSING TO FORTYMILE AND DOWN THE + YUKON--A PATRIARCHAL CHIEF--SWARMING + CARIBOU--EAGLE AND FORT EGBERT--CIRCLE + CITY AND FORT YUKON 251 + + X. FROM THE TANANA RIVER TO THE KUSKOKWIM--THENCE + TO THE IDITAROD MINING CAMP--THENCE + TO THE YUKON, AND UP THAT RIVER + TO FORT YUKON 294 + + XI. THE NATIVES OF ALASKA 348 + + XII. PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE ARCTIC 371 + + XIII. THE NORTHERN LIGHTS 380 + + XIV. THE ALASKAN DOGS 392 + + INDEX 413 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Hudson Stuck (_photogravure_) _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + Sunrise on the Chandalar-Koyukuk portage 36 + + Coldfoot on the Koyukuk 37 + + The upper Koyukuk 50 + + The barren shores of Kotzebue Sound 51 + + Gold-mining at Nome 122 + + Pulling the _Pelican_ out with a "Spanish windlass" 123 + + The start over the "first ice" 164 + + "Rough going" 165 + + Arthur and Doctor Burke 178 + + Saint John's-in-the-Wilderness, Allakaket, Koyukuk River 179 + + The double interpretation at the Allakaket 186 + + The wind-swept Yukon within the ramparts 187 + + A pleasant woodland trail 256 + + An Alaskan chief and his henchman 257 + + The Tanana crossing 270 + + Good going on the Yukon 271 + + "A portage that comes so finely down to the Yukon that + there is pleasure in anticipating the view it affords" 290 + + Fort Yukon 291 + + The rough breaking in of Doctor Loomis, camped on the mail + trail at 50° below zero, unable to reach a road-house for + the deep snow 296 + + Esquimaux of the upper Kuskokwim 297 + + "The 'summit' is high above timber-line and the trail + pursues a hogback ridge for a mile and a half at the summit + level" 324 + + A street in Iditarod City 325 + + The end of the portage trail 334 + + Rough ice on the Yukon 335 + + A docile folk, eager for instruction 350 + + The mission type 351 + + Wild and shy 351 + + The native communicant 360 + + Raw material 360 + + An Esquimau youth 361 + + A half-breed Indian 361 + + An aged couple 366 + + Football at the Allakaket, exposure 1-1000 second, April, + after a new light snowfall 367 + + The sun dogs 388 + + "Tan," of mixed breed 389 + + "Muk," a pure malamute 389 + + Map of the interior of Alaska showing journeys described + in this book _At end of volume_ + + + + +TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH A DOG SLED + + + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE + + +Three fundamental facts are to be borne constantly in mind by those who +would form any intelligent conception of the Territory of Alaska. + +(1) Its area of approximately 590,000 square miles makes it two and a +half times as large as the State of Texas. + +(2) But it is not, like Texas, one homogeneous body of land; it is not, +in any geographical sense, one country at all. "Sweeping in a great arc +over sixteen degrees of latitude and fifty-eight degrees of longitude," +it is no less than four, and some might say five, different countries, +differing from one another in almost every way that one country can +differ from another: in climate, in population, in resources, in +requirements; and-- + +(3) These different countries are not merely different from one another, +they are _separated_ from one another by formidable natural barriers. + + + + +TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH A DOG SLED + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FAIRBANKS TO THE CHANDALAR THROUGH CIRCLE CITY AND FORT YUKON + + +THE plan for the winter journey of 1905-6 (my second winter on the +trail) was an ambitious one, for it contemplated a visit to Point Hope, +on the shore of the Arctic Ocean between Kotzebue Sound and Point +Barrow, and a return to Fairbanks. In the summer such a journey would be +practicable only by water: down the Tanana to the Yukon, down the Yukon +to its mouth, and then through the straits of Bering and along the +Arctic coast; in the winter it is possible to make the journey across +country. A desire to visit our most northerly and most inaccessible +mission in Alaska and a desire to become acquainted with general +conditions in the wide country north of the Yukon were equal factors in +the planning of a journey which would carry me through three and a half +degrees of latitude and no less than eighteen degrees of longitude. + +The course of winter travel in Alaska follows the frozen waterways so +far as they lead in the general direction desired, leaves them to cross +mountain ranges and divides at the most favourable points, and drops +down into the streams again so soon as streams are available. The +country is notably well watered and the waterways are the natural +highways. The more frequented routes gradually cut out the serpentine +bends of the rivers by land trails, but in the wilder parts of the +country travel sticks to the ice. + +Our course, therefore, lay up the Chatanika River and one of its +tributaries until the Tanana-Yukon watershed was reached; then through +the mountains, crossing two steep summits to the Yukon slope, and down +that slope by convenient streams to the Yukon River at Circle City. + +[Sidenote: THE GOLD TRAIN] + +We set out on the 27th of November with six dogs and a "basket" sled and +about five hundred pounds' weight of load, including tent and stove, +bedding, clothes for the winter, grub box and its equipment, and dog +feed. The dogs were those that I had used the previous winter, with one +exception. The leader had come home lame from the fish camp where he had +been boarded during the summer, and, despite all attentions, the +lameness had persisted; so he must be left behind, and there was much +difficulty in securing another leader. A recent stampede to a new mining +district had advanced the price of dogs and gathered up all the good +ones, so it was necessary to hunt all over Fairbanks and pay a hundred +dollars for a dog that proved very indifferent, after all. "Jimmy" was a +handsome beast, the handsomest I ever owned and the costliest, but, as I +learned later from one who knew his history, had "travelled on his +looks all his life." He earned the name of "Jimmy the Fake." + +Midway to Cleary "City," on the chief gold-producing creek of the +district, our first day's run, we encountered the gold train. For some +time previous a lone highwayman had robbed solitary miners on their way +to Fairbanks with gold-dust, and now a posse was organised that went the +rounds of the creeks and gathered up the dust and bore it on mule-back +to the bank, escorted by half a dozen armed and mounted men. Sawed-off +shotguns were the favourite weapons, and one judged them deadly enough +at short range. The heavy "pokes" galled the animals' backs, however +they might be slung, and the little procession wound slowly along, a man +ahead, a man behind, and four clustered round the treasure. + +These raw, temporary mining towns are much alike the world over, one +supposes, though perhaps a little worse up here in the far north. It was +late at night when we reached the place, but saloon and dance-hall were +ablaze with light and loud with the raucity of phonographs and the +stamping of feet. Everything was "wide open," and there was not even the +thinnest veneer of respectability. Drinking and gambling and dancing go +on all night long. Drunken men reel out upon the snow; painted faces +leer over muslin curtains as one passes by. Without any government, +without any pretence of municipal organisation, there is no co-operation +for public enterprise. There are no streets, there are no sidewalks +save such as a man may choose to lay in front of his own premises, and +the simplest sanitary precautions are entirely neglected. Nothing but +the cold climate of the north prevents epidemic disease from sweeping +through these places. They rise in a few days wherever gold is found in +quantities, they flourish as the production increases, decline with its +decline, and are left gaunt, dark, and abandoned so soon as the diggings +are exhausted. + +The next day we were on the Chatanika River, to which Cleary Creek is +tributary, and were immediately confronted with one of the main troubles +and difficulties of winter travel in this and, as may be supposed, in +any arctic or subarctic country--overflow water. + +[Sidenote: OVERFLOW WATER AND ICE] + +In the lesser rivers, where deep pools alternate with swift shallows, +the stream freezes solid to the bottom upon the shoals and riffles. +Since the subterranean fountains that supply the river do not cease to +discharge their waters in the winter, however cold it may be, there +comes presently an increasing pressure under the ice above such a +barrier. The pent-up water is strong enough to heave the ice into mounds +and at last to break forth, spreading itself far along the frozen +surface of the river. At times it may be seen gushing out like an +artesian well, rising three or four feet above the surface of the ice, +until the pressure is relieved. Sometimes for many miles at a stretch +the whole river will be covered with a succession of such overflows, +from two or three inches deep to eight or ten, or even twelve; some just +bursting forth, some partially frozen, some resolved into solid "glare" +ice. Thus the surface of the river is continually renewed the whole +winter through, and a section of the ice crust in the spring would show +a series of laminations; here ice upon ice, there ice upon +half-incorporated snow, that mark the successive inundations. + +This explanation has been given at length because of the large part that +the phenomenon plays in the difficulty and danger of winter travel, and +because it seems hard to make those who are not familiar with it +understand it. At first sight it would seem that after a week or ten +days of fifty-below-zero weather, for instance, all water everywhere +would be frozen into quiescence for the rest of the winter. Throw a +bucket of water into the air, and it is frozen solid as soon as it +reaches the ground. There would be no more trouble, one would think, +with water. Yet some of the worst trouble the traveller has with +overflow water is during very cold weather, and it is then, of course, +that there is the greatest danger of frost-bite in getting one's feet +wet. Water-proof footwear, therefore, becomes one of the "musher's" +great concerns and difficulties. The best water-proof footwear is the +Esquimau mukluk, not easily obtainable in the interior of Alaska, but +the mukluk is an inconvenient footwear to put snow-shoes on. Rubber +boots or shoes of any kind are most uncomfortable things to travel in. +Nothing equals the moccasin on the trail, nothing is so good to +snow-shoe in. The well-equipped traveller has moccasins for dry trails +and mukluks for wet trails--and even then may sometimes get his feet +wet. Nor are his own feet his only consideration; his dogs' feet are, +collectively, as important as his own. When the dog comes out of water +into snow again the snow collects and freezes between the toes, and if +not removed will soon cause a sore and lameness. Then a dog moccasin +must be put on and the foot continually nursed and doctored. When +several dogs of a team are thus affected, it may be with several feet +each, the labour and trouble of travel are greatly increased. + +So, whenever his dogs have been through water, the careful musher will +stop and go all down the line, cleaning out the ice and snow from their +feet with his fingers. Four interdigital spaces per foot make sixteen +per dog, and with a team of six dogs that means ninety-six several +operations with the bare hand (if it be done effectually) every time the +team gets into an overflow. The dogs will do it for themselves if they +are given time, tearing out the lumps of ice with their teeth; but, +inasmuch as they usually feel conscientiously obliged to eat each lump +as they pull it out, it takes much longer, and in a short daylight there +is little time to spare if the day's march is to be made. + +[Sidenote: "OVERFLOW" ICE] + +We found overflow almost as soon as we reached the Chatanika River, and +in one form or another we encountered it during all the two days and a +half that we were pursuing the river's windings. At times it was covered +with a sheet of new ice that would support the dogs but would not +support the sled, so that the dogs were travelling on one level and the +sled on another, and a man had to walk along in the water between the +dogs and the sled for several hundred yards at a time, breaking down the +overflow ice with his feet. + +At other times the thin sheets of overflow ice would sway and bend as +the sled passed quickly over them in a way that gives to ice in such +condition its Alaskan name of "rubber-ice," while for the fifteen or +twenty miles of McManus Creek, the headwaters of the Chatanika, we had +continuous stretches of fine glare ice with enough frost crystals upon +it from condensing moisture to give a "tooth" to the dogs' feet, just as +varnish on a photographic negative gives tooth to the retouching pencil. +Perfectly smooth ice is a very difficult surface for dogs to pass over; +glare ice slightly roughened by frost deposit makes splendid, fast +going. + +Eighty-five miles or so from Fairbanks, and just about half-way to +Circle, the watercourse is left and the first summit is the +"Twelve-Mile," as it is called. We tried hard to take our load up at one +trip, but found it impossible to do so, and had to unlash the sled and +take half the load at a time, caching it on the top while we returned +for the other half. + +It took us half a day to get our load to the top of the Twelve-Mile +summit, a rise of about one thousand three hundred feet from the creek +bed as the aneroid gave it. In the steeper pitches we had to take the +axe and cut steps, so hard and smooth does the incessant wind at these +heights beat the snow, and on our second trip to the top we were just in +time to rescue a roll of bedding that had been blown from the cache and +was about to descend a gully from which we could hardly have recovered +it. + +This summit descended, we were in Birch Creek water, and had we followed +the watercourse would have reached the Yukon; but we would have +travelled hundreds of miles and would have come out below Fort Yukon, +while we were bound for Circle City. So there was another and a yet more +difficult summit to cross before we could descend the Yukon slope. We +were able to hire a man and two dogs to help us over the Eagle summit, +so that the necessity of relaying was avoided. One man ahead continually +calling to the dogs, eight dogs steadily pulling, and two men behind +steadily pushing, foot by foot, with many stoppages as one bench after +another was surmounted, we got the load to the top at last, a rise of +one thousand four hundred feet in less than three miles. A driving +snow-storm cut off all view and would have left us at a loss which way +to proceed but for the stakes that indicated it. + +The descent was as anxious and hazardous as the ascent had been +laborious. The dogs were loosed and sent racing down the slope. With a +rope rough-lock around the sled runners, one man took the gee pole and +another the handle-bars and each spread-eagled himself through the loose +deep snow to check the momentum of the sled, until sled and men turned +aside and came to a stop in a drift to avoid a steep, smooth pitch. The +sled extricated, it was poised on the edge of the pitch and turned loose +on the hardened snow, hurtling down three or four hundred feet until it +buried itself in another drift. The dogs were necessary to drag it from +this drift, and one had to go down and bring them up. Then again they +were loosed, and from bench to bench the process was repeated until the +slope grew gentle enough to permit the regulation of the downward +progress by the foot-brake. + +[Sidenote: "SUMMITS"] + +The Eagle summit is one of the most difficult summits in Alaska. The +wind blows so fiercely that sometimes for days together its passage is +almost impossible. No amount of trail making could be of much help, for +the snow smothers up everything on the lee of the hill, and the end of +every storm presents a new surface and an altered route. A "summit" in +this Alaskan sense is, of course, a saddle between peaks, and in this +case there is no easier pass and no way around. The only way to avoid +the Eagle summit, without going out of the district altogether, would be +to tunnel it. + +The summit passed, we found better trails and a more frequented country, +for in this district are a number of creeks that draw supplies from +Circle City, and that had been worked ten years or more. + +At the time of the Klondike stampede of 1896-97, Circle City was already +established as a flourishing mining camp and boasted itself the largest +log-cabin town in the world. Before the Klondike drew away its people as +a stronger magnet draws iron filings from a lesser one, Circle had a +population of about three thousand. Take a town of three thousand and +reduce it to thirty or forty, and it is hard to resist the melancholy +impression which entrance upon it in the dusk of the evening brings. +There lay the great white Yukon in the middle distance; beyond it the +Yukon Flats, snow-covered, desolate, stretched away enormously, hedged +here at their beginning by grey, dim hills. Spread out in the foreground +were the little, squat, huddling cabins that belonged to no one, with +never a light in a window or smoke from a chimney, the untrodden snow +drifted against door and porch. It would be hard to imagine a drearier +prospect, and one had the feeling that it was a city of the dead rather +than merely a dead city. + +The weather had grown steadily colder since we reached the Yukon slope, +and for two days before reaching Circle the thermometer had stood +between 40° and 50° below zero. It was all right for us to push on, the +trail was good and nearly all down-hill, and there were road-houses +every ten or twelve miles. Freighters, weather-bound, came to the doors +as we passed by with our jangle of bells and would raise a somewhat +chechaco pride in our breasts by remarking: "You don't seem to care what +weather you travel in!" The evil of it was that the perfectly safe +travelling between Eagle Creek and Circle emboldened us to push on from +Circle under totally different conditions, when travelling at such low +temperatures became highly dangerous and brought us into grave +misadventure that might easily have been fatal catastrophe. + +Our original start was a week later than had been planned and we had +made no time, but rather lost it, on this first division of the journey. +If we were to reach Bettles on the Koyukuk River for Christmas, there +was no more time to lose, and I was anxious to spend the next Sunday at +Fort Yukon, three days' journey away. So we started for Fort Yukon on +Thursday, the 7th of December, the day after we reached Circle. + +[Sidenote: THE YUKON FLATS] + +A certain arctic traveller has said that "adventures" always imply +either incompetence or ignorance of local conditions, and there is some +truth in the saying. Our misadventure was the result of a series of +mistakes, no one of which would have been other than discreditable to +men of more experience. Our course lay for seventy-five miles through +the Yukon Flats, which begin at Circle and extend for two hundred and +fifty miles of the river's course below that point. The Flats constitute +the most difficult and dangerous part of the whole length of the Yukon +River, summer or winter, and the section between Circle City and Fort +Yukon is the most difficult and dangerous part of the Flats. Save for a +"portage" or land trail of eighteen or twenty miles out of Circle, the +trail is on the river itself, which is split up into many channels +without salient landmarks. The current is so swift that many stretches +run open water far into the winter, and blow-holes are numerous. There +is little travel on the Flats in winter, and a snow-storm accompanied by +wind may obliterate what trail there is in an hour. The vehicle used in +the Flats is not a sled but a toboggan, and our first mistake was in not +conforming to local usage in this respect. There is always a very good +reason for local usage about snow vehicles. But a toboggan which had +been ordered from a native at Fort Yukon would be waiting for us, and +it seemed not worth while to go to the expense of buying another merely +for three days' journey. + +The second mistake was in engaging a boy as guide instead of a man. He +was an attractive youth of about fourteen who had done good service at +the Circle City mission the previous winter, when our nurse-in-charge +was contending single-handed against an epidemic of diphtheria. He was a +pleasant boy, with some English, who wanted to go and professed +knowledge of the route. The greatest mistake of all was starting out +through that lonely waste with the thermometer at 52° below zero. The +old-timers in Alaska have a saying that "travelling at 50° below is all +right as long as it's all right." If there be a good trail, if there be +convenient stopping-places, if nothing go wrong, one may travel without +special risk and with no extraordinary discomfort at 50° below zero and +a good deal lower. I have since that time made a short day's run at 62° +below, and once travelled for two or three hours on a stretch at 65° +below. But there is always more or less chance in travelling at low +temperatures, because a very small thing may necessitate a stop, and a +stop may turn into a serious thing. At such temperatures one must keep +going. No amount of clothing that it is possible to wear on the trail +will keep one warm while standing still. For dogs and men alike, +constant brisk motion is necessary; for dogs as well as men--even though +dogs will sleep outdoors in such cold without harm--for they cannot take +as good care of themselves in the harness as they can when loose. A +trace that needs mending, a broken buckle, a snow-shoe string that must +be replaced, may chill one so that it is impossible to recover one's +warmth again. The bare hand cannot be exposed for many seconds without +beginning to freeze; it is dangerous to breathe the air into the lungs +for any length of time without a muffler over the mouth. + +Our troubles began as soon as we started. The trail was a narrow, +winding toboggan track of sixteen or seventeen inches, while our sled +was twenty inches wide, so that one runner was always dragging in the +loose snow, and that meant slow, heavy going. + +[Sidenote: SUNRISE AND SUNSET] + +The days were nearing the shortest of the year, when, in these +latitudes, the sun does but show himself and withdraw again. But, +especially in very cold weather, which is nearly always very clear +weather, that brief appearance is preceded by a feast of rich, delicate +colour. First a greenish glow on the southern horizon, brightening into +lemon and then into clear primrose, invades the deep purple of the +starry heavens. Then a beautiful circle of blush pink above a circle of +pure amethyst gradually stretches all around the edge of the sky, slowly +brightening while the stars fade out and the heavens change to blue. The +dead white mirror of the snow takes every tint that the skies display +with a faint but exquisite radiance. Then the sun's disk appears with a +flood of yellow light but with no appreciable warmth, and for a little +space his level rays shoot out and gild the tree tops and the distant +hills. The snow springs to life. Dead white no longer, its dry, +crystalline particles glitter in myriads of diamond facets with every +colour of the prism. Then the sun is gone, and the lovely circle of rose +pink over amethyst again stretches round the horizon, slowly fading +until once more the pale primrose glows in the south against the purple +sky with its silver stars. Thus sunrise and sunset form a continuous +spectacle, with a purity of delicate yet splendid colour that only +perfectly dry atmosphere permits. The primrose glow, the heralding +circle, the ball of orange light, the valedictory circle, the primrose +glow again, and a day has come and gone. Air can hold no moisture at all +at these low temperatures, and the skies are cloudless. + +[Sidenote: AN ESCAPADE ON THE YUKON] + +Moreover, in the wilds at 50° below zero there is the most complete +silence. All animal life is hidden away. Not a rabbit flits across the +trail; in the absolutely still air not a twig moves. A rare raven passes +overhead, and his cry, changed from a hoarse croak to a sweet liquid +note, reverberates like the musical glasses. There is no more delightful +sound in the wilderness than this occasional lapse into music of the +raven. We wound through the scrub spruce and willow and over the +niggerhead swamps, a faint tinkle of bells, a little cloud of steam; for +in the great cold the moisture of the animals' breath hangs over their +heads in the still air, and on looking back it stands awhile along the +course at dogs' height until it is presently deposited on twigs and +tussocks. We wound along, a faint tinkle of bells, a little cloud of +steam, and in the midst of the cloud a tousle of shaggy black-and-white +hair and red-and-white pompons--going out of the dead silence behind +into the dead silence before. The dusk came, and still we plodded and +pushed our weary way, swinging that heavy sled incessantly, by the gee +pole in front and the handle-bars behind, in the vain effort to keep it +on the trail. Two miles an hour was all that we were making. We had come +but thirteen or fourteen miles out of twenty-four, and it was dark; and +it grew colder. + +The dogs whined and stopped every few yards, worn out by wallowing in +the snow and the labour of the collar. The long scarfs that wrapped our +mouths and noses had been shifted and shifted, as one part after another +became solid with ice from the breath, until over their whole length +they were stiff as boards. After two more miles of it it was evident +that we could not reach the mail cabin that night. Then I made my last +and worst mistake. We should have stopped and camped then and there. We +had tent and stove and everything requisite. But the native boy insisted +that the cabin was "only little way," and any one who knows the misery +of making camp in extremely cold weather, in the dark, will understand +our reluctance to do so. + +I decided to make a cache of the greater part of our load--tent and +stove and supplies generally--and to push on to the cabin with but the +bedding and the grub box, returning for the stuff in the morning. And, +since in the deepest depths of blundering there is a deeper still, by +some one's carelessness, but certainly by my fault, the axe was left +behind in the cache. + +With our reduced burden we made better progress, and in a short time +reached the end of the portage and came out on the frozen river, just as +the moon, a day or two past the full, rose above the opposite bank. One +sees many strange distortions of sun and moon in this land, but never +was a stranger seen than this. Her disk, shining through the dense air +of the river bottom, was in shape an almost perfect octagon, regular as +though it had been laid off with dividers and a ruler. + +We were soon in doubt about the trail. The mail-carrier had gone down +only two or three times this winter and each time had taken a different +route, as more and more of the river closed and gave him more and more +direct passage. A number of Indians had been hunting, and their tracks +added to the tangle of trails. Presently we entered a thick mist that +even to inexperienced eyes spoke of open water or new ice yet moist. So +heavy was the vapour that to the man at the handle-bars the man at the +gee pole loomed ghostly, and the man ahead of the dogs could not be +distinguished at all. We had gone so much farther than our native boy +had declared we had to go that we began to fear that in the confusion of +trails we had taken the wrong one and had passed the cabin. That is the +tenderfoot's, or, as we say, the chechaco's, fear; it is the one thing +that it may almost be said never happens. But the boy fell down +completely and was frankly at a loss. All we could get out of him was: +"May-be-so we catch cabin bymeby, may-be-so no." If we had passed the +cabin it was twenty odd miles to the next; and it grew colder and the +dogs were utterly weary again, prone upon the trail at every small +excuse for a stop, only to be stirred by the whip, heavily wielded. +Surely never men thrust themselves foolhardily into worse predicament! +Then I made my last mistake. Dimly the bank loomed through the mist, and +I said: "We can't go any farther; I think we've missed the trail and I'm +going across to yon bank to see if there's a place to camp." I had not +gone six steps from the trail when the ice gave way under my feet and I +found myself in water to my hips. + +[Sidenote: AN ESCAPADE ON THE YUKON] + +Under Providence I owe it to the mukluks I wore, tied tight round my +knees, that I did not lose my life, or at least my feet. The thermometer +at Circle City stood at 60° below zero at dark that day, and down on the +ice it is always about 5° colder than on the bank, because cold air is +heavy air and sinks to the lowest level, and 65° below zero means 97° +below freezing. + +My moose-hide breeches froze solid the moment I scrambled out, but not a +drop of water got to my feet. If the water had reached my feet they +would have frozen almost as quickly as the moose hide in that fearful +cold. Thoroughly alarmed now, and realising our perilous situation, we +did the only thing there was to do--we turned the dogs loose and +abandoned the sled and went back along the trail we had followed as fast +as we could. We knew that we could safely retrace our steps and that the +trail would lead us to the bank after a while. We knew not where the +trail would lead us in the other direction. As a matter of fact, it led +to the mail cabin, two miles farther on, and the mail-carrier was at +that time occupying it at the end of his day's run. + +The dogs stayed with the sled; dogs will usually stay with their sled; +they seem to recognise their first allegiance to the load they haul, +probably because they know their food forms part of it. + +Our cache reached, we made a fire, thawed out the iron-like armour of my +leather breeches, and cutting a spare woollen scarf in two, wrapped the +dry, warm pieces about my numbed thighs. Then we pushed on the eighteen +miles or so to Circle, keeping a steady pace despite the drowsiness that +oppressed us, and that oppressed me particularly owing to the chill of +my ducking. About five in the morning we reached the town, and the +clergyman, the Reverend C. E. Rice, turned out of his warm bed and I +turned in, none the worse in body for the experience, but much humbled +in spirit. My companion, Mr. E. J. Knapp, whose thoughtful care for me I +always look back upon with gratitude, as well as upon Mr. Rice's +kindness, froze his nose and a toe slightly, being somewhat neglectful +of himself in his solicitude for me. + +We had been out about twenty hours in a temperature ranging from 52° to +60° below zero, had walked about forty-four miles, labouring incessantly +as well as walking, what time we were with the sled, with nothing to +eat--it was too cold to stop for eating--and, in addition to this, one +of us had been in water to the waist, yet none of us took any harm. It +was a providential overruling of blundering foolhardiness for which we +were deeply thankful. + +The next day a native with a fast team and an empty toboggan was sent +down to take our load on to the cabin and bring the dogs back. +Meanwhile, the mail-carrier had passed the spot, had seen the abandoned +sled standing by recently broken ice, and had come on into town while we +slept and none knew of our return, with the news that some one had been +drowned. The mail for Fairbanks did but await the mail from Fort Yukon, +and the town rumour, instantly identifying the abandoned sled, was +carried across to Fairbanks, to my great distress and annoyance. The +echoes of the distorted account of this misadventure which appeared in a +Fairbanks newspaper still reverberate in "patent insides" of the +provincial press of the United States. + +[Sidenote: FORT YUKON ] + +The next Monday we started again, this time with a toboggan and with a +man instead of a boy for guide, and in three days of only moderate +difficulty we reached Fort Yukon. + +Fort Yukon, though it holds no attraction for the ordinary visitor or +the summer tourist on the river, is a place of much interest to those +who know the history of Alaska. While it is purely a native village, +with no white population save the traders and the usual sprinkling of +men that hang around native villages, it is yet the oldest white man's +post on the Yukon River, save the post established by the Russians at +Nulato, five or six hundred miles lower down. The Hudson Bay Company +established itself here in 1846, and that date serves as the year one +in making calculations and determining ages to this day. It is a fixed +point in time that every native knows of. Any old man can tell you +whether he was born before or after that date, and, if before, can pick +out some boy that is about the age he was when the event occurred. The +massacre at Nulato in 1851 serves in a similar way for the lower river. + +After the Purchase, and the determination of the longitude of Fort Yukon +by Mr. Raymond in 1869--who made the first steamboat journey up the +Yukon on that errand--the Hudson Bay Company moved three times before +they succeeded in getting east of the 141st meridian, and at the point +reached on the third move, the New Rampart House on the Porcupine River, +only a few hundred yards beyond the boundary-line, they remained until +the gold excitement on the Yukon and the journeying of the natives to +new posts on that river rendered trading unprofitable; then they +withdrew to the Mackenzie. The oldest white men's graves in Alaska, +again with the exception of Nulato, are those in the little Hudson Bay +cemetery near Fort Yukon. + +[Sidenote: ARCHDEACON MACDONALD ] + +Fort Yukon is also the site of the oldest missionary station on the +river, unless there were earlier visits of Russian priests to the lower +river, of which there seems no record, for in 1862 there was a clergyman +of the Church of England at this place. Archdeacon MacDonald was a +remarkable man. Married to a native wife, he translated the whole Bible +and the Book of Common Prayer into the native tongue, and his +translations are in general use on the upper river to this day. He +reduced the language to writing, extracted its grammar, taught the +Indians to read and write their own tongue, and dignified it by the gift +of the great literature of the sacred books. The language is, of course, +a dying one--English is slowly superseding it--but it seems safe to say +that for a generation or two yet to come it will be the basis of the +common speech of the people and the language of worship. It is chiefly +in matters of trading and handicrafts that English is taking its place, +though here as elsewhere it stands to the discredit of the civilised +race that blackguard English is the first English that is learned. + +There seems ground to question whether the substitution of a smattering +of broken English for the flexibility and picturesque expressiveness of +an indigenous tongue, thoroughly understood, carries with it any great +intellectual gain, though to suggest such a doubt is treason to some +minds. The time threatens when all the world will speak two or three +great languages, when all little tongues will be extinct and all little +peoples swallowed up, when all costume will be reduced to a dead level +of blue jeans and shoddy and all strange customs abolished. The world +will be a much less interesting world then; the spice and savour of the +ends of the earth will be gone. Nor does it always appear unquestionable +that the world will be the better or the happier. The advance of +civilisation would be a great thing to work for if we were quite sure +what we meant by it and what its goal is. To the ordinary government +school-teacher in Alaska, with some notable exceptions, it seems to +mean chiefly teaching the Indians to call themselves Mr. and Mrs. and +teaching the women to wear millinery, with a contemptuous attitude +toward the native language and all native customs. The less intelligent +grade of missionary sometimes falls into the same easy rut. So letters +pass through the post-offices addressed: "Mr. Pretty Henry," "Mrs. +Monkey Bill," "Miss Sally Shortandirty"; so, occasionally, the grotesque +spectacle may present itself, to the passengers on a steamer, of a +native woman in a "Merry Widow" hat and a blood-stained parkee gutting +salmon on the river bank. + +The nobler ideal, as it seems to some of us, is to labour for +God-fearing, self-respecting Indians rather than imitation white men and +white women. An Indian who is honest, healthy and kindly, skilled in +hunting and trapping, versed in his native Bible and liturgy, even +though he be entirely ignorant of English and have acquired no taste for +canned fruit and know not when Columbus discovered America, may be very +much of a man in that station of life in which it has pleased God to +call him. + +Christmas and the Fourth of July are the Indian's great holidays, the +one just after the best moose hunting and the other just before the +salmon run. It may be supposed that there were always great feasts at +the winter and summer solstices, though now he is sufficiently devout at +the one and patriotic at the other. At these seasons, and for weeks +before and after, Fort Yukon gathers a large number of Indians. It is +the native metropolis of the country within a radius of a hundred +miles, and what may be termed its permanent population of one hundred +and fifty is doubled and sometimes trebled by contingents from the +Chandalar, the Porcupine, and the Black Rivers, from that long river +called Birch Creek, and all the intervening country. Many families of +the "uncivilised," self-respecting kind, to which reference has been +made, come in from outlying points, and the contrast between them and +their more sophisticated kinfolk of the town is all in their favour. + +[Sidenote: JIMMY] + +Such a gathering had already taken place in preparation for the +Christmas holidays when we reached Fort Yukon on the 15th of December. +It would have been pleasant to spend Christmas with them, but we were +due two hundred and fifty miles away, at Bettles, for that feast, if by +any means we could get there. So we lingered but the two days necessary +to equip ourselves. Jimmy had torn our bedding to pieces on the night of +the mishap; it was lashed on the outside of the load, and he had +scratched and clawed it to make a nest for himself until fur from the +robe and feathers from the quilts were all over the trail. The other +dogs, not so warmly coated as he, had been content to sleep in the snow. +Jimmy's character was gradually revealing itself. A well-bred trail dog +will not commit the canine sacrilege of invading the sled. That is a +"Siwash" dog's trick. So there was fresh bedding to manufacture, as well +as supplies for two hundred miles to get together. + +A mail once a month went at that time from Fort Yukon to the Koyukuk, +and there was little other travel. The course lay fifty or sixty miles +across country to the Chandalar River, about one hundred miles up that +stream, and then across a divide to the South Fork of the Koyukuk, and +across another to the Middle Fork, on which Coldfoot is situated. It is +not possible to procure any supplies, save sometimes a little fish for +dog food and that not certainly, between Fort Yukon and Coldfoot, so +that provision for the whole journey must be taken. + +[Sidenote: THE CHANDALAR] + +A new Indian guide had been engaged as far as Coldfoot, and we set +out--three men, two toboggans, and seven dogs; four on the larger +vehicle and three on the smaller, one of the dogs brought by our guide. +Three miles from Fort Yukon we crossed the Porcupine River and then +plunged into the wilderness of lake and swamp and forest that stretches +north of the Yukon. A portage trail, as such a track across country is +called to distinguish it from a river trail, has the advantage of such +protection from storm as its timbered stretches afford. For miles and +miles the route passes through scrub spruce that has been burned over, +with no prospect but a maze of charred poles against the snow, some +upright, others at every angle of inclination. Then comes a lake, with +difficulty in finding the trail on its wind-swept surface and sometimes +much casting about to discover where it leaves the lake again, and then +more small burned timber. Wherever the route is through woods, living or +dead, it is blazed; when it strikes the open, one is often at a loss. +After three or four days of such travel, sometimes reaching an old cabin +for the night, sometimes pitching the tent, one is rejoiced at the +sight of distant mountains and at the intimation they bring that the +inexpressible dreariness of the Yukon Flats is nearly past; and +presently the trail opens suddenly upon the broad Chandalar. + +The Hudson Bay voyageurs are responsible for many names in this part of +Alaska, and Chandalar is a corruption of their "Gens de large." The +various native tribes received appellations indicating habitats. A tribe +that differed from most northern Indians, in having no permanent +villages and in living altogether in encampments, was named "Gens de +large," and the river which they frequented took their name. + +It is one of the second-rate tributaries of the Yukon, and in general +its waters are swift and shallow, not navigable for light-draught +steamboats for more than one hundred and fifty miles, save at flood, and +not easily navigable at all. It is these swift shallow streams that are +so formidable in winter on account of overflow water, and the Chandalar +is one of the most dreaded. + +[Sidenote: DIPHTHERIA] + +Ten miles along the river's surface brought us to the Chandalar native +village, a settlement of half a dozen cabins and twenty-five or thirty +souls. The people came out to meet us, and said they were just about to +bury a baby, and asked me to conduct the funeral. Because we had not +done a day's march and were under compulsion to push on at our best +speed, I did not unlash the sled but went just as I was up the hill with +the sorrowful procession to the little graveyard. On the way down I +asked as best I could of what sickness the baby had died, and I felt +some uneasiness when the throat was pointed to as the seat of disease. +When, presently, I was informed that two others were sick, and of the +same complaint, my uneasiness became alarm. I went at once to see them, +and the angry swollen throats patched with white membrane which I +discovered left no room for doubt that we were in the presence of +another outbreak of diphtheria. That disease had scourged the Yukon in +the two preceding years. Twenty-three children died at Fort Yukon in the +summer of 1904, half a dozen at Circle in the following winter, though +that outbreak was grappled with from the first; and all along the river +the loss of life was terrible. + +There was no question that we must give up all hope of reaching Bettles +for Christmas and stay and do what we could for these people. So we made +camp on the outskirts of the village, and I went to work swabbing out +the throats with carbolic acid and preparing liquid food from our grub +box. There was nothing to eat in the village but dried fish and a little +dried moose, and these throats like red-hot iron could hardly swallow +liquids. The two patients were a boy of sixteen and a grown woman. It +was evident that unless we could isolate them the disease would probably +pass through the whole village, and, indeed, others might have been +infected already. It was likely that we were in for a siege of it, and +our supply of condensed milk and extract of beef would soon be +exhausted. Moreover, at Fort Yukon was the trained nurse who had coped +with the epidemic there and at Circle, while we had virtually no +experience with the disease at all. It was resolved to send back to Fort +Yukon for supplies and for the nurse. + +The next morning Mr. Knapp and the native boy took the dogs and the sled +and started back. With no load save a little grub and bedding, they +could make the journey in two days, a day must be allowed for +preparations, and, with the aid of another dog team, two days more would +bring them back. Five days was the least they could be gone. It was +asking a great deal of this lady to abandon her Christmas festival, +preparations for which had long been making, and to come sixty-five +miles through the frozen wilderness in a toboggan; but I felt sure she +would drop everything and come. + +For those five days I was busied in close attention to the patients and +in strenuous though not altogether availing efforts to maintain a +quarantine of the cabin in which they lay. There was little more that I +could do than swab out the throats and administer food every two hours. +As the disease advanced it was increasingly painful to swallow and +exceedingly difficult to induce the sufferers to make the attempt or to +open their mouths for the swabbing. After two or three days the woman +seemed to have passed the crisis of the disease and to be mending, but +the boy, I thought, grew worse. One becomes attached to those to whom +one ministers, and this poor, speechless boy, with his terrible throat +and the agony in his big black eyes, appealed to me very strongly +indeed. It was torture to move his head or to open his mouth, and I had +to torture him continually. + +Every night I gathered the people for Divine service. Here was a little +community far off in the wilds that had carefully conserved and handed +on to their children the teaching they had received no less than thirty +years before. The native Bibles and prayer-books and hymnals were +brought out, bearing dates of publication in the seventies; one of their +number acted as leader, and what he read was painfully followed in the +well-thumbed books. They lifted their voices in a weird transformation +of familiar tunes, with quavers and glides that had crept in through +long, uncorrected use, and amongst the prayers said was one for "Our +Sovereign lady Queen Victoria, and Albert Edward, Prince of Wales." I +tried to explain that Queen Victoria was dead, that they were not living +under British rule, and I took a pencil and struck out the prayers for +the royal family from the books. But there was doubt in their minds and +a reluctance to alter in any particular the liturgy that had been taught +them, and it is quite likely that intercessions for a defunct sovereign +of another land still arise from the Chandalar village. One cannot but +feel a deep admiration for the pioneer missionaries of this +region--Bishop Bompas, Archdeacon MacDonald, and the others--whose +teaching was so thorough and so lasting, and who lived and laboured here +long before any gold seeker had thought of Alaska, when the country was +an Indian country exclusively, with none of the comforts and +conveniences that can now be enjoyed. It was to a remote cabin on the +East Fork of this river that Archdeacon MacDonald retired for a year to +make part of his translation of the Bible, according to the Indian +account. + +[Sidenote: THE SHORTEST DAY] + +At noon on the 21st of December, the shortest day, there is a note in my +diary that I saw the sun's disk shining through the trees. Although +fully half a degree of latitude north of the Arctic Circle, the +refraction is sufficient to lift his whole sphere above the horizon. One +speculates how much farther north it would be possible to see any part +of the sun at noon on the shortest day; but north of here, throughout +Alaska, is broken and mountainous country. We were on the northern edge +of the great flat of the interior. + +The fifth day at the village was Christmas Eve. My boy was in a critical +condition, very low and weak, with a temperature that stayed around 101° +and 102°. As night approached I watched with the greatest anxiety for +the party from Fort Yukon, and, just as the last lingering glow of the +long twilight was fading from the south, there was a distant tinkle of +bells on the trail, and faintly once and again a man's voice was raised +in command and I knew that relief was at hand. + +The nurse had dropped everything and had come, as I felt sure she would. +Gathering medicines and supplies and hiring a native dog team and +driver, she had left immediately, and the round trip had been made in +the shortest time it was possible to make it. It was a tremendous relief +to see her step out of the rugs and robes of the toboggan and take +charge of the situation in her quiet, competent way. A small, outlying +cabin was selected for a hospital, the family that occupied it bundled +out into a tent, and the two sick persons carefully moved into it, with +whom and the mother of the sick boy the nurse took up her abode. Then +there was the Christmas-tree in the chief's cabin, with little gifts for +the children sent out from the mission at Fort Yukon some time before, +and a dance afterward, for Christmas festivities must go on, whatever +happens, at a native village. I took James's pocket-knife to him after +the celebration was over, and I think he really tried to smile as he +thanked me with his eyes. + +The next day after the services, although it was Christmas Day, we set +to work on the disinfecting of the large cabin in which the sick had +lain. Stringing bedclothes and wearing apparel on lines from wall to +wall, and stuffing up every crack and cranny with cotton, we burned +quantities of sulphur, that the nurse had brought with her, all day +long. + +A recent article in a stray number of a professional journal picked up +in the office of a medical missionary, devoted column after column to +the uselessness of all known methods of disinfection. Sulphur, +formaldehyde, carbolic acid, permanganate of potash, chloride of lime, +bichloride of mercury--the author knew not which of these "fetiches" to +be most sarcastic about. It may be that the net result of our copious +fumigation was but the bleaching of the coloured garments hung up, but +at least it did no harm. One sometimes wishes that these scientists who +sit up so high in the seat of the scornful would condescend to a little +plain instruction. + +The anti-diphtheritic serum is now kept in readiness at all our +missions in Alaska, and the disease seems to have ceased its +depredations; but it has taken terrible toll of the native people. + +[Sidenote: THE MISSIONARY NURSE] + +We wished to stay with the nurse until the sickness should be done, but +she would not hear of it, and insisted upon the resumption of our +journey. It did not seem right to go off and leave this lonely woman, +sixty-five miles from the nearest white person, to cope with an outbreak +of disease that might not yet have spent itself, although there had been +no new case for a week. "You've done your work here, now leave me to do +mine. You'll not get to Point Hope this winter if you stay much longer." + +"Aren't you afraid to stay all by yourself?" I asked, somewhat +fatuously. + +"Afraid? Afraid of what? You surely don't mean afraid of the natives?" + +I did not know what I meant; it seemed not unnatural that a woman with +such prospect before her should be a little timid, but she was resolute +that we go, and we went. + +Not until the next summer did I learn the upshot--both patients +recovered and there was no other case. Six years later, when these words +are written, I have just baptized a son of the boy who lay so ill, who +would have perished, I think, had we not reached the Chandalar village +just in time. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CHANDALAR VILLAGE TO BETTLES, COLDFOOT, AND THE KOYUKUK + + +AT five o'clock in the morning of the 27th of December, hours before any +kind of daylight, while the faint "pit-pat" of all-night dancing still +sounded from the chief's cabin, we dropped down the steep bank to the +river surface and resumed our journey. Ahead was a man with a candle in +a tin can, peering for the faint indications of the trail on the ice; +the other two were at the handle-bars of the toboggans. It is strange +that in this day of invention and improvement in artificial +illumination, a candle in a tin can is still the most dependable light +for the trail. A coal-oil lamp requires a glass which is easily broken, +and the ordinary coal-oil that comes to Alaska freezes at about 40° +below. In very cold weather a coal-oil lantern full of oil will go out +completely from the freezing of its supply. All the various acetylene +lamps are useless because water is required to generate the gas, and +water may not be had without stopping and building a fire and melting +ice or snow. The electric flash-lamp, useful enough round camp, goes out +of operation altogether on the trail, because the "dry" cell that +supplies its current is not a dry cell at all, but a moist cell, and +when its moisture freezes is dead until it thaws out again. No extremity +of cold will stop a candle from burning, and if it be properly sheltered +by the tin can it will stand a great deal of wind. The "folding pocket +lantern," which is nothing but a convenient tin can with mica sides, is +the best equipment for travel, but an empty butter can or lard can is +sometimes easier to come by. + +The Chandalar is wide-spread in these parts, with several channels, and +the trail was hard to follow. One track we pursued led us up a bank and +along a portage and presently stopped at a marten trap; and we had to +cut across to the river and cast about hither and thither on its broad +surface to find the mail trail. + +[Sidenote: THE CHANDALAR GAP] + +All the rivers that are confluent with the Yukon in the Flats enter that +dreary region through gaps in the mountains that bound the broad plain. +These gaps are noted for wind, and the Chandalar Gap, which had loomed +before us since daybreak, is deservedly in especial bad repute. The most +hateful thing in the Arctic regions is the wind. Cold one may protect +one's self against, but there is no adequate protection against wind. +The parkee without opening front or back, that pulls on over the head, +is primarily a windbreak, and when a scarf is wrapped around mouth and +nose, and the fur-edged hood of the parkee is pulled forward over cap +and scarf, the traveller who must face the wind has done all he can to +protect himself from it. + +[Illustration: SUNRISE ON THE CHANDALAR-KOYUKUK PORTAGE.] + +Unfortunately, in the confusion of striking the tent and packing in the +dark, my scarf had been rolled up in the bedding, and, since the wind +was not bad until we approached the Gap in the evening, I had not +troubled about it. Now, as we drew nearer and nearer, the wind rose +constantly. The thermometer was at 38° below zero, and wind at that +temperature cuts like a knife. But to get my scarf meant stopping the +whole procession and unlashing and unloading the sled, and the man who +unlashed in that wind would almost certainly freeze his fingers. So I +gave up the thought of it, turned my back to the wind while I tied my +pocket handkerchief round mouth and nose, drew the strings of my parkee +hood close, and then faced it again to worry through as best I could. +The ice is always swept clear of snow in the Gap. The river narrows +within its jaws, the ragged rocks rise up to the bluffs on either hand, +and the blue-streaked ice stretches between. We all suffered a good +deal. Against that cruel wind it was impossible to keep warm. The hands, +though enclosed in woollen gloves, and they in blanket-lined moose-hide +mitts, grew numb; the toes, within their protection of caribou sock with +the hair on, strips of blanket wrapping, and mukluks stuffed with hay, +tingled with warning of frost-bite; the whole body was chilled. We all +froze our faces, I think, for the part of the face around and between +the eyes cannot be covered. I froze my cheeks, my nose, and my Adam's +apple, the last a most inconvenient thing to freeze. + +[Illustration: COLDFOOT ON THE KOYUKUK.] + +[Sidenote: A COLD LODGING] + +The cabin was just the other side of the Gap, and it was well that it +was no farther, for we were weary with our thirty-mile run and +dangerously cold with the exposure of the last hour. It was rather a +large cabin as trail cabins go, with a rickety sheet-iron stove in the +middle, burned full of holes, and it was hours before the fire began to +make any impression on the obstinate, sullen cold of that hut. When we +went to bed the frost still stood thick and heavy on the walls all over +the room. A log building, properly constructed, is a warm building, but +slowness in parting with heat means slowness in receiving heat, and a +log cabin that has been unoccupied for a long time in very cold weather +is hard to heat in one evening. + +When we started next morning the thermometer stood at 45° below zero, +but we were out of the wind region and did not mind the cold. It is +curious that a few miles on either side of that Gap the air will be +still, while in the Gap itself a gale is blowing. Seven times I have +passed through that Gap and only once without wind. The great Flats were +now behind us, we had passed into the mountains, and for the remainder +of our long journey we should scarce ever be out of sight of mountains +again. Up the river, with its constant trouble of overflow, going around +the open water whenever we could, plunging through it in our mukluks +when it could not be avoided--with the care of the dogs' feet that the +cold weather rendered more than ever necessary when they got wet, and +the added nuisance of throwing the toboggans on their sides and beating +the ice from them with the flat of the axe wherever water had been +passed through--for two days we followed its windings, the thermometer +between -45° and -50°, the mountains rising higher and the scenery +growing more picturesque as we advanced. At the end of the second day +from the Gap we were at the mouth of the West Fork of the Chandalar, and +after passing up it for fifteen or sixteen miles we left that +watercourse to cross the mountains to the South Fork of the Koyukuk +River. + +Then began hard labour again. A toboggan is not a good vehicle for +crossing summits. Its bottom is perfectly flat and smooth, polished like +glass by the friction of the snow. If the trail be at all "sidling" (and +mountain trails are almost always "sidling"), the toboggan swings off on +the side of the inclination and must be kept on the trail by main force. +The runners of a sled will grip the surface, if there be any +inequalities at all, but a toboggan swings now this way and now that, +like a great pendulum, dragging the near dogs with it. Again and again +we had to hitch both teams to one toboggan to get up a sidling pitch +while all hands kept the vehicle on the trail, and our progress was +painful and slow. In soft snow on a level surface like the river bed or +through the Flat country, generally, the toboggan is much the more +convenient vehicle, for it rides over the snow instead of ploughing +through it, but on hard snow anywhere or on grades the toboggan is a +nuisance. Thus wallowing through the deep snow at the side of the +toboggans to hold them in place we sweated and slaved our way mile after +mile up the gradual ascent until we reached the spot, just under a +shoulder of the summit, where there was dry spruce and green spruce for +camping, the dry for fire and the green for couch, and there we halted +for the night. + +[Sidenote: JOHN MUIR] + +Next morning we crossed the low pass and dropped down easily into the +wide valley of the Koyukuk South Fork, with a fine prospect of mountains +everywhere as far as the eye could see. I had stood and gazed upon those +same mountains on my journey of the previous winter, my first winter in +Alaska, and had seen a most remarkable sight. As we began the descent +and a turn of the trail gave a new panorama of peaks I did not at first +realise the nature of the peculiar phenomenon I was gazing at. Each peak +had a fine, filmy, fan-shaped cloud stretching straight out from it into +the sky, waving and shimmering as it stretched. The sun was not above +the horizon, but his rays caught these sheer, lawn-like streamers and +played upon them with a most delicate opalescent radiance. Then all at +once came to my mind the recollection of a description in John Muir's +_Mountains of California_ (surely the finest mountain book ever written) +of the snow banners of the Sierra Nevada, and I knew that I was looking +at a similar spectacle. It meant that a storm was raging on high, +although so far we were sheltered from it. It meant that the dry, +sand-like snow of the mountain flanks was driven up those flanks so +fiercely before the wind that it was carried clean over them and beyond +them out into the sky, and still had such pressure behind it that it +continued its course and spread out horizontally, thinning and spreading +for maybe a mile before it lost all coherence and visibility. As far as +I could see mountain peaks I could see the snow banners, all pointing +one way, all waving, all luminous and shimmering in the sun-rays. It was +a very noble sight, and I gazed a long while entranced, not knowing how +ominous it was. When we reached the valley and left the shelter of the +gulch we struck the full force of that fearful gale, and for two days +and nights of incessant blizzard we lay in a hole dug out of a sand-bank +(for we had no tent that year), the trail lost, the grub box nearly +empty, and no fire possible to cook anything with had the grub box been +full. + +The valley before us--to resume the narrative--is a high, wind-swept +region of niggerhead and swamp, the catch-basin of the South Fork of the +Koyukuk River. The trail descends one of its southern draws, follows up +the main valley awhile, crosses it, and leaves by one of its northern +draws to pass over the mountains that separate its drainage from the +main fork of the Koyukuk. The cold had given place to wind, and though +the gale did not approach the fierceness of last year's storm, it gave +great trouble in following the track. These high headwater basins are +always windy; the timber is scrubby spruce with many open places, and in +such open places the trail is soon obliterated altogether. + +When the light fails this casting about for blazes whenever a clump of +spruce is reached becomes increasingly slow and difficult and at last +becomes hopeless. The general direction determined, it might be thought +that the traveller could ignore the tracks of previous passage and +strike out for himself, but he knows that the trail, however rough, is +at least practicable, whereas an independent course may soon lead to +steep gullies or cut banks, or may entangle him in some thicket that he +must resort to the axe to pass through. Moreover, even two or three +passages through the snow in the winter will give some bottom to a +trail; a bottom that, when the wind-swept areas are passed and the +snow-shoes are resumed, both he and his dogs will be thankful for. + +[Sidenote: CAMP MAKING] + +So we made a camp as it darkened to night, not far from the spot where I +had "siwashed" with an Indian companion the previous winter, the wind +blowing half a gale at 20° below zero. + +Making camp under such circumstances is always a very disagreeable +proceeding. It takes time and care to make a comfortable camp, and time +and care in the wind and the cold involve suffering. Two suitable trees +must be selected between which the tent is to be suspended by the +ridge-rope, and the snow must all be scraped away by the snow-shoes, or, +if it be too deep, beaten down. Then while one man unlashes and unpacks +the sleds, another cuts green spruce and lays it all over the tent +space, thicker and finer where the bed is to be. Then up goes the tent, +its corner ropes and its side strings made fast to boughs, if there be +such, or to stakes, or to logs laid parallel to the sides. Then the +stovepipe is jointed and the stove set up on the edge of green billets +properly shaped. Meanwhile the axe-man, the green boughs cut, has been +felling and splitting a dry tree for stove wood, and the whole +proceedings are rushed and hastened towards getting a fire in that +stove. Sometimes it is a question whether we shall get a fire before we +freeze our fingers or freeze our fingers before we get a fire. The fire +once going, we are safe, for however much more work there is in the +open, and there is always a good deal more, one can go to the tent to +get warm. Enough stove wood must be cut, not only for night and morning, +but for cooking the dog feed. The dog pot, filled with snow, into which +the fish are cut up, is put upon the outdoor fire as soon as man-supper +begins cooking in the tent. When it boils, the rice and tallow must be +added, and when the rice has boiled twenty minutes the whole is set +aside to cool. Meanwhile the two aluminum pots full of snow, replenished +from time to time as it melts, are put upon the stove in the tent as the +necessary preliminary to cooking. Sometimes ice, and more rarely water, +may be had, and then supper is hastened. If we are camped on the river +bank sometimes a steel-pointed rifle-bullet fired straight down into the +ice will penetrate to the water below and allow a little jet to bubble +up. Melting snow is a tedious business at best; but, since three times +out of four when camping it must be done, the aluminum pots are a +treasure. There is still work for every one as well as the cook. Snow +must be banked all round the tent to keep out the wind. Little heaps of +spruce boughs must be cut for the dogs' beds; it is all we can do for +them whatever the weather, and they appreciate it highly. It may be that +dog moccasins must be taken off and strung around the stove to dry, and +before supper is ready the inside ridge-rope of the tent is heavy with +all sorts of drying man-wear: socks, moccasins, scarfs, toques, +mittens. One of the earliest habits a man learns on the trail is to hang +up everything to dry as soon as he takes it off. Why should it be hung +up to dry unless it has got wet? the writer was once asked, in detailing +these operations. Because there is no other way to remove the ice with +which everything becomes incrusted in very cold weather. + +[Sidenote: CAMP COOKING] + +As his snow melts the cook throws into the pot a few handfuls of +evaporated potatoes, a handful of evaporated onions, and smaller +quantities of evaporated "soup vegetables," and leaves them to soak and +simmer and resume their original size and flavour. By and by he will cut +up the moose meat or the rabbits or birds, or whatever game he may have, +and throw it in, and in an hour or an hour and a half there will be a +savoury stew that, with a pan of biscuits cooked in an aluminum +reflector beside the stove and a big pot of tea, constitutes the +principal meal of the day. Or if the day has been long and sleep seems +more attractive even than grub, he will turn some frozen beans, already +boiled, into a frying-pan with a big lump of butter, and when his meat +is done supper is ready. Beans thus prepared eaten red hot with grated +cheese are delicious to a hungry man. With the stove for a sideboard, +food may always be eaten hot, and that is one advantage of camp fare. + +The men satisfied, the dogs remain, and while two of the party wash +dishes and clean up, the third feeds the dogs. Their pot of food has +been cooling for an hour or more. They will not eat it until it is cold +and a mess of rice will hold heat a long time even in the coldest +weather. When it is nearly cold it is dished out with a paddle into the +individual pans and the dogs make short work of it. There are some who +feed straight fish, and, if the fish be king salmon of the best quality, +the dogs do well enough on it. But on any long run it is decidedly +economical to cook for the dogs--not so much from the standpoint of +direct cost as from that of weight and ease of hauling. An hundred +pounds of fish plus an hundred pounds of rice plus fifty pounds of +tallow will go a great deal farther than two hundred and fifty pounds of +fish alone. There is little doubt, too, that in the long run the dogs do +better on cooked food. It is easier of digestion and easier to apportion +in uniform rations. Rice and fish make excellent food. The Japs took +Port Arthur on rice and fish. The tallow answers a demand of the climate +and is increased as the weather grows colder. Man and dog alike require +quantities of fat food in this climate; it is astonishing how much bacon +and butter one can eat. When the dogs have eaten, and each one has made +the rounds of all the other pans to be sure nothing is left, they retire +to their respective nests of spruce bough and curl themselves up with +many turnings round and much rearranging of the litter. Feet and nose +are neatly tucked in, the tail is adjusted carefully over all, the hair +on the body stands straight up, and the dogs have gone to bed and do not +like to be disturbed again. + +[Sidenote: DOG-HARNESS] + +Therein lies the cruelty of depriving them of their tails, which used +to be the general custom in this country. The old tandem harness almost +required it, as the breath of the dog behind condensed upon the tail of +the dog in front until he was carrying around permanently a mass of ice +that was a burden to him and rendered his tail useless for warmth. But +the rig with a long mid rope, to which the dogs are attached by +single-trees in such manner that they may at will be hitched abreast or +one ahead of the other as the trail is wide or narrow, is superseding +the tandem rig, and one sees more bushy tails amongst the dogs. The +thick, long-haired tail of the dog in this country is indeed his +blanket, and in cold weather the tailless dog is at a great +disadvantage. + +It was said that all the dogs retired to the nests of spruce bough; it +should have been all but one. It is Lingo's special charge to guard the +sled and his special privilege to sleep on it. Turning around and +curling up on the softest spot he can find of the unlashed and partly +unloaded toboggan, he will not touch anything it contains nor permit any +other dog to touch it. + +The northern skies are clouded the next morning, the first day of the +new year, and there is a ruddy dawn that is glorious to behold. The +white earth gives back a soft rose tint, as an organ pipe gives back a +faint tone to the strong vibration of another pipe in pitch with it. We +shall not see the sun himself any more for many weeks, but we see his +light upon the flanks of the mountains for an hour or so around noon. +The bold, shapely peaks of the South Fork of the Koyukuk turn their +snows to pink fire as his rays slowly descend their sides, and the +whole scene is exquisitely beautiful. What a wonderful thing colour is! +When the skies are overcast this is a dead black-and-white country in +winter, for spruce, the prevailing wood, is black in the mass at a +little distance. Gaze where one will, there is naught but black and +white. The eye becomes tired of the monotony and longs for some warmer +tone. That is surely the reason why all those who live in the country +cherish some gay article of attire, why the natives love brilliant +handkerchiefs, why the white man also will choose a crimson scarf. +Trudging at the handle-bars, I have found pleasure in the red pompons of +the dogs' harness, in the gay beading of mitten and hind-sack. And that +is why a lavish feast of colour such as this dawn stirs one's spirit +with such keen delight. It gives life to a dead world. + +But the wind is still bitter and interferes sadly with one's enjoyment. +All through the valley, up the creek by which we leave it, past the twin +lakes on the low summit, the wind grows in force, and when we leave +Slate Creek for the present and make a "portage" over a mountain +shoulder to strike the creek again much lower down, the wind has risen +to a gale that overturns the toboggans and makes the men fight for their +footing. The actual physical labour of it is enormous, and there can be +no rest; it is too bitterly cold in that blast to stop. For a mile or +two we struggle and slave to beat our way around that mountain shoulder +and then drop down to the creek again. The blessed relief it is to get +out of the fury of that wind into the comparative shelter of the creek, +to be done with the ceaseless toil of holding the heavy toboggans from +hurtling down the hillside, to be able to keep one's feet without +continually slipping and falling on the wind-hardened snow, no words can +adequately convey. We are all frozen again a little; this man's nose is +touched, that man's cheeks, and the other man's finger. + +[Sidenote: THE KOYUKUK GOLD CAMP] + +On the middle fork of the Koyukuk, at the mouth of Slate Creek, Coldfoot +sits within a cirque of rugged mountain peaks, the most northerly postal +town in the interior of Alaska, the most northerly gold-mining town in +the world, as it claims. It sprang into existence in 1900 and flourished +for a season or two with the usual accompaniments of such florification. +In 1906 it was already much decayed, and is now dead. Ever since its +start the Koyukuk camp has steadily produced gold and given occupation +to miners numbering from one hundred and fifty to three hundred, but the +scene of operations, and therefore the depot for supplies, has +continually changed. In 1900 the chief producing creek was Myrtle, which +is a tributary of Slate Creek, and the town at the mouth was in eligible +situation, though much over-built from the first. Then the centre of +interest shifted to Nolan Creek, fifteen miles farther up the river, +which is a tributary of Wiseman Creek, and the town of Wiseman sprang up +at the mouth of that creek. The post-office, the commissioner's office, +and the saloon, the stores and road-houses, migrated to the new spot, +and Coldfoot was abandoned. Now the chief producing creek is the Hammond +River, still farther up the Koyukuk, and if its placer deposits prove +as rich as they promise it is likely that a town will spring up at the +mouth of the Hammond which will supersede Wiseman. + +There has never been found a continuous pay-streak in the Koyukuk camp. +It is what is known as a "pocket" camp. Now and again a "spot" is found +which enriches its discoverers, while on the claims above and below that +spot the ground may be too poor to work at a profit; for ground must be +rich to be worked at all in the Koyukuk. It is the most expensive camp +in Alaska, perhaps in the world. This is due to its remoteness and +difficulty of access. Far north of the Arctic Circle, the diggings are +about seventy-five miles above the head of light-draught steamboat +navigation, and more than six hundred miles above the confluence of the +Koyukuk with the Yukon. Transshipped at Nulato to the shoal-water +steamboats that make three or four trips a season up the Koyukuk, +transshipped again at Bettles, the head of any steamboat navigation, +freight must be hauled on horse scows the remaining seventy-five miles +of the journey; and all that handling and hauling means high rates. The +cost of living, the cost of machinery, the general cost of all mining +operations is much higher than on the Yukon or on the other tributaries +of that river. The very smallness of the camp is a factor in the high +prices, for there is not trade enough to induce brisk competition with +the reduction of rates that competition brings. + +[Sidenote: MINERS' GENEROSITY] + +Yet the smallness and the isolation of the camp have their +compensations. There is more community life, more _esprit de corps_ +amongst the Koyukuk miners than will be found in any other camp in +Alaska. Thrown upon their own resources for amusement, social gatherings +are more common and are made more of, and hospitality is universal. Like +all sparsely settled and frontier lands, Alaska is a very hospitable +place in general, but the Koyukuk has earned the name of the most +hospitable camp in Alaska. Since the numbers are small, and each man is +well known to all the others, any sickness or suffering makes an +immediate appeal and brings a generous response. Again and again the +unfortunate victim of accident or disease has been sent outside for +treatment, the considerable money required being quickly raised by +public subscription. There is probably no other gold camp in the world +where it is a common thing for the owner of a good claim to tell a +neighbour who is "broke" to take a pan and go down to the drift and help +himself. + +Until my visit of the previous year no minister of religion of any sort +had penetrated to the Koyukuk, and, save for one journey thither by +Bishop Rowe, my annual visits have been the only opportunities for +public worship since. It will suffice for the visit now describing as +well as for all the others to say that the reception was most cordial +and the opportunity much appreciated. We went from creek to creek and +gathered the men and the few women in whatever cabin was most +convenient, and no clergyman could wish for more attentive or interested +congregations. + +[Illustration: THE UPPER KOYUKUK.] + +Upon our return to Coldfoot from the creek visits the thermometer stood +at 52° below zero, although it had been no lower than 38° below when we +left the last creek, some fifteen miles away. As a general rule, the +temperature on these mountain creeks, which are at some considerable +elevation above the river into which they flow, will read from 10° to +15° higher than on the river, and if one climbed to the top of the peaks +around Coldfoot, the difference then would probably be 20° or 25°. At +the summit road-house between Fairbanks and Cleary City in the Tanana +country in cold weather the thermometer commonly reads 20° above the one +place and 10° or 15° above the other. + +[Illustration: THE BARREN SHORES OF KOTZEBUE SOUND.] + +[Sidenote: LINGO] + +This interesting fact, which surprises a good many people, for we are +used to think of elevated places as cold places, is due to the greater +heaviness of cold air, which sinks to the lowest level it can reach; and +the river bed is the lowest part of the country. It would be interesting +to find out to what extent this rule holds good. The ridges and the +hilltops are always the warmest places in cold weather; would this hold +as regards mountain tops?--as regards high mountain tops? Probably it +would hold in the sunshine, but the rapid radiation of heat in the +rarefied atmosphere of mountain tops would swing the balance the other +way after dark. There is no doubt, however, that the coldest place in +cold weather in Alaska is the river surface, and it is on the river +surface that most of our travelling is done. The night we returned to +Coldfoot we put our toboggan up high on the roof of an outhouse to keep +its skin sides from the teeth of some hungry native dogs, leaving some +of the load that was not required within it, covered by the sled +cloth. Later on I saw by the light of the moon Lingo's silhouetted +figure sitting bolt upright on top of the sled, and he gave his short +double bark as I drew near to make me notice that he was still doing his +duty although under difficulties. The dog had climbed up a wood-pile and +had jumped to the top of the outhouse and so to the sled. I thought of +Kipling's _Men That Fought at Minden_: + + "For fatigue it was their pride + And they would _not_ be denied + To clean the cook-house floor." + +Here at Coldfoot we came first into contact with that interesting tribe +of wandering inland Esquimaux known as the Kobuks, from their occupation +of the river of that name. The Koyukuk has its own Indian people, but +these enterprising Kobuks have pushed their way farther and farther from +salt water into what used to be exclusive Indian territory. +Representatives of both races were at Coldfoot, and as we lay +weather-bound for a couple of days, I was enabled to renew last year's +acquaintance with them, though without a good interpreter not much +progress was made. The delight of these people at the road-house +phonograph, the first they had ever heard, was some compensation for the +incessant snarl and scream of the instrument itself. It was very funny +to see them sitting on the floor, roaring with laughter at one +particularly silly spoken record of the "Uncle Josh at the World's Fair" +order. Over and over again they would ask for that record, and it never +ceased to convulse them with laughter. "He's been enjoyin' poor health +lately, but this mornin' I heard him complain that he felt a little +better"--how sick and tired we got of this and similar jokes drawled out +a dozen times running! The natives did not understand a word of it; it +was the human voice with its pronounced, unusual inflections that +aroused their merriment. The phonograph is becoming a powerful agency +for disseminating a knowledge of English amongst the natives throughout +Alaska, and one wishes that it were put to better use than the +reproduction of silly and often vulgar monologue and dialogue and trashy +ragtime music. As an index of the taste of those who purchase records, +the selection brought to this country points low. + +The third day the thermometer stood at -49° and we were free to leave +without actually breaking the rule we had made after the escapade on the +Yukon. Two other teams were going down the river, so we started with +them on the sixty-five mile journey to Bettles. Twenty miles or so below +Coldfoot the Koyukuk passes for several miles in a narrow channel +between steep rock bluffs, with here and there great detached masses +standing in the middle of the river. One has a grotesque resemblance to +an aged bishop in his vestments and is known as the Bishop Rock; another +a more remote likeness to an Indian woman, and this is known as the +Squaw Rock. This part of the river, which is called the cañon of the +Koyukuk, though it is not a true cañon, is very picturesque, and because +of frequent overflow, offers glare ice and swift passage to the +traveller when it does not embarrass him with running water. We were +fortunate enough to pass it without getting our dogs' feet wet, and made +the half-way road-house in a brilliant moon that rendered travelling at +night pleasanter than during the day. + +[Sidenote: TRAVELLING AT "50 BELOW"] + +The next day we started again at near 50° below, but because there was a +good trail and a road-house for noon, the travelling was rather pleasant +than otherwise. If there be a warm house to break the day's march and +eat in, where ice-incrusted scarfs and parkees and caps and mittens may +be dried out, with a warm outhouse where the dogs may rest in comfort, +travelling in such weather is not too risky or too severely trying. The +continual condensation of the moisture from the breath upon everything +about the head and face is a decided inconvenience, and when it +condenses upon the eye-lashes, and the upper and the lower lashes freeze +together, the ice must be removed or it is impossible to open the eyes. +This requires the momentary application of the bare hand, and every time +it goes back into the mitten it carries some moisture with it, so that +after a while mittens are wet as well as head-gear; moreover, there is +always a certain perspiration that condenses. One gets into the habit of +turning the duffel lining of the moose-hide mitts inside out and hanging +them up the moment one gets inside a cabin. Round every road-house stove +there is a rack constructed for just that purpose. + +There is no more striking phenomenon of the arctic trail than the +behaviour of smoke in cold weather. As one approaches a road-house, and +to greater degree a village or a town, it is seen enveloped in mist, +although there be no open water to account for it, and the prospect in +every other direction be brilliantly clear. It is not mist at all; it is +merely the smoke from the stovepipes. And the explanation is simple, +although not all at once arrived at. Smoke rises because it is warmer +than the air into which it is discharged; for that and no other reason. +Now, when smoke is discharged into air at a temperature of 50° below +zero, it is deprived of its heat immediately and falls to the ground by +its greater specific gravity. The smoke may be observed just issuing +from the pipe, or rising but a few feet, and then curling downward to be +diffused amidst the air near the ground. + +It was to such a smoke-enveloped inn that we pulled up to warm and +refresh ourselves and our team for the twenty miles that remained of the +day's march. We had almost reached the limit of Koyukuk road-houses. +Bettles being the head of navigation, and merchandise late in the season +finding water too shallow for transport to the diggings, there is more +or less freighting with dog teams and horses all the winter. This travel +keeps open the road-houses on the route. From an "outside" point of view +they may appear rough and the fare coarse. The night accommodation is a +double row of bunks on each side of a long room with a great stove in +the middle. Sometimes there is straw in the bunks, sometimes spruce +boughs; in the better class even sometimes hay-stuffed mattresses. But +to the weary traveller, who has battled with the storm or endured the +intense cold for hours at a stretch, they are glad havens of refuge; +they are often even life-saving stations. + +[Sidenote: METEOROLOGICAL] + +While we lay at the road-house the clear sky clouded and the thermometer +rose. This is an unfailing sequence. Clear, bright weather is cold +weather; cloudy weather is warm weather. The usual explanation, that the +cloud acts as a blanket that checks the radiation of heat from the +earth, is one of those explanations that do not explain. There is no +heat to radiate. The cloud is a mass of moist air, which is warm air, +introducing itself from some milder region. So the cloud brings the +heat; and the lower layers of atmosphere extract it and thereby +discharge the moisture. For an hour or two around noon the thermometer +stood at -35° and there was a light fall of snow; then the skies cleared +because they were discharged of all their moisture, and the thermometer +went down to -50° again. It is a beautifully simple process and +sometimes takes place two or three times a day. Every time the sky +clouds, the thermometer rises; every time the sky clears, the +thermometer falls. And because the barometer gives notice of changes in +the density of the atmosphere, it is valuable in forecasting temperature +in our winters. A steady rise in the barometer means a steady fall in +the thermometer; a fall in the barometer in a time of great cold +infallibly prophesies warmer weather; even such rapid changes as the one +given above are anticipated. So well is this established, that during +"50°-below spells" at Fairbanks, impatient, weather-bound travellers and +freighters would busy the hospital telephone with inquiries about the +barometer, the hospital having the only barometer in the country. + +After another long, cold run, on the night of Friday, the 12th of +January, we reached Bettles, the place we had planned to spend Christmas +at. We were unable to stir from Bettles for two solid weeks, for during +the whole of that time the thermometer never rose above 50° below zero. + +The long wait at Bettles would have been excessively tedious had it not +been for the kind hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Grimm, the +Commercial Company's agent and his wife, and this is but one of many +times that I have been under obligation to them for cordial welcome and +entertainment, for needs anticipated, and every sort of assistance +gladly rendered. We had been expected many days; the Christmas +festivities with a gathering of natives of both races had come and gone; +still they looked for us, for in this country one does not give a man up +merely because he is a few weeks behind time, nor hold him to account +for unpunctuality. The natives remained for the most part, and there was +abundant opportunity of intercourse with them and some beginnings of +instruction. As the days passed and all arrangements for our advance +were made, we chafed more and more at the delay, for it was very plain +that the prospect of visiting Point Hope grew less and less; but this is +a great country for teaching patience and resignation. + +[Sidenote: PARASELENÆ] + +Some of the weather during that two weeks' wait was of quite exceptional +severity. One night is fixed for ever in my memory. It is a very rare +thing for the wind to blow in the "strong cold," but that night there +was a wind at 58° below zero. And high up in the heavens was a sight I +had never seen before. The moon, little past her full, had a great ring +around her, faintly prismatic; and equidistant from her, where a line +through her centre parallel with the horizon would cut the ring, were +two other moons, distinct and clear. It was a strangely beautiful thing, +this sight of three moons sailing aloft through the starry sky, as +though the beholder had been suddenly translated to some planet that +enjoys a plurality of satellites, but no living being could stand long +at gaze in that wind and that cold. A perfect paraselene is, I am +convinced, an extremely rare thing, much rarer than a perfect parhelion +("moon-cats" my companion thought the phenomenon should be called, +saving the canine simile for the sun), for in seven years' travel I have +never seen another, and the references to it in literature are few. + +The next day at noon, the sun not visible above the distant mountains, +there appeared in the sky a great shining cross of orange light, just +over the sun's position, that held and shone for nigh an hour and only +faded with the twilight. It is not surprising that these appearances +should deeply impress the untutored mind and should be deemed +significant and portentous; they must deeply impress any normal mind, +they are so grand and so strange. The man who has trained his intellect +until it is so stale, and starved his imagination until it is so +shrivelled that he can gaze unmoved at such spectacles, that they are +insignificant to him, has but reduced himself to the level of the dog +upon whom also they make no impression--though even a dog will howl at a +great aurora. Of course we know all about them; any schoolboy can pick +up a primer of physical geography and explain the laws of refraction, +and the ugly and most libellous diagram of circles and angles that shows +just how these lustrous splendours happen; but the mystery beyond is not +by one hair's breadth impaired nor their influence upon the spectator +diminished. In Alaska perhaps more than any other country it is the +heavens that declare the glory of God and the firmament that shows His +handiwork, and the awestruck Indian who comes with timid inquiry of the +import of such phenomena is rightfully and scientifically answered that +the Great Father is setting a sign in the sky that He still rules, that +His laws and commandments shall never lose their force, whether in the +heavens above or on the earth beneath. + +[Sidenote: THE STRONG COLD] + +The "strong cold" itself is an awe-inspiring thing even to those who +have been familiar with it all their lives; and a dweller in other +climes, endowed with any imagination, may without much difficulty enter +into the feelings of one who experiences it for the first time. It +descends upon the earth in the brief twilight and long darkness of the +dead of winter with an irresistible power and an inflexible menace. +Fifty below, sixty below, even seventy below, the thermometer reads. +Mercury is long since frozen solid and the alcohol grows sluggish. Land +and water are alike iron; utter stillness and silence usually reign. +Bare the hand, and in a few minutes the fingers will turn white and be +frozen to the bone. Stand still, and despite all clothing, all woollens, +all furs, the body will gradually become numb and death stalk upon the +scene. The strong cold brings fear with it. All devices to exclude it, +to conserve the vital heat seem feeble and futile to contend with its +terrible power. It seems to hold all living things in a crushing +relentless grasp, and to tighten and tighten the grip as the temperature +falls. + +Yet the very power of it, and the dread that accompanies it, give a +certain fearful and romantic joy to the conquest of it. A man who has +endured it all day, who has endured it day after day, face to face with +it in the open, feels himself somewhat the more man for the experience, +feels himself entered the more fully into human possibilities and +powers, feels an exultation that manhood is stronger even than the +strong cold. But he is a fool if ever he grow to disdain the enemy. It +waits, inexorable, for just such disdain, and has slain many at last who +had long and often withstood it. + +On those rare occasions when there is any wind, any movement of the air +at all, there enters another and a different feeling. Into the menace of +a power, irresistible, inflexible, but yet insentient, there seems to +enter a purposeful, vengeful evil. It pursues. The cold itself becomes +merely a condition; the wind a deadly weapon which uses that condition +to deprive its victim of all defence. The warmth which active exercise +stores up, the buckler of the traveller, is borne away. His reserves +are invaded, depleted, destroyed. And then the wind falls upon him with +its sword. Of all of which we were to have instance here on the Koyukuk. + +[Sidenote: "FOUND FROZEN"] + +In the second week of our stay at Bettles, while Divine service was in +progress in the store building, crowded with whites and natives, the +door opened and, with an inrush of cold air that condensed the moisture +at that end of the room into a cloud and shot along the floor like steam +from an engine exhaust, there entered an Indian covered with rime, his +whole head-gear one mass of white frost, his snow-shoes, just removed, +under his arm, and a beaded moose-skin wallet over his shoulder. Every +eye was at once turned to him as he beat the frost from his parkee hood +and thrust it back, unwrapped fold after fold of the ice-crusted scarf +from his face, and pulled off his mittens. Seeking out the agent, he +moved over to him and whispered something in his ear. It was plain that +the errand was of moment and the message disturbing, and as I had lost +the attention of the congregation and the continuity of my own +discourse, I drew things to a close as quickly as I decently could. That +Indian had come seventy-five miles on snow-shoes in one run, without +stopping at all save to eat two or three times, at a continuous +temperature of 50° below zero or lower, to bring word that he had found +a white man frozen to death on the trail; and on the Koyukuk that feat +will always be counted to Albert the Pilot for righteousness. From the +location and description of the dead man, there was no difficulty in +identifying him. He was a wood-chopper under contract with the company +to cut one hundred cords of steamboat wood against next summer's +navigation at a spot about one hundred miles below Bettles. He had taken +down with him on the "last water" enough grub for about three months, +and was to return to Bettles for Christmas and for fresh supplies. After +a day or two's rest the Indian was sent back with instructions to bring +the body to a native village we should visit, to whipsaw lumber for a +coffin and dig a grave, and we engaged to give the body Christian +burial. + +Uneasy at the softening muscles and sinews of this long inaction, I took +snow-shoes and a couple of Kobuks one day and made an ascent of the hill +behind Bettles known as Lookout Mountain, because from its top the smoke +of the eagerly expected first steamboat of the summer may be seen many +miles down the river; being moved to that particular excursion by +dispute among the weather-bound freighters as to the hill's height. + +The change of temperature as we climbed the hill was striking. On the +first shoulder we were already out of the dense atmosphere of the valley +and above the smoke gloom of the houses, and as we rose the air grew +milder and milder, until at the top we emerged into the first sunshine +of many weeks and were in an altogether different climate--balmy and +grateful it was to us just come up from the strong cold. The aneroid +showed the altitude about seven hundred feet above Bettles, and I +regretted very much I had not brought the thermometer as well, for its +reading would have been most interesting. + +The view from the top was brilliantly clear and far-reaching. The broad +plain across the river was checkered black and white with alternating +spruce thickets and lakes; beyond it and the mountains that bounded it +lay the valley of the south fork which we had crossed fifty or sixty +miles farther up on our journey hither. Right in front of us the middle +fork made its big bend from southwest to south, and to the left, that +is, to the north, the valley of the John River opened up its course +through the sharp white peaks of the Endicott Mountains. It was in this +direction that my eyes lingered longest. I knew that sixty or seventy +miles up this river we could cross the low Anaktuvak Pass into the +Anaktuvak River, which flows into the Colville, and that descending the +Colville we could reach the shores of the Northern Ocean. It was a +journey I had wished to make--and have wished ever since. There are many +bands of Esquimaux on that coast, never visited save by those who make +merchandise of them in one way or another. Please God, some day I should +get there; meanwhile our present hopes lay west, though, indeed, these +grew daily fainter. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BETTLES TO THE PACIFIC--THE ALATNA, KOBUK PORTAGE, KOBUK VILLAGE, +KOTZEBUE SOUND + + +ALL our preparations were long since made. Our Indian guide had been +sent back to Fort Yukon from Coldfoot, and here we engaged a young +Esquimau with his dog team and sled, to go across to Kotzebue Sound with +us. There was also a young Dane who wished to go from the Koyukuk +diggings to the diggings at Candle Creek on the Seward Peninsula, and +him we were willing to feed in return for his assistance on the trail. +The supplies had been carefully calculated for the journey, the +toboggans were already loaded, and we waited but a break in the cold +weather to start. + +Our course from Bettles would lead us sixty-five miles farther down the +Koyukuk to the mouth of the Alatna. The visit to the native village and +the burial of the poor fellow frozen to death would take us ten miles +farther down than that, and we would return to the Alatna mouth. Then +the way would lie for fifty miles or so up that stream, and then over a +portage, across to the Kobuk River, which we should descend to its mouth +in Kotzebue Sound; the whole distance being about five hundred miles +through a very little travelled country. We learned indeed, that it had +been travelled but once this winter, and that on the first snow. It was +thought at Bettles that we might possibly procure some supplies at a +newly established mission of the Society of Friends about half-way down +the Kobuk River, but there was no certainty about it, and we must carry +with us enough man-food to take us to salt water. Our supply of dog fish +we might safely count upon replenishing from the natives on the Kobuk. +Another thing that caused some thought was the supply of small money. +There was no silver and no currency except large bills on the Koyukuk, +and we should need money in small sums to buy fish with. So the agent +weighed out a number of little packets of gold-dust carefully sealed up +in stout writing-paper like medicine powders, some worth a dollar, some +worth two dollars, the value written on the face, and we found them +readily accepted by the natives and very convenient. Two years later I +heard of some of those packets, unbroken, still current on the Kobuk. + +At last, on the 26th of January, we got away. The thermometer stood only +a few degrees above -50° when we left, but the barometer had been +falling slowly for a couple of days, and I was convinced the cold spell +was over. With our three teams and four men we made quite a little +expedition, but dogs and men were alike soft, and for the first two days +the travel was laborious and slow; then came milder weather and better +going. + +[Sidenote: THE KOYUKUK "TOWNS" OF '98] + +We passed the two ruined huts of Peavey, the roofs crushed by the +superincumbent snow. In the summer of 1898 a part of the stream of gold +seekers, headed for the Klondike by way of Saint Michael, was deflected +to the Koyukuk River by reports of recent discoveries there. A great +many little steamboat outfits made their way up this river late in the +season, until their excessive draught in the falling water brought them +to a stand. Where they stopped they wintered, building cabins and +starting "towns." In one or two cases the "towns" were electrically lit +from the steamboat's dynamo. The next summer they all left, all save +those who were wrecked by the ice, and the "towns" were abandoned. But +they had got upon the map through some enterprising representative of +the land office, and they figure on some recent maps still. Peavey, +Seaforth, Jimtown, Arctic City, Beaver City, Bergman, are all just names +and nothing else, though at Bergman the Commercial Company had a plant +for a while. + +We passed the mouth of the Alatna, where were two or three Indian +cabins, and went on the remaining ten miles to Moses' Village, where the +body of the man frozen to death had been brought. Moses' Village, named +from the chief, was the largest native village on the Koyukuk River, and +we were glad, despite our haste, that we had gone there. The repeated +requests from all the Indians we met for a mission and school on the +Koyukuk River and the neglected condition of the people had moved me the +previous year to take up the matter. This was my first visit, however, +so far down the river. + +We found the coffin unmade and the grave undug, and set men vigorously +to work at both. The frozen body had been found fallen forward on hands +and feet, and since to straighten it would be impossible without +several days' thawing in a cabin, the coffin had to be of the size and +shape of a packing-case; of course the ground for the grave had to be +thawed down, for so are all graves dug in Alaska, and that is a slow +business. A fire is kindled on the ground, and when it has burned out, +as much ground as it has thawed is dug, and then another fire is +kindled. We had our own gruesome task. The body should be examined to +make legally sure that death came from natural causes. With difficulty +the clothes were stripped from the poor marble corpse, my companion made +the examination, and as a notary public I swore him to a report for the +nearest United States commissioner. This would furnish legal proof of +death were it ever required; otherwise, since there is no provision for +the travelling expenses of coroners, and the nearest was one hundred and +forty or one hundred and fifty miles away, there would have been no +inquest and no such proof. + +[Sidenote: A WILDERNESS TRAGEDY] + +The man had delayed his return to Bettles too long. When his food was +exhausted and he had to go, there came on that terrible cold spell. A +little memorandum-book in his pocket told the pitiful story. Day by day +he lingered hoping for a change, and day by day there was entry of the +awful cold. He had no thermometer, but he knew the temperature was -50° +or lower by the cracking noise that his breath made--the old-timer's +test. At last the grub was all gone and he must go or starve. The final +entry read: "All aboard to-morrow, hope to God I get there." The Indians +estimated that he had been walking two days, and had "siwashed it" at +night somewhere beside a fire in the open without bedding. Holes were +burned in his breeches in two places, where, doubtless, he had got too +near the fire. He had nothing whatever to eat with him save a piece of +bacon gnawed to the rind. There were only two matches in his pocket, and +they were mixed up with trash of birch-bark and tobacco, so it is likely +he did not know he had them. He had lit all the fires he could light and +eaten all the food he had to eat. Still he was plugging along towards +the native village nine miles away. Then he lost the trail, probably in +the dark, for it was faint and much drifted, and had taken off his +snow-shoes to feel with his moccasined feet for the hardened snow that +would indicate it. That was almost the end. He had gone across the river +and back again, feeling for the trail, and then, with the deadly +numbness already upon his brain, had wandered in a circle. The date of +his starting in the memorandum-book and the distance travelled made it +almost certain that, at some moment between the time when those three +moons floated in the sky and the time when that cross glared on the +horizon, he had fallen in the snow, never to rise again. Fifty-eight +below zero and a wind blowing! + +One supposes that the actual death by freezing is painless, as it is +certainly slow and gradual. The only instance of sudden gelation I ever +heard of is in Longfellow's "Wreck of the Hesperus," where the skipper, +having answered one question, upon being asked another, + + "Answered never a word, + For a frozen corpse was he." + +But if the actual death be painless, the long conscious fight against it +must be an agony; for a man of any experience must realise the peril he +is in. The tingling in fingers and toes and then in knees and elbows is +a warning he recognises only too well. He knows that, unless he can +restore warmth by restoring the circulation, he is as good as frozen +already. He increases his pace and beats his arms against his breast. +But if his vitality be too much reduced by hunger and fatigue and cold +to make more than a slight response to the stimulation, if the distance +to warmth and shelter be too great for a spurt to carry him there, he is +soon in worse case than before. Then the appalling prospect of perishing +by the cold must rise nakedly before him. The enemy is in the breach, +swarming over the ramparts, advancing to the heart of the fortress, not +to be again repelled. He becomes aware that his hands and feet are +already frozen, and presently there may be a momentary terrible +recognition that his wits begin to wander. Frantically he stumbles on, +thrashing his body with his arms, forcing his gait to the uttermost, a +prey to the terror that hangs over him, until his growing horror and +despair are mercifully swallowed up in the somnolent torpidity that +overwhelms him. All of us who have travelled in cold weather know how +uneasy and apprehensive a man becomes when the fingers grow obstinately +cold and he realises that he is not succeeding in getting them warm +again. It is the beginning of death by freezing. + +We buried the body on a bench of the bluff across the river from the +native village, the natives all standing around reverently while the +words of committal were said, and set up a cross marked with +lead-pencil: "R. I. P.--Eric Ericson, found frozen, January, 1906." Two +or three years later a friend sent me a small bronze tablet with the +same legend, and that was affixed to the cross. There are many such +lonely graves in Alaska, for scarce a winter passes that does not claim +its victims in every section of the country. That same winter we heard +of two men frozen on the Seward Peninsula, two on the Yukon, one on the +Tanana, and one on the Valdez trail. This day I recorded a temperature +of 10°, the first plus temperature in thirty-nine days, and that +previous rise above zero was the first in twenty days. + +[Sidenote: NEGLECTED NATIVES] + +That night we gathered all the natives, and after long speech with poor +interpretation I ventured to promise them a mission the next year. Some +of them had been across to the Yukon years before and had visited the +mission at Tanana. Some had been baptized there. Some had never seen a +clergyman or missionary of any sort before, and had never heard the +gospel preached. We were touched by one old blind woman who told of a +visit to a mission on the Yukon, and how she learned to sing a hymn +there. Her son interpreted: "She say every night she sing that hymn for +speak to God." She was encouraged to sing it, and it turned out to be +the alphabet set to a tune! After much pleading and with some +hesitation, I baptized seventeen children, comforting myself with the +assurance of the coming mission, which would undertake their Christian +training and instruction. + +Back next day at the mouth of the Alatna, I was again impressed with the +eligibility of that spot as a mission site. It was but ten miles above +the present native village, and, with church and school established, the +whole population would sooner or later move to it. This gives +opportunity for regulating the building of cabins, and the advantage of +a new, clean start. Moreover, the Alatna River is the highway between +the Kobuk and the Koyukuk, and the Esquimaux coming over in increasing +numbers, would be served by a mission at this place as well as the +Indians. I foresaw two villages, perhaps, on the opposite sides of the +river--one clustered about the church and the school, the other a little +lower down--where these ancient hereditary enemies might live side by +side in peace and harmony under the firm yet gentle influence of the +church. So I staked a mission site, and set up notices claiming ground +for that purpose, almost opposite the mouth of the Alatna, which, in the +native tongue, is Allakaket or Allachaket. + +[Sidenote: THE INLAND ESQUIMAUX] + +There was some trail up the Alatna and we made fair headway on its +surface, stopping two nights at Kobuk huts. We are out of the Indian +country now, and shall see no more Indians until we are back on the +Yukon. The mode of life, the habits, the character of the races are very +different--the first Esquimau habitation we visited proclaiming it. +These inland Esquimaux, though some of the younger ones have never seen +salt water--our guide, Roxy, for one--are still essentially a salt-water +people. Their huts, even in the midst of trees, are half-underground +affairs, for they have not learned log-building; the windows are of +seal gut, and seal oil is a staple article of their diet. Their clothing +is also marine, their parkees of the hair-seal and their mukluks of the +giant seal. Communications are always kept up with the coast, and the +sea products required are brought across. The time for the movement of +the Kobuks back and forth was not quite yet, though we hoped we should +meet some parties and get the benefit of their trail. Just before we +left the Alatna River we stopped at Roxy's fish cache and got some green +fish, hewing them out of the frozen mass with the axe. The young man had +fished here the previous summer, had cached the fish caught too late to +dry in the sun, and they had remained where he left them for four or +five months. Most of them had begun to decay before they froze, but that +did not impair their value as dog food, though it rendered the cooking +of them a disagreeable proceeding to white nostrils. This caching of +food is a common thing amongst both natives and whites, and it is rarely +that a cache is violated except under great stress of hunger, when +violation is recognised as legitimate. Doughty, in his _Arabia Deserta_, +mentions the same custom amongst the Arabs; Sven Hedin amongst the +Tartars. Sparsely peopled waste countries have much the same customs all +over the world. Even the outer garb in the Oriental deserts has much +resemblance to our parkee; both burnoose and parkee are primarily +windbreaks, and it makes little difference whether the wind be charged +with snow or sand. + +At midday on the 3d of February we left the Alatna River and took our +way across country for the Kobuk. We had now no trail at all save what +had been made a couple of months before by the only other party that had +crossed the portage this winter, and it was buried under fifteen or +sixteen inches of snow. There was quite a grade to be climbed to reach +the plateau over which our course lay, and the men, with rope over the +shoulder, had to help the dogs hauling at the sled. Indeed, over a good +deal of this portage, from time to time, the men had to do dog work, for +the country is rolling, one ridge succeeding another, and the loose, +deep snow made heavy and slow going. One man must go ahead breaking +trail, and that was generally my task, though when the route grew +doubtful and the indications too faint for white man's eye, Roxy took my +place and I took his gee pole, and slipped his rope around my chest. + +Breaking trail would not be so laborious if one could wear the large +snow-shoes that are used for hunting. But the hunting shoe, though it +carries the man without fatigue, does not help the dogs. The small shoe +known as the trail shoe, packs the snow beneath it, and by the time the +trail breaker has gone forward, then back again, and then forward once +more, the snow is usually packed hard enough to give the dogs some +footing. Footing the dog must have or he cannot pull; a dog wallowing in +snow to his belly cannot exert much traction on the vehicle behind him. +The notion of snow-shoeing as a sport always seems strange to us on the +trail, for to us it is a laborious necessity and no sport at all. The +trail breaker thus goes over most of the ground thrice, and when he is +anxious at the same time to get a fairly accurate estimate by the +pedometer of the distance travelled, he must constantly remember to +upend the instrument in his pocket when he retraces his steps, and +restore it to its recording position when he attacks unbroken snow +again. Also he must take himself unawares, so to speak, from time to +time, and check the length of his stride with the tape measure and alter +the step index as the varying surfaces passed over require. +Conscientiously used, with due regard to its limitations, the pedometer +will give a fair approximation of the length of a journey, but a man can +no more tell how far he has gone by merely hanging a pedometer in his +pocket than he can tell the height above sea-level of an inland mountain +by merely carrying an aneroid barometer to the top. + +[Sidenote: THE SUNRISE AND THE MOUNTAINS] + +It was on this Alatna-Kobuk portage that we saw the most magnificent +sunrise any of us could remember. It had been cloudy for some days with +threat of snow which did not fall. We were camped in a little hollow +between two ridges, and I had been busy packing up the stuff in the tent +preparatory to the start, when I stepped out with a load of bedding in +my arms, right into the midst of the spectacle. It was simple, as the +greatest things are always simple, but so gorgeous and splendid that it +was startling. The whole southeastern sky was filled with great luminous +bands of alternate purple and crimson. At the horizon the bands were +deeper in tone and as they rose they grew lighter, but they maintained +an unmixed purity of contrasting colour throughout. I gazed at it until +the tent was struck and the dogs hitched and it was time to start, and +then I had to turn my back upon it, for our course lay due west, and I +was breaking trail. But on the crest of the rising ground ahead there +burst upon my delighted eyes a still more astonishing prospect. We were +come to the first near view of the Kobuk mountains, and the reflected +light of that gorgeous sunrise was caught by the flanks of a group of +wild and lofty snow peaks, and they stood up incandescent, with a vivid +colour that seemed to come through them as well as from them. To right +and left, mountains out of the direct path of that light gave a soft +dead mauve, but these favoured peaks, bathed from base to summit in +clear crimson effulgence, glowed like molten metal. It was not the +reflected light of the sun, but of the flaming sky, for even as I +looked, a swift change came over them. They passed through the tones of +red to lightest pink, not fading but brightening, and before my +companions reached me the sun's rays sprang upon the mountains from the +horizon, and they were golden. + +It seems almost foolish to the writer and may well seem tedious to the +reader, to attempt in words the description of such scenes; yet so deep +is the impression they produce, and so large the place they take in the +memory, that to omit them would be to strike out much of the charm and +zest of these arctic journeys. Again and again in the years that have +passed, the recollection of that pomp of colour on the way to the Kobuk +has come suddenly upon me, and always with a bounding of the spirit. I +can shut my eyes now and see that incomparable sunrise; I can see again +that vision of mountains filling half the sky with their unimaginable +ardency, and I think that this world never presented nobler sight. +Surely for its pageantry of burning, living colour, for purity and depth +and intensity of tint, the Far North with its setting of snow surpasses +all other regions of the earth. + +[Sidenote: TRAVELLING KOBUK LADS] + +That same day we met a couple of Kobuk youths on their way to the +Koyukuk, and they gave us the greatest gift it was in the power of man +to give us--a trail! There is no finer illustration of the mutual +service of man to man than the meeting of parties going opposite ways +across the unbroken snows. Each is at once conferring and receiving the +greatest of favours, without loss to himself is heaping benefit on the +other; is, it may be--has often been--saving the other, and being +himself saved. No more hunting and peering for blazes, no more casting +about hither and thither when open stretches are crossed; no more three +times back and forth to beat the snow down--twenty miles a day instead +of ten or twelve--the boys' trail meant all that to us. And our trail +meant almost as much to them. So we were rejoiced to see them, sturdy +youths of sixteen or seventeen, making the journey all by themselves. My +heart goes out to these adventurous Kobuks, amiable, light-hearted, +industrious; keen hunters, following the mountain-sheep far up where the +Indian will not go; adepts in all the wilderness arts; heirs of the +uncharted arctic wastes, and occupying their heritage. If I were not a +white man I would far rather be one of these nomadic inland Esquimaux +than any other native I know of. + +That same day we crossed two headwater forks of the Kokochatna, as the +Kobuks call it, or the Hogatzitna as the Koyukuks call it, or the Hog +River, as the white men call it, a tributary of the Koyukuk that comes +in about one hundred and fifty miles below the Alatna. As we came down a +steep descent to the little east fork, it showed so picturesque and +attractive, with clumps of fine open timber on an island, that it +remains in my mind one of the many places from the Grand Cañon of the +Colorado almost to the Grand Cañon of the Noatak, where I should like to +have a lodge in the vast wilderness. + +We had but crossed the west fork when we knew that we were close to the +watershed between the Kobuk and the Koyukuk, between the streams that +fall into Kotzebue Sound and those that fall by the Koyukuk and the +Yukon Rivers into Bering Sea; and because it seemed a capital geographic +feature, it was disappointing that it was so inconspicuous. Indeed, we +were not sure which of two ridges was the actual divide. Beyond those +ridges there was no question, for the ground sloped down to Lake +Noyutak, a body of water some three and a half miles in length and of +varying breadth that drains into the Kobuk. Here in a cabin we found +three more young Kobuks, and spent the night, getting our first view of +the Kobuk River next day, not from an eminence, as I had hoped, but only +as we came down a bank through thick timber and opened suddenly upon it. +By the pedometer I made the portage forty-six miles. + +[Sidenote: THE KOBUK RIVER] + +The upper Kobuk is a picturesque river, the timber being especially +large and handsome for interior Alaska. We reached it just above the +mouth of the Reed River, tributary from the north. The weather was +warm--too warm for good travelling--the thermometer standing at 15°, +20°, and one day even 30° above zero all day long, so that we were all +bareheaded and in our shirt-sleeves. From time to time, as the course of +the river varied, we had distant views of the rocky mountains of the +Endicott Range, or, as it might be written, the Endicott Range of the +Rocky Mountains, for such, in fact, it is--the western and final +extension of the great American cordillera. On the other side of those +mountains was the Noatak River, flowing roughly parallel with the Kobuk, +and discharging into the same arm of the sea. + +The division of the labour of camping amongst four gave us all some +leisure at night, and I found time to read through again _The Cloister +and the Hearth_ and _Westward Ho!_ with much pleasure, quite agreeing +with Sir Walter Besant's judgment that the former is one of the best +historical novels ever written. There are few more attractive roysterers +in literature to me than Denys of Burgundy, with his "_Courage, +camarades, le diable est mort!_" This matter of winter reading is a +difficult one, because it is impossible to carry many books. My plan is +to take two or three India-paper volumes of classics that have been read +before, and renew my acquaintance with them. But reading by the light of +one candle, though it sufficed our forefathers, is hard on our +degenerate eyes. + +The days were much lengthened now, and the worst of the winter was +done. There would still be cold and storm, but hardly again of the same +intensity and duration. When the traveller gets well into February he +feels that the back of the winter is broken, for nothing can take from +him the advantage of the ever-lengthening days, the ever-climbing sun. + +On the afternoon of the third day on the Kobuk we reached a cabin +occupied by two white men, the first we had seen since we left Bettles, +and we were the first white men they had seen all the winter. They were +waiting for the spring, having a prospecting trip in view; simply +spending the winter eating up their grub. There was nothing whatever to +read in the cabin, and they had been there since the freeze-up! They +welcomed us, and we stayed overnight with them, and that night there was +a total eclipse of the moon, of which we had a fine view. We had an +almanac which gave the time of totality at Sitka, and we knew the +approximate longitude of our position, so we were able to set our +watches by it. + +The next two days are noted in my diary as two of the pleasantest days +of the whole journey--two of the pleasantest days I ever spent anywhere, +I think. A clear, cloudless sky, brilliant sunshine, white mountain +peaks all about us, gave picture after picture, and the warm, balmy air +made travelling a delight. There are few greater pleasures than that of +penetrating into a new country, with continually changing views of +beauty, under kindly conditions of weather and trail. In the yellow rays +of the early sun, the spruce on the river bank looked like a screen of +carved bronze, while the slender stems of birches in front of the +spruce looked like an inlaying of old ivory upon the bronze, the whole +set upon its pedestal of marble-like snow. The second day we took a +portage of nine or ten miles across a barren flat and struck the river +again just below a remarkable stretch of bank a mile or so in length, +with never a tree or a bush or so much as the smallest shrub growing on +it. Thick timber above suddenly ceased, thick timber below suddenly +began again, and this bare bank reached back through open, barren flat +to a low pass in the mountains. It was a bank of solid ice, so we were +told later, and I remembered to have heard of ice bluffs on the Kobuk, +and wished that the portage had struck the river above this spot instead +of below it, that there might have been opportunity to examine it. + +[Sidenote: THE MISSION] + +[Sidenote: ENGLISH AND ESQUIMAU] + +A little farther down the river and we were at the new mission of the +Society of Friends, where a cordial reception awaited us and, luxury of +luxuries, a warm bath! Again and again the wash-tub was emptied and +fresh water was heated until we all had wallowed to our heart's content. +The rude log buildings of the mission had been begun the previous fall, +and were not yet complete, but they were advanced enough for occupation, +and the work of the mission went actively on. It was in charge of rather +an extraordinary man. He gave us a sketch of his life, which was full of +interest and matter for thought. For many years he was a police officer +and jailer in the West. Then he sailed on a whaler and thus became +acquainted with the Esquimaux. He was converted from a life of +drunkenness and debauchery--though one fancied his character was not +really ever so bad as he painted it--at a "Peniel" mission in a +Californian town. He went in out of mere idle curiosity, just recovered +from a spree, and was so wrought upon that when he came out he was a +different creature, a new man, the old life with its appetite for +vicious indulgence sloughed off and left behind him, and he now +possessed with a burning desire to do some such active service for God +as aforetime he had done for the devil. After three or four months of +some sort of training in an institution maintained by the California +Society of Friends--a body more like the Salvation Army, one judges, +than the old Quakers--he volunteered for service at a branch which the +old-established mission of the Society at the mouth of the Kobuk desired +to plant two hundred miles or so up the river, and had come out and had +plunged at once into his task. So here he was, some six or seven months +installed, teacher, preacher, trader in a small way, and indefatigable +worker in general. Pedagogical training or knowledge of "methods" he had +none at all, but the root of the matter was in him, and surely never was +such an insatiable school-teacher. Morning, noon, and night he was +teaching. While he was cooking he was hearing lessons; while he was +washing the dishes and cleaning the house he was correcting exercises in +simple addition. In the schoolroom he was full of a genial enthusiasm +that seemed to impart instruction by sheer dynamic force. "Boot," the +lesson book said. There was no boot in the schoolroom, all were shod in +mukluks. He dives into his dwelling-house attachment and comes back +holding up a boot. "Boot," he says, and "boot" they all repeat. +Presently the word "tooth" was introduced in the lesson. Withdrawing a +loose artificial tooth of the "pivot" variety from his upper jaw, he +holds it aloft and "tooth!" he cries out, and "toot!" they all cry, and +he claps it back into his head again. + +We were present on Sunday at the services. There was hearty singing of +"Pentecostal" hymns with catchy refrains, but we were compelled to +notice again what we had noticed amongst the little bands of these +people on the Koyukuk when we set them to singing, that the English was +unintelligible; and since it conveyed no meaning to us could have had +little for them. This is the inevitable result of ignoring the native +tongue and adopting the easy expedient of teaching the singing of hymns +and the recitation of formulas like the commandments in English. For a +generation or two, at least, the English learned, save by children at a +boarding-school, where nothing but English is spoken, is fragmentary and +of doubtful import in all except the commonest matters of speech. And at +such boarding-schools there is danger of the real misfortune and +drawback of natives growing up to live their lives amongst natives, +ignorant of the native tongue. There is no quick and easy way of +stamping out a language, thank God; there is no quick and easy way of +imparting instruction in a foreign language. By and by all the Alaskan +natives will be more or less bilingual, but the intimate speech and the +most clearly understood speech will still be the mother tongue. The +singing done, there was preaching through an interpreter, and then each +individual present "gave testimony," which consisted for the most part +in the recitation of a text of Scripture. Then there were individual +prayers by one and another of the congregation, and then some more +singing. The only hymn I could find in the book that I knew was the fine +old hymn, "How Firm a Foundation," and that was sung heartily to the +"Adeste Fideles." They are naturally a musical race, picking up airs +with great facility, and they thoroughly enjoy singing. + +[Sidenote: THE "DOUBLE STANDARD"] + +After the service the missionary confided some of his troubles to me. He +had lately learned through his interpreter that the burden of most of +the individual prayers was that the supplicator might "catch plenty +skins" and be more successful in hunting than his fellows; and though he +had done his best to impress upon them the superior importance of making +request for spiritual benefit, he was afraid they had made no change. +"Our people 'outside,'" he said, "don't understand these folk, and I'm +not sure that I thoroughly understand them myself." "They're all +'converted,'" he said; "they all claim to have experienced a change of +heart, but some of them I know are not living like converted people, and +sometimes I have my doubts about most of them." My sympathy went out to +him in his loneliness and his earnestness and his disappointments. I +pointed out that the emotional response to emotional preaching was +comparatively easy to get from any primitive people, but that to change +their whole lives, to uproot old customs of sensual indulgence, to +engraft new ideas of virtue and chastity was a long, slow process +anywhere in the world. It was chiefly in the matter of sexual morality +that his doubts and difficulties lay, and I was able to assure him that +his experience was but the common experience of all those who had +laboured for the uplifting of savage people. Indeed, how should it be +otherwise? Until quite lately there was almost promiscuous use of women. +A man receiving a traveller in his dwelling overnight proffered his wife +as a part of his hospitality; the temporary interchange of wives was +common; young men and young women gratified themselves without rebuke; +children were valuable however come by, and there was no special +distinction between legitimate and illegitimate offspring. As one +reflects on these conditions and then looks back upon conditions amongst +white people, it would seem that all the civilised races have done is to +set up a double standard of sexual morality as against the single +standard of the savage. It can hardly be claimed that the average white +man is continent, or even much more continent than the average Esquimau, +but he has forced continence upon the greater part of his women, +reserving a dishonoured remnant for his own irresponsible use. And there +are signs that some of those who nowadays inveigh against the white +man's double standard are in reality desirous of substituting, not the +single standard of the Christian ideal, but the single standard of the +savage. In the mining camps the prostitute has a sort of +half-way-recognised social position, and in polite parlance is referred +to as a "sporting lady"--surely the most horribly incongruous phrase +ever coined; she often marries a miner who will tell you that she is as +good as he is, and she is received afterwards by all but a few as a +"respectable married woman." + +There had been some trouble of this sort at this mission. The great +northern gold seekers' wave of '97 and '98 threw a numerous band of +prospectors up the Kobuk as well as up the Koyukuk. The wave had receded +and left on the Kobuk but one little pool behind it, a handful of men +who found something better than "pay" on the Shungnak, a few miles away. +And there was much criticism of the missionary's methods amongst them. +Word of the arrival of strangers had brought some of them to Long Beach, +and on Sunday night I had opportunity of addressing them, with a view to +enlisting their sympathy, if possible. What if mistakes were made, what +if some of the methods employed were open to question? Here was a man +who beyond doubt was earnestly labouring in the best way he knew for the +improvement of these natives. Such an effort demanded the co-operation +of every right-feeling man. + +[Sidenote: PERSONAL CLEANLINESS] + +After all, however grand the physical scenery, the meteorological +phenomena, may be, the people of any country are the most interesting +thing in it, and we found these Esquimaux extraordinarily interesting. +Dirty they certainly are; it is almost impossible for dwellers in the +arctic regions to be clean in the winter, and the winter lasts so long +that the habit of winter becomes the habit of the year. White and native +alike accept a lower standard of personal cleanliness than is tolerated +outside. I remember asking Bishop Rowe, before I came to Alaska: "What +do you do about bathing when you travel in the winter?" To which he +replied laconically: "Do without." It is even so; travellers on the +Alaskan trails as well as natives belong to the "great unwashed." In the +very cold weather the procuring of water in any quantity is a very +difficult thing even for house dwellers. Every drop of it has to be +carried from a water-hole cut far out on the ice, up a steep grade, and +then quite a little distance back to the dwelling--for we do not build +directly upon these eroding banks. The water-hole is continually +freezing up and has to be continually hewed free of ice, and as the +streams dwindle with the progress of winter, new holes must be cut +farther and farther out. On the trail, where snow must usually be melted +for water, it is obvious that bathing is out of the question; even the +water for hands and face is sparingly doled by the cook, and two people +will sometimes use the same water rather than resort to the painful +though efficient expedient of washing with snow. If this be so despite +aluminum pots and a full kit of camp vessels, it is much more so with +the native, whose supply of pots and pans is very limited. I have seen a +white man melt snow in a frying-pan, wash hands and face in it, throw it +out, fry bacon and beans in it, then melt more snow and wash his cup and +plate in it. There is, however, this to be said anent the disuse of the +bath in this country, that in cold weather most men perspire very little +indeed, and the perspiration that is exuded passes through to the outer +garments and is immediately deposited upon them as frost; and there is +this further to be said about dirt in general, that one blessed property +of the cold is to kill all odours. + +One grows tolerant of dirt in this country; there is no denying it, and +it is well that it is so; otherwise one would be in a chronic state of +disgust with oneself and every one else. So the dirt of the native, +unless specially prominent and offensive, is accepted as a matter of +course and ignored. This obstacle overcome, the Esquimaux are an +attractive and most interesting race, and compare to advantage with the +Indians in almost every particular. They are a very industrious people. +Go into an Esquimau's hut at almost any time when they are not sleeping, +and you will find every individual occupied at some task. Here is a man +working in wood or bone with the ingenious tools they have evolved; here +are women working in skin or fur, and some of them are admirable +needlewomen; here, perhaps, is another woman chewing mukluks--and many a +white man who has kept his feet dry in overflow water is grateful to the +teeth that do not disdain this most effective way of securing an +intimate union between sole and upper. Even the children are busy: here +is a boy whittling out bow and arrow--and they do great execution +amongst rabbits and ptarmigan with these weapons that entail no cost of +powder and shot; here is a girl beating out threads from sinew with a +couple of flat stones. Some of us, troubled with unconscientious +tailors, wish that a law could be passed requiring all buttons to be +sewn on with sinew--they never come off. + +[Sidenote: A LIGHT-HEARTED FOLK] + +They are a very light-hearted people, easily amused, bubbling over with +laughter and merriment, romping and skylarking with one another at every +intermission of labour. One of my white travelling companions on this +journey was in the habit of using a little piece of rabbit skin to +protect his nose in cold or windy weather. The care of the nose is +sometimes very troublesome indeed, it freezes more readily than any +other portion of the body; and a little piece of rabbit skin, moistened +and applied to the nose, will stay there and keep it warm and +comfortable all day. But it does not exactly enhance one's personal +attractions. + +We had stopped for camp and were all together for the first time in four +or five hours, when Roxy noticed this rabbit-skin nose protector, upon +which the breath had condensed all the afternoon until two long icicles +depended from it, one on each side, reaching down below the mouth; and +he fell straightway into a fit of laughter that grew uncontrollable; he +rolled on the snow and roared. A little annoyed at this exhibition, I +spoke sharply: "What's the matter with you, Roxy; what on earth are you +cutting up like that for?" Checking himself for a moment, he pointed to +my companion and said, "Alleesame _walrus_," and went off into another +paroxysm of laughter, rolling about and roaring. At intervals all the +evening he would break out again, and when we sat down to eat it +overcame him once more and he rushed outside where he could give vent to +his mirth with less offence. + +The boy was straightforward and conscientious. We were camped over +Sunday once, and Roxy had noticed many marten tracks in the +neighbourhood. He had brought a few traps along with him to set out as +we went and pick up on his return, and he wanted to know if I thought he +might set some that day, although it was the day of rest. Careful not to +interfere in any way with the religious instruction any native has +received from any source, I told him that was a matter for him to decide +himself; that each man was responsible for his own conduct. The boy +thought awhile--and he did not set his traps. Now that young man had +never received any instruction at a mission; all his teaching had been +from other Esquimaux. This same question of working on Sunday was the +cause of some of the difficulty between the missionary at Long Beach and +the miners at Shungnak. The sluicing or "cleaning-up" season is short, +and mining operators generally consider that they cannot afford to lose +an hour of it. The Kobuks employed by these miners quit their work on +Sunday, and that brought the operations to a standstill. There was +something to be said on the miners' side, but I rejoiced that the +Esquimau boys showed such steadfastness to their teaching. "If you +cannot use them six days in the week, if it has to be seven or none, +then do as the miners on the Yukon side do, consider the country +uninhabited, and make your arrangements as though there were no Kobuks." +That was my advice, and this may be read in connection with Mr. +Stefanson's caustic comments on the same rigidity of observance. + +We left Long Beach with a grateful feeling for the hospitality with +which we had been received and with a substantial respect for the +earnest missionary effort that was being put forth there. We were able +to replenish our grub supply and also to exchange our two toboggans for +one large sled, for we were out of the toboggan country again and they +had already become a nuisance, slipping and sliding about on the trail. +Our host was up early with a good breakfast for us, and speeded the +parting guest, which on the trail is certainly an essential part of true +hospitality, with all the honours; the natives lined up on the bank and +the younger ones running along with us for a few hundred yards. + +[Sidenote: THE JADE MOUNTAINS] + +Soon after we left the mission we went up a series of terraces to a +desolate, barren, wind-swept flat, the portage across which cut off a +great bend of the river and saved us many miles of travel. To our right +rose the Jade Mountains, whence the supply of this stone which used to +be of importance for arrow-heads and other implements was obtained and +carried far and wide. A light crust on the snow broke through at every +step, though the snow was not deep enough and the ground too uneven to +make snow-shoes useful; so we all had more or less sore feet that night +when we regained the river and made our camp near the mouth of the +Ambler, another tributary from the north. + +The next day was an exceedingly long, tedious day. The Kobuk River, +which in its upper reaches is a very picturesque stream, began now to be +as monotonous as the lower Yukon. It had grown to considerable size, and +the bends to be great curves of many miles at a stretch, one of which, +a decided bend to the north of the general westerly direction of the +river, we were three full hours in passing down. It was while traversing +this bend that we witnessed a singular mirage that lent to the day all +the enlivenment it had. Before us for ten or twelve miles stretched the +broad white expanse of the river bed, shimmering in the mellow sunlight, +and far beyond, remote but clear, rose the sharp white peaks of the +mountains that divide the almost parallel valleys of the Kobuk and the +Noatak. As we travelled, these distant peaks began to take the most +fantastic shapes. They flattened into a level table-land, and then they +shot up into pinnacles and spires. Then they shrank together in the +middle and spread out on top till they looked like great domed +mushrooms. Then the broad convex tops separated themselves entirely from +their stalk-like bases and hung detached in the sky with daylight +underneath. And then these mushroom tops stretched out laterally and +threw up peaks of their own until there were distinct duplicate ranges, +one on the earth and one in the sky. It was fascinating to watch these +whimsical vagaries of nature that went on for hours. A change in one's +own position, from erect to stooping, caused the most convulsive +contortions, and when once I lay down on the trail that I might view the +scene through the lowest stratum of the agitated air, every peak shot up +suddenly far into the sky like the outspreading of one's fingers, to +subside as suddenly as I rose to my feet again. The psalmist's query +came naturally to the mind, "Why hop ye so ye hills?" and our Kobuk boy +Roxy, whose enjoyment of fine landscapes and strange sights was always +a pleasure to witness, answered the unspoken question. "God make +mountains dance because spring come," he said prettily enough. + +Then we crossed another portage and cut off ten miles of river by it, +and when we reached the river again I wanted to stop, for it grew +towards evening and here was good camping-ground. But we had lately met +some travelling Kobuks and they had told Roxy of a cabin "just little +way" farther on, and I yielded to the rest of the company, who would +push on to it and thus avoid the necessity of making camp. That native +"just little way" is worse than the Scotch "mile and a bittock"; indeed, +the natives have poor notion of distance in general, and miles have as +vague meaning to them as kilometres have to the average Anglo-Saxon. + +[Sidenote: A BELATED CAMP] + +On and on we pushed, mile after mile, and still no cabin. In the +gathering dusk we would continually think we saw it; half-fallen trees +or sloping branches simulating snow-covered gables. At last it grew +quite dark, and when there was general agreement that we must seek the +cabin no longer, but camp, there was no place to camp in. Either the +bank was inaccessible or there was lack of dry timber. We went on thus, +seeking rest and finding none, until seven-thirty, and then made camp by +candle-light, in a poor place at that, having trudged thirty-five miles +that day. A night-made camp is always an uncomfortable camp, and an +uncomfortable camp means a miserable night, which to-morrow must pay +for. We did not get to bed till nearly midnight, and it was +nine-forty-five when we started out next morning, and we made only +fifteen miles that day. + +The Kobuk valley continued to open out wider and wider and the mountains +right and left to recede. The Jade Mountains were now dim and distant +behind us, and new ranges were coming into view. The people on this +lower river are very few. It was just about one hundred miles from Long +Beach when we reached the next native village, a miserable collection of +pole dwellings, half underground, with perhaps a score of inhabitants. +Certainly the conditions of life deteriorated as we descended this +river. The country seems to afford nothing but fish; we were amongst the +ichthyophagi pure and simple. Roxy, bred and born on the upper Kobuk and +never so far down before, is very scornful about it. "Me no likee this +country," he says; "no caribou, no ptarmigan, no rabbits, no timber, no +nothin'." The weather had grown raw and cold again, with a constant +disagreeable wind that took all the fun out of travelling. We passed a +place where a white man was pessimistically picking away at a vein of +coal in the river bluff. "Yes, we been here all winter," he said, +"working on the blamed ledge. I always knowed it was goin' to pinch out, +and now it's begun to pinch. My partner's gone to Candle for more grub, +but I told him it weren't no use. It's pinchin' out right now. I knowed +it afore we started work, but the blamed fool wouldn't listen to me. +'It'll pinch out,' I told him a dozen times; 'you mark my word it'll +pinch out,' I told him, and now it's begun to pinch; and I hope he'll be +satisfied." We were reminded of the many coal-mines from time to time +located on the Yukon, in all or nearly all of which the vein has +"pinched out." The deposits on the coast may be all the fancy of the +magazine writer paints, and may hold the "incalculable wealth" that is +attributed to them, but the coal on the interior rivers seems in scant +measure and of inferior quality. + +The same night we reached the native village at the mouth of the +Squirrel River, another northern tributary--the Kobuk receives most of +its waters from the north--and we spent the night and the next day, +which was Sunday, in one of the half-underground huts of the place, in +company with twelve other people. Here we found Roxy's brother, dubbed +"Napoleon" by some white man. They had not seen one another for years, +yet all the greeting was a mutual grunt. The Kobuks are not +demonstrative in their affections, but it would not be right to conclude +the affection lacking. I have seen an old Esquimau woman taking part in +a dance the night after her husband was buried, yet it would have been +unjust to have concluded that she was callous and indifferent. It is +very easy to misunderstand a strange people, and very hard to understand +them thoroughly. + +[Sidenote: THE CANINE INTRUDER] + +The roof of the tent was dome-shaped and it was lit by a seal-gut +skylight. In the morning while I was conducting Divine service and +attempting most lamely by the mouth of a poor interpreter to convey some +instruction, a dog fight outside adjourned to the roof and presently +both combatants came tumbling through the gut window into the midst of +the congregation. They were unceremoniously picked up and flung out of +the door, a few stitches with a needleful of sinew repaired the window, +and the proceedings were resumed. These gut windows have their +convenience as well as their inconvenience. When the hut gets too warm +and close even for Esquimaux, the seal gut is folded back and the outer +air rushes in to the great refreshment of the occupants; when the hut is +cool enough the gut is replaced. A skylight is far and away the best +method of illuminating any single-story structure, and this membrane is +remarkably translucent, while the snow that falls or frost that forms +upon such a skylight is quickly removed by beating the hand upon the +drum-like surface. All glass windows must be double glazed, or else in +the very cold weather they are quickly covered with a thick deposit of +frost from the condensation of the moisture inside the room, and then +they admit much less light than gut does. One of its unpleasant features +is the way the membrane snaps back and forth with a report like a pistol +whenever the door is opened and shut, but on the whole it is a very good +substitute for glass indeed. + +[Sidenote: SLEEPING CUSTOMS] + +These river Esquimaux vary greatly in physical appearance. While many of +them are somewhat undersized and all have small feet and hands, some are +well-developed specimens of manhood. "Riley Jim," the chief of this +tribe, would be counted a tall, stalwart man anywhere. And while many +have coarse, squat features, here and there is one who is decidedly +attractive in appearance. A sweet smile which is often upon the face, +and small, regular white teeth, greatly help to redeem any countenance. +A youth of about eighteen at the Squirrel River would properly be called +handsome, one thinks--though amongst native people one grows a little +afraid of forgetting standards of comparison; and his wife--for he was +already a husband--was a decidedly pretty girl. A word ought to be said +which applies to all the Esquimaux we met. Although many people live in +one hut and there is no possible privacy, yet we saw no immodesty of any +sort. They sleep entirely nude--probably our own great-grandparents did +the same, at least the people of Defoe and Smollet did, for nightshirts +and pyjamas are very modern things. There is much to be said from an +hygienic point of view in favour of that custom as against turning in +"all standing" as the Indian generally does, or sleeping in the day +underwear as most white men do. But although every one of a dozen people +in cabin after cabin that we stayed at on the Kobuk River above and +below this place, of both sexes and all ages, would thus strip +completely and go to bed, there was never any exposure of the body at +all. It may be, of course, that our presence imposed a greater care in +this respect, but it did not so impress us; it seemed the normal thing. +Another noticeable feature of the lives of all these people was their +devoutness in the matter of thanks before and after meat. Some of them +would not so much as give and receive a drink of cold water without a +long responsive grace. + +As we went on down the river the country grew bleaker and drearier and +the few scattered inhabitants were living more and more the life of the +seacoast. The dwellings resembled igloos more than cabins, being +completely covered with snow and approached by underground passages, +with heavy flaps of untanned sealskin to close them. When we passed a +fork of the river we knew that we were entering the delta of the Kobuk, +and that another day would take us to the mission on Kotzebue Sound. It +was a long, hard day, in which we made forty miles, but an interesting +one. With a start at six, we were at the mouth by nine-thirty. The +spruce which had for some time been dwarfing and dwindling gave place to +willows, the willows shrank to shrubs, the shrubs changed to coarse +grass thrusting yellow tassels through the snow. The river banks sank +and flattened out and ceased, and we were on Hotham Inlet with the long +coast-line of the peninsula that forms it stretching away north and +south in the distance. Roxy's bewilderment was amusing. He stopped and +gazed about him and said: "Kobuk River all pechuk!" ("Pechuk" means +"played out.") "What's the matter, no more Kobuk River?" I think his +mind had never really entertained the notion of the river ending, though +of course he must often have heard of its mouth in the salt water. He +was out of his country, his bearings all gone, a feeling of helpless +insecurity taking the place of his usual confidence, and I think he said +no more all that day. + +We had to traverse the ice of Hotham Inlet northward to its mouth, +double the end of the peninsula, and then travel south along the coast +to the mission at Kikitaruk, the peninsula being too rugged to cross. +Three considerable rivers drain into Hotham Inlet, roughly parallel in +their east and west courses, the Noatak, the Kobuk, and the Selawik, so +that its waters must be commonly more fresh than salt, for its bounds +are narrow and the extensive delta of its eastern shore would argue its +depth slight. Ahead of us, as we travelled north making a bee-line for +the end of the peninsula, all the afternoon, loomed the rocky promontory +of Krusenstern, one of Kotzebue's capes, and far beyond, stretching up +the dim coast-line, lay the way to Point Hope. It was with a sinking of +the heart that I gazed upon it, for I knew already, though I had not +announced a decision, that the road to Point Hope could not be my road +that year. All day long the thermometer stood between -40° and -30°, and +the constant light sea-breeze kept scarfs wrapped closely about mouths +and noses, which always means disagreeable travel. When the company +stopped at noon to eat a little frozen lunch, I was too chilly to cease +my movement and pressed on. The day of that blessed comfort of the +trail, the thermos flask, was not yet. By two-thirty we had reached Pipe +Spit, which still further contracts the narrow entrance of the inlet, +and turning west for a mile or two rounded the point and then turned +south for ten miles along the coast. Just about dark we reached the +mission and stood gazing out over the rough ice of Kotzebue Sound to the +Arctic Ocean, having made the forty miles in ten and a half hours. We +had come about one thousand miles from Fairbanks, all of it on foot and +most of it on snow-shoes. + +[Sidenote: THE ARCTIC OCEAN] + +So here was my first sight of the Arctic Ocean. All day long I had +anticipated it, and it stirred me,--a dim, grey expanse stretching vast +and vague in the dusk of the evening. The old navigators whose stories I +had read as a boy passed before me in their wonderful, bold sailing +vessels, going in and out uncharted waters that steamships will not +venture to-day--Kotzebue, Beechey, Collinson, McClure--pushing +resolutely northward. + +Less happy had been my first sight of the Pacific Ocean, five years +before. I had the ill luck to come upon it by way of that Western Coney +Island, Santa Monica, and from the merry-go-rounds and cheap eating +places Balboa and Magellan and Franky Drake fled away incontinent and +would not be conjured back; though, indeed, the original discoverers +would have had yet further occasion to gaze at one another "with a wild +surmise" if they had seen shrieking companies "shooting the chutes." But +here was vastness, here was desolation, here was silence; jagged ice +masses in the foreground and boundless expanse beyond, solemn and +mysterious. The Arctic Ocean was even as I had pictured it. + +The missionary in charge at Kikitaruk had been informed by letter of our +projected journey during the previous summer and had long expected us. +We were received with kindness and hospitality, and after supper began +at once our acquaintance with his work, for there was a service that +night which it was thought we should attend. I spoke for a few minutes +through an excellent interpreter and then spent a couple of hours +nodding over the stove, overcome with sleep, while there was much +singing and "testimony." + +[Sidenote: TOTAL-ABSTINENCE ESQUIMAUX] + +The Californian Society of Friends, established here a number of years +with branches at other points on Kotzebue Sound, has done an excellent +work amongst the Esquimaux. If they had accomplished nothing else it +would stand to the everlasting credit of the Society's missionaries that +they have succeeded in imbuing the natives under their charge with a +total aversion to all intoxicating liquor. We had come down from the +remotest points to which the influence of these people has extended; we +had met their natives five hundred miles away from their base of +instruction, and everywhere we found the same thing. It was said by the +white men on the Koyukuk that a Kobuk could not be induced to take a +drink of whisky. It seemed to us a pity that the force of this most +wholesome doctrine should be weakened by the unsuccessful attempt to +include tobacco in the same rigorous prohibition. In several cabins +where we stayed there was no sign of smoking until members of our party +produced pipes, whereupon other pipes were furtively produced and the +tobacco that was offered was eagerly accepted. From any rational point +of view the putting of whisky and tobacco in the same category is surely +a folly. There can be few more harmless indulgences to the native than +his pipe, and no one knows the solace of the pipe until he has smoked it +around the camp-fire in the arctic regions after a hard day's journey. + +The decision to turn my back on Point Hope was, I think, the most +painful decision I ever made in my life; with all my heart I wanted to +go on. It was only one hundred and sixty or one hundred and seventy +miles away. The journey had been made in three or four days; but we +were now come to a country where travel is impossible in bad weather and +where bad weather prevails; and that journey might quite as likely take +two weeks. I worked over the calendar in my diary, figuring how many +days of travel still remained, allowing reasonable margins, and I could +not see that I had much more than time to get back to Fairbanks before +the break-up, which for sufficient reason I regarded as my first duty. +The day of rest at Kikitaruk was Washington's birthday, the 22d of +February. Eight weeks would bring us to the 19th April, by which time +the trails would be already breaking up. Counting out Sundays, that left +forty-eight days of travelling with something like twelve hundred miles +yet to make without going to Point Hope--an average of about twenty-five +miles a day. I knew that we had made no such average in the distance +already covered, and though I knew also that travelling improved +generally as the season advanced, I did not know how very much better +going there is on the wind-hardened snows of the coast when travelling +is possible at all. Again and again I have regretted that I did not take +the chance and push on, but at the time I decided as I thought I ought +to decide, and one has no real compunctions when that is the case. + +[Sidenote: THE RESOLUTION TO TURN SOUTH] + +So a first-hand knowledge of our own most interesting work among the +Esquimaux was not for me on that occasion--and there has arisen no +opportunity since. Mr. Knapp, who had planned to spend the rest of the +winter at Point Hope, would get a guide and a team here and turn north +after some days' rest, while I would turn south. Roxy was impatient to +return to Bettles. "Me no likee this country," was all that could be got +out of him. So I paid him his money and made him a present of the .22 +repeating rifle with which he had killed so many ptarmigan on the +journey, outfitted him with clothes, grub, and ammunition, and let him +go; saying good-bye with regret, for he was a good boy to us all the +way. + +It was late on the night of our single day of rest when I got to bed, +for there had been squaring up of accounts and much writing, and when I +went to bed I did not sleep. Again and again I reviewed the decision I +had come to and fought against it, though such is far from my common +habit. Even as I write, years after, the bitter rebellious reluctance +with which I turned south comes back to me. I wished the hospital at +Fairbanks at the bottom of the deep blue sea. I protested I would go on +and complete my journey, even though it involved "thawing out" at Tanana +and getting to Fairbanks on a steamboat in the summer. I had a free +hand, a kindly and complaisant bishop, and none would call me strictly +to account. Then I realised that it was merely pride of purpose, +self-willed resolution of accomplishing what had been essayed--in a +word, personal gratification for which I was fighting, and with that +realisation came surrender and sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE SEWARD PENINSULA--CANDLE CREEK, COUNCIL, AND NOME + + +ONE day's rest was not a great deal after the distance we had come--and +that day fully occupied with business--but since Point Hope was +abandoned some sort of schedule must be made for the Seward Peninsula, +and where Sunday shall be spent is always an important factor in +arranging these itineraries. There was just time to reach Candle for the +next Sunday and it was decided to attempt it. Hans would accompany me as +far as Candle, where he hoped to find work. It meant two days of +forty-five miles each, for it is ninety miles from Kikitaruk to Candle, +but they told us it could be done. + +So the reluctant adieus made, letters despatched, some mailed here at +Kikitaruk, some to be carried back to Bettles and mailed there--these +latter getting outside long before the former--we started at seven in +the morning instead of six, as we had planned, on the journey down the +shore of Kotzebue Sound. That hour's delay turned out to be a calamity +for us. + +The trail was smooth along the beach until Cape Blossom was reached, and +I had the first riding of the winter, Hans and I alternately running and +jumping on the sled. There was a portage across the cape, and three or +four miles below it was the wreck of the river steamer _Riley_, which +used to make a voyage up the Kobuk with supplies for the miners at the +Shungnak. The thermometer was at -38° when we started, and the same +light but keen breeze was blowing that had annoyed us on the other side +of the peninsula. What a barren, desolate region it is!--low rocks +sinking away to the dead level of the snow-field on the one hand, +nothing but the ice-field on the other. + +[Sidenote: A BAD NIGHT] + +[Sidenote: CAMPED IN THE OPEN] + +We were bound for an igloo forty-five miles from the mission, the only +shelter between Kikitaruk on the peninsula and Kewalik on the mainland, +and we had been warned that the igloo would be easy to miss if it grew +dark as it would be almost indistinguishable from the snow-drifts of the +shore. Some directions from a multitude of counsellors remembered in one +sense by Hans and in another by me, added to our uncertainty as to just +where the igloo lay. The wind increased in force as the evening advanced +and the last time I looked at the thermometer it still registered -38°. +The sun set over the sound with another of those curious distortions +which had before proved ominous to us. It was flattened and swollen out +like a pot-bellied Chinese lantern, with a neck to it and an irregular +veining over its surface that completed the resemblance. The wind +increased until the air was full of flying snow and it grew dark, and +still there was no sign of the igloo. Only slowly and with much +difficulty could the trail be followed, and that meant we were soon not +moving fast enough to keep warm in the fierce wind. At last we lost the +trail altogether, and sometimes we found ourselves out on the rough ice +of the sound and sometimes wallowing in a fresh snow-drift on the shore. +I became possessed with the fear that we had passed the igloo. I was +positive that we were told at the mission that we should reach it +_before_ the high bluffs were passed, and we had passed them a long way +and had now but a shallow shelf to mark the coast-line. It is strange +how long that delusion about passing his destination will pursue the +Alaskan traveller. Presently the dogs dropped off a steep bank in the +dark, and only by good fortune we were able to keep the heavy sled from +falling upon them, for they were dead tired and lay where they dropped. +With freezing fingers I unhitched the dogs while Hans held the sled, and +we lowered it safely down. But it was plain that it was dangerous to +proceed. We could not find the trail again and were growing alarmingly +cold. We were "up against it," as they say here, "up against it good and +strong." We had a tent but no means of putting it up, a stove but +nothing to burn in it, a grub box full of food but no way to cook it. So +the first night of coast travel was to show us the full rigour and +inhospitality of the coast and to make us long for the interior again. +Wood can almost always be found there within a few miles, if it be not +immediately at hand, and no one properly appreciates the hospitality of +a clump of spruce-trees until he has spent a night of storm lying out on +this barren coast. We turned the dogs loose and threw them a fish +apiece, unlashed the sled, and got out our bedding. I had been sleeping +in robes, Hans in a shedding caribou-hide sleeping-bag that was my pet +aversion. When he crawled out in the morning he was so covered with hair +that he looked like a caribou, and the miserable hairs were always +getting into the food. We fished them out of the coffee, pulled them out +of the butter, and picked them out of the bread. But now in that +sleeping-bag he had an enormous advantage. We lay side by side on the +snow in the lee of the sled, and, tuck myself up with blanket and robe +as I would, it was impossible to keep the swirling snow from coming in. +I called the dogs to me and made them lie on my feet and up against my +side, and so long as they lay still I could get a little warmth, but +whenever they rose and left me I grew numb again. But Hans in his +sleeping-bag was snoring. The bag is the only bedding on the coast. +Added to the physical discomfort of that sleepless, shivery night was +some mental uneasiness. There was no telling to what height the storm +might rise, nor how long it might continue. Sometimes travellers +overtaken in this way on the coast have to lie in their sleeping-bags +for three days and nights before they can resume their journey. The only +interest the night held was the thought that came to me that as nearly +as I could tell we camped exactly on the Arctic Circle. The long night +dragged its slow length to the dawn at last and the wind moderated a +little at the same time, so with the first streak in the east I awoke +Hans, we gathered our poor dogs together, rolled up the snow-incrusted +bedding, and resumed our journey. Two miles farther on was the igloo! +Our calls awoke some one and we were bidden to enter. Descending a +ladder and crawling through a dark passage we came in to the grateful +warmth and shelter. The chamber was crowded with sleeping Esquimaux and +reeked with seal oil and fish, but Hans said it "looked good and smelled +good to him," and so it did to me also. One has to lie out on that coast +in a storm to appreciate the value of mere shelter. We went at once to +cooking, for we had eaten nothing but a doughnut or two in twenty-four +hours, and surely never meal was more relished than the reindeer steaks +and the coffee we took amongst those still sleeping Esquimaux. I should +have liked to spend the day and the next night there, for they were +friendly and kindly, but the wind had moderated somewhat and there was +still a chance to reach Candle for Sunday. With the offer of a sack of +flour at Kewalik we induced a couple of Esquimaux to accompany us, for I +knew we had to cross the mouth of a bay over the ice to reach the +mainland and I wanted to take no more chances. + +Our company, again raised to four, started out about nine, and until the +Choris Peninsula was reached the trail still skirted the shore. It is +strange that Kotzebue, who named this peninsula of a peninsula for the +artist who accompanied his expedition in 1816, should have left the main +peninsula itself unnamed, and that the British expedition which named +Cape Blossom ten years later should have failed to supply the omission. +It still bears no name on the map. We portaged across the Choris +Peninsula and at the end of the portage took a straight course across +the mouth of Escholtz Bay (Escholtz was Kotzebue's surgeon) for Kewalik +on the mainland, passing Chamisso Island, named for Kotzebue's poet +friend. There is something very interesting to me in this voyage of +Kotzebue's, and I have long wished to come across a full narrative of +it. But the bitter wind that swept across that ice-sheet with the +thermometer at -30° brought one's thoughts back to one's own condition. +My hands I could not keep warm with the gear that had sufficed for 50° +and 60° below in the interior, and I was very glad to procure from one +of our native companions a pair of caribou mitts with the hair inside, +an almost invulnerable gauntlet against cold. If that wind had been in +our faces instead of on our sides I am sure we could not have travelled +at all. At last we won across the ice and brought up at a comfortable +road-house at Kewalik, about ten miles from Candle. Here we lay +overnight, taking the opportunity of thawing out and drying the +frost-crusted bedding, leaving the short run into town for the morning. + +[Sidenote: CANDLE CREEK] + +The diggings on Candle Creek yield to the Koyukuk diggings only as the +most northerly gold mining in the world. Although the general methods +are the same in all Alaskan camps, local circumstances introduce many +differences. In all Alaskan camps the ground is frozen and must be +thawed down. The timber of the interior renders wood the natural fuel +for the production of the steam that thaws the ground, but the scarcity +of wood on the Seward Peninsula substitutes coal. There is coal on the +peninsula itself, but of very inferior quality, mixed with ice. One may +see chunks of coal with veins of ice running through them thrown upon +the fire. The wood of the interior is a great factor in its commercial +and domestic economy, and its absence on the Seward Peninsula makes +great change not only in the natural aspect of the country but in the +whole aspect of its industrial and domestic life also. Wood-chopping for +the stove and the mill, wood-sawing, wood-hauling employ no small +percentage of all the white men in the interior--occupations which do +not exist at all on the peninsula. But its encompassment by the sea, its +peninsularity, is the dominating difference between the Seward Peninsula +and the interior, and does indeed make a different country of it +altogether. All prices are very much lower on the peninsula because +ships can bring merchandise directly from the "outside." Thus amongst +those who have money to spend there is a more lavish scale of living +than in the interior towns, and luxuries may be enjoyed here that are +out of the question there. Perhaps, conversely, it is true that life on +the peninsula is somewhat harder for the poorer class. Whether a railway +from salt water to the mid-Yukon would redress this great difference in +the cost of everything may be doubted. Railways do not usually operate +at less than water-rates. There will probably always be an advantage in +the cost of living and mining in favour of the Seward Peninsula camps. + +There had been no public religious service of any sort in Candle, with +its several hundreds of population, in three years, so there was special +satisfaction in having reached the place for Sunday when many miners +were in town from the creeks, and an overflowing congregation was +readily assembled. And there was great pleasure in three days' rest at +the hospitable home of a friend while the temperature remained below +-40°, exacerbated by a wind that rendered travelling dangerous. +Moreover, by waiting I had company on the way, and now that I was +without native attendant or white companion, and disposed, if possible, +to make the journey right across the peninsula to Council and then to +Nome without engaging fresh assistance, I was doubly glad of the +opportunity of travelling with two men bound for the same places and +acquainted with the route. + +[Sidenote: THE SEWARD PENINSULA] + +Travelling, like so many other things, is very different on the Seward +Peninsula. The constant winds beat down and harden the snow until it has +a crust that will carry a man anywhere. There are only two means by +which snow becomes crusted; one is this packing and solidifying by the +wind, and the other is thawing and freezing again. There is much less +wind in the interior than on the coast, and usually much less snowfall, +and the greater part of the surface of the country is protected by +trees; the climate, being continental instead of marine, is not subject +to such great fluctuations of temperature. A thaw sufficiently +pronounced or sufficiently prolonged to put a stout crust on the snow +when freezing is resumed, is a very rare thing in the interior and a +common thing on the coast. So a striking difference in travel at once +manifests itself; in the interior all the snow is soft except on a +beaten trail itself, while in the Seward Peninsula all the snow is alike +hard. The musher is not confined to trails--he can go where he pleases; +and his vehicle is under no necessity of conforming in width to a +general usage of the country--it may be as wide as he pleases. Hence the +hitching of dogs two and three abreast; hence the sleds of twenty-two, +twenty-four, or twenty-six inches in width. My tandem rig aroused the +curiosity of those who saw it. Hence many other differences also. +Hitherto we had not dreamed of watering the dogs since snow fell; now I +found their mouths bloody from their ineffectual attempts to dig up the +hard snow with their teeth, and had to water them night and morning. It +is not the custom on the Seward Peninsula to cook for the dogs, and dog +mushers there argue the needlessness of that trouble. But the true +reason is other and obvious. It is difficult for the traveller to get +enough wood to cook for himself, let alone the dogs. On the Seward +Peninsula skis are extensively used when there is soft snow; the +prevalence of brush almost everywhere in the interior renders them of +little use--and they are, therefore, little used, snow-shoes being +universal. + +So, as in nearly all such matters everywhere, local peculiarities, local +differences, local customs, usually arise from local conditions, and the +wise man will commonly conform so soon as he discovers them. There is +almost always a sufficient reason for them. + +[Sidenote: A "SIDLING" TRAIL] + +The journey from Candle to Council was a surprisingly swift one. We +covered the one hundred and thirty miles in three days, far and away the +best travelling of the winter so far, but the usual time, I found. The +hard snow gives smooth passage though the interior of the peninsula is +rugged and mountainous; two prominent elevations, the Ass's Ears, +standing up as landmarks during the first day of the journey. The route +crossed ridge after ridge with steep grades, and the handling of the +heavy sled alone was too much for me. Again and again it was overturned, +and it was all that I could do, and more than I ought to have done, to +set it up again. The wind continued to blow with violence, and shelter +from it there was none. One hillside struggle I shall always remember. +The trail sloped with the hill and the wind was blowing directly down +it. I could keep no footing on the marble snow and had fallen heavily +again and again, in my frantic efforts to hold sled and dogs and all +from sweeping down into a dark ravine that loomed below, when I +bethought me of the "creepers" in the hind-sack, used on the rivers in +passing over glare ice. With these irons strapped to my feet I was able +to stand upright, but it was only by a hair's breadth once and again +that I got my load safely across. When I was wallowing in a hot bath at +Council two days later I found that my hip and thigh were black and blue +where I had fallen, though at the time, in my anxiety to save the dogs +and the sled, I had not noticed that I had bruised myself. So, judging +great things by little, one understands how a soldier may be sorely +wounded without knowing it in the heat and exaltation of battle. + +Then for a while there would be such travel as one sees in the +children's picture-books, where the man sits in the sled and cracks his +whip and is whisked along as gaily as you please--such travel as I had +never had before; but there was no pleasure in it--the wind saw to +that. + +On the second day we crossed "Death Valley," so called because two men +were once found frozen in it; a bleak, barren expanse, five or six miles +across, with a great gale blowing right down it, charged not only with +particles of hard snow but with spicules of ice and grains of sand. Our +course was south and the gale blew from the northwest, and the right +side of one's body and the right arm were continually numb from the +incessant beating of the wind. The parkee hood had to be drawn closely +all the time, and the eyes were sore from trying to peer ahead through +the fur edging of the hood. One grows to hate that wind with something +like a personal animosity, so brutal, so malicious does it seem. An +incautious turn of the head and the scarf that protected mouth and nose +was snatched from me and borne far away in an instant, beyond thought of +recovery. It seems to lie in wait, and one fancies a fresh shrill of +glee in its note at every new discomfiture it can inflict. There is +nothing far-fetched in the native superstition that puts a malignant +spirit in the wind; it is the most natural feeling in the world. I said +so that night in camp, and one of my companions mentioned something +about "rude Boreas," and I laughed. The gentle myths of Greece do not +fit this country. The Indian name means "the wind beast," and is +appropriate. + +A savage, forbidding country, this whole interior of the Seward +Peninsula, uninhabited and unfit for habitation; a country of naked rock +and bare hillside and desolate, barren valley, without amenities of any +kind and cursed with a perpetual icy blast. + +[Sidenote: DEATH VALLEY] + +The valley crossed and its ridge surmounted, a still more heart-breaking +experience was in store. We descended the frozen bed of a creek from +which the wind had swept every trace of snow so that the ice was +polished as smooth as glass. The dogs could get no footing and were +continually down on their bellies, moving their legs instinctively but +helplessly, like the flippers of a turtle, while the wind carried dogs +and sled where it pleased. The grade was considerable and in bends the +creek spread out wide. Nothing but the creepers enabled a man to stand +at all, and creepers and brake together could not hold the sled from +careering sideways across the ice, dragging the dogs with it, until the +runners struck some pebble or twig frozen in the ice and the sled would +be violently overturned. Twice with freezing fingers I unlashed that +sled lying on its side, and took out nearly all the load before I could +succeed in getting it upright again, losing some of the lighter articles +each time. The third time was the worst of all. The brake had been +little more than a pivot on which sled and dogs were swung to leeward, +but now the teeth had become so blunt that, though I stood upon it with +all my weight, it would not hold at all nor check the sideways motion +under the impulse of the wind. Right across the creek we went, dragging +the dogs behind, jerking them hither and thither over the glassy +surface. I saw the rocks towards which we were driving, but was +powerless to avert the disaster, and hung on in some hope, I suppose, of +being able to minimise it, till, with a crash that broke two of the +uprights and threw me so hard that I skinned my elbow and hurt my head, +we were once more overturned. Never since I reached manhood, I think, +did I feel so much like sitting down and crying. It seemed hopeless to +think about getting down that creek until the wind stopped, and one +doubts if the wind ever does stop in that country. But there was no good +sitting there like a shipwrecked mariner, nursing sores and misfortunes; +presently one would begin to feel sorry for oneself--that last resort of +incompetence. And the bitter wind is a great stimulus. It will not +permit inaction. So I was up again, fumbling at the sled lashings as +best I could with torpid fingers, when one of my companions, uneasy at +my delay, very kindly made his way back, and with his assistance I was +able to get the sled upright again without unloading and hold it +somewhat better on its course until another bend or two brought us to +the partial shelter of bluffs and, a little farther, to the cabin where +we were to spend the night. I understood now why my companions had a +sort of hinged knife-edge fastened to one runner of their sled. By the +pressure of a foot the knife-edge engaged the ice and held the sled on +its course. This is another Seward Peninsula device. + +[Sidenote: THE KINDLY SWEDE] + +I have it in my diary that "a Swede named Petersen was very kind to us +at the cabin, cooking for us and giving us cooked dog feed." Blessed +Swede named Petersen!--there are hundreds of them in Alaska--and I shall +never forget that particular one's kindness--the only man I met in the +Seward Peninsula who still persisted in cooking dog feed whenever he +could. He had cooked up a mess of rice and fish enough to last his three +or four dogs several days while he sojourned at this cabin, and he gave +it all to us and would take nothing for it. His language was what +Truthful James calls "frequent and painful and free." I ignored it for a +while, loath to take exception to anything a man said who had been so +kind. But at last I could stand it no longer--it took all the savour out +of his hospitality--and I said: "I hope you won't mind my saying it, for +I'd hate to give offence to a man who has been so good to strangers as +you have, but I wish you'd cut out that cursing; it hurts my ears." He +sat silent a moment looking straight at me, and I was not sure how he +had taken it. Then he said: "Maybe you been kinder to me saying that, +than I been to you. That's the first time I ever been call down for +cursin'. I don't mean nothin' by it; it's just foolishness and I goin' +try to cut it out." + +The dogs had done but ill on the dry fish, accustomed as they were to +cooked food, and they ate ravenously of their supper. Only the previous +night Lingo had betrayed his trust for the first and last time. Coming +out of the cabin just before turning in, to take a last look round, I +saw Lingo on top of the sled eating something, and I found that he had +dug a slab of bacon out of the unlashed load and had eaten most of it. I +knew he was hungry, missing the filling, satisfying mess he was used to, +and I did not thrash him, I simply said, "Oh, Lingo!" and the dog got +off the sled and slunk away, the very picture of conscious, shamefaced +guilt. That was the only time he did such a thing in all the six years I +drove him. + +Council was past its prime at the time of this visit, but just as we +entered the town, at the end of the third day's run, it seemed in danger +of going through all the stages of decadence with a rush to total +destruction out of hand, for a fire had broken out in a laundry, and +with the high wind still blowing it looked as though every building was +doomed. Of two chemical engines possessed by the town one refused to +work, but the vigour and promptness of the people in forming two lines +down to the river, and passing buckets with the utmost rapidity, coped +with the outbreak just in time to prevent its spreading beyond all +control. Tired as we were, we all pitched in and passed buckets until +parkees and mitts and mukluks were incrusted with ice from water that +was spilled. Efficient protection is a matter of great difficulty and +expense in Alaskan towns, and there is not one of them that has escaped +being swept by fire. The buildings are almost necessarily all of wood, +the cost of brick and stone construction being prohibitive. No one can +guarantee ten years of life to a placer-mining town, and there would be +no warrant for the expenditure of the sums required for fireproof +building even were the capital available. But the rapidity with which +they are rebuilt, where rebuilding is justified, is even more remarkable +than the rapidity with which they are destroyed. + +A Saturday and Sunday were very welcome at Council, and the courtesy of +the Presbyterian minister, who gave up his church and his congregations +to me, Esquimaux in the morning and white at night, was much +appreciated. + +[Sidenote: NORTON SOUND] + +In warmer weather, the thermometer no lower than -5° at the start, but +with the same gale blowing that had blown ever since we left Candle, +though it had shifted towards the northeast, we got away on Monday +morning, bound for Nome, ninety miles away, hoping to reach the half-way +house that night. Five or six hours' run over good trails, with no +greater inconvenience than the acceleration of our pace by the wind on +down grades, until the sled frequently overran the dogs with +entanglements and spillings, brought us to the seacoast at Topkok, and a +noble view opened up as we climbed the great bluff. There Norton Sound +spread out before us, its ice largely cleared away and blown into Bering +Sea by the strong wind that had prevailed for nearly a week, its waves +sparkling and dashing into foam in the March sunshine; the distant +cliffs and mountains of its other shore just visible in the clear air. +It was an exhilarating sight--the first free water that I had seen since +the summer, and it seemed rejoicing in its freedom, leaping up with glee +to greet the mighty ally that had struck off its fetters. + +But from this point troubles began to grow. We dropped down presently to +the shore and passed along the glare surface of lagoon after lagoon, the +wind doing what it liked with the sled, for it was impossible to handle +it at all. Sometimes we went along broadside on, sometimes the sled +first and the dogs trailing behind, moving their silly, helpless paws +from side to side as they were dragged over the ice on their bellies. +When we had passed these lagoons the trail took the beach, running +alongside and just to windward of a telephone-line, with rough shore +ice to the left and bare rocks to the right. Again and again the already +injured sled was smashed heavily against a telephone pole. I would see +the impact coming and strive my utmost to avert it, but without a gee +pole, and swinging the sled only by the handle-bars, it was more than I +could do to hold the sled on its course against the beam wind that was +forcing it towards the ice and the telephone poles; and a gee pole could +not be used at the rate we had travelled ever since we left Candle. Mile +after mile we went along in this way. I do not know how many poles I hit +and how many I missed, but every pole on that stretch of coast was a +fresh and separate anxiety and menace to me. I think I would have been +perfectly willing to have abolished and wiped out the whole invention of +the telephone so I could be rid of those hateful poles. What were +telephone poles doing in the arctic regions anyway? Telephone poles +belonged with electric cars and interurban trolley-lines, not with dog +teams and sleds. + +Then it grew dark and the wind increased. I did not know it, but I was +approaching that stretch of coast which is notorious as the windiest +place in all Alaska, a place the topography of which makes it a natural +funnel for the outlet of wind should any be blowing anywhere in the +interior of the peninsula. My companions were far ahead, long since out +of sight. I struggled along a little farther, and, just after a +particularly bad collision and an overturning, I saw a light glimmering +in the snow to my right. It was a little road-house, buried to the eaves +and over the roof in snow-drift, with window tunnels and a door tunnel +excavated in the snow. I was yet, I learned, five miles from Solomon's, +my destination, but I hailed this haven as my refuge for the night and +went no farther, more exhausted by the struggle of the last two or three +hours than by many an all-day tramp on snow-shoes. It was a miserable, +dirty little shack, but it was tight; it meant shelter from that +pitiless wind. That night the thermometer stood at 7°, the first plus +temperature in twenty-two days. + +By morning the gale had greatly diminished, and by the time I reached +Solomon's and rejoined my companions it was calm, the first calm since +we left the middle Kobuk. We had some rough ice to cross to avoid a long +detour of the coast, and then we were back on the shore again and it +began to snow. The snow was soon done and the sun shone, but the new +coating of dazzling white gave such a glare that it was necessary to put +on the snow glasses for the first time of the winter--and that is always +a sign winter draws to a close. + +[Sidenote: DOGS AND REINDEER] + +On the approach to Nome we had our first encounter with reindeer, and at +once my dog team became unmanageable. I had had some trouble that +morning with a horse. A new dog I procured at Kikitaruk had never seen a +horse before, and made frantic efforts to get at him, leaping at his +haunches as we passed by. But when they saw the reindeer the whole team +set off at a run, dragging the heavy sled as if it were nothing. The +Esquimau driving the deer saw the approaching dogs and hastily drew his +equipage off the trail farther inshore, standing between the deer and +the dogs with a heavy whip. What the result would have been had the +dogs reached the deer it is hard to say. I had kept my stand on the step +behind the sled and managed to check its wild career with the brake and +to throw it over and stop the approach before the carnivora reached +their immemorial prey. Herein lies one of the difficulties of the +domestication of reindeer in Alaska, a country where so far dogs have +been the only domestic animals. Again, as we entered the outskirts of +Nome the incident was repeated, and only the hasty driving of the +reindeer into a barn prevented the dogs from seizing the deer that time. + +[Sidenote: NOME] + +Jimmy was long deposed from his ineffectual leadership and a little dog +named Kewalik--the one I obtained at Kikitaruk--was at the head of the +team. Kewalik had never seen so many houses before; hitherto almost +every cabin he had reached on his journeys had been a resting-place, and +he wanted to dive into every house we passed. At Candle and Council +both, our stopping-place had been near the entrance to the little town. +But now we had to pass up one long street after another and I had +continually to drag him and the team he led first from a yard on this +side of the road and then from one on the other. The dog was perfectly +bewildered and out of his head by the number of people and the number of +houses he saw. We were indeed a sorry, travel-worn, unkempt, uncivilised +band, man and dogs, with an old, battered vehicle, and we felt our +incongruity with the new environment as we entered the metropolis of the +luxury and wealth of the North. Here we passed a jeweller's shop, the +whole window aglow with the dull gleam of gold and ivory--the terrible +nugget jewellery so much affected in these parts and the walrus ivory +which is Alaska's other contribution of material for the ornamental +arts. Here we passed a veritable department store, its ground-floor +plate-glass window set as a drawing-room, with gilded, brocaded chairs, +marquetry table, and ormolu clock, and I know not what costliness of rug +and curtain. It was all so strange that it seemed unreal after that long +passage of the savage wilds, that long habitation of huts and igloos and +tents. Hitherto we had often been fortunate could we buy a little flour +and bacon; here the choice comestibles of the earth were for sale. I +looked askance at my greasy parkee as I passed shops where English +broadcloth and Scotch tweeds were displayed; at my worn, clumsy mukluks +when I saw patent-leather pumps. But Nome knows how to welcome the +wanderer from the wilderness and to make him altogether at home. There +could be no warmer hospitality than that with which I was received by +the Reverend John White and his wife, than that which I had at many a +home during my week's stay. + +Nothing in the world could have caused the building of a city where Nome +is built except the thing that caused it: the finding of gold on the +beach itself and in the creeks immediately behind it. It has no harbour +or roadstead, no shelter or protection of any kind; it is in as bleak +and exposed a position as a man would find if he should set out to hunt +the earth over for ineligible sites. + +But Nome is also a fine instance of the way men in the North conquer +local conditions and wring comfort out of bleakness and desolation by +the clever adaptation of means to ends. + +The art of living comfortably in the North had to be learned, and it has +been learned pretty thoroughly. People live at Nome as well as they do +"outside." One may sit down to dinners as well cooked, as well +furnished, as well served as any dinners anywhere. The good folk of Nome +delight in spreading their dainty store before the unjaded appetite of +the winter traveller, and it would be affectation to deny that there is +keen relish of enjoyment in the long-unwonted gleam of wax candle or +electrolier upon perfect appointment of glass, silver, and napery, in +the unobtrusive but vigilant service of white-jacketed Chinaman or Jap. +Nome has a great advantage over its only rival in the interior, +Fairbanks, in the matter of freight rates. The same merchandise that is +landed at the one place for ten or twelve dollars a ton within ten or +twelve days of its leaving Seattle, costs fifty or sixty at the other, +and takes a month or more to arrive. But this accessibility in the +summer is exactly reversed in the winter. No practicable route has been +discovered along the uninhabited shores of Bering Sea, and all the mail +for Nome comes from Valdez to Fairbanks and then down the Yukon and +round Norton Sound by dog team. In winter Fairbanks is within seven or +eight days of open salt water; Nome a full month. After navigation +closes in October, the first mail does not commonly reach the Seward +Peninsula until January. So that, with all its comforts and luxuries, +Nome is a very isolated place for eight months in the year. + +[Illustration: GOLD-MINING AT NOME.] + +[Illustration: PULLING THE "PELICAN" OUT WITH A "SPANISH WINDLASS."] + +[Sidenote: MINING AT NOME] + +We went out with the dog sled to the diggings a few miles behind the +town, and a busy scene we found, enveloped in steam and smoke. Here an +old beach line had been discovered and was yielding rich reward for the +working. A long line of conical "dumps" marked its extension roughly +parallel with the present shore, and the buckets that arose from the +depths, travelled along a cable, and at just the right moment upset +their contents, continually added to these heaps. All the winter +"pay-dirt" is thus excavated and stored; in the summer when the streams +run the gold is sluiced out. But that phrase "when the streams run" +covers a world of difficulty and expense to the miner. In some places in +this Seward Peninsula, ditches thirty and forty miles long have been +constructed to insure the streams running when and where they are +needed. + +There was quite a little to do in Nome. A new sled must be bought, and +another dog, and, above all, some arrangement made about a travelling +companion. I was not willing to hire a native who would have to return +here, and I was resolved never again to travel alone. So I put an +advertisement in the newspaper, desiring communication with some man who +was intending a journey to Fairbanks immediately, and was fortunate to +meet a sober, reliable man who undertook to accompany and assist me for +the payment of his travelling expenses. + +The week wore rapidly away, and I began to be eager to depart, mindful +of the eight hundred odd miles yet to be covered. Spring seemed already +here and summer treading upon her heels, for the town was all slush and +mud from a decided "soft snap," the thermometer standing well above +freezing for days in succession. + +A visitor to this place is struck by the number of articles made from +walrus ivory exposed for sale, chief amongst them being cribbage-boards. +A walk down the streets would argue the whole population given over to +the incessant playing of cribbage. The explanation is found in the +difficulty of changing the direction of Esquimau activity once that +direction is established. These clever artificers were started making +cribbage-boards long ago and it seems impossible to stop them. Every +summer they come in from their winter hunting with fresh supplies carved +during the leisure of the long nights. The beautiful walrus tusk becomes +almost an ugly thing when it is thus hacked flat and bored full of +holes. The best pieces of Esquimau carving are not these things, made by +the dozen, but the domestic implements made for their own use, and some +of this work is very clever and tasteful indeed, adorned with fine bold +etchings of the chase of walrus, seal, and polar bear. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +NOME TO FAIRBANKS--NORTON SOUND--THE KALTAG PORTAGE--NULATO--UP THE +YUKON TO TANANA + + +WE left Nome on the 13th of March, the night before being taken up by a +banquet which the Commercial Club was kind enough to give me; indeed, +the whole stay was marked by lavish kindness and hospitality, and I left +with the feeling that Nome was one of the most generous and open-handed +places I had ever visited. + +The soft weather continued and made sloppy travel. Our course lay all +around Norton Sound to Unalaklík, and then over the portage to Kaltag on +the Yukon; up the Yukon to the mouth of the Tanana, and then up that +river to Fairbanks. The first day's run was the retracing of our steps +to Solomon's, and that was done without difficulty save for a new +trouble with the dogs. It appeared that we no longer had any leader. All +the winter through my team had been behind another team, and that +constant second place had turned our leaders into followers. We thought +we had two leaders, but neither one was willing to proceed without some +one or something ahead of him. On such good ice-going as this it was out +of the question for one of us to run ahead of the team simply to please +these leader-perverts, and the whip had to be wielded heavily on Jimmy's +back ere he could be induced to fill his proper office--and then he did +it ill, with constant exasperating stoppings and lookings-back. At +Solomon's I met a man who had spent some years with Peary in his arctic +explorations, and I sat up far into the night drawing interesting +narratives out of him. So far as Topkok we were still retracing our +steps, but once over the great bluff, which gave no view this time owing +to the mist which accompanies this soft weather, we were on new ground, +our course lying wholly along the beach. + +At Bluff was the most interesting, curious gold mining I have ever seen, +the extraction of gold from the sand of Norton Sound, two hundred yards +or more out from the beach. There it lies under ten or twelve feet of +water with the ice on top. How shall it be reached? Why, by the exact +converse of the usual Alaskan placer mining; by freezing down instead of +thawing down. The ice is cut away from the beginning of a shaft, almost +but not quite down to the water, leaving just a thin cake. The +atmospheric cold, penetrating this cake, freezes the water below it, and +presently the hole is chopped down a little farther, leaving always a +thin cake above the water. A canvas chute is arranged over the shaft, +with a head like a ship's ventilator that can be turned any way to catch +the wind. Gradually the water is frozen down, and as it is frozen more +and more ice is removed until the bottom is reached, surrounded and +protected by a cylindrical shaft of ice; then the sand can be removed +and the gold it contains washed out. They told us they were making good +money and their ingenuity certainly deserved it. + +[Sidenote: ICE TRAVEL] + +We stopped that night at the native village of Chinnik, the people of +which are looked after by a mission of the Swedish Evangelical Church on +Golofnin Bay, which we should cross to-morrow. But the mission is off +the trail, and we did not come to an acquaintance with the missionaries +of this body until we reached Unalaklík. Next day, climbing and +descending considerable grades in warm, misty weather, we reached +Golofnin Bay, pursued it some distance, and left it by a very steep, +long hill that was close to one thousand feet high, at the foot of which +we were once more on the beach of the sound--and at the road-house for +the night. From that place the trail no longer hugged the coast but +struck out boldly across the ice for a distant headland, Moses' Point, +where we lunched, and, that point reached, struck out again for Isaac's +Point, most of the travelling during a long day in which we made +forty-eight miles being four or five miles from land. The day was clear, +and the shore-line of the other side of the sound, which grew nearer as +we proceeded, was subject to strange distortions of mirage. The +road-house that night nestled picturesquely against a great bluff, and +right across the ice lay Texas Point, for which we should make a +bee-line to-morrow. Sometimes the traveller must go all round Norton +Bay, but at this time the ice was in good condition and our route cut +across the mouth of the bay for twenty-two miles straight for the other +side. It was like crossing from Dover to Calais on the ice. The passage +made, the Alaskan mainland was reached once more, the Seward Peninsula +left behind us, and our way lay across desolate, low-lying tundra +strewn with driftwood and hollowed out here and there into little +lagoons. Evidently the waves sweep clean across it in stormy weather +when the sound is open; a salt marsh. In the midst of it reared a sort +of lookout tripod of driftwood thirty or forty feet high, lashed and +nailed together, with a precarious little platform on top and cleats +nailed to one of the uprights for ascent. I essayed the view, but the +rusty nails broke under my feet. We deemed it a hunting tower from which +water-fowl might be spied in the spring. Sixteen miles of this +melancholy waste brought us to the shore again, to a tiny Esquimau +village and a tumble-down, half-buried shack of a road-house where we +should spend the night, a little schooner lying beached in front of it. +If its exterior were uninviting, the scene as we entered was sinister. +By the light of a single candle--though it was not yet dark +outside--amidst unwashed dishes and general grime, sat an evil-eyed +Portuguese or Spaniard, in a red toque, playing poker with three +skin-clad Esquimaux. So absorbed were they in the game that they had not +heard us arrive nor seen us enter. With a brief, reluctant interval for +the preparation of a poor supper, the card playing went on all the +evening far into the night. My companion discovered that the chips were +worth a dollar apiece and judged it to be "considerable of a game." At +last I arose from my bunk and said that we were tired and had come there +to sleep, and with an ill grace the playing was shortly abandoned and +the natives went off. The arctic shores have their beach-combers as well +as the South Sea Islands. + +[Sidenote: UNALAKLÍK] + +The next day was Sunday, but I was anxious to spend my day of rest at +Unalaklík and most indisposed to spend it here, so we got away with a +very early start long before daylight. Six or seven miles of tundra and +lagoon travel and the trail crossed abruptly a tongue of land and struck +out over the salt-water ice for a cape fifteen miles away. The going was +splendid. It was not glare ice, but ice upon which snow had melted and +frozen again. It was so smooth that one dog could have drawn the sled, +yet not so smooth as to deny good footing. We kept well out to sea, +passing close to the mountainous mass of Besborough Island, plainly +riven by some ancient convulsion from the sheer bluffs of the mainland. +Our only trouble was in keeping the dogs well enough out, for, not being +water-spaniels or other marine species, they had a hankering after the +land and a continual tendency to edge in to shore. + +So from headland to headland we made rapid, easy traverse, thoroughly +enjoying the ride, munching chocolate and raisins, speculating about the +seasons when it had been possible to cross direct from Nome to Saint +Michael on the ice, and exchanging stories we had heard of the disasters +and hairbreadth escapes attending such overbold venture. Only this +winter three men and a dog team were blown out into Bering Sea by a +sudden storm, and lay for four days in their sleeping-bags drifting up +and down on an ice cake, until at last they were blown back to the shore +ice and made their escape. And there is a fine story of a white man +rescued in half-frozen state by his Esquimau wife, and carried for miles +on her back to safety. + +At last we turned a point and drew in to the shore, and, not seeing the +little town till we were almost upon it, arrived at Unalaklík early in +the afternoon. We had made the two hundred and forty miles, as it is +called, from Nome, in six days. In the last twelve days of travel we had +covered five hundred miles, an average of nearly forty-two miles per +day, far and away the best travelling of the winter. The preceding five +hundred miles had taken twenty-two days. + +We were in time to attend the Esquimau services at the mission both +afternoon and night, and I found them very much the same as at +Kikitaruk, with the exception that the singing was much more advanced +and was very good indeed. There was an anthem of the Danks type sung by +a choir--the parts well maintained throughout, the attacks good, the +voices under excellent control--that it pleased and surprised me to +hear, and there was a long discourse most patiently and, as I judged, +faithfully interpreted by a bright-looking Esquimau boy. It is well for +those who speak much through an interpreter to listen occasionally to +similar discourse. Only so may its unavoidable tediousness be +appreciated. + +[Sidenote: GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS] + +The school next day pleased me still more, and I was glad that I had a +school-day at the place. I heard good reading and spelling, saw good +writing, and listened with real enjoyment to the fresh young voices +raised again and again in song. There was, however, something so +curiously exotic that for a moment it seemed irresistibly funny, in "The +Old Oaken Bucket," from lips that have difficulty with the vowel sounds +of English; from children that never saw a well and never will see +one;--and I was irreverent enough to have much the same feeling about "I +love thy templed hills," etc., in that patriotic Plymouth Rock song +which is so little adapted for universal American use that, in a gibe +not without justice, it has been called "Smith's Country, 'tis of Thee." +One wonders if they sing it in the Philippine schools; and, so far as +these regions are concerned, one wishes that some teacher with a spark +of genius would take Goldsmith's hint and write a simple song for +Esquimau children that should + + "Extol the treasures of their finny seas + And their long nights of revelry and ease"; + +the splendour of summer's perpetual sunshine and the weird radiance of +the Northern Lights; but prosody is not taught in your "Normal" school. +The thing is a vain, artificial attempt to impose a whole body of ideas, +notions, standards of comparison, metaphors, similes, and sentiments +upon a race to which, in great measure, they must ever be foreign and +unintelligible. Here were girls reading in a text-book of so-called +physiology, and, as it happened, the lesson that day was on the evils of +tight lacing! The reading of that book, I was informed, is imposed by +special United States statute, and the teacher must make a separate +report that so much of it has been duly gone through each month before +the salary can be drawn. Yet none of those girls ever saw a corset or +ever will. One is reminded of the dear old lady who used to visit the +jails and distribute tracts on _The Evils of Keeping Bad Company_. + +But these incongruities aside, the school was a good school and well +taught, the government appointing the teachers, as I learned, upon the +nomination of the mission authorities; the only way that a government +school can be successful at any mission station, for the two agencies +must work together, as one's right hand works with one's left, to effect +any satisfactory result. The hours spent in it were very enjoyable, and +one wished one might have had opportunity for further acquaintance with +some of the bright-faced, interesting children, both full-bloods and +half-breeds. + +Unalaklík is a thriving Esquimau community, noted for its native +schooner building and its successful seal hunters and fishermen. We were +rejoiced to see signs of native prosperity and advance, and we left +Unalaklík with high hope for its future. + +Here also was real rest and refreshment at a road-house. Road-houses in +Alaska are as various in quality as inns are "outside." Our previous +night's halt was at one of the worst; this was one of the best. The +proprietor was a good cook and he did his best for us, with omelet and +pastry, and young, tender reindeer. It has been said that road-house +keeping in Alaska is like soliciting life insurance "outside," the last +resort of incompetence. Certain it is that a thoroughly lazy and +incompetent man may yet make a living keeping a road-house, for there is +no rivalry save at the more important points, and travellers are +commonly so glad to reach any shelter that they are not disposed to be +censorious. None the less, when they find a man who takes a pride in his +business and an interest in the comfort of his guests, they are highly +appreciative. + +[Sidenote: THE KALTAG PORTAGE] + +We should have only an occasional road-house from now on, but expected +to reach some inhabited cabin each night. Our good travelling was over +though we did not know it. We knew that the hard snows of the Seward +Peninsula and the bare ice of Norton Sound were behind us, but we kept +telling ourselves that the travel of all the winter would surely have +left a fine trail on the Yukon. We were now about sixty-five miles from +Saint Michael, by the coast. But taking the ninety-mile portage from +Unalaklík to Kaltag we should reach the Yukon River more than five +hundred miles above Saint Michael, so much does that portage cut off. +This is the route the military telegraph-line takes, and we should +travel along close beside it much of the way until the Yukon was +reached. + +The soft weather persisted, and we had even doubt about starting out in +such a rapid thaw. A visit to the telegraph station informed us that the +warm wave was spread all over interior Alaska and that there was general +expectation of an early break-up. But if the snow on the portage were +indeed rapidly going, that was all the more reason for getting across +before it had altogether gone; so we pulled out in the warm, muggy +weather, and even as we pulled out it began to rain! + +Up the little Unalaklík River, water over the ice everywhere, we went +for a few miles and then took to the tundra. All the snow had gone +except just the hard snow of the trail, a winding ribbon of white across +the brown moss. The rain changed to sleet and back to rain again, and +soon we were wet through and had much trouble in keeping that +penetrating, persistent drizzle from wetting our load through the canvas +cover. Though not an unique experience, it is rare to be wet with rain +on the winter trail--rarer in the interior probably than on the coast. +Once since on the Kuskokwim and once on the Fortymile it has happened to +me in seven winters' travel. We pushed on for thirty miles, past several +little native villages, until we came to Whaleback, a village part +Esquimau and part Indian. These were the last Esquimaux we should see, +and I was sorry, for I had grown to like very heartily and to respect +very sincerely this kindly, gentle, industrious, good-humoured race. +Surely they are a people any nation may be proud to have fringing its +otherwise uninhabitable coasts, and should be eager to aid and conserve. +There comes a feeling of impotent exasperation to me when I realise how +many white men there are who speak of them continually with the utmost +contempt and see them dwindle with entire complacency. The same thing is +true in even more marked degree about the Indians of the interior: nine +tenths of the land will never have other inhabitant, of that I am +convinced, and the only question is, shall it be an inhabited wilderness +or an uninhabited wilderness? Here, lodging with the natives, and, I +make no doubt, living off them too, we found a queer, skulking white man +whom I had met in several different sections of interior Alaska, known +as "Snow-shoe Joe" or "The Frozen Hobo." The arctic regions one would +esteem a poor place for the hobo, but this man manages to eke out an +existence, if not to flourish, therein. Work he will not under any +circumstances, but subsists on the hospitality of the whites until he +has entirely worn it out and then removes to the natives, mushing from +camp to camp and "bumming" his way as he goes. He was on his way to +Saint Michael, he told me with perfect gravity, "to get work." + +[Sidenote: THE U. S. SIGNAL-CORPS] + +Before dark we had reached our destination for the night at the Old +Woman Mountain, the divide between the waters of the Yukon and the +waters of Norton Sound, and were kindly received and well treated at the +telegraph station, the only resort on this portage for weary travellers. +Here is surely a lonely post. For reasons connected with the maintenance +of the wires and the keeping open of communications, it is necessary to +have telegraph stations every forty or fifty miles, each with two or +three men and a dog team, and shelter cabins about half-way between +stations. A wind that blows a tree down in the narrow right-of-way cut +through the forest--for we were come to forest again--or a heavy +snowfall that loads branches until they fall across the wires, a post +that comes up out of its hole as the thawing of spring heaves the ground +around it, or the caving of the bank of a stream along which the line +passes--any one of a dozen such happenings anywhere along its thousand +miles of course, may put the entire inland telegraph system out of +operation; and the young men in whose section the interruption +occurs--they have a means of determining that--must get out at once, +find the seat of the trouble and repair it. In all sorts of weather, +unless the thermometer be below -40°, out they must go. + +It may be doubted if any other army in the world ever constructed and +maintained a permanent telegraph line under such arduous conditions. It +has been the army's one contribution to Alaska, the one justification +for the enormous expense of maintaining army posts in the interior. +Indeed it is often said by those who feel keenly the neglect of the +territory by the general government that this telegraph system is the +one contribution of the United States to Alaska. It is certainly a great +public convenience and has assisted very materially in such development +as the country has made. The men of the signal-corps deserve great +credit for the faithful, dogged way in which they have carried out year +after year their difficult and hazardous work, and often and often the +weather-stressed traveller has been grateful for the hospitality which +their cabins have afforded him. + +They have not been an unmixed blessing to the country; soldiers do not +usually represent the highest morale of the nation, and though the +signal-corps is in some respect a picked corps, yet the men are +soldiers, with many of the soldier characteristics. Too often a remote +telegraph station has been a little centre of drunkenness, gambling, and +debauchery with a little circumference of native men and women, and +while some of the officers of the corps have been willing and anxious to +do all in their power to suppress this sort of thing in their scattered +and difficult commands, others have been jealous only for the technical +efficiency of their work. + +[Sidenote: MORE SNOW] + +There are many allowances to be made for young men taken from the +society of their kind and thrust out hundreds of miles in the wilderness +to sit down for a year or two at one of these isolated spots. They may +see no women save those amongst a straggling band of Indians for the +whole time of their exile; they may see no white man save a +mail-carrier--and in many places not even a mail-carrier--for weeks +together. Time sometimes hangs very heavily on their hands, for trees +are not always blowing down, nor wires snapping through the tension of +the cold, and at some stations there will not be a dozen telegraph +messages sent the whole winter through. If a young man be at all +ambitious of self-improvement, here is splendid opportunity of leisure, +but a great many are not at all so disposed. Character, except the most +firmly founded, is apt to deteriorate under such circumstances; +standards of conduct to be lowered. And what is here written of the +young men of the signal-corps may well apply in great measure to a large +proportion of all the white men in the country. + +The "eighty-mile portage" we had heard of at Nome became ninety miles at +Unalaklík, and added another five to itself here, so that although we +had travelled forty-two miles that day we were told that there were yet +fifty-three ahead before we reached the Yukon. + +So we decided not to attempt it in one day and to rest the next night at +a "repair cabin" twenty-eight miles farther, making a somewhat late +start in view of a short journey. It had been wiser to have started +early. During our night at Old Woman Mountain some three inches of snow +fell, and we found as we descended the Yukon slope that all the moisture +that had fallen upon us as rain the previous day had fallen on this side +as snow. The trail was filled full and buried, and so soft and mushy was +it that although snow-shoes were badly needed they were impossible. The +snow clung to them and came off the ground with them in heavy, clogging +masses every time they were lifted. It clung to the sled, to the +harness, to the dogs' feet, to everything that touched it; it gathered +in ever-increasing snowballs on the long hair of the dogs. Travelling in +warm weather in loose, new snow is most disagreeable work. We plugged +along for twenty miles, and then in the dark in an open country with +little patches of scattering spruce, had great trouble in finding the +trail at all. + +At last we could find it no longer, and when there was no hope of +reaching the cabin that night we made a camp. We had now no tent or +stove with us, so a "Siwash camp" in the open was the best we could do, +and a wet, miserable camp it was. By inexcusable carelessness on my +part, candles had been altogether forgotten in the replenishing of the +supplies, and a little piece an inch long which we found loose in the +grub box was all that we possessed. Dogs and men alike exhausted with +the long day's sweating struggle through the deep snow, sleep should +have come soundly and soon. It did to the rest, but I lay awake the +night through. The easy, riding travel of the preceding week had been a +poor preparation for to-day's incessant toil, and I was too tired to +sleep. In the morning our bedding was covered with a couple of inches +of new snow. My companion got up at daylight and made a journey of +investigation ahead, following the trail better, but not finding the +cabin. We had thought ourselves within a mile or two of it, but +evidently were farther away. However, when we had eaten a hasty +breakfast and hitched up and had gone along the trail that had been +broken that morning to its end, ten yards beyond the place where my +companion had turned back, we came in sight of the cabin, and there we +lay and rested and dried things out all day and spent the next night. +During the day there came a team from Kaltag, and once again we enjoyed +the delight of receiving, and at the same time conferring, the richest +gift and greatest possible benefit to the traveller--a trail. + +[Sidenote: THE YUKON ONCE MORE] + +The next evening as it drew towards dark, after another day of soft, +warm disagreeable travel, we reached the end of the portage, and the +broad white Yukon stretched before us once more. Our hearts leaped up +and I think the dogs' hearts leaped up also at the sight. I called to +Nanook as we stopped on the bank, "Nanook, there's the good old Yukon +again!" and he lifted his voice in that intelligent, significant bark +that surely meant that he saw and understood. We had left the Yukon on +the 15th of December at Fort Yukon; we reached it again on the 23d of +March at Kaltag, more than six hundred miles lower down. We had two +hundred and fifty miles of travel on its surface before us, and then +close to another two hundred and fifty up the Tanana River to Fairbanks. +But alas! for the fine Yukon trail we had promised ourselves! As we +looked out across the broad river there was no narrow, dark line +undulating over its surface, nor even a faint, continuous inequality to +hint that trail had been, on snow "less hideously serene"; its perfect +smoothness and whiteness were unscarred and unsullied. The trail was +wiped out and swallowed up by the late snows and winds. + +[Sidenote: A LEARNED JESUIT] + +There is little interest in lingering over the long, laborious, +monotonous grind up that river on show-shoes. When one has looked +forward to pleasant, quick travel, the disappointment at slow, heavy +plodding is the keener. The first little bit of trail we had was as we +approached Nulato two days later on a Sunday morning, and it was made by +the villagers from below going up to church at the Roman Catholic +mission. We arrived in time for service, and enjoyed the natives' voices +raised in the Latin chants as well as in hymns wisely put into the +vernacular. It is historically a little curious to find Roman Catholic +natives singing praises in their own tongue, and Protestant missions, +like those on the Kobuk and Kotzebue Sound, using a language "not +understanded of the people." The day was the Feast of the Annunciation +as well as Sunday, and there was some special decorating of the church +and perhaps some elaboration of the music. Here for the first and only +time I listened to a white man so fluent and vigorous in the native +tongue that he gave one the impression of eloquence. Father Jetté of the +Society of Jesus is the most distinguished scholar in Alaska. He is the +chief authority on the native language, and manners and customs, beliefs +and traditions of the Middle Yukon, and has brought to the patient, +enthusiastic labour of years the skill of the trained philologist. It +is said by the Indians that he knows more of the Indian language than +any one of them does, and this is not hard to believe when it is +understood that he has systematically gleaned his knowledge from widely +scattered segments of tribes, jotting down in his note-books old forms +of speech lingering amongst isolated communities, and legends and +folk-lore stories still remembered by the aged but not much repeated +nowadays; always keen to add to his store or to verify or disprove some +etymological conjecture that has occurred to his fertile mind. His work +is recognised by the ethnological societies of Europe, and much of his +collected material has been printed in their technical journals. + +A man of wide general culture, master of three or four modern, as well +as the classic, languages, a mathematician, a writer of beautiful, clear +English, although it is not his mother tongue, he carries it with the +modesty, the broad-minded tolerance, the easy urbanity that always +adorn, though they by no means always accompany, the profession of the +scholar; and one is better able to understand after some years' +acquaintance with such a man, after falling under the authority of his +learning and the charm of his courtesy, the wonderful power which the +society he belongs to has wielded in the world. If such devotion to the +instruction of the ignorant as was described at the mission on the +middle Kobuk be praiseworthy, by how much the more is one moved to +admiration at the spectacle of this man, who might fill with credit any +one of half a dozen professional chairs at the ordinary college, gladly +consecrating his life to the teaching of an Indian school! + +Hearing an interest expressed in the massacre which took place at Nulato +in 1851, Father Jetté offered to accompany us to the site of that +occurrence, about a mile away. It stands out prominently in the history +of a country that has been singularly free from bloodshed and outrage, +and its date is the notable date of the middle river, as the +establishment of the post at Fort Yukon by the Hudson Bay Company in +1846 is the notable date of the upper river. They are fixed points in +Indian chronology by which it is possible to approximate other dates and +to reach an estimate of the ages of old people. + +[Sidenote: THE NULATO MASSACRE] + +Much has been written about the Nulato massacre, and the accounts vary +in many particulars. The Russian post here was first established by +Malakof in 1838. Burned during his absence by the Indians, it was +re-established by Lieutenant Zagoskin of the Russian navy in 1842. The +extortions and cruelties of his successor, Deerzhavin, complicated by a +standing feud between two native tribes, and probably having the rival +powers of certain medicine-men as the match to the mine, brought about +the destruction of the place and the death of all its inhabitants, white +and native, by a sudden treacherous attack of the Koyukuk Indians. It +happened that Lieutenant Barnard of the British navy, detached from a +war-ship lying at Saint Michael to journey up the river and make +inquiries of the Koyukuk natives as to wandering white men, survivors of +Sir John Franklin's expedition, who might have been seen or heard of by +them, was staying at the post at the time and perished in the general +massacre. His grave, with a headboard bearing a Latin inscription, is +neatly kept up by the Jesuit priests at Nulato. + +In the last few years the river has been invading the bank upon which +the old village stood, and as the earth caves in relics of the slaughter +and burning come to light. Old copper kettles and samovars, buttons and +glass beads, all sorts of metal vessels and implements have been sorted +out from charred wood and ashes, together with numerous skulls and +quantities of bones. One of the most interesting of these relics was a +brass button from an official coat, with the Russian crowned +double-headed eagle on the face, and on the back, upon examination with +a lens, the word "Birmingham." + +Half the day serving for our day of rest this week, we were up and ready +to start early the next morning, but so violent a wind was blowing from +the southeast that we decided to remain, and the clatter of the +corrugated iron roof and the whirling whiteness outside the windows made +us glad to be in shelter. As the day advanced the wind increased to +almost hurricane force, and the two-story house in which we lay began to +rock in such a manner as to make the proprietor alarmed for his +dwelling. + +There was an "independent" trading-post at this village which seemed to +present an object-lesson in rapacity and greed. There was not an article +of standard quality in the store; the clothing was the most rascally +shoddy, the canned goods of the poorest brands; the whole stock the +cheapest stuff that could possibly be bought at bargain prices +"outside," yet the prices were higher even than those that prevail in +Alaska for the best merchandise. Loud complaints are often made against +the commercial corporation which does the great bulk of the business in +interior Alaska, yet if the writer had to choose whether he would be in +the hands of that company or in the hands of an "independent" trader, he +would unhesitatingly cast in his lot with the company. The independent +trader makes money, sometimes makes large money, and makes it fairly +easily, but the calling seems to appeal mainly, if not wholly, to men of +low character and no conscience. There are few things that would redound +more to the benefit of the Indian than a great improvement in the +character of the men with whom he is compelled to do business. + +The wind had subsided by the next morning and had been of benefit rather +than injury to us, for it had blown the accumulated new snow off the old +trail so that it was possible to perceive and follow it. But what was +our surprise to find, with the recollection of that rattling roof and +swaying building fresh in our minds, that ten miles away there had been +no wind at all! The snow lay undisturbed on every twig and bough from +which the gentlest breeze would have dislodged it. One never ceases to +wonder at what, for want of a better word, must be called the +_localness_ of much of the weather in Alaska--though, for that matter, +in all probability it is characteristic of weather in all countries. The +habit of continual outdoor travel gives scope as well as edge to one's +observation of such things which a life in one place denies. That +wind-storm had cut a clean swath across the Yukon valley. Yet it seems +strange that so violent a disturbance could take place without affecting +and, to some extent, agitating the atmosphere for many miles adjacent. + +[Sidenote: SNOW GLASSES] + +So, sometimes in snow-storm, sometimes in wind, always on snow-shoes and +often hard put to it to find and follow the trail at all, we struggled +on for two or three days more, sleeping one night at a wood-chopper's +hut, another in a telegraph cabin crowded with foul-mouthed infantrymen +sent out to repair the extensive damage of the recent storm and none too +pleased at the detail, we plodded our weary way up that interminable +river. At last we met the mail-man, that ever-welcome person on the +Alaskan trail, and his track greatly lightened our labour. By his +permission we broke into his padlocked cabin that night by the skilful +application of an axe-edge to a link of the chain, and were more +comfortable than we had been for some time. Past the mouth of the +Koyukuk, past Grimcop, past Lowden, past Melozikaket to Kokrine's and +Mouse Point, we plugged along, making twenty-two miles one day and +thirty another and then dropping again to eighteen. The temperature +dropped to zero, and a keen wind made it necessary to keep the nose +continually covered. At this time of year the covering of the nose +involves a fresh annoyance, for it deflects the breath upward, and the +moisture of it continually condenses on the snow glasses, which means +continual wiping. A stick of some sort of waxy compound to be rubbed +upon the glass, bought in New York as a preventive of the deposit of +moisture, proved entirely useless. In this respect the Esquimau snow +goggle, which is simply a piece of wood hollowed out into a cup and +illuminated by narrow slits, has advantage over any shape or kind of +glass protection. A French metal device of the same order that is +advertised in the dealer's catalogues was found to fail, perhaps owing +to a wrong optical arrangement of the slits. It caused an eye-strain +that brought on headache. But if that principle could be scientifically +worked out and such a device perfected, it would be a boon to the +traveller over sun-lit snow, for it would do away with glass altogether, +with its two chief objections--its fragility and its opacity when +covered with vapour. + +[Sidenote: SNOW-BLINDNESS] + +The indispensability of some eye protection when travelling in the late +winter, and the serious consequences that follow its neglect, were once +again demonstrated at Mouse Point. The road-house was crowded with +"busted" stampeders coming out of the Nowikaket country. There had been +a report of a rich "strike" on a creek of the Nowitna, late the previous +fall, and a number of men from other camps--some from as far as +Nome--had gone in there with "outfits" for the winter. The stampede had +been a failure; no gold was found; there was much indignant assertion +that no gold ever _had_ been found and that the reported "strike" was a +"fake," though to what end or profit such a "fake" stampede should be +caused, unless by some neighbouring trader, it is hard to understand; +and here were the stampeders streaming out again, a ragged, unkempt, +sorry-looking crowd in every variety of worn-out arctic toggery, many +of them suffering from acute snow-blindness. It is surprising that even +old-timers will go out in the hills for the whole winter without +providing themselves with protection against the glare of the sun which +they know will inevitably assail their eyes before the spring, yet so it +is; and this lack of forethought is not confined to the matter of snow +glasses: the first half dozen men we received in Saint Matthew's +Hospital at Fairbanks suffering from severely frozen feet were all +old-timers grown careless. + +Father Ragarou, another Jesuit priest of another type, reached the +road-house from the opposite direction about the same time we did, and I +was interested in watching his treatment of the inflamed eyes. Upon a +disk of lead he folded a little piece of cotton cloth in the shape of a +tent, and, setting fire to it, allowed it to burn out completely. Then +with a wet camel's-hair brush he gathered up the slight yellow residuum +of the combustion and painted it over the eyes, holding the lids open +with thumb and finger and drawing the brush through and through. An +incredulous spectator, noticing the sacred monogram neatly stamped upon +the disk of lead, made some sneering remark to me about "Romish +superstition," but remembering the Jesuit's bark, and recalling that I +had in my writing-case at that moment a letter I had brought all the way +from the Koyukuk addressed to this very priest, begging for a further +supply of a pile ointment that had proved efficacious, I held my peace. +Whether it be an oxide or a carbonate, or some salt that is formed by +the combustion, I am not chemist enough to know, but I saw man after man +relieved by this application. Even the scoffer was convinced there was +merit in the treatment, though stoutly protesting that "them letters" +had nothing to do with it; which nobody took the trouble to argue with +him. My own custom--we are all of us doctors of a sort in this +country--is to instil a few drops of a five-per-cent solution of +cocaine, which gives immediate temporary relief, and then apply frequent +washes of boric acid, bandaging up the eyes completely in bad cases by +cloths kept wet with the solution. But I do not know that it brings +better result than the lead treatment. Certainly it is a matter in which +an ounce of any sort of prevention is better than a pound of any sort of +cure. The affection is a serious one, being nothing more or less than +acute ophthalmia; the pain is very severe, and repeated attacks are said +to bring permanent weakness of the eyes. Smoked glasses or goggles,[A] +veils of green or blue or black, even a crescent eye-shade cut out of a +piece of birch-bark or cardboard and blackened on its under-side with +charcoal, will prevent the hours and sometimes days of torture which +this distemper entails. + +[Sidenote: HORSES AND MULES] + +For a few miles we had the trail of the stampeders, but when that +crossed the river we put on our snow-shoes and settled to the steady +grind once more. A day's mush brought us to "The Birches," and another +to Gold Mountain. Between the two places there was a portage, and the +trail thereon, protected by the timber, was good. We longed for the time +when all trails in Alaska shall be taken off the rivers and cut in the +protecting forest. But we had gone but a mile along this good trail +when our hearts sank, for we saw ahead of us a procession of army mules +packing supplies from Fort Gibbon to the telegraph repair parties. We +pulled out into the snow that the mules might pass, and the soldiers +said no word, for they knew just how we felt, until the last soldier +leading the last mule was going by, and he turned round and said: "And +her name was Maud!" It was in the height of Opper's popularity, his +"comic supplements" the chief dependence of the road-houses for +wall-paper. The reference was so apposite that we burst into laughter, +but there was nothing funny about the devastation that had been wrought. +That good trail was all gone--the bottom pounded out of it--and nothing +was left but a ploughed lane punched full of sink-holes. We had no +trouble following the trail on the river after this encounter, but it +had been almost as easy going to have struck out for ourselves in the +unbroken snow of the winter. It is hard to make outsiders understand how +a man who loves all animals may come to hate horses and mules, +particularly mules, in this country. Our travelling is above all a +matter of surface. Distance counts and weather counts, but surface +counts for more than either. See how fast we came across the Seward +Peninsula in the most distressing weather imaginable! A well-used dog +trail becomes so hard and smooth that it offers scarce any resistance to +the passage of the sled, and for walking or running over in moccasins or +mukluks is the most perfect surface imaginable. The more it is used the +better it becomes. But put a horse on that trail and in one passage it +is ruined. The iron-shod hoofs break through the crust at every step and +throw up the broken pieces as they are withdrawn. With mules it is even +worse; the holes they punch are deeper and sharper. Neither man nor dog +can pass over it again in comfort. One slips and slides about at every +step, the leg leaders and ankle sinews are strained, the soles of the +feet, though hardened by a thousand miles in moccasins, become sore and +inflamed, and at night there is a new sort of weariness that only a +horse-ruined trail gives. As a rule, the dog trail is of so little +service to the horse or mule that it were as cheap to break out a new +one in the snow, and it is this knowledge that exasperates the dog +musher. So there is not much love lost between the horse man and the dog +man in Alaska. + +[Sidenote: ARMY POSTS AND NATIVES] + +At last, after a night at "Old Station," we came in sight of Tanana, +where is Fort Gibbon, the one the name of the town and the post-office, +the other the name of the military post and the telegraph office. The +military authorities refuse to call their post "Fort Tanana" and the +postal authorities refuse to allow the town post-office to be called +"Fort Gibbon," so there they lie, cheek by jowl, two separate places +with a fence between them--a source of endless confusion. A letter +addressed to Fort Gibbon is likely to go astray and a telegram addressed +to Tanana to be refused. Stretching along a mile and a half of river +bank, and beginning to come into view ten miles before they are reached, +the military and commercial structures gradually separate themselves. +Here to the left are the ugly frame buildings--all painted +yellow--barracks, canteen, officers' quarters, hospital, commissariat, +and so on. Two clumsy water-towers give height without dignity--a +quality denied to military architecture in Alaska. To the right the town +begins, and an irregular row of one and two story buildings, stores, +warehouses, drinking shops, straggle along the water-front. + +Unlike most towns in interior Alaska, Tanana does not depend upon an +adjacent mining camp. It owes its existence first to its geographical +position as the central point of interior Alaska, at the confluence of +the Tanana and Yukon Rivers. Most of the freight and passenger traffic +for Fairbanks and the upper river is transshipped at Tanana, and +extensive stocks of merchandise are maintained there. The army post is +the other important factor in the town's prosperity, and is especially +accountable for the number of saloons. Not only the soldiers, but many +civilian employees, are supported by the post, and when it is understood +that three thousand cords of wood are burned annually in the military +reservation, it will be seen that quite a number of men must find work +as choppers and haulers for the wood contractors. Setting aside the +maintenance of the telegraph service, which has already been referred +to, it may be said without unfairness that the salient activities of the +army in the interior of Alaska are the consumption of whisky and wood. +There is no opportunity for military training--for more than six months +in the year it is impossible to drill outdoors--and the officers +complain of the retrogression of their men in all soldierly +accomplishments during the two years' detail in Alaska. Whether the +prosperity of the liquor dealer be in any real sense the prosperity of +the country, and whether the rapid destruction of the forest be +compensated for by the wages paid to its destroyers, may reasonably be +doubted. + +Three miles away is a considerable native village where the mission of +Our Saviour of the Episcopal Church is situated, with an attractive +church building and a picturesque graveyard. The evil influence which +the town and the army post have exerted upon the Indians finds its +ultimate expression in the growth of the graveyard and the dwindling of +the village. + +This point at the junction of the two rivers was an important place for +the inhabitants of interior Alaska ages before the white man reached the +country. Tribes from all the middle Yukon, from the lower Yukon, from +the Tanana, from the upper Kuskokwim met here for trading and for +general festivity. It is impossible nowadays to determine when first the +white man's merchandise began to penetrate into this country, but it was +long before the white man came himself. Such prized and portable +articles as axes and knives passed from hand to hand and from tribe to +tribe over many hundreds of miles. Captain Cook, in 1778, found +implements of white man's make in the hands of the natives of the great +inlet that was named for him after his death, and they pointed to the +Far East as the direction whence they had come. He judged that they had +been brought from the Hudson Bay factories clean across the continent. +There are many Indians still living who remember when they saw the +first white man, and some were well grown at the time, but diligent +inquiry has failed to discover one who ever saw a stone axe used, though +some old men have been found who declared that their fathers, when +young, used that implement. Traces have been discovered of the +importation of edge-tools from four directions--from the mouth of the +Yukon; from the Lynn Canal, by way of the headwaters of the Yukon; from +the Prince William Sound, by way of the headwaters of the Tanana; as +well as from the Hudson Bay posts in the Canadian Northwest, by way of +the Porcupine River. + +When the Russians established themselves at Nulato in 1842, and the +Hudson Bay Company put a post at Fort Yukon in 1846, Nuchalawóya, as +Tanana was called, became the scene of commercial rivalry, and it is +said that by the meeting of the agents and voyageurs of the two +companies at this point the identity of the Yukon and Quikpak Rivers was +discovered. + +The stories that linger with the village ancients of the great numbers +of Indians who used to inhabit the country are doubtless based upon +recollections of the gathering at old Nuchalawóya, when furs were +brought here from far and wide, when there was no other place of +merchandise in mid-Alaska. Now almost every Indian village has a trader +and a store. That the race has diminished, and in most places is still +diminishing, is beyond question, but that it was ever very largely +numerous the natural conditions of the country forbid us to believe. + +[Sidenote: WHISKY-PEDDLERS] + +During the Reverend Jules Prevost's time at Tanana--and he was in +residence in the year of this journey--from careful vital statistics +kept during two periods of five years each, the race seemed barely to be +holding its own; but since that time there has been a considerable +decline, coincident with the increase of drunkenness and debauchery at +the village when Mr. Prevost's firm hand and watchful eye were +withdrawn. The situation tends to grow worse, and while one does not +give up hope, for that would mean to give up serious effort, the outlook +for the Indians at this place seems unfavourable. Two hundred soldiers, +six or eight liquor shops,--the number varies from year to year,--three +miles off a native village of perhaps one hundred and fifty souls, and +dotting those intervening miles cabins chiefly occupied by "bootleggers" +and go-betweens--that is the Tanana situation in a nutshell. The men +desire the native girls, and the liquor is largely a lure to get them. +Tuberculosis and venereal disease are rife, and the two make a terribly +fatal combination amongst Indians. + +It was good to enjoy Mr. and Mrs. Prevost's hospitality, and it was good +to speak through such an admirable interpreter as Paul. Something more +than intelligence and knowledge of the languages are required to make a +good interpreter; there must be sympathy and the ability to take fire. +With such an interpreter, leaping at the speaker's thoughts, carrying +himself entirely into his changing moods, rising to vehemence with him +and again dropping to gentleness, forgetting himself in his +identification with his principal, there is real pleasure in speaking to +the natives who hang upon his vicarious lips. On the other hand, one of +the most intelligent mission interpreters in the country is also so +phlegmatic in disposition, so lifeless and monotonous in his speech, and +particularly so impassive of countenance, that he reminds one of +Napoleon's saying about Talleyrand: that if some one kicked him behind +while he was speaking to you his face would give no sign of it at all. + +[Sidenote: CHENA AND FAIRBANKS] + +It is not necessary to write much detail of the two-hundred-mile journey +to Fairbanks up the Tanana River. The trail was then wholly on the +river, but now it has been taken wholly off, as every Alaskan musher +hopes some day will be done with all trails. The region about the mouth +of the river and for some miles up is one of the windiest in the +country, and there is always troublesome crossing of bare sand-bars and +of ice over which sand has been blown. The journey hastens to its close; +men and dogs alike realise it, and push on willingly over longer stages +than they had before attempted. + +Two days from Tanana we were luxuriating in the natural hot springs near +Baker Creek, wallowing in the crude wooden vat, when "Daddy Karstner" +had shovelled enough snow in to make entering the water possible, and +emerging ruddy as boiled lobsters. It was a beautiful and interesting +spot then, with noble groves of birch and the finest grove of +cottonwood-trees in Alaska--all cut down now--all ruined in a plunging +and bounding and quite unsuccessful attempt to make a "Health Resort" of +the place for the "smart set" of Fairbanks. It is a scurvy trick of +Fortune when she gives large wealth to a man with no feeling for trees. +We spent Sunday there and roamed over the curious domain, snow-free +amidst all the surrounding snow, rank in vegetation amidst the +yet-lingering winter death; and then we wallowed again. + +Tolovana, Nenana, and then one long run of fifty-four miles, the longest +and last run of the winter, and--Chena and Fairbanks. But just before we +reached Chena, as we passed the fish camp where the dogs had been +boarded the previous summer, Nanook stopped the whole team, looked up at +the bank and gave utterance to his pronounced five barks on the +descending scale. None of the other dogs seemed to notice or recognise +the place, but Nanook said as plainly as if he had uttered speech: +"Well, well! there's where I spent last summer!" + +We reached Fairbanks on the 11th of April, in time for Good Friday and +Easter, after an absence of four months and a half--with the accumulated +mail of all that period awaiting me. The distance covered was about +twenty-two hundred miles, three fourths of it on foot, more than half of +it on snow-shoes. At Chena I had called up the hospital at Fairbanks on +the telephone, and the exchange operator had immediately recognised my +voice and bidden me welcome; but when I reached Fairbanks, a light beard +that I had suffered to grow during the winter made me unrecognisable by +those who knew me best. So effectually does a beard disguise a man and +so surely may his voice identify him. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[A] This was written before the writer learned the superior protection +afforded by _amber_ glass. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE "FIRST ICE"--AN AUTUMN ADVENTURE ON THE KOYUKUK + + +IT is not attempted in this narrative to give separate account of all +the journeys with which it deals. That would involve much repetition and +tedious detail. Our long journey has been described from start to +finish, taking the reader far north of the Yukon, then almost to the +extreme west of Alaska, and then round by the Yukon to mid-Alaska again. +It is proposed now to give sketches of such parts of other journeys as +do not cover the same ground, and they will lie, with one exception, +south of the Yukon. While visiting many of the same points every winter, +it has been within the author's good fortune and contrivance to include +each year some new stretch of country, sometimes searching out and +visiting a new tribe of natives, and blazing the way for the +establishment of permanent missionary work amongst them. To these +initial journeys belongs a zest that no subsequent travels in the same +region ever have; there is a keen interest in what every new turn of a +trail shall bring, every new bend of a river; there is eagerness rising +with one's rising steps to excitement for the view from a new mountain +pass; above all, there is deep satisfaction coupled with a sense of +solemn responsibility in being the first to reach some remote band of +Indians and preach to them the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. There +are few men nowadays on the North American continent to whom that +privilege remains. + +A period of nearly three years elapses between the beginning of the +journey that has already been described and the short sketch of a +journey that follows. Many things had happened in those three years. It +had been the happy duty of the writer to return to the Koyukuk late in +the winter of 1906-7, empowered to build the promised mission for the +hitherto neglected natives of that region. Pitching tent at a spot +opposite the mouth of the Alatna, with the aid of a skilled carpenter +and a couple of axemen brought from the mining district above, and the +labour of the Indians, the little log church and the mission house were +put up and prepared for the two ladies--a trained nurse and a +teacher--who should arrive on the first steamboat. The steamboat that +brought them in carried him out on its return trip, and the next year +was spent in the States making known the needs of the work in Alaska and +securing funds for its advancement. + +[Sidenote: DOCTOR GRAFTON BURKE] + +On my return I brought with me a young physician, Doctor Grafton Burke, +as a medical missionary, and a half-breed Alaskan youth, Arthur, who had +been at school in California, as attendant and interpreter. A +thirty-two-foot gasoline launch designed for the Yukon and its +tributaries was also brought and was launched at the head of Yukon +navigation at Whitehouse. The voyages of the _Pelican_ on almost all the +navigable waters of interior Alaska do not belong to a narrative +concerned solely with winter travel, but her maiden voyage ended in an +unexpected and rather extraordinary journey over the ice which is +perhaps worth describing. After the voyage down the Yukon, and up and +down the Tanana, it was purposed to take the boat up the Koyukuk to the +new mission at the Allakaket, where dogs and gear had been left, and put +her in winter quarters there. The delays that associate themselves not +unnaturally with three novices and a four-cylinder gasoline engine, had +brought the date for ascending the Koyukuk a little too late for safety, +though still well within the ordinary season of open water. The +possibility of an early winter closing the navigation of that stream +before the _Pelican_ reached her destination had been entertained and +provided against, though it seemed remote. Three dogs, needed anyway to +replace superannuated members of the team, had been bargained for at +Tanana and accommodations for them arranged, and a supply of dog fish +stowed on the after deck of the launch. But when we went to pay the +arranged price and receive the dogs, the vender's wife and children set +up such a remonstrance and plaintive to-do that he went back on his +bargain and we did not get the dogs. There was no time to hunt others, +to linger was to invite the very mishap we sought to guard against, so +we pulled out dogless, reached the mouth of the Koyukuk on the 17th of +September and, having taken on board the supply of gasoline cached +there, turned our bow up the river the next morning. For five days we +pushed up the waters of that great, lonely river, and by that time we +were some twenty-five miles above Hogatzakaket, three hundred and +twenty-five miles from the mouth and one hundred and twenty-five miles +from the mission, at the camp of a prospector who had recently poled up +from the Yukon. We woke on board the launch the next morning to find ice +formed all around us and ice running in the river. The thermometer had +gone to zero in the night. + +[Sidenote: THE RUNNING ICE] + +A very brief attempt to make our way against the running ice showed the +danger of doing so, for the thin cakes had knife-edges and cut the +planking of the boat so that she began to leak. Then there came to me +with some bitterness that I had earnestly desired a thin steel +armour-plating at the water-line, but had allowed myself to be persuaded +out of it by her builders. So again my forethought had been of no +avail--though, of course, lightness of draught _was_ the first +consideration. We put back to the camp and proceeded to flatten out and +cut up all the empty cans and tinware we could find and nail it along +the water-line of the boat, but the prospector persuaded us to wait a +day or two. He had never seen a river close with the first little run of +ice. He looked for a soft spell and open water yet. It was foolish to +risk the boat against the ice. So we waited; and night after night the +thermometer fell a little lower and a little lower, until presently a +sheet of ice stretched across the whole river in the bend where we lay. +We were frozen in. The remote possibility we had feared and sought to +guard against had happened. Navigation had ceased on the Koyukuk at the +earliest date anybody remembered, the 23d of September. Three days more +had surely taken us to the mission where they had long expected us; now +we should have to make our way on foot, without dogs, on the dangerous +"first ice," as it is called, taking all sorts of chances, pulling a +Yukon sled, with tent and stove, grub and bedding, "by the back of the +face." + +But first there was the launch to pull out and make snug for the winter +and safe against the spring break-up. A convenient little creek mouth +with easy grade offered, which was one of the reasons I had not pushed +on the few more miles we could have made. Here were eligible winter +quarters; farther on we might have trouble in putting the boat in +safety; here also was a kindly and capable man willing to assist us. + +It was our great good fortune to find this man at this spot. A steamboat +he had signalled as she entered the mouth of the Koyukuk had passed him +by unheeded, and he had been left to make his way six hundred miles up +to the diggings, with his winter's outfit in a poling boat. He had +accomplished more than half the task, and, warned by the approach of +winter, had stopped at this place a few days before we reached it, and +had begun the building of a little cabin; meaning to prospect the creek, +which had taken his eye as having a promising look. The cabin we helped +him finish was the twenty-first cabin he had built in Alaska, he +informed us. + +There is something very impressive about the quiet, self-reliant, +unrecorded hardihood of the class of which this man was an excellent +type. We asked him why he had no partner, and he said he had had several +partners, but they all snored, and he would not live with a man that +snored. He had prospected and mined in many districts of Alaska during +nearly twenty years. Once he had sold a claim for a few hundred dollars +that had yielded many thousands to the purchaser, and that was as near +wealth as he had ever come. But he had always made a living, always had +enough money at the close of the summer to buy his winter's "outfit" and +try his luck somewhere else. + +[Sidenote: THE PROSPECTOR] + +Singly, or in pairs, men of this type have wandered all over this vast +country: preceding the government surveys, preceding the professional +explorer, settling down for a winter on some creek that caught their +fancy, building a cabin, thawing down a few holes to bed-rock, sometimes +taking out a little gold, more often finding nothing, going in the +summer to some old-established camp to work for wages, or finding +employment as deck-hand on a steamboat. + +With an axe and an auger they have dotted their rough habitations all +over the country; with a pick and a shovel and a gold pan they have +tested the gravels of innumerable creeks. They know the drainage slopes +and the practicable mountain passes, the haunts of the moose and the +time and direction of the caribou's wanderings. The boats they have +built have pushed their noses to the heads of all navigable streams; the +sleds they have made have furrowed the remotest snows. In the arts of +the wilderness they are the equal of the native inhabitant; in endurance +and enterprise far his superior. The more one learns by experience and +observation what life of this sort means, and realises the demands it +makes upon a man's resourcefulness, upon his physique, upon his good +spirits, upon his fortitude, the more one's admiration grows for the +silent, strong men who have gone out all over this land and pitted +themselves successfully against its savage wildness. Often in stress for +the necessaries of life, there are yet no men as a class more +free-handed and generous; trained to do everything for themselves, there +are none more willing to help others. + +It is no small task to pull a four-ton boat out of the water with only +such wilderness tackle as we could devise. We made ways of soft timbers, +squaring and smoothing them; we cut down many trees for rollers; we dug +and graded the beach. Then, having altogether unloaded her and built a +high cache of poles and a platform for her stuff, and having chopped the +ice from all around her, we rigged a Spanish windlass and wound that +boat out of the water with the half-inch cable she carried, and up on +the ways and well into the mouth of the little creek. Then we levelled +her up and thoroughly braced her and put her canvas cover all over her, +and she lay there until spring and took no harm at all. + +Arthur had meantime been making a sled of birch, intending to pull it +himself while the doctor and I pulled a Yukon sled borrowed from our +friend the prospector. By the 6th of October all our dispositions were +made for departure, and the ice seemed strong enough to warrant trusting +ourselves to it; but we waited another two days, the thermometer still +reaching a minimum each night somewhere around zero. When we said +good-bye to our friend Martin Nelson (sometimes one wonders if anywhere +else in the world can be found men as kind and helpful to strangers) and +started on our journey, it soon appeared that Arthur's sled was more +hindrance than help. There was no material to iron the runners save +strips of tin can, and these could not be beaten so smooth that they did +not drag and cut on the ice. So the load was transferred to our sled and +the little sled abandoned, and we took turns at the harness. This was +the order of the journey: one man went ahead with an axe to test the +ice; one man put the rope trace about his shoulders; one man pushed at +the handle-bars which had been affixed to the sled. It was fortunate +that amidst the equipment on the launch were two pairs of ice-creepers. +Without them any sort of pulling and pushing on the glare ice would have +been impossible. + +We soon found that the bend in which we had frozen was no sort of index +of the general condition of the river. Much of it was still wide open, +and every elbow between bends was piled high with rough ice from +pressure jams. There was shore ice, however, even in the open bends, +along which we were able to creep; and, though the ice-jams gave +considerable trouble, yet we did very well the first day and camped at +dark with eighteen or nineteen miles to our credit, in the presence of a +great, red, smoky sunset and a glorious alpenglow on a distant snow +mountain. + +The next day was full of risks and difficulties. We were to learn more +about the varieties and vagaries of ice on that journey than many +winters' travel on older ice would teach. + +[Illustration: THE START OVER THE "FIRST ICE."] + +[Illustration: "ROUGH GOING."] + +[Sidenote: THE START] + +At times, for a few hundred yards, the sled would glide with little +effort over smooth, polished ice; then would come a long sand-bar, the +side of which we had to hug close, and the ice upon it was what is +called "shell-ice," through several layers of which we broke at every +step. As the river fell, each night had left a thin sheet of ice +underneath the preceding night's ice, and the foot crashed through the +layers and the sled runners cut through them down to the gravel and sand +at the bottom. Then would come another smooth stretch on which we made +good time. But as we advanced up the river the current was swifter and +swifter and the ice conditions grew steadily worse. Here was a steep-cut +bank with just about eighteen or twenty inches of ice adhering to it and +the black, rushing water beyond. We must either get our load along that +shelf or unload the sled and pack everything over the face of a rocky +bluff. Arthur passed over it first, testing gently with the axe, and +found it none too strong. But the alternative was so toilsome that we +resolved to take the chance. The doctor put the trace over his +shoulders, Arthur took the handle-bars, while I climbed to a ledge of +the rocks and, with a rope made of a pair of camel's-hair puttees +unwound for the purpose and fastened to the sled, took all the weight I +could and eased the sled over the worst place where the ice sloped to +the water. If the ice had broken I might have held the sled from sinking +until one of the others came to me, or I might not; the boys would +probably have gone in too. It was a most risky spot and the sort of +chance no one would think of taking under ordinary circumstances. As it +was, the ice broke under Arthur's feet, and only by throwing his weight +on the sled did he save himself a ducking. But we got the load safely +across. + +A good run of perhaps a mile, and then we had to go back at least half a +mile, for the ice played out altogether on our side of the river as we +reached the Batzakaket, and there was open water in the middle. To reach +the shore ice that was continuous on the other side, we had to "double" +the open water. With such varying fortune the day passed, and we camped +on the level ice of a little creek tributary to the right bank, having +made perhaps another nineteen miles. + +When I awoke in the morning my heart sank at the tiny, creeping patter +of fine snow on the silk tent. Snow was one thing I greatly dreaded, for +there was not a pair of snow-shoes amongst us! A little snow would not +do much harm, but if once snow began to fall we might have a foot or two +before it ceased, and then we should be in bad case. It stopped before +noon, but the half-inch that fell made the sled drag much heavier. The +actual force to be exerted was not the most laborious feature of pulling +that sled; it was the jerk, jerk, jerk on the shoulders. A dog's four +legs give him much smoother traction than a man's two legs give, just as +a four-cylinder engine will turn a propeller with much less vibration +than a two-cylinder engine. Every step forward gave an impulse that +spent itself before the next impulse was given, and the result was that +the shoulders grew sore. + +We came that morning to the longest and roughest ice-jam we had so far +encountered. It was as though a thousand bulls had been turned loose in +a mammoth plate-glass warehouse. Jagged slabs of ice upended everywhere +in the most riotous confusion, and it was impossible to pick any way +amongst them, so a man had to go ahead and hew a path. It was while thus +engaged that the doctor fell and injured his knee so severely on a sharp +ice point that he hobbled in pain the rest of the trip. This was a very +serious matter to us, for, though he insisted on still taking his trick +at the traces, his effectiveness as a motive power was much diminished; +and we had no sooner thus hewed and smashed our way through that jam +than we had to hew and smash it across to the other side again in our +search for passage. + +[Sidenote: "BY THE BACK OF THE FACE"] + +Then we came to a place where, in order to cut off a long sweeping curve +of the river with open water and bad shore ice, we went through a dry +slough and had to drag those iron runners over gravel and stones, where +sometimes it was all the three of us could do to move the sled a few +feet at a time. Yet all along the banks were willows, and if we had only +known then what we know now we would have cut down and split some +saplings and bound them over the iron, and so have saved three fourths +of that labour. + +[Sidenote: BEAR MEAT AND BEANS] + +So the day's run was short, though the most exhausting yet, and we were +all thoroughly tired out when we pitched the tent. I have note of a +great supper of bear meat and beans, the meat the spoil of our friend +the prospector's gun. It is one of the compensations of human nature +that the satisfaction of appetite increases in pleasure in proportion to +the bodily labour that is done. With food abundant and at choice, I do +not like bear meat and will not eat beans. Yet my diary bears special +note of the delicious meal they furnished on this occasion. Put any +philosopher in the traces, or set him ahead of the dog team on +show-shoes, breaking trail all day, and towards evening it is odds that +his mind is not occupied with deep speculations about the infinite and +the absolute, but rather with the question of what he will have for +supper. Particularly should the grub be a little short, should fresh +meat give out, or, above all, should sugar be "shy," it is astonishing +how one's mind runs on eating and what elaborate imaginary repasts one +partakes of. Yet of all food that a man ever eats there is none that is +so relished and gives such clear gustatory pleasure as the plain, rough +fare of the camp--provided it be well cooked. Greatly as we were in need +of sleep, we got little, for the doctor's knee pained him all night and +poor Arthur developed a raging toothache that did not yield until +carbolic acid had been thrice applied. + +Soon after we started the next day, the river narrowed and swept round a +series of mountain bluffs and we began to have the gloomiest +expectations of trouble. It seemed certain that ice would fail us for +passage, and we would have to pack our sled and its load by slow relays +over the mountain. But to our delight we passed between the bluffs on +good, firm, smooth ice, and it was not until we emerged on the flat +beyond that our difficulty began. So it is again and again on the trail. +Almost always it is the unexpected that happens; almost always it is +something quite different from what our apprehensions have dwelt upon +that arises to hinder and distress us. A tongue of level land that +struck far out into the water, a cut mud bank with a current so swift +that no ice at all had formed along it, interposed an obstacle that it +took hours to circumvent. We had to leave the sled and cut a trail +through the brush for half a mile along this peninsula in order to reach +a stretch of the river where the ice was resumed, and the little snow +that had fallen being quite insufficient to give the sled good passage, +we had an exceedingly arduous job in getting it across. + +A mile or two of good going brought us in view of the smoke of a human +habitation. What a blessed sight often and often this waving column of +blue smoke in the distance is! Sometimes it means life itself to the +Alaskan musher, and it always means warmth, shelter, food, +companionship, assistance; all that one human being can bring to +another. "The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn" never "breaks on +the traveller faint and astray" with half the rejoicing that comes with +the first sight of mere smoke. "I believe I see smoke," cried Arthur, +with the quick vision of the native. "Where? Where?" we eagerly +inquired, and the doctor left the handle-bars and limped forward to the +boy ahead with the axe. "Away yonder on that bank," pointed Arthur. "I +see it! I see it!" the doctor shouted; "we're coming to a house, we're +coming to people!" The trip was a severe apprenticeship to Alaskan life +for a man straight from the New York hospitals, although before the +accident to his knee I had declared that if only they could be trained +to live on dry fish I thought a team of young doctors would haul a sled +very well. He was delighted at coming upon the first inhabited house we +had seen since we helped Nelson to build his little cabin--and _that_ +was only the second inhabited house in three hundred miles. + +[Sidenote: BREAKING THROUGH] + +But, perhaps because we grew less cautious in our excitement, almost +immediately after we had spied the smoke of the cabin we got into one of +the worst messes of the whole trip. Arthur had pushed ahead and we had +followed with a spurt, and almost at the same time all three of us +became aware that we were on dangerous ice. Arthur cried, "The ice is +breaking; go back!" just as we began to feel it swaying under our feet. +I shouted to the doctor, "Go _on_ to the bank quick!" and pushed with +all my might, and we managed to make a few yards more towards shallow +water, over ice that bent and cracked at every step, before it gave way +and let down the sled and the men into two feet of water. Arthur had run +safely over the breaking ice and had gained the bank, and as I write, in +my mind's eye I can see the doctor, who had been duly instructed in the +elementary lessons of the trail, standing in the water and calling to +Arthur: "Make a fire quick; make a fire. I'm all wet!" + +But it was not necessary to make a fire, for the thermometer was no +lower than 10° or 15° above zero, and the chief trouble was not the +wetting of our legs but the wetting of the contents of the sled. Along +the bank was stronger ice, and we managed, though not without much +difficulty, to get the sled upon it and to make our way to the Indian +cabin. + +As soon as old "Atler" (I have never been quite sure of what white +man's name that is a corruption) knew who we were, his hospitality, +which had been ready enough at first sight, became most cordial and +expansive. While we pulled off our wet clothing his wife hung it up to +dry and had the kettle on and some tea making, and he and Arthur got out +our wet bedding and festooned it about the cabin. Most fortunately the +things that would have suffered most from water did not get wet. So +there we lay all the afternoon, having made no more than six miles, and +there we lay all the next day, which was Sunday. + +There was a sort of awful interest that centred upon one member of this +family, a boy of seven or eight years. The previous spring he had killed +his uncle by the accidental discharge of a .22 rifle, shooting him +through the heart. The gun had been brought in loaded and cocked and had +been set in a corner of the cabin, and the child, playing with it, had +pulled the trigger. The carelessness of Indians with firearms is the +frequent cause of terrible accidents like this. The child was still too +young to realise what he had done, but one fancies that later it will +throw a gloom on his life. + +To my great relief and satisfaction I was able to arrange here for a +young Indian man to accompany us with his one dog. He was a native of +those parts and knew every bend and turn of the river. We were, indeed, +in great need of help. The doctor's knee grew worse rather than better, +and Arthur was suffering the return of an old rheumatism in his leg. I +was the only sound member of the party, and my shoulders were galled by +the rope and my feet tender and sore from continual wearing of the +crampons. We were now not quite half-way--some sixty miles lay behind us +and sixty-five before--and we had been travelling four days. + +[Sidenote: "ONE-EYED WILLIAM"] + +Divine service being done on Sunday morning, the whole of it well +interpreted by Arthur to the great satisfaction of the Indians, he and +"One-Eyed William," our recruit, started out to survey to-morrow's +route. In this reconnaissance William broke through some slush ice at +the greatest depth of the river in seeking a safe place to cross, and, +had Arthur not been with him, would almost certainly have drowned, for +the current was very swift and the man, like most Indians, unable to +swim a stroke;--though, indeed, swimming is of little avail for escape +out of such predicament and is a poor dependence in these icy waters +winter or summer. More beans boiled and a batch of biscuits baked +against our departure, and evening prayer said and interpreted, we were +ready for bed again. + +Our visit was a great delight to old Atler. An inflamed eye was much +relieved by the doctor's ministrations, and the natural piety which he +shares with most Indians was gratified at the opportunity of worship and +instruction. A good old man, according to his lights, I take Atler to +be, well known for benevolence of disposition and particularly priding +himself on being a friend of the white man. He told us of one unworthy +representative of that race he had helped a year ago. The man had come +out of the Hogatzitna (Hog River) country, entirely out of food, himself +and a couple of dogs nigh to starvation, and Atler had taken care of him +for several days while he recuperated and had given him grub and dog +fish enough to get him to Bettles, one hundred and thirty miles away, +where he could purchase supplies. The old Indian had robbed his own +family's little winter stock of "white-man's grub" that this stranger +might be provided, and had never heard a word from him since, though he +had promised to make return when he reached Bettles. + +Unfortunately Alaska's white population is sprinkled with men like this, +men without heart and without conscience, and it is precisely such +rascals who are loudest in their contemptuous talk of the Indians. It is +such men who chop down the woodwork of cabins rather than be troubled to +take the axe into the forest a few rods away, who depart in the morning +without making kindling and shavings, careless how other travellers may +fare so themselves be warm without labour; who make "easy money" in the +summer-time by dropping down the Yukon with a boat-load of "rot-gut" +whisky, leaving drunkenness and riot at every village they pass; who +beget children of the native women and regard them no more than a dog +does his pups, indifferent that their own flesh and blood go cold and +hungry. They are the curse and disgrace of Alaska, and they often go +long time insolent and unwhipped because our poor lame law is not nimble +enough to overtake them; "to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness +for ever," one's indignation is sometimes disposed to thunder savagely +with Saint Jude; and indeed there needs a future punishment to redress +the balance in this country. + +[Sidenote: FIDO] + +At break of day our reinforced company was off, Arthur and "One-Eyed +William" going ahead to sound the ice and pick the way, the dog "Fido" +(such a name for a Siwash dog!) and myself in the traces, the doctor at +the handle-bars. The rest had benefited the doctor's knee, but walking +was still painful and he needed the support of the handle-bars all day. +What a great difference that one strong, willing little dog made! His +steady pulling kept the sled in motion and relieved one's shoulders of +the galling jerk of the rope at every step. The going was "not too bad," +as they say here, all day, though it carried one rather severe +disappointment. William had told us of a portage he thought we could +take that would cut off eight or nine miles of the river; but when we +reached it the snow upon it proved insufficient to afford a passage, for +it was a rough niggerhead flat, and we had to swing around the outer +edges of the great curves the river makes, where alone was ice, with +trouble and danger at every crossing. + +The decision as to whether we should halt or go forward, as to whether +ice was safe or unsafe, as to whether we should cross the river or stay +where we were--every decision that concerned the secure advance of the +party--I put wholly upon William, and would not permit myself or any +other to question his judgment or to argue it with him. There was no +sense in half-measures; this young man knew the river as none of us did, +knew ice as none of us did, and we must put ourselves entirely in his +hands. The debate that had become usual at every doubtful course arose +at the portage just referred to, but it was at once suppressed by the +announcement that hereafter no one could have the floor but William, and +that when he had spoken the matter was settled. Day by day I think we +all came to a keener realisation of how very dangerous a journey we were +making; it lay heavily on my mind that I had brought these two young +men--whether by mishap or mismanagement--into real peril of their lives. +Again and again I blamed myself for the delays that had deferred our +start up the Koyukuk, again and again I wished that we had waited longer +before leaving the _Pelican's_ winter quarters. I had even contemplated +a week's stay at Atler's, to give the river a chance to get into better +shape, but unless there came a very much sharper spell than we had had +so far a week would not make much difference, and our grub began to run +short and Atler was none too well supplied. So it seemed best to push +on. + +The next day was full of toil and difficulty. There was no good ice to +make fine time over that day. Starting in the grey dawn, for mile after +mile we had to haul the sled over crumbly shell-ice that broke through +to gravel; and when the shell-ice was done we came to a new bend where a +rapid current washed a steep mud bank. There was just a little shelf of +ice, but the brush overhung it so that the passage of the sled was not +possible. William and Arthur started with the axes to clear away the +brush, but it seemed to me foolish to do that unless the ledge held out +and led somewhere, for the turn of the bank threw it out of sight. So +they went forward cautiously along that ledge to the end--and an end +they found, sure enough, so that had we followed the axemen with the +sled we should have had to creep all the way back again. There was +nothing for it but to cut another land trail on a bench that we could +reach where the sled was stopped but that could not be reached at all +farther on. A long and slow and laborious job it was, that took most of +the morning, to cut that trail and then get the load over it to ice +again. + +By noon we were opposite the Red Mountain, one of the well-known Koyukuk +landmarks, and on the site of an old Indian fishing camp. William and +Arthur had made a great fire when we came up, and we heated some beans +and made some tea and ate lunch. A mile farther on was the cabin of a +white man, and we paid him a brief visit and got a little tea from him, +for ours was nearly gone. It did me good to hear him sing the praises of +Deaconess Carter, the trained nurse at the mission. She had taken him +in, crippled with rheumatism, and had cured him. Already the new mission +was proving a boon to whites as well as natives. We made no more than +four or five miles farther when, coming to spruce with no more in sight +for a long distance, we pitched the tent, all very tired. + +That night the thermometer went to 5° below zero, the coldest weather of +the season so far. As a consequence the next day we had a new and very +disagreeable trouble. The cold weather, by increasing the amount of +running ice in the still open stretches, had brought about a jam that +had raised the level of the water and caused an overflow of the ice--a +very common phenomenon of a closing river. We picked our way wet-foot +much of the day, and towards evening came to a complete _impasse_ in the +middle of the river, with open water in front and on one hand, and new +thin ice on the other. So we had to turn round and go back again a long +way, the mid-river being the only traversable place, until, when it +seemed that we should have to go round another bend to reach a crossing, +Arthur proposed that he and William, who wore mukluks, should carry the +doctor and me, who wore moccasins across the overflow, and then rush the +sled across; and this we did, wetting its contents somewhat, however. We +camped immediately, for we had landed on impassable gravel. + +[Sidenote: THE RED MOUNTAIN] + +That night the thermometer went to 20° below zero, and we took good hope +that the cold, which began to approach the real cold of winter, would +put an end to overflow; but, on the contrary, it only aggravated the +trouble. For the first mile or two there was nothing for it but to go +through it, and at 20° below it is a miserable business to be wading in +moccasins even for an hour. We had rearranged our load so that it stood +up somewhat higher, but we could not avoid wetting the things on the +bottom of the sled, and the ice formed about it very inconveniently. +Moreover, the little dog, who had a great dislike to wetting his feet, +began to give us a good deal of trouble, and at one time nothing but the +admirable presence of mind and prompt action of William saved us from +losing our whole load. We had reached a strip of new, dry ice formed the +night before, with black, rushing water on the left, towards which the +slippery surface sloped. Presently as we advanced we began to encounter +a little overflow water, coming from the bank on the right, seeping up +between the ice and the bank; and that dog, to avoid wetting his feet in +the overflow, deliberately turned towards the open water and set the +sled sliding in the same direction. Without the crampons, which we had +not used for the past few days, it was impossible to hold the sled +against the dog's traction, and in another moment we should have lost +everything, for the dog paid no heed to our voices, when William with a +blow of his axe cut the rope by which the dog pulled, and, grasping the +sled and throwing himself full length on the ice, managed to stop it on +the very brink of the water. It was a close shave, but once more we were +safe; and the doctor, in the exuberance of his gratitude, said that +night: "If William wants a glass eye I'll send to New York to get him +one." But when William learned that the glass eye was a mere matter of +looks and would in no wise improve his vision, he lost interest in it. +Looks do not count for much amongst the Koyukuk Indians. + +[Illustration: ARTHUR AND DOCTOR BURKE.] + +[Illustration: SAINT JOHN'S-IN-THE-WILDERNESS, ALLAKAKET, KOYUKUK +RIVER.] + +That night was a long way off yet, however; we had other risks to run, +other labours. Here were two islands in the river, and the current, +running like a mill-race and burdened with ice cakes, swept around the +shore of one of them leaving the passage between them quite dry. There +was no shore ice at all where the channel was, and it was so +ugly-looking a reach that had there been any there I am sure we should +not have ventured it. There was nothing for it but to drag the sled half +a mile over the gravel, and we did it, the most heart-breaking labour +of the whole trip. It took us exactly an hour to make that half mile. +William did not know the trick of the split willows either, so we all +four of us sweated for our ignorance. Shortly after, our guide pointed +out the spot where poor Ericson's frozen body was found, two years and +eight months before. + +[Sidenote: A NARROW ESCAPE] + +[Sidenote: RUBBER ICE] + +Near the Kornuchaket (or the mouth of Old Man Creek), where the Koyukuk +receives a considerable tributary, we approached the most dangerous +travelling we had had yet. The river here is swift and deep, and there +are several islands set in it. Most of its surface was frozen, but the +ice was very thin. William stopped the procession before we reached the +bad stretch and went hastily over a part of it. Under his single weight +we could see the ice-sheet undulating. It had been our rule that ice was +not safe unless it took three blows of the axe to bring water, but this +ice gave water at a blow. When William returned he made quite an +harangue, which Arthur interpreted. He thought we could make it past the +mouth of the creek, and if we could we should find good going to Moses' +Village. But we must go just as fast as we could travel; we must not let +the sled stop an instant. The ice would bend and crack; but he thought +if we went quickly we could get across. So for nearly a quarter of a +mile we rushed that sled over "rubber" ice that swayed and cracked and +yielded under our feet and under the sled, until we reached the bank of +one of the islands, and then again we launched her and ran with her to +the shore. Once one of my feet broke through, and immediately the water +welled up all around--with the steamboat channel underneath--but +without pause we increased our speed and made the strong shore ice +safely at last. No man will ever doubt the plasticity, the "viscosity" +of ice, as it used to be styled in the old glacier controversies, who +has passed over the "rubber" ice that forms under certain circumstances +and at certain seasons on these rivers. + +We would never, I am sure, have attempted that ice had not William been +with us. We would have struck a blow with the axe and declared it +unsafe. Of course, it was unsafe; the whole journey was unsafe, but I am +convinced that this thin, continuous sheet of ice, cushioned actually +upon the surface of the water out of which it was growing, was really +safer than much of the thicker but brittle, unsupported ice we had +unhesitatingly come over. Chemists tell us that certain substances in +the act of formation, which they call nascent substances, are +extraordinarily active and potent, and it may be that ice in the same +state has a special tenacity of texture which belongs to that state +alone. I wish that I could have measured the thickness of that ice. +Where my foot went through I know it was very thin, but its thickness I +will not venture to guess. There was the distinct feeling that the water +was bearing the ice up and when it was punctured the water welled up +with pressure behind it. + +Beyond the Kornuchaket much more snow had fallen, and a few miles +brought us to Moses' Village, called grandiosely "Arctic City," since a +trader had established a store and a road-house there. At this spot a +new overland mail trail from Tanana strikes the Koyukuk, and, although +ten or twelve miles remained, we felt that our journey was done. My sled +dogs were there, and, as I had not seen them for more than a year, that +was a joyful reunion. Nanook's bark of welcome, which no one but I ever +got with quite the same inflection, was as grateful to me as all the +licking and slobbering of the others, for Nanook is a very independent +beast, reserved in his demonstrations and not wearing his heart on his +sleeve, so to speak. They were all glad to see me--Old Lingo and Nig, +and even "Jimmy the Fake." Billy was dead. For fifteen or sixteen months +they had been boarded here, and, since fish had been very scarce the +preceding summer, their food had been chiefly bacon and rice and tallow, +and there was a bill of close to four hundred dollars against us! Dogs +are very expensive things in this expensive country. When used the +winter through on the trail, and boarded the summer through at a fish +camp, we estimate that it costs one hundred dollars per head per annum +to feed a dog; so that the maintenance of a team of five dogs, which is +the minimum practicable team, will cost five hundred dollars per annum +for food alone. + +[Sidenote: SATURATED SNOW] + +When we had eaten a good supper and were reclining on spring cots in the +bunk house, there was not one of us but confidently expected to be at +the mission in the next forenoon. For a week past the natives had been +going to and fro in three or four hours. The river was completely closed +above here, and there was much more snow than we found below. So we +hitched our own dogs to our own sled the next morning, when the doctor +had visited a sick person or two, and started out on the last stretch +of the journey. All went well until we had turned the long bend at the +head of which the old, abandoned post of Bergman is situated, just on +the Arctic Circle, but a mile or two beyond we were wallowing in +saturated snow that stretched all across the river right up to the banks +on either side. An overflow was in progress, the water running along the +surface of the ice and soaking up the snow so that there was six inches +of slush all over it. We struggled along awhile, though from the first +it seemed hopeless, and then we gave it up and went back to the +road-house. There would be no passing that stretch of river with the +sled until the cold had dealt with the overflow. It is almost always the +unexpected that happens. The next morning I put on a pair of +snow-shoes--Doctor Burke's knee forbade him their use--and taking +William with me, mushed up through the slush and the snow to the +mission, leaving the others to come on with the team so soon as they +found it practicable. + +A mile before we reached the mission was the new village built by the +Esquimaux--"Kobuk town" they call it--and right in front of the village +the Malamute Riffle, a noted difficulty of navigation, was still running +wide open, though all the rest of the river was long closed. Near the +riffle the Kobuks had a fish-trap, and some who were busy getting out +fish saw and recognised me, and the whole population came swarming out +for greetings. It was good to see these kindly, simple people again, to +shake their hands and hear their "I glad I see you," which is the +general native greeting where there is any English at all. Every one +must shake hands; even the babies on their mothers' backs stretch out +their little fingers eagerly, and if they be too small for that, the +mother will take the little hand and hold it out. At the bend we take a +portage and a quarter of a mile brings us to the Allakaket, to the +familiar modest buildings of the mission, with its new Koyukuk village +gradually clustering round it. The whole scene was growing into almost +the exact realisation of my dream when first I camped on this spot two +years and nine months before. There was a distinct thrill of pleasure at +the sight of the church. Built entirely of logs with the bark on, there +was nothing visible anywhere about it but spruce bark, save for the +gleam of the gilded cross that surmounted the little belfry. The roof, +its regular construction finished, was covered with small spruce poles +with the bark on, nailed together at the apex, and where it projected +well beyond the gables its under-side was covered with bark, as well as +the cornice all round that finished it off. Even the window-frames and +the door-panels were covered with bark. It was of the same tone because +of the selfsame substance as the forest still growing around it, and it +gave at the first glance the satisfied impression of fitness. It gave +the feeling that it belonged where it was placed. It is ill praising +one's own work, but I had been keen to see how it would strike me, fresh +from the outside, after a year's absence, and I was very glad indeed +that it pleased me again. + +[Sidenote: A STARVING WHITE MAN] + +I had no more than entered upon the warm welcome that waited at Saint +John's-in-the-Wilderness, and was still wondering at the homelike +cosiness which the mission house had assumed under the deft hands of +the two ladies who occupied it, when there came an Indian with word of a +white man he had found starving in the wilderness fifteen miles away. +Another native with a dog team and a supply of immediate food was +hastily despatched to bring the man in, and that night the poor +emaciated fellow, looking like a man of sixty-five or seventy though he +was really no more than forty, crawled out of the sled and tottered into +the house. He had started out from Tanana two months before with two +pack-horses to make his way across to the Koyukuk diggings, had lost his +way and wandered aimlessly in that vast wilderness; one horse had been +drowned, the other he had killed for meat. He had made a raft to come +down the Kornutna (Old Man Creek) to the Koyukuk, knowing that there was +a trading-post near its mouth, and had been frozen in and forced to +abandon it. Since that time he had been living on a few spoonfuls of +meal a day, with frozen berries, and once or twice a ptarmigan, and when +Ned found him was at the last extremity and had given up, intending to +die where he was. + +That man's hunger was tremendous, but Miss Carter, having knowledge and +experience of such cases, was apprehensive that if any large quantity of +food were taken at a time there would be serious danger to him. So for a +day or two he ate frequently but sparingly. A little later, as he grew +stronger, to such extremes did his hunger pinch him that he would watch +till there was no one looking and would go into the kitchen and steal +food that was preparing, even taking it out of the frying-pan on the +stove. He would be hungry immediately after having a full meal. In ten +days he was sufficiently recovered to resume his journey to the +diggings, and when I saw him at Coldfoot two months later I did not +recognise him, so greatly had he changed from the poor shrunken creature +that crept into the mission. We all think we have been hungry time and +again; if ever we have gone a few days on short rations we are quite +sure of it; this man had sounded the height and depth and stretched the +length and breadth of it, and none of the rest of us really know what +hunger means. I tried to get him to talk about it, but he said he wanted +to forget it. He said he was ashamed to think of some of the things he +had done and of some of the terrible thoughts that had come to him, and +I pressed him no more. I have always felt that, even in its last +hideousness of cannibalism, only God Himself can judge starvation. + +[Sidenote: TWO INTERPRETERS] + +Here began my first experience of the difficulties of conducting a +mission at the same place for two different races of natives speaking +totally different languages. Although the Indian language spoken here is +the same as at Tanana, and much of the liturgy, etc., had been put into +that tongue by Mr. Prevost and was therefore available, yet it was found +impracticable to have two sets of services whenever the church was used, +for both races would always attend anyway. Since the mastery of the two +tongues was out of the question, and there were no translations at all +into the Esquimau, it became a question of teaching the Esquimaux to +take part in an Indian service or dropping both vernaculars altogether +and conducting the service in English. After much doubt and experiment +the latter was resolved upon, and the whole service of prayer and praise +is in English. When the lessons are read and the address delivered it is +necessary to use two interpreters; the minister delivers his sentence in +English, then the Koyukuk interpreter puts it in Indian, and when he is +done the Esquimau interpreter puts it into that tongue. + +It is a very tedious business, this double interpretation and a +twenty-minute sermon takes fully an hour to deliver, but there is no +help for it. The singing is hearty and enthusiastic though the repertory +is wisely very limited; and here, north of the Arctic Circle, is a +vested choir of eight or ten Kobuk and Koyukuk boys who lead the singing +and lead it very well. + +Already the influence of the mission and the school was very marked. +Given the native off by himself like this, in the hands of those in whom +he has learned to place entire confidence, remote from debasing +agencies, and his improvement is evident and his survival assured. + +[Illustration: THE DOUBLE INTERPRETATION AT THE ALLAKAKET.] + +[Illustration: THE WIND-SWEPT YUKON WITHIN THE RAMPARTS.] + +In two days the doctor and Arthur and the team came up, and so was +brought to a happy conclusion a perilous journey over the first ice. One +is often glad to have had experiences that one would by no means repeat, +and this is a case in point. We had learned a good deal about ice; we +had taken liberties with ice that none of us had ever thought before +could be taken with impunity; we had learned to trust ice and at the +same time to distrust it and in some measure to discriminate about it. +The "last ice" is bad, but the "first ice" is much worse, and all +three of us were agreed that we wanted no more travelling over it and no +more pulling of a sled "by the back of the face." + +Then followed a very happy, busy time of several weeks while the river +ice was consolidating and the land trails establishing; happy with its +manifold evidences of the rapid advance the natives were making under +Miss Carter's able and beneficent sway, busy with the instruction of +people eager to learn. It was busy and happy for Doctor Burke also; busy +with the many ailments he relieved, happy with the beginnings of an +attachment which two years later culminated in his marriage to Miss +Carter's colleague at this mission. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE KOYUKUK TO THE YUKON AND TO TANANA--CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS AT SAINT +JOHN'S-IN-THE-WILDERNESS + + +LEAVING Fort Yukon on the 26th of November, 1909, and going again over +almost the same route we followed during the first journey described in +this volume, we reached the new mission at the Allakaket on the Koyukuk +River on the 14th of December, after a period of almost continual cold. +The climate of the interior of Alaska varies as much as any climate. The +previous year, continuing the journey described in "The First Ice," I +had passed over this same route in the opposite direction, between the +same dates, with the thermometer well above zero the whole time. This +trip the _mean_ of the minimum reading at night, the noon reading, and +the reading at start and finish of each day's journey was -38 1/4°. Many +days in that three weeks we travelled all day at 45° and 50° below zero, +and we spent one night in camp at 49° below. + +It was the beginning of a severe winter, with much snow north of the +Yukon and long periods of great cold. + +[Sidenote: BIRTH, BURIAL, AND DANCING] + +The two weeks or so spent at the mission of Saint +John's-in-the-Wilderness was enjoyed as only a rest is enjoyed after +making such a journey; as only Christmas is enjoyed at such a native +mission. It is the time of the whole year for the people; they come in +from near and far intent upon the festival in both of its aspects, +religious and social, and they enter so heartily into all that is +provided for them that one does not know which to admire most, their +simple, earnest piety or the whole-hearted enthusiasm of their sports +and pastimes. Right out of church they go to the frozen river, old men +and maidens, young men and matrons, mothers with babies on their backs +and their skirts tucked up, and they quickly line up and are kicking the +football stuffed with moose hair and covered with moose hide in the +native game that their forefathers played ages before "Rugby" was +invented.[B] When the church-bell rings, back they all troop again, to +take their places and listen patiently and reverently to the long, +double-interpreted service, the babies still on their mothers' backs, +sometimes asleep, sometimes waking up and crying, comforted by slinging +them round and applying their lips to the fountain of nourishment and +solace. + +On the nights when there is no church service there is feasting and +dancing. The native dance is a very simple affair, entirely without any +objectionable feature, and one cannot see any reason in the world for +attempting to suppress it. A man and a woman get out in the middle of +the floor and dance opposite one another without touching at all. The +moccasined toes of an expert man in this dance move with surprising +rapidity, the woman, with eyes downcast, the picture of demureness, +sways slightly from side to side and moves on her toes in rhythm to the +man's movement. Presently another man jumps up and the first man yields +his place; then another woman comes forward and the first woman yields +her place, and so the dance goes on. + +For a variety, of late years there is an occasional "white-man's dance," +of the quadrille or the waltz kind, but the natives much prefer their +own dancing. Here at the Allakaket the presence of the Esquimaux adds +picturesqueness and strangeness, and the Esquimau dance, which consists +of a series of jerky attitudinisings, with every muscle tense, to a +curious monotonous chant and the beating of a drum, is a never-failing +source of amusement to the Indians. + +An old man's funeral in the morning away up on the high bluff +overlooking the mission, a birth in the evening, a dance the same +night--so goes the drama of life in this little, isolated native world. +So soon as these people make up their minds that one of their number is +sick unto death they make the coffin, for when trees must be felled and +lumber whipsawed from them, it is well to be forehanded. + +[Sidenote: "BEFORE" AND "AFTER"] + +There is one old woman living up there yet whose coffin had been made +three times. When it becomes evident that the unfavourable prognosis was +mistaken the coffin is torn apart and made into shelves or some other +article of household utility. It seems very cold-blooded, but it is easy +to misjudge these people. The emotion of grief is real with them, I +believe, but transient. They are matter-of-fact and entirely devoid of +pretence, and when once a funeral has taken place and the service is +all over they dismiss the gloomy event from their minds as soon as +possible. The night of old Mesuk's death, however, there were fires +lighted on all the trails and before most of the Esquimau cabins, the +object of which was probably to frighten the spirit away from the +dwellings of the living. We shall get the better of these superstitions +by and by, but superstitions die hard, not only amongst Esquimaux. +Moreover, practices like this linger as traditional practices long after +their superstitious content is dissipated, and men of feeling do not +wantonly lay hands on ancient traditional custom. I think that if I were +an Esquimau and knew that from immemorial antiquity fires had been +lighted on the trails and outside the doors upon the death of my +ancestors, I should be tempted to kindle them myself upon an occasion, +however firmly I held the Communion of Saints and the Safe Repose of the +Blessed. And I am quite sure that if I were a Thlinket I should set up a +totem-pole despite all the missionaries in the world. When one comes to +think about it dispassionately, there is really nothing in Christianity +averse to the kindling of corpse fires or the blazoning of native +heraldry. When all the little superstitions and peculiar picturesque +customs are abolished out of the world it will be a much less +interesting world than it is to-day. If there were any evidence or +reason to believe that morality and religion will be furthered by the +brow-beating or cajoling of the little peoples into a close similitude +of the white race in dress and manners and customs, all other +considerations would, of course, be swallowed up in a glad welcome of +such advance. But almost the exact opposite is true. The young Indian or +Esquimau, who by much mixing with white men has been "wised up," as the +expressive phrase goes here, is commonly one of the least useful, the +least attractive, the least moral of his kind. We have many such on the +Yukon--young men who work on the steamboats in the summer and do odd +jobs and hang around the stores in winter, and will not condescend to +fish any more or to hunt or trap unless driven by the pinch of hunger. +Show me an Indian who affects the white man in garb, in speech, in +general habits, and external characteristics, and it will be easy to +show an Indian whose death would be little loss to his community or his +race; while the native woman who aspires to dress herself like a white +woman has very commonly the purpose of attracting the attention of the +white men. I think the young Indian man I recall as the best dressed, +most debonair, and most completely "civilised," was living in idleness +upon the bounty of the white trader whom every one knew to be his wife's +paramour, and was impudently careless of the general knowledge. + +Of all the photographs that illustrate missionary publications--and I +have contributed enough villainous half-tones to warrant me in a +criticism--the ones I dislike most are of the "Before and After" type. +Here is a group of savages clad in skins, or furs, or feathers, or palm +fibre, or some patient, skilful weave of native wool or grass; in each +case clad congruously with their environment and out of the products it +affords. Set against it is the same or a similar group clad out of the +slop-shop, clad in hickory shirts and blue-jean trousers, clad so that, +if faces could be changed as easily as clothing, they would pass for any +commonplace group of whites anywhere. And, as if such change were in +itself the symbol and guarantee of a change from all that is brutal and +idolatrous to all that is gentle and Christian, there follows the +triumphant "Before and After" inscription. All the fitness has gone, all +the individuality, all the clever adaptation of indigenous material, all +the artistic and human interest; and a self-conscious smirk of +superiority radiates over made-by-the-million factory garments instead. +Whenever I see such contrasting photographs there comes over me a +shamed, perverse recollection of a pair of engravings by Hogarth, +usually suppressed, which a London bookseller once pulled out of a +portfolio in the back room of his shop and showed me. They bore the same +title. + +I profess myself a friend of the native tongue because it is the native +tongue--the easy, familiar, natural vehicle of expression; of the native +dress because it is almost always comfortable and comely; of the native +customs, whenever they are not unhealthy or demoralising, because they +are the distinctive heritage of a people; and again, of tongue, dress, +and customs alike, if you will, simply because they are dissimilar. + +[Sidenote: A BARREN UNIFORMITY] + +For it has always seemed a trumpery notion that uniformity in these +things has any connection with the upbuilding of a people, has any +ethical relation at all, and I have always wondered that so trumpery a +notion should have so wide an influence. Moreover, is it not a little +curious that, whereas the trend of biological evolution on its upward +course, as Spencer assures us, is towards differentiation and +dissimilarity, the trend of sociological evolution should be so marked +towards this bald and barren uniformity? But these be deep matters. + +I have never been able to join in the reproach of superciliousness so +often applied to the lines of that noblest of missionary hymns in which +Bishop Heber asks, "Can we, whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on +high, Can we, to men benighted, the lamp of life deny?" If that be +superciliousness, it is an essential superciliousness of Christianity +itself, for the question lies at the very core of our religion and will +not cease to be asked so long as the world contains those who believe +with all their hearts, and those who do not believe because they have +not heard. I never listen to that hymn without emotion, it can still +"shake me like a cry Of trumpets going by." But the question that seems +to stir the souls of some missionaries and most school-teachers, "Can we +deny to these unfortunate heathen our millinery, our 'Old Oaken Bucket,' +our Mr. and our Mrs.," leaves me quite cold. + +Here was the weekly afternoon routine at this mission, only the mornings +being devoted to books and classes: On Monday the children brought their +soiled clothes of the week to the schoolroom and washed them; on Tuesday +they were dried and ironed; on Wednesday they were mended; on Thursday a +juvenile "society" did some sort of work for another mission; on Friday +every child in the village had a hot bath. Now, let a routine of that +sort be kept up, week after week, month after month, year after year, +during the whole school life of a child, and it is bound to leave its +mark; and there is no other way in which the same mark may be made. + +At the Allakaket is fine example of what, I think, is the best rule in +the world for the inferior races--the absolute rule of a devoted, +intelligent, capable gentlewoman. We are but now writing the indentures +of their apprenticeship to self-government in the elective village +councils we have set up; it is good for them to serve it under this +loving and unquestioned despotism. + +[Sidenote: MATTERS METEOROLOGICAL] + +During all that Christmas season the temperature was subject to such +violent fluctuations that a chart of them would look like the picture +showing the comparative heights of mountains, that used to be presented +under "The World in Hemispheres" in the school geographies. A minimum of +52° below zero and a maximum of 10° below, was followed by a minimum of +53° below and a maximum of 18° below, and that by a minimum of 56° below +and a maximum of 14° below, while on Christmas Day itself we registered +a minimum of 58° below zero and a maximum of 1° above, a range of 59° in +less than twelve hours. At a time of the year when the sun has scarcely +any effect upon the temperature such tremendous changes point to +corresponding atmospheric disturbances, and each rise was caused by the +irruption of clouds upon a clear sky and was followed by a fall of snow. + +It is a beautifully simple process. Driven into these regions by some +compelling current of the upper atmosphere comes a mass of warm air +laden with moisture--a cloud. As it comes in contact with the cold air +of the region it parts with its heat, and the temperature of the lower +air rises. Having parted with its heat, it can no longer contain its +moisture; and, having parted with its moisture, it ceases to exist. The +cold of the earth and of its immediate air envelope has seized upon that +cloud and devoured it, and the cold resumes its sway. So have I opened +the door of a crowded cabin, when an Indian dance or other gathering was +in progress, at 50° or 60° below zero, and the cold, dry air meeting the +hot, moist air has caused an immediate fall of snow on the threshold. + +After the abrupt rise in temperature on Christmas Day, the snow began to +fall heavily, with a barometer continually falling until it reached +27.98 inches, the lowest point recorded here (at an elevation of about +500 feet above the sea) in two years and a half--and before the snow +ceased three feet had fallen. + +Our winter itinerary called us to leave the Allakaket immediately after +New Year's Day, and our route lay overland through a totally uninhabited +country for nearly one hundred and fifty miles, to Tanana on the Yukon. +We knew that it would not greatly interfere with our plans to lie +another week at the Allakaket, and that would bring our departure after +the monthly journey of the mail-carrier and would thus compel him to +break trail for us through all that snow. That is the way the +mail-carriers in Alaska are usually treated, but Arthur and I took some +pride in keeping as closely as possible to the announced dates of +visitation and in doing such share of trail breaking as fell to us. + +[Sidenote: TRAIL BREAKING] + +So on Monday, the 3d of January, 1910, we bade farewell to Deaconess +Carter and her colleague and to the native charges they rule and care +for so admirably, and set out on our journey with an additional boy from +the mission to help us through the heavy snow of the Koyukuk valley. For +ten or twelve miles the way lay down the river, and the going was slow +and toilsome from the first, although there had been some passage from +Moses' Village to the mission, and there was, therefore, some trail. Our +start had been late--it is next to impossible to get an early start from +a mission; there is always some native who must have audience at the +last moment--and after the long repose we were so soft that the heavy +trail had wearied us, and we decided to "call it a day" when in five and +a half hours we came to the road-house, the last occupied habitation +between the Allakaket and Tanana. Soon after we reached the village +there came trooping down from the mission a number of the inhabitants +gone up for Christmas, who, after weeping upon our necks, so to speak, +at our departure, had left us to break out that drifted trail for their +convenient return. So will Indians treat a white man almost always, but +I had thought myself an exception and was vexed to find that so they had +treated me. + +The next morning we entered the uninhabited wilderness with three feet +of new snow on the trail and no passage over it since it had fallen. Our +first trouble was finding the trail at all. The previous fall the Alaska +Road Commission had appropriated a sum of money to stake this trail from +Tanana to the Koyukuk River, for it passes over wind-swept, treeless +wastes, where many men had lost their way. Starting out from Tanana, the +men employed had done their work well until within ten miles of the +Koyukuk River. There it was found that the labour and cost already +expended had exhausted the appropriation, whereupon the proceedings were +immediately stopped; not another stake was driven, and the whole party +returned to Tanana and mushed two hundred and fifty miles up the Yukon +to spend another little appropriation upon another trail. That is the +unbusinesslike system in which the money available for such work in +Alaska has been handled. + +The first trail breaker goes ahead with a long stick, which he thrusts +continually down through the snow. The slightly harder surface over +which sleds and dogs have passed reveals itself by offering more +resistance to the penetration of the stick, and that is the only way the +trail can be found. Even with three feet of new snow upon it, it is well +worth while finding, or otherwise there is no bottom at all and way must +be made through all the snow of the winter. But all Alaskan trails are +serpentine, and it is very difficult to put the new trail right on top +of the old one. Back and forth the second trail breaker goes between his +leader and the sled, and at intervals the first man comes back and forth +also. And with it all is no path packed solid enough for the dogs to +draw the heavy sled without great difficulty. We should have had a +toboggan, but toboggans are little used on the Koyukuk, and we had only +our sled. In five hours we made five miles and were worn out. We decided +to pitch our tent and go ahead and break trail for the morrow's +journey. On the lakes interspersed amongst the brush we had to break an +entirely new trail, for we could find no trace of the old one. + +If five miles in five hours be poor going, what is four miles in seven +and a half hours? That is all we made the next day despite the +snow-shoeing of the previous evening. The heavy sled was continually +getting off the trail, however wide we show-shoed it. The two of us +ahead went over every step of the distance four or five times, and +sometimes all of us had to go back and forth again and again before the +sled could be brought along at all. It was from 5° to 10° above zero all +day, and at intervals snow fell heavily. We got at last to the middle of +a little lake and were confronted by open water, the result of some warm +spring, one supposes. Here we must stop until a laborious journey was +made to the bank, trees were cut and carried, and the open place bridged +so that the sled might be passed over it. Then again our painful +progress was resumed until, as it grew dark, we reached the bank of the +Kornutna, or Old Man Creek, and here we pitched tent again, and I went +forward upon the bed of the stream to break out a part of to-morrow's +path. That night two more inches of snow fell. + +[Sidenote: DOG DRIVING] + +For four miles the trail lies along the surface of this creek, and then +takes up a steep gully and over a divide. That four miles was all we +made the next day, back and forth, back and forth, wearily tramping it +to and fro, dogs and men alike exhausted with the toil. The hatefulness +of dog mushing usually appears under such circumstances; the whip is +constantly plied, the senseless objurgations rise shriller and fuller. +Once the sled is started, it must by any means be kept going, that as +great a distance as possible may be covered before it stops again. The +poor brutes, sinking almost to their bellies despite the snow-shoeing, +have no purchase for the exercise of their strength and continually +flounder and wallow. Our whip was lost and I was glad of it, for even as +considerate a boy as Arthur is apt to lose patience and temper when, +having started the sled with much labour by gee pole and rope about his +chest, it goes but a few feet and comes to a halt again, or slips from +the track and turns over in the deep snow. But it is at such times, too, +that one appreciates at his full value such a noble puller as our wheel +dog Nanook. He spares himself not at all; the one absorbing occupation +of every nerve and muscle of his body is pulling. His trace is always +taut, or, if he lose footing for a moment and the trace slacken, he is +up and at it again that the sled lose not its momentum if he can help +it. When the lead line is pulled back that the sled may be started by +the jerk of the dogs' sudden traction, Nanook lunges forward at the +command, "Mush!" and strains at the collar, mouth open and panting, +tongue dropping moisture, as keen and eager to keep that sled moving as +is the driver himself. All day he labours and struggles, snatching a +mouthful of snow now and then to cool his overheated body, and he drops +in his tracks when the final halt is made, utterly weary, yet always +with the brave heart in him to give his bark, his five-note +characteristic bark of gladness, that the day's work is done at last. +It is senseless brutality to whip such a dog, and most of our dogs were +of that mettle, though Nanook was the strongest and most faithful of the +bunch. One's heart goes out to them with gratitude and love--old +"Lingo," "Nig," "Snowball," "Wolf," and "Doc"--as one realises what +loyal, cheerful service they give. + +[Sidenote: VIOLENT FLUCTUATIONS] + +Arthur was so unwell with a violent cold and cough, that had been +growing worse for a couple of days, that I decided on two things: to +leave him in the tent while I snow-shoed ahead the next day, and to send +back the boy I had brought from the mission to secure a fresh supply of +food; for the back trail was, of course, comparatively easy. Arthur's +condition threatened pneumonia, to my notion, and I believe he was saved +from an attack of that disease which is so often fatal in this country +by long rubbing all over the neck and the chest with a remedy that was +new then--a menthol balm. I have used it again and again since and I am +now never without it. A second application made in the morning, I +started out, show-shoeing up the long hill and then down into the flat, +and so to the mail-carrier's little hut that is reached under good +conditions of trail the first day from Moses' Village, and then back +again to the tent. That day a tendon in my right leg behind the knee +became increasingly troublesome, and in climbing the hill on the return +was acutely painful. I recognised it as "mal-de-raquet," well known in +the Northwest, where the snow is commonly much deeper than in Alaska, +and I found relief in the application of the same analgesic menthol balm +that I was rejoiced to find had wrought a great improvement in Arthur's +condition. + +Meanwhile the warm weather of the past three or four days was over and +another period of violent fluctuations of temperature similar to that +around Christmastide was upon us. We went to bed with the thermometer at +10° below zero and were wakened by the cold at two in the morning to +find it at 40° below, so we had to keep a fire going the rest of the +night; for as soon as the fire in the stove goes out a tent becomes just +as cold as outdoors. + +We moved forward the next morning, but the trail we had broken was too +narrow and had to be widened, which meant one snow-shoe in the deep snow +all the time, a very fatiguing process that brought into painful play +again the tendon strained with five days' heavy snow-shoeing. + +The temperature was around 40° below all day, and our progress was so +slow that it was not easy to keep warm, and the dogs whined at the +innumerable stops. Yesterday it had been 10° below, the day before 10° +above, and now, to-day, 40° below. It is hard to dress for such +changeable weather, especially hard to dress the feet. My own wear, all +the winter through, is a pair of smoke-tanned, moose-hide breeches, +tanned on the Yukon but tailored outside. They are a perfect windbreak, +yet allow ventilation, and they are very warm; but those who perspire +much on exertion cannot wear them. The amount of covering upon the feet +must be varied, in some measure at least, as the temperature changes. +The Esquimau fur boot, with fur on the inside of the sole and on the +outside of the upper, is my favourite footwear, with more or less of +sock inside it as the weather requires; but such sudden changes as we +were experiencing always find one or leave one with too much or too +little footwear. By one-thirty we had struggled to the top of the hill, +and it was very evident that the cabin was out of the question that day; +so, since to pass down into the flat was to pass out of eligible camping +timber, we pitched tent on the brow of the hill. + +The cold business of making camp was done, all dispositions for the +night complete, supper for men and dogs was cooked and ours eating, when +we heard a noise in the distance that set our dogs barking and presently +came the boy I had sent back, accompanied by an Indian and a fresh team +loaded with such a bountiful supply of food, much of it cooked, that one +felt it was worth while to get into distress to receive such generous +and prompt succour. The ladies at the mission had sat up and cooked all +night and had despatched the fastest team in the village the next +morning to bring their provisions to us and to help us along. They had +thought us at Tanana when we were not yet at the end of the first day's +stage from Moses' Village. It would have been impossible for us to reach +Tanana on the dog food and man food we started with. + +[Sidenote: SIXTY-FIVE BELOW ZERO] + +It was so cold and we were so crowded that I arose at three and made a +fire and sat over it the rest of the night, and after breakfast, +although it was Sunday, morning prayer being said, I started ahead again +to break out the trail deeper and wider, leaving the teams with the +distributed loads to follow. The thermometer stood at 38° below zero +when I left camp, but as I began the descent it was evident that it grew +colder, and at the bottom of the hill I was sure it was 20° colder at +least. Reaching the cabin, I kindled a fire and started back to meet the +teams. About a mile from the cabin I saw them, for, since the load was +distributed in the two sleds progress was much better; but by this time +it had grown so cold that the dogs were almost entirely obscured from +view by the clouds of steam that encompassed them. We hurried as best we +might and reached the cabin about eleven, and as soon as we were arrived +I took out the thermometer and let it lie long enough to get the +temperature of the air, and it read 65° below zero. There had been no +atmospheric change at all; it was simply the most marked instance I ever +knew of the influence of altitude upon temperature. We had descended +perhaps three hundred feet, and in that distance had found a difference +of 27° in temperature. + +The cabin was a wretched shack without door or window and full of holes, +and in no part of it could one stand upright. We set ourselves to make +things as comfortable as possible, however, rigging up the canvas sled +cover for an outer door and a blanket for an inner door, and stopping up +the worst of the holes with sacking. Then we went out and cut fresh +spruce boughs to lie upon, and prospected around quite a while before we +found dry wood nearly a quarter of a mile away. It was quite a business +cutting that wood and packing the heavy sticks on one's shoulders, +through the brush and up and down the banks of the little creek where +it grew, on snow-shoes, at 65° below zero. + +Our Sabbath day's journey done, the hut safely reached and furnished +with fuel, we did not linger long after supper, but, evening prayer +said, went to bed as the most comfortable place in the still cold cabin, +thankful not to be in a tent in such severe weather. + +The next day gave us fresh temperature fluctuations. At nine A. M. it +clouded and rose to 35° below, by noon it had cleared again and the +thermometer fell to 55° below, and at nine P. M. it stood once more at +65° below. The milder weather of the morning sent all hands out breaking +trail, save myself, for with all our stuff in a cabin without a door it +was not wise to leave it altogether--a dog might break a chain and work +havoc--so I stayed behind in the little dark hovel, a candle burning all +day, and read some fifty pages of Boswell's _Life of Samuel Johnson_ +over again. Some such little India-paper classic it is my habit to carry +each winter. Last year I reread Pepys's _Diary_ and the year before much +of the _Decline and Fall_. Certain places are for ever associated in my +mind with the rereading of certain old books. The Chandalar River is to +me as much the scene of _Lorna Doone_, which I read for the sixth or +seventh time on my first journey along it, as Exmoor itself; and _The +Cloister and the Hearth_, that noble historical romance, belongs in my +literary geography to the Alatna-Kobuk portage. So will Boswell always +bring back to me this trip across country from the Koyukuk to the Yukon +through the deep snow. + +The boys came back after dark, having broken some nine miles of trail +and having suffered a good deal from the cold. I had supper cooked, and +when that was done and the dogs fed we fell to reading the Gospels and +Epistles for the Epiphany season, the boys reading aloud by turns. The +all-day fire had warmed the little hut thoroughly, and despite the cold +outside we were snug and comfortable within. + +[Sidenote: SEVENTY BELOW ZERO] + +That night the thermometer touched 70° below zero, within 2° of the +greatest cold I have recorded in seven years' winter travel; a greater +cold, I believe, than any arctic expedition has ever recorded, for it is +in a continental climate like Siberia or interior Alaska, and not in the +marine climate around the North Pole, that the thermometer falls lowest. + +Save for an hour or two getting wood, we all lay close next day, for the +temperature at noon was no higher than 64° below. It is impossible to +break trail at such temperature, or to travel as slowly as we were +travelling. In the strong cold one must travel fast if one travel at +all. Indeed, it is distinctly dangerous to be outdoors. As soon as one +leaves the hut the cold smites one in the face like a mailed fist. The +expiration of the breath makes a crackling sound, due, one judges, to +the sudden congealing of the moisture that is expelled. From every +cranny of the cabin a stream of smoke-like vapour pours into the air, +giving the appearance that the house is on fire within. However warmly +hands and feet may be clad, one cannot stand still for a minute without +feeling the heat steadily oozing out and the cold creeping in. + +Notwithstanding the weather, that evening the mail came along, the +white man who is the carrier, two tall, strong natives, and nine dogs. +Only since descending to the flat had they suffered from the cold, for +they found as great a difference as we did in the temperature; and they +were grateful to us for the trail we had broken. The hut was +uncomfortably crowded that night with seven people in it, but the +thermometer stood at -56° and was rising, and gave us hope that we might +move along to-morrow. Augmented as our party was into seven men, three +sleds, and nineteen or twenty dogs, trail breaking would not be so +arduous and progress would be much accelerated. There was good hope, +moreover, that the heavy snow was confined to the Koyukuk valley and +that when we passed out of it we should find better going. + +The morning found a temperature of 45° below, and we sallied forth, +quite an expedition. Four, including myself, went ahead beating down the +trail; one was at each gee pole, our team last, getting advantage of +everything preceding. So far as the trail had been broken we made good +time, covering the nine miles in about four hours. Another hour of +somewhat slower progress took us to the top of a hill, and here the +mail-carrier's two Indians had run ahead and built a great, roaring fire +and arranged a wide, commodious couch of spruce boughs, and we cooked +our lunch and took our ease for half an hour. The sky had clouded again +and the temperature had risen to 28° below. + +[Sidenote: CLOSE QUARTERS] + +It is strange how some scenes of the trail linger in the memory, while +others are completely forgotten. This noon halt I always remember as +one of the pleasantest of all my journeyings. There was not a breath of +wind, and the smoke rose straight into the air instead of volleying and +eddying into one's face as camp-fires so often do on whichever side of +them one sits. We were all weary with our five hours' trudge, and the +rest was grateful; hungry, and the boiled ham they had sent from the +mission was delicious. The warmth of the great fire and the cosiness of +the thick, deep spruce boughs gave solid comfort, and the pipe after the +meal was a luxurious enjoyment. + +From that on the going was heavier and our progress slower, but we kept +at it till dark, and still far into the night, fortunate in having two +Indians who knew every step of the way, until at last we reached the hut +that marks the end of the second stage from the Koyukuk River, on the +top of a birch hill. We had made nineteen and a half miles that day and +had taken eleven hours to do it. + +If the noon rest be remembered as one of the pleasantest episodes of the +trail, that night in the cabin on the hill I recall as one of the most +miserable in my life. The hut was still smaller than the previous one, +like it without door and window, and so low that one was bent double all +the time. Walls and roof alike were covered with a thick coating of +frost. The only wood discoverable in the dark was half-dry birch which +would not burn in the stove but sent out volumes of smoke that blinded +us. When the hut did begin to get a little warm, moisture from the roof +dropped on everything. There we seven men huddled together, chilly and +damp, choked and weary--a wretched band. There was no room for the +necessary cooking operations; we had to cook and eat in relays; and how +we slept, in what way seven men managed to pack themselves and stretch +themselves in those narrow quarters, I cannot tell. However, we said our +prayers and went to bed, snow falling heavily. The Indians were soon +snoring, but sleep would not come to me, tired as I was, and I had not +slept at all the previous night. So presently I took trional, X grs., +and dozed off till morning. + +Then we resolved to divide forces rather than subject ourselves to the +miserable inconvenience of overcrowding these tiny huts, and at this +stage of the journey it was possible to do so without losing a whole +day, for there was a cabin for the noon rest. It was arranged that the +mail-man should start first and make the full day's run if possible, +while we should "call it a day" at the half-way hut. + +So Bob and his Indians sallied forth while yet my boys were reading +their lessons to me, and when they were done we hitched up and followed. +And as soon as we were down the hill and started along the bald flat, it +was evident that we were out of the deep snowfall, for the present at +any rate, and we plucked up spirit, for we were now to cross the wide, +open, wind-swept uplands of the headwaters of the Melozitna and Tozitna, +tributaries of the Yukon--the "Tozi" and "Melozi," as the white men call +them--where snow never lies deep or long. We were out of the Koyukuk +watershed now and in country drained by direct tributaries of the +Yukon. The going was now incomparably the best we had had since we left +the mission, the snow was light and we had the mail-carrier's trail; +but, although the temperature had risen to 21° below, a keen wind put +our parkee hoods up and our scarfs around our faces and made our 60° +below clothing none too warm. In three hours we had reached the Melozi +cabin, although that had included the climbing of a long, steep hill, +and here we stayed for the rest of the day and night and shot some +ptarmigan for supper, though we could easily have gone on and made the +rest of the run. + +The next day I sent the auxiliary sled and team and driver back to the +Allakaket, keeping the mission boy with me, however, to return with the +mail-carrier, who was already late and must go back as soon as he +reached Tanana. I parted with the Indian regretfully, for he had been +most helpful and always good-natured and cheerful, and had really begun +to learn a little at our travelling night-school. + +[Sidenote: THE STAKED TRAIL] + +[Sidenote: THE ARCTIC SKIES] + +A high wind was blowing, with the thermometer at 12° below, and the +mail-man's trail was already drifted over and quite indistinguishable in +the dark, and we began to appreciate the recent staking of this trail by +the Road Commission. But for these stakes, set double, a hundred yards +apart, so that they formed a lane, it would have been difficult if not +impossible for us to travel on a day like this, for here was a stretch +of sixteen or seventeen miles with never a tree and hardly the smallest +bush. The wind blew stronger and stronger directly in our faces as we +rose out of the Melozitna basin on the hill that is its watershed, and +when the summit was reached and we turned and looked back there was +nothing visible but a white, wind-swept waste. But ahead all the snow +was most beautifully and delicately tinted from the reflection of the +dawn on ragged shredded clouds that streamed across the southeastern +sky. Where the sky was free of cloud it gave a wonderful clear green +that was almost but not quite the colour of malachite. It was exactly +the colour of the water the propeller of a steamship churns up where the +Atlantic Ocean shallows to the rocky shore of the north coast of +Ireland. The clouds themselves caught a deep dull red from the sunrise, +which the snow gave back in blush pink. Such an exquisite colour harmony +did the scene compose that the wind, lulling for a moment on the crest +of the hill, seemed charmed into peace by it. + +The feast of colour brought a train of colour memories, one hard upon +the heels of another, as we went down the hill; the Catbells, this +golden with bracken, that purple with heather, and each doubled in the +depths of Derwentwater; an October morning in the hardwood forests of +the mountains of Tennessee, when for half an hour every gorgeous tint of +red and yellow was lavishly flaunted--and then the whole pride and +splendour of it wiped out at once by a wind that sprang up; the +encircling and towering reds and pinks of a gigantic amphitheatre of +rock in the Dolomites; a patch of flowers right against the snow in the +high Rockies, so intensely blue that it seemed the whole vault of heaven +could be tinctured with the pigment that one petal would distil. And, +more inspiring than them all, there came the recollection of that +wonderful sunrise and those blazing mountains of the Alatna-Kobuk +portage. Every land has its glories, and the sky is everywhere a blank +canvas for the display of splendid colour, but the tints of the arctic +sky are of an infinite purity of individual tone that no other sky can +show. + +As we descended the hill into the Tozitna basin the wind rose again, now +charged with heavy, driving snow, while in the valley the underfoot snow +grew deep, so that it was drawing to dusk when we reached the cabin on a +fork of the Tozitna where Bob the mail-man had spent the previous night, +and there we stayed. + +The next day is worthy of record for the sharp contrast it affords. All +the night it had snowed heavily, and it snowed all the morning and into +the afternoon. Some sixteen or seventeen inches of snow had fallen since +Bob and his party passed, and again we had no trail at all. +Moreover--strange plaint in January in Alaska!--the weather grew so warm +that the snow continually balled up under the snow-shoes and clung to +the sled and the dogs. At noon the thermometer stood at 17° above +zero--and it was but four days ago that we recorded 70° below! It will +be readily understood how such wide and sudden ranges of temperature add +to the inconvenience and discomfort of mushing. Parkees, sweaters, +shirts are shed one after the other, the fur cap becomes a nuisance, the +mittens a burden, and still ploughing through the snow he is bathed in +sweat who had forgotten what sweating felt like. The poor dogs suffer +the most, for they have nothing they can shed and they can perspire only +through the mouth. Their tongues drop water almost in a stream, they +labour for their breath, and their eyes have a look that comes only with +soft weather and a heavy trail. So constantly do they grab mouthfuls of +snow that the operation becomes quite a check on our progress. + +By two o'clock it was growing dusk, and we had but reached the bank of +the other fork of the Tozitna, not more than eight or nine miles from +the cabin where we spent the night and yet thirteen or fourteen miles +from the cabin we had hoped to reach. Beyond the banks of the stream was +no more timber for a long distance; was such another stretch of open +country as we had passed the previous day. So here was another +disappointment, for camp must be made now lest there be no chance to +make camp at all. But it was a good and comfortable camp, amidst the +large spruce of the watercourse. Such disappointments are part of life +on the trail; and supper done there was the more time for the boys. + +The open country was again wind-swept, and being wind-swept the snow was +somewhat hardened, and we fought our way against a gale, covering the +twelve and three quarter miles in ten hours, Sunday though it was. At +that last stage on the road to Tanana came out a young man from the +mission with a dog team and an Indian, anxious at our long delay, and +Harry Strangman's name is written here with grateful recognition of this +kindness and many others. We went joyfully into town on the morrow, the +17th of January, having taken fifteen days to make a journey that is +normally made in five. + +[Sidenote: THE MAIL-CARRIER] + +Half-way on that last day's mush we met the mail-man returning to the +Koyukuk. So much had he been delayed that there was danger of a fine and +all sorts of trouble, and the mail had been sent out to meet him at the +noon cabin, together with a supply of grub for the return trip. But the +caterer, whoever he was, forgot candles, and the mail-man would have had +to make his way back to the Koyukuk without any means of artificial +light, in the shortest days of the year, had we not been able to supply +him with half a dozen candles that remained to us. It was a +disappointment to George, the boy I had brought from the mission, that +he must turn round and go back also. He had never "seen Tanana," which +is quite a metropolis to him, and had looked forward to it keenly all +the journey, but the boy braced up and took his disappointment manfully. +A pitiful procession it was that passed us by and took our boy away; the +poor, wearied dogs that had certainly earned the few days' rest they +were so badly in need of left a trail of blood behind them that was +sickening to see. Almost every one of them had sore, frozen feet; many +of them were lame; and when we came to descend the long hill they had +just climbed, right at its brow, where the stiffest pull had been, was a +claw from a dog's foot frozen into bloody snow. + +So far as there is anything heroic about the Alaskan trail, the +mail-carriers are the real heroes. They must start out in all weathers, +at all temperatures; they have a certain specified time in which to make +their trips and they must keep within that time or there is trouble. The +bordering country of the Canadian Yukon has a more humane government +than ours. There neither mail-carrier nor any one else, save in some +life-or-death emergency, with licence from the Northwest Mounted Police, +may take out horse or dogs to start a journey when the temperature is +lower than 45° below zero; but I have seen a reluctant mail-carrier +chased out at 60° below zero, on pain of losing his job, on the American +side. Moreover, between the seasons, when travel on the rivers is +positively dangerous to life, the mail must still be despatched and +received, although so great is the known risk to the mail, as well as to +the carrier, that no one will send any letter that he cares at all about +reaching its destination until the trails are established or the +steamboats run. But the virtually empty pouches must be transported from +office to office through the running, or over the rotting ice, just the +same, on pain of the high displeasure and penalty of a department +without brains and without bowels. I have often wished since I came to +Alaska that I could be postmaster-general for one week, and so I suppose +has almost every other resident of the country. + +The week following my arrival at Tanana was a solid week of cold +weather, the thermometer ranging around 50° and 60° below zero, and that +means keeping pretty close to the house. Even the sentries at the army +post are withdrawn and the protection of the garrison is confided to a +man who watches the grounds from a glass-walled cupola above the +headquarters building. Yet a week of confinement and inaction grows +tiresome after life in the open. + +Sunday is always a busy day here. The mission and native village are +three miles away from the town, and service must be held at both. The +mission at Tanana is not a happy place to visit for one who has the +welfare of the natives at heart. Despite faithful and devoted effort to +check it, the demoralisation goes on apace and the outlook is dark. + +[Sidenote: SINGLE MEN IN BARRACKS] + +"Single men in barracks don't grow into plaster saints," we are told; +sometimes they seem to grow into drunken, lustful devils without +compassion for childhood, not to mention any feeling of magnanimity +towards a feebler race. And when a girl who has been rough-handled, or +who has been given drink until she is unable to resist the multiple +outrage practised upon her, is told to pick out the malefactors from a +company of soldiers, all clean-shaven, all dressed alike, all around the +same age, she generally fails to identify altogether. So the offence +goes unwhipped, and the officer is likely as not to address a reprimand +to the complaining missionary for "preferring charges you are unable to +substantiate." Yet an officer who had himself written such a letter told +me once that all Indians looked alike to him. Even should the girl +identify one or more men, they have usually half a dozen comrades ready +to swear an alibi. + +Add to the trouble given by the soldiers the constant operation of the +slinking bootleggers of the town, a score or more of whom are known to +make money by this liquor peddling, and some of whom do nothing else for +a living, yet whom it is next to impossible to convict, owing to the +cumbrous machinery of the law and the attitude of juries, and it will be +seen that the hands of those who are fighting for the native race are +tied. + +What has been said about the military does not by any means apply to +all, either officers or men. Some of the officers have been decent, +God-fearing men, conscious of the evil and zealous to suppress it; some +of the men, indeed in all probability most of the men, quite free from +such offence; some commanding officers have kept such a well-disciplined +post that offences of all kinds have been greatly reduced. But the +commanding officer is changed every year, and the whole force is changed +every two years, so that there is no continuity of policy at the post, +and an administration that has grown familiar with conditions and that +stands so far as it can for clean living and sobriety and decency and +the protection of the native people, may be followed by one that is +loftily ignorant of the situation, careless about offences against +morality, and impatient of any complaint. + +Off by himself, separate from the demoralising influence of the low-down +white, there is every hope and encouragement in the effort to elevate +and educate the Indian; set down cheek by jowl with the riffraff of +towns and barracks, his fate seems sealed. + +[Sidenote: DEATH-RATE AND BIRTH-RATE] + +Let these two mission stations, the Allakaket and Tanana, one hundred +and fifty miles or so apart by the winter trail, represent the two +conditions. In six years' time there has been manifest advance at the +one and decay at the other. The birth-rate is greatly in excess of the +death-rate at the Allakaket, the death-rate greatly in excess of the +birth-rate at Tanana. In the year in which this journey was made there +were thirty-four deaths and fourteen births at Tanana, and while the +difference was an unusually large one, yet in the six years referred to +there has not been one year in which the number of births exceeded the +number of deaths. One does not have to be a prophet to foresee the +inevitable result, if the process be not stopped. + +A tribute should be paid to the zeal, now of one, now of another army +surgeon at Fort Gibbon in tending the native sick, three miles away, +when we have been unable to procure a physician of our own for the +place. The missionary nurse, for five years last past Miss Florence +Langdon, has been greatly helped in her almost desperate efforts here by +the willing co-operation of these medical officers of the army. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[B] See illustration, p. 374. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UP THE YUKON TO RAMPART AND ACROSS COUNTRY TO THE TANANA--ALASKAN +AGRICULTURE--THE GOOD DOG NANOOK--MISS FARTHING'S BOYS AT NENANA--CHENA +AND FAIRBANKS + + +OUR course from Tanana did not lie directly up the Tanana River, but up +the Yukon to Rampart and then across country to the Hot Springs on the +Tanana River. The seventy-five miles up the Yukon was through the Lower +Ramparts, one of the most picturesque portions of this great river. The +stream is confined in one deep channel by lofty mountains on both banks, +and the scenery at times is very bold and wild. But its topography makes +it the natural wind course of the country--a down-river wind in winter, +an up-river wind in summer blows almost continually. It was no colder +than 5° below zero when we started on the trip, but the wind made the +travelling unpleasant. The second day it had increased to a gale, and +every mile we travelled it grew stronger. We travelled three hours, and +the last hour we made scarcely a mile. So thickly charged with flying +snow was the wind and so dead ahead that despite parkee hoods it blinded +us, and the dogs could hardly be forced to keep their heads towards it. +Their faces were so coated with crusted snow that they looked curiously +like the face of harlequin in the pantomime. It did become literally +intolerable, and when Arthur said that he knew there was a cabin right +across the river, we made our way thither and shortly found it and lay +there the rest of the day, the gale blowing incessantly. This was +disappointing, because it meant that I could not reach Rampart for the +Sunday I had appointed. + +Next day the wind had ceased and the thermometer went down to 30° below +zero. In places the ice was blown clear of snow; in other places it was +heavily drifted. By midday we had reached the lonely telegraph station +at "The Rapids," and were very kindly received by the signal-corps men +in charge. They gave us to eat and to drink and would take no money. +There is little travel on this part of the river nowadays, and the +telegraph men are glad to see any one who may chance to pass by. We +pushed on heavily again, and had to stop and cut a gee pole presently, +for it was hard to handle the sled without it; but the gee pole always +means laborious travel. The cold was welcome; it meant no wind; and we +were glad to see the thermometer drop lower than 50° below zero that +night at the old mail cabin. The mail goes no longer on the Yukon River +from Fort Yukon to Tanana, and, barring this point, Rampart, towards +which we were travelling, which is supplied across country from the Hot +Springs, over the route we should traverse, no spot on that three +hundred and fifty miles of river receives any mail at all. The +population is small and scattered, it is true; on the same grounds +Alaska might be denied any mail at all. There has been much resentment +at this abandonment of the Yukon River by the post-office and several +petitions for its restoration, but it has not been restored. + +[Sidenote: THE WIND-SWEPT YUKON] + +We travelled all the next day at 50° below zero, and it was one of the +pleasantest days of the winter. There was not a breath of wind, the +going steadily improved, and, best of all, for three hours we were +travelling in the sunshine for the first time this winter. Only those +who have been deprived of the sun can really understand how joyful and +grateful his return is. There was no heat in his rays, this last day of +January; the thermometer stood at 49° below at noon, and had risen but +5° since our start in the morning; but the mere sight of him glowing in +the south, where a great bend of the river gave him to us through a gap +in the mountains, was cheerful and invigorating after two months in +which we had seen no more than his gilding of the high snows. The sun +gives life to the dead landscape, colour to the oppressive monotony of +white and black, and man's heart leaps to the change as jubilantly as +does the face of nature. + +[Sidenote: RAMPART AND ITS SALOON] + +Rampart City differs from Circle City, the other decayed mining town of +the Yukon River, only in that the process is further advanced. Year by +year there are a few less men on the creeks behind it, a few less +residents in the town itself. Its long, straggling water-front consists +in the main of empty buildings, the windows boarded up, the snow drifted +high about the doors. One store now serves all ends of trade, one liquor +shop serves all the desire for drink of the whites, and slops over +through the agency of two or three dissolute squaw men and half-breeds +to the natives up and down the river.[C] + +Rampart had one fat year, 1898, when many hundreds of gold seekers, +approaching the Klondike by Saint Michael and the lower Yukon were +attracted and halted by the gold discoveries on Big and Little Minook, +and spent the winter here. The next spring news was brought of the rich +discoveries on Anvil Creek, behind Cape Nome, and an exodus began which +grew into a veritable stampede in 1900, when the gold discoveries in the +beach itself were made. Rampart's large population faded away as surely +and as quickly to Nome as Circle City's population did to the Klondike. +The Indians are almost all gone from their village a mile above the +town; they dwindled away with the dwindling prosperity, some to Tanana, +some to other points down the river; and what used to be the worst small +native community in the interior of Alaska has almost ceased to exist. +Most of the little band of white folks still remaining were gathered +together at night, and appreciated, I thought, their semiannual +opportunity for Divine service. + +[Sidenote: "DEVELOPED"] + +There is no resisting the melancholy that hangs over a place like this. +As one treads the crazy, treacherous board sidewalks, full of holes and +rotten planks, now rising a step or two, now falling, and reads the +dimmed and dirty signs that once flaunted their gold and colours, +"Golden North," "Pioneer," "Reception," "The Senate" (why should every +town in Alaska have a "Senate" saloon and not one a "House of +Representatives"?), one conjures up the scenes of rude revelry these +drinking places witnessed a few years ago. How high the hopes of sudden +riches burned in the breasts of the men who went in and out of them, +doomed to utter disappointment in the vast majority! What a rapscallion +crew, male and female, followed this great mob of gold seekers, and grew +richer as their victims grew poorer! What earned and borrowed and saved +and begged and stolen moneys were frittered away and flung away that +winter; what health and character were undermined! How the ribaldry and +valiant, stupid blasphemy rang out in these tumbling-down shanties! Go +out on the creeks and see the hills denuded of their timber, the +stream-beds punched with innumerable holes, filled up or filling up, the +cabins and sluice-boxes rotting into the moss, here and there a broken +pick and shovel, here and there a rusting boiler, and take notice that +this region has been "developed." + +When the debit and credit sides of the ledger are balanced, what remains +to Alaska of all these thousands of men, of all the many hundreds of +thousands of dollars they brought with them? Those creeks, stripped, +gutted, and deserted; this town, waiting for a kindly fire with a +favouring breeze to wipe out its useless emptiness; a few half-breed +children at mission schools; a hardy native tribe, sophisticated, +diseased, demoralised, and largely dead--that seems the net result. + +The portage trail from Rampart to the Tanana River goes up Minook Creek +and follows the valley to its head, then crosses a summit and passes +down through several small mining settlements to the Hot Springs. The +trail saves traversing two sides of the triangle which it makes with the +two rivers. + +The dogs' feet and legs had suffered so much from the deep snow and the +heavy labour of the journey out of the Koyukuk and the rough ice of the +Yukon that I was compelled to have not merely moccasins but moose-hide +leggings made here, coming right up to the belly and tying over the +back. All the hair was worn away from the back of the legs and the skin +was in many places raw. + +We had thought to cover the twenty-five or thirty miles up the valley +and over the summit to a road-house just beyond its foot, but rough +drifted trails and a high wind held us back until it was dark before the +ascent was reached, and we pitched our tent and reserved the climb for +the morrow. + +It was a hard grind owing to the drifted snow and the wind that still +disputed our passage, but the view from the summit, nearly eighteen +hundred feet above last night's camp, was compensation enough, for it +gave us the great mountain, Denali, or, as the map makers and some +white men call it, Mount McKinley. Perhaps an hundred and fifty miles +away, as the crow flies, it rose up and filled all the angle of vision +to the southwest. It is not a peak, it is a region, a great soaring of +the earth's crust, rising twenty thousand feet high; so enormous in its +mass, in its snow-fields and glaciers, its buttresses, its flanking +spurs, its far-flung terraces of foot-hills and approaches, that it +completely dominates the view whenever it is seen at all. I have heard +people say they thought they had seen Denali, as I have heard travellers +say they thought they had seen Mount Everest from Darjiling; but no one +ever thought he saw Denali if he saw it at all. There is no possible +question about it, once the mountain has risen before the eyes; and +although Mount Everest is but the highest of a number of great peaks, +while Denali stands alone in unapproached predominance, yet I think the +man who has really looked upon the loftiest mountain in the world could +have no doubt about it ever after. + +How my heart burns within me whenever I get view of this great monarch +of the North! There it stood, revealed from base to summit in all its +stupendous size, all its glistening majesty. I would far rather climb +that mountain than own the richest gold-mine in Alaska. Yet how its +apparent nearness mocks one; what time and cost and labour are involved +even in approaching its base with food and equipment for an attempt to +reach its summit! How many schemes I have pondered and dreamed these +seven years past for climbing it! Some day time and opportunity and +resource may serve, please God, and I may have that one of my heart's +desires; if not, still it is good to have seen it from many different +coigns of vantage, from this side and from that; to have felt the awe of +its vast swelling bulk, the superb dignity of its firm-seated, +broad-based uplift to the skies with a whole continent for a pedestal; +to have gazed eagerly and longingly at its serene, untrodden summit, far +above the eagle's flight, above even the most daring airman's venture, +and to have desired and hoped to reach it; to desire and hope to reach +it still.[D] + +Plunging down the steep descent we went for four miles, and then after a +hearty dinner at the road-house, essayed to make twenty-one miles more +to the Hot Springs. But night fell again with a number of miles yet to +come, the recent storm had furrowed the trail diagonally with hard +windrows of snow that overturned the sled repeatedly and formed an +hindrance that grew greater and greater, and again we made camp in the +dark, short of our expected goal. + +Of late I had been carrying an hip ring, a rubber ring inflated by the +breath that is the best substitute for a mattress. The ring had been +left behind at Rampart, and so dependent does one grow on the little +luxuries and ameliorations one permits oneself that these two nights in +camp were almost sleepless for lack of it. + +[Sidenote: THE HOT SPRINGS] + +Three hours more brought us to the spacious hotel, with its forty empty +rooms, that had been put up, out of all sense or keeping, in a wild, +plunging attempt to "exploit" the Hot Springs and make a great "health +resort" of the place. The hot water had been piped a quarter of a mile +or so to spacious swimming-baths in the hotel; all sorts of expense had +been lavished on the place; but it had been a failure from the first, +and has since been closed and has fallen into dilapidation. The bottoms +have dropped out of the cement baths, the paper hangs drooping from the +damp walls, the unsubstantial foundations have yielded until the floors +are heaved like the waves of the sea.[E] But at this time the hotel was +still maintained and we stayed there, and its wide entrance-hall and +lobby formed an excellent place to gather the inhabitants of the little +town for Divine service--again the only opportunity in the year. + +What a curious phenomenon thermal springs constitute in these parts! +Here is a series of patches of ground, free from snow, while all the +country has been covered two or three feet deep these four months; green +with vegetation, while all living things elsewhere are wrapped in winter +sleep. Here is open, rushing water, throwing up clouds of steam that +settles upon everything as dense hoar frost, while all other water is +held in the adamantine fetters of the ice. Where does that constant +unfailing stream of water at 110° Fahrenheit come from? Where does it +get its heat? I know of half a dozen such thermal springs in +Alaska,--one far away above the Arctic Circle between the upper courses +of the Kobuk and the Noatak Rivers, that I have heard strange tales +about from the Esquimaux and that I have always wanted to visit. + +Whenever I see this gush of hot water in the very midst of the ice and +the snow, I am reminded of my surprise on the top of Mount Tacoma. We +had climbed some eight thousand feet of snow and were shivering in a +bitter wind on the summit, yet when the hand was thrust in a cleft of +the rock it had to be withdrawn by reason of the heat. One knows about +the internal fire of some portion of the earth's mass, of course, but +such striking manifestations of it, such bold irruption of heat in the +midst of the kingdom of the cold, must always bring a certain +astonishment except to those who take everything as a matter of course. + +It is evident that this hot water, capable of distribution over a +considerable area of land, makes an exceedingly favourable condition for +subarctic agriculture, and a great deal of ground has been put under +cultivation with large yield of potatoes and cabbage and other +vegetables. But the limitations of Alaskan conditions have shorn all +profit from the enterprise. There is no considerable market nearer than +Fairbanks, almost two hundred miles away by the river. If the potatoes +are allowed to remain in the ground until they are mature, there is the +greatest danger of the whole crop freezing while on the way to market, +and in any case the truck-farmers around Fairbanks find that their +proximity to the consumer more than offsets the advantage of the Hot +Springs. + +[Sidenote: ARCTIC AGRICULTURE] + +When the great initial difficulties of farming in Alaska are overcome, +when the moss is removed and the ground, frozen solidly to bedrock, is +broken and thawed, when its natural acidity is counteracted by the +application of some alkali, and its reeking surface moisture is drained +away; when after three or four years' cultivation it begins to make some +adequate return of roots and greens, there remains the constant +difficulty of a market. Around the mining settlements and during the +uncertain life of the mining settlements, truck-farming pays very well, +but it could easily be overdone so that prices would fall below the +point of any profit at all. Transportation is expensive, and rates for a +short haul on the rivers are high, out of all proportion to rates for +the long haul from the outside, so that potatoes from the Pacific coast +are brought in and sold in competition with the native-grown. And +despite the protestations of the agricultural experimental stations, the +outside or "chechaco" potato has the advantage of far better quality +than that grown in Alaska. Tastes differ, and a man may speak only as he +finds. For my part, I have eaten native potatoes raised in almost every +section of interior Alaska, and have been glad to get them, but I have +never eaten a native potato that compared favourably with any good +"outside" potato. The native potato is commonly wet and waxy; I have +never seen a native potato that would burst into a glistening mass of +white flour, or that had the flavour of a really good potato. + +There has been much misconception about the interior of Alaska that +obtains yet in some quarters, although there is no excuse for it now. +Not only the interior of Alaska, but all land at or near sea-level in +the arctic regions that is not under glacial ice-caps, is snow free and +surface-thawed in the summer and has a luxuriant vegetation. The polar +ox (Sverdrup's protest against the term "musk-ox" should surely prevail) +ranges in great bands north of the 80th parallel and must secure +abundant food; and when Peary determined the insularity of Greenland he +found its most northerly point a mass of verdure and flowers. + +No doubt potatoes and turnips, lettuce and cabbage, could be raised +anywhere in those regions; the intensity of the season compensates for +its shortness; the sun is in the heavens twenty-four hours in the day, +and all living things sprout and grow with amazing rankness and celerity +under the strong compulsion of his continuous rays. Spring comes +literally with a shout and a rush here in Alaska, and must cry even +louder and stride even faster in the "ultimate climes of the pole." If +the possibility of raising garden-truck and tubers constitutes a +"farming country," then all the arctic regions not actually under +glacial ice may be so classed. + +Any one who visits the Koyukuk may see monster turnips and cabbages +raised at Coldfoot, near the 68th parallel; from Sir William Parry's +description we may feel quite sure that vegetables of size and +excellence might be raised at the head of Bushnan's Cove of Melville +Island, on the 75th parallel; he called it "an arctic paradise"; Greely +reported "grass twenty-four inches high and many butterflies" in the +interior of Grinnell Land under the 82d parallel; and if gold were ever +discovered on the north coast of Greenland one might quite expect to +hear that some enterprising Swede was growing turnips and cabbages at +Cape Morris Jessup above the 83d parallel, and getting a dollar a pound +for them. + +In favourable seasons and in favourable spots of interior Alaska certain +early varieties of Siberian oats and rye have been matured, and it +stands to the credit of the Experiment Station at Rampart that a little +wheat was once ripened there, though it took thirteen months from the +sowing to the ripening. When the rest of the world fills up so that +economic pressure demands the utilisation of all earth that will produce +any sort of food, it may be that large tracts in Alaska will be put +under the plough; but it is hard to believe that nine tenths of all this +vast country will ever be other than wild waste land. At present the +farming population is strictly an appendage of the mining population, +and the mining population rather diminishes than increases. + +Your health resort that no one will resort to is a dull place at best +and a poor dependence for merchandising, so that the little town of Hot +Springs is fortunate in having some mining country around it to fall +back upon for its trade. We lay an extra day there, waiting for the +stage from Fairbanks to break trail for us through the heavy, drifted +snow, having had enough of trail breaking for a while. At midnight the +stage came, two days late, and its coming caused me as keen a sorrow and +as great a loss as I have had since I came to Alaska. + +[Sidenote: NANOOK'S DEATH] + +We knew naught of it until the next morning, when, breakfast done and +the sled lashed, we were ready to hitch the dogs and depart. They had +been put in the horse stable for there was no dog house; the health +resorter, actual or prospective, is not likely to be a dog man one +supposes; but they were loose in the morning and came to the call, all +but one--Nanook. Him we sought high and low, and at last Arthur found +him, but in what pitiful case! He dragged himself slowly and painfully +along, his poor bowels hanging down in the outer hide of his belly, +fearfully injured internally, done for and killed already. It was not +difficult to account for it. When the horses came in at midnight, one of +them had kicked the dog and ruptured his whole abdomen. + +There was no use in inquiring whose fault it was. The dogs should have +been chained; so much was our fault. But it was hard to resist some +bitter recollection that before this "exploitation" of the springs, when +there was a modest road-house instead of a mammoth hotel, there had been +kennels for dogs instead of nothing but stables for horses. + +I doubt if all the veterinary surgeons in the world could have saved the +dog, but there was none to try; and there was only one thing to do, hate +it as we might. Arthur and I were grateful that neither of us had to do +it, for the driver of the mail stage, who had some compunctions of +conscience, I think, volunteered to save us the painful duty. "I know +how you feel," he said slowly and kindly; "I've got a dog I think a heap +of myself, but that dog ain't nothin' to me an' I'll do it for you." + +Nanook knew perfectly well that it was all over with him. Head and tail +down, the picture of resigned dejection, he stood like a petrified dog. +And when I put my face down to his and said "Good-bye," he licked me for +the first time in his life. In the six years I had owned him and driven +him I had never felt his tongue before, though I had always loved him +best of the bunch. He was not the licking kind. + +We hitched up our diminished team and pulled out, for we had thirty +miles to make in the short daylight and we had lost time already; and as +we crossed the bridge over the steaming slough we saw the man going +slowly down to the river with the dog, the chain in one hand, a gun in +the other. My eyes filled with tears; I could not look at Arthur nor he +at me as I passed forward to run ahead of the team, and I was glad when +I realised that we had drawn out of ear-shot. + +All day as I trudged or trotted now on snow-shoes and now off, as the +trail varied in badness, that dog was in my mind and his loss upon my +heart, the feel of his tongue upon my cheek. It takes the close +companionship between a man and his dogs in this country, travelling all +the winter long, winter after winter, through the bitter cold and the +storm and darkness, through the long, pleasant days of the warm sunshine +of approaching spring, sharing labour and sharing ease, sharing +privation and sharing plenty; it takes this close companionship to make +a man appreciate a dog. As I reckoned it up, Nanook had fallen just +short of pulling my sled ten thousand miles. If he had finished this +season with me he would have done fully that, and I had intended to +pension him after this winter, to provide that so long as he lived he +should have his fish and rice every day. Some doubt I had had of old +Lingo lasting through the winter, but none of Nanook, and they were the +only survivors of my original team. + +[Sidenote: THE TALKING DOG] + +Nanook was in as good spirits as ever I knew him that last night, coming +to me and plumping his huge fore paws down on my moccasins, challenging +me to play the game of toe treading that he loved; and whenever he beat +me at it he would seize my ankle in his jaws and make me hop around on +one foot, to his great delight. He was my talking dog. He had more +different tones in his bark than any other dog I ever knew. He never +came to the collar in the morning, he never was released from it at +night, without a cheery "bow-wow-wow." And we never stopped finally to +make camp but he lifted up his voice. There was something curious about +that. Only two nights before, when we had been unable to reach the +health resort owing to wind-hardened drifts right across the trail that +overturned the heavy sled again and again, swing the gee pole as one +would, and had stopped several times in the growing dusk to inspect a +spot that seemed to promise a camping place, Arthur had remarked that +Nanook never spoke until the spot was reached on which we decided to +pitch the tent. What faculty he had of recognising a good place, of +seeing that both green spruce and dry spruce were there in sufficient +quantity, I do not know--or whether he got his cue from the tones of our +voice--but he never failed to give tongue when the stop was final and +never opened his mouth when it was but tentative. + +I could almost tell the nature of any disturbance that arose from the +tone of Nanook's bark. Was it some stray Indian dog prowling round the +camp; was it the distant howling of wolves; was it the approach of some +belated traveller--there was a distinct difference in the way he +announced each. I well remember the new note that came into his +passionate protest when he was chained to a stump at the reindeer camp, +and the foolish creatures streamed all over the camping-ground that +night. To have them right beside him and yet be unable to reach them, to +have them brushing him with their antlers while he strained helplessly +at the chain, was adding insult to injury. And he kept me awake over it +all night and told me about it at intervals all next day. + +The coat that dog had was the heaviest and thickest I ever saw. On his +back the long hair parted in the middle, and underneath the hair was fur +and underneath the fur was wool. He was an outdoors dog strictly. It was +only in the last year or two that he could be induced voluntarily to +enter a house; he seemed, like Mowgli, to have a suspicion of houses. +And if he did come in he had no respect for the house at all. When first +I had him he would dig and scratch out of a dog-house on the coldest +night, if he could, and lay himself down comfortably on the snow. Cold +meant little to him. Fifty, sixty, seventy below zero, all night long at +such temperatures he would sleep quite contentedly. The only difference +I could see that these low temperatures made to him was an increasing +dislike to be disturbed. When he had carefully tucked his nose between +his paws and adjusted his tail over all, he had gone to bed, and to make +him take his nose out of its nest and uncurl himself was like throwing +the clothes off a sleeping man. He never dug a hole for himself in the +snow. I never saw a dog do that yet. In my opinion that is one of the +nature-faker's stories. A dog lies in snow just as he lies in sand, with +the same preliminary turn-round-three-times that has been so much +speculated about. We always make a bed for them, when it is very cold, +by cutting and stripping a few spruce boughs, and they highly appreciate +such a couch and will growl and fight if another dog try to take it. +They need more food and particularly they need more fat when they lie +out at extreme low temperatures, and we seek to increase that element in +their rations by adding tallow or bacon or bear's-grease--or seal +oil--or whatever oleaginous substance we can come by. + +[Sidenote: CANINE CHARACTER] + +He was a most independent dog was Nanook, a thoroughly bad dog, as one +would say in some use of that term--a thief who had no shame in his +thievery but rather gloried in it. If you left anything edible within +his ingenious and comprehensive reach he regarded it as a challenge. +There comes to me a ludicrous incident that concerned a companion of one +winter journey. He had carefully prepared a lunch and had wrapped it +neatly in paper, and he placed it for a moment on the sled while he +turned to put his scarf about him. But in that moment Nanook saw it and +it was gone. Through the snow, over the brush, in and out amongst the +stumps the chase proceeded, until Nanook was finally caught and my +companion recovered most of the paper, for the dog had wolfed the grub +as he ran. He would stand and take any licking you offered and never +utter a sound but give a bark of defiance when you were done, and he +would bear you no ill will in the world and repeat his offence at the +next opportunity. Yet so absurdly sensitive was he in other matters of +his person that the simple operation of clipping the hair from between +his toes, to prevent the "balling-up" of the snow, took two men to +perform, one to sit on the dog and the other to ply the scissors, and +was accompanied always with such howls and squeals as would make a +hearer think we were flaying him alive. + +Nanook's acquaintance with horses began in Fairbanks the first season I +owned him, before I had had the harness upon him, when he was rising two +years old. The dogs and I were staying at the hospital we had just +established--because in those days there was nowhere else to +stay--waiting for the winter. One of the mining magnates of the infancy +of the camp (broken and dead long since; Bret Harte's lines, "Busted +himself in White Pine and blew out his brains down in 'Frisco," often +occur to me as the sordid histories of to-day repeat those of fifty +years ago) had imported a saddle-horse and, as the mild days of that +charming autumn still deferred the snow, he used to ride out past the +hospital for a canter. + +The dog had learned to lift the latch of the gate of the hospital yard +with his nose and get out, and when I put a wedge above the latch for +greater security he learned also to circumvent that precaution. And +whenever the horse and his rider passed, Nanook would open the gate and +lead the whole pack in a noisy pursuit that changed the canter to a run +and brought us natural but mortifying remonstrance. + +The rider had just passed and the dogs had pursued as usual, and I had +rushed out and recalled them with difficulty. Nanook I had by the +collar. Dragging him into the yard, shutting the gate, and putting in +the wedge, I picked up a stick and gave him a few sharp blows with it. +Then flinging him off, I said: "Now, you stay in here; I'll give you a +sound thrashing if you do that again!" I was just getting acquainted +with him then. The moment I loosed his collar the dog went deliberately +to the gate, stood on his hind legs while he pulled out the wedge with +his teeth, lifted the latch with his nose and swung open the gate, and +standing in the midst turned round and said to me: "Bow-_wow_-wow-wow-wow-_wow_!" +It was so pointed that a passer-by, who had paused to see the +proceedings and was leaning on the fence, said to me: "Well, you know +where _you_ can go to. That's the doggonedest dog I ever seen!" + +[Sidenote: PARTNERS] + +It was a pleasure to come back to Nanook after any long absence--a +pleasure I was used to look forward to. There was no special fawning or +demonstration of affection; he was not that kind; that I might have from +any of the others; but from none but Nanook the bark of welcome with my +particular inflection in it that no one else ever got. "Well, well; +here's the boss again; glad to see you back"; that was about all it +said. For he was a most independent dog and took to himself an air of +partnership rather than subjection. Any man can make friends with any +dog if he will, there is no question about that, but it takes a long +time and mutual trust and mutual forbearance and mutual appreciation to +make a partnership. Not every dog is fit to be partner with a man; nor +every man, I think, fit to be partner with a dog. + +Well, that long partnership was dissolved by the horse's hoof and I was +sore for its dissolution. There was none left now that could remember +the old days of the team save Lingo, and he grew crusty and somewhat +crabbed. He was still the guardian of the sled, still the insatiable +hand-shaker, but he grew more and more unsocial with his mates, and we +heard his short, sharp, angry double bark at night more frequently than +we used to. He reminded me of the complaining owl in Gray's "Elegy." He +resented any dog even approaching the sled, resented the dogs moving +about at all to disturb his "ancient solitary reign." + +His work was well-nigh done, and old Lingo had honestly earned his rest. +With the end of this winter he would enter upon the easy old age that I +had designed for both of them. Lingo had never failed me; never let his +traces slack if he could keep them taut, never in his life had whip laid +on his back to make him pull; a faithful old work dog for whom I had a +hearty respect and regard. But he never found his way to my heart as +Nanook did. I loved Nanook, and had lost something personal out of my +life in losing him. There are other dogs that I am fond of--better dogs +in some ways that either Nanook or Lingo, swifter certainly--but I think +I shall never have two dogs again that have meant as much to me as these +two. All the other dogs were of the last two years and thought they +belonged to Arthur, who fed them and handled them most. But Nanook and +Lingo had seen boys come and boys go, and they knew better. + +Six years is not very much of a man's life, but it is all a dog's life; +all his effective working life. Nanook had given it all to me, +willingly, gladly. He pulled so freely because he loved to pull. He +delighted in the winter, in the snow and the cold; rejoiced to be on the +trail, rejoiced to work. When we made ready to depart after a few days +at a mission or in a town, Nanook was beside himself with joy. He would +burst forth into song as he saw the preparations in hand, would run all +up and down the gamut of his singular flexible voice, would tell as +plainly to all around as though he spoke it in English and Indian and +Esquimau that the inaction had irked him, that he was eager to be gone +again. + +Well, he was dead; as fine a dog as ever lived; as faithful and +intelligent a creature as any man ever had, not of human race, for +servant, companion, and friend. And I thought the more of myself that he +had put his tongue to my cheek when I said good-bye to him. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER] + +Here on the Tanana was one of the most interesting original characters +of the many in the land: an old inhabitant of Alaska and of the +Northwest who had followed many avocations and was now settled down on +the river bank, with a steamboat wood-yard, a road-house for the +entertainment of occasional travellers, and a little stock of trade +goods chiefly for Indians of the vicinity. A round, fat, pursy man he +was, past the middle life, with a twinkling eye and a bristling +moustache, and a most amazing knack of picking up new words and using +them incorrectly. He had fallen out with the great trading company of +Alaska and did almost all his purchasing from a "mail-order house" in +Chicago, the enormous quarto catalogue on the flimsiest thin paper +issued by that establishment being his chief book of reference and his +choice continual reading. He would declaim by the hour on the iniquitous +prices that prevail in the interior and had the quotations of prices of +every conceivable merchandise from his _vade mecum_ at his fingers' +ends. + +But his chief passion of the past two or three years was photography, in +the which he had made but little progress, despite considerable +expenditures; and he had come to the conclusion about the time of our +visit that what he needed was a fine lens, although, as a matter of +fact, he had never learned to use his cheap one. He had recently become +acquainted with sensitive film and had ordered a supply. By a +transposition of letters, which the nature of the substance doubtless +confirmed in his mind when it arrived, he always spoke of these +convenient strips of celluloid as "flims," and was just now most +eloquently indignant that, although he had broken utterly with the +Northern Commercial Company and refused to trade with them at all, the +supply of "flims" he had received from the mail-order house were +labelled "N. C." "Them blamed monopolists has cornered the flims," he +exclaimed, and was hardly persuaded that the letters signified +"non-curling" and did not darkly hint at a conspiracy in restraint of +trade. + +He produced and displayed a number of pieces of apparatus of a generally +useless kind which he had ordered on the strength of their much +advertising, and he observed sententiously, "We _armatures_ get badly +imposed upon." Here were patent gimcrack printing devices, although he +had scarce anything worth printing; all sorts of atrocious fancy borders +with which he sought in vain to embellish out-of-focus under-exposures; +orthochromatic filters and colour screens with which he was eliminating +undesirable rays, although the chief thing his negatives lacked was +light of any kind. His soiled and stained development trays were +scattered about a large table amidst dirty cups and saucers and plates +and dishes, while at the other end of the table, surmounting a pile of +thumbed and greasy magazines and newspapers, lay the monstrous +mail-order catalogue with pencilled indications of further apparatus to +be purchased. + +But his zeal and enthusiasm and resolute riding of his hobby were very +attractive. If he ever gets out of his head the notion that success +depends upon apparatus he will doubtless become a photographer of sorts. +Enthusiasm of any kind other than mining and "mushing" enthusiasm is so +rare in this land that it is welcome even when it seems wasted. He had +recently discovered the wax match in his catalogue, and as a parting +gift he presented me with a box of "them there wax _vespers_ which beats +the sulphur match all to thunder." + +[Sidenote: THE SULPHUR MATCH] + +But they do not. Nothing in this country can take the place of the +old-fashioned sulphur match, long since banished from civilised +communities, and the sulphur match is the only match a man upon the +trail will employ. Manufactured from blocks of wood without complete +severance, so that the ends of the matches are still held together at +the bottom in one solid mass, it is easy to strip one off at need and +strike it upon the block. A block of a hundred such matches will take up +much less space than fifty of any other kind of match, and the blocks +may be freely carried in any as they are commonly carried in every +pocket without fear of accidental ignition. The only fire producer that +it is worth while supplementing the sulphur match with is the even +older-fashioned flint and steel, which to a man who smokes is a +convenience in a wind. All the modern alcohol and gasoline pocket +devices are extinguished by the lightest puff of wind, but the tinder, +once ignited, burns the fiercer for the blast. With dry, shredded +birch-bark I have made a fire upon occasion from the flint and steel. +One resource may here be mentioned, since we are on the subject, which +is always carried in the hind-sack of my sled against difficulty in fire +making. It is a tin tobacco-box filled with strips of cotton cloth cut +to the size of the box and the whole saturated with kerosene. One or two +of these strips will help very greatly in kindling a fire when damp +twigs or shavings are all that are at hand. A few camphor balls (the +ordinary "moth balls") will serve equally well; and there may come a +time, on any long journey, when the forethought that has provided such +aid will be looked back upon with very great satisfaction. + + * * * * * + +The mail trail from Tanana to Fairbanks touches the Tanana River only at +one point, a few miles beyond the Hot Springs; but, as we wished to +visit Nenana, we had to leave the mail trail after two days more of +uneventful travel and strike out to the river and over its surface for +seventeen or eighteen miles. + +[Sidenote: A NOTABLE GENTLEWOMAN] + +Nenana is a native village situated on the left bank of the Tanana, a +little above the confluence of the Nenana River with that stream, and we +have established an important and flourishing school there which +receives its forty pupils from many points on the Yukon and Tanana +Rivers. None but thoroughly sound and healthy children of promise, full +natives or half-breeds, are received at the school, and we seek to give +both boys and girls opportunity for the cultivation of the native arts +and for some of the white man's industrial training, in addition to the +ordinary work of the schoolroom. The school was started and had the good +fortune of its first four years' life under the care of a notable +gentlewoman, Miss Annie Cragg Farthing, who was yet at its head at the +time of this visit, but who died suddenly, a martyr to her devotion to +the children, a year later; and a great Celtic cross in concrete, +standing high on the bluff across the river, now marks the spot of her +own selection--a spot that gives a fine view of Denali--where her body +rests, and also the Alaskan mission's sense of the extraordinary value +of her life. + +It would be easy to give striking instances of the potency and stretch +of this remarkable woman's influence amongst the native people, an +influence--strange as it may sound to those who deem any half-educated, +under-bred white woman competent to take charge of an Indian school--due +as much to her wide culture, her perfect dignity and self-possession, +her high breeding, as to the love and consecrated enthusiasm of her +character. It is no exaggeration to say that Miss Farthing's work has +left a mark broad and deep upon the Indian race of this whole region +that will never be wiped out. + +There is no greater pleasure than to spend a few days at this school; to +foregather again with so many of the hopeful young scamps that one has +oneself selected here and there and brought to the place; to mark the +improvement in them, the taming and gentling, the drawing out of the +sweet side of the nature that is commonly buried to the casual observer +in the rudeness and shyness of savage childhood. To romp with them, to +tell them tales and jingles, to get insensibly back into their familiar +confidence again, to say the evening prayers with them, to join with +their clear, fresh voices in the hymns and chants, is indeed to +rejuvenate oneself. And to go away believing that real strength of +character is developing, that real preparation is making for an Indian +race that shall be a better Indian race and not an imitation white race, +is the cure for the discouragement that must sometimes come to all those +who are committed heart and soul to the cause of the Alaskan native. +School-teachers, it would seem, ought never to grow old; they should +suck in new youth continually from the young life around them; and +children are far and away the most interesting things in the world, more +interesting even than dogs and great mountains. + +[Sidenote: CHIVALROUS INDIAN YOUTH] + +All the boys in the school, I think, swarmed across the river with us +when we started away early in the morning, and the elder ones ran with +the sled along the portage, mile after mile, until I turned them back +lest they be late for school. + +But when they were gone, still I saw them, saw them gathered round the +grey-haired lady I had left, fawning upon her with their eyes, their +hearts filled with as true chivalry as ever animated knight or champion +of the olden time. Tall, upstanding fellows of sixteen or seventeen, +clean-limbed and broad-shouldered, wild-run all their lives; hunters, +with a tale of big game to the credit of some of them would make an +English sportsman envious; unaccustomed to any restraint at all and +prone to chafe at the slightest; unaccustomed to any respect for women, +to any of the courtesies of life, I saw them fly at a word, at a look, +to do her bidding, saw cap snatched from head if they encountered her +about the buildings, saw them jump up and hold open the door if she +moved to pass out of a room, saw the eager devotion that would have +served her upon bended knee had they thought it would please her. It was +wonderful, the only thing of quite its kind I had ever seen in my life. + +When early in the school's history an old medicine-man at Nenana had +been roused to animosity by her refusal to countenance an offensive +Indian custom touching the adolescent girls, and had defiantly announced +his intention to make medicine against her, I can see her now, her staff +in her hand, attended by two or three of her devoted youths, invading +the midnight pavilion of the conjurer, in the very midst of his +conjurations, tossing his paraphernalia outside, laying her staff +smartly across the shoulders of the trembling shaman, and driving the +gaping crew helter-skelter before her, their awe of the witchcraft +overawed by her commanding presence. I make no apology that I thought of +the scourge of small cords that was used on an occasion in the temple at +Jerusalem, when I heard of it. It gave a shrewder blow to the lingering +tyrannical superstition of the medicine-man than decades of preaching +and reasoning would have done. No man living could have done the thing +with like effect, nor any woman save one of her complete self-possession +and natural authority. The younger villagers chuckle over the jest of it +to this day, and the old witch-doctor himself was crouching at her feet +and, as one may say, eating out of her hand, within the year. + +I saw these boys again, in my mind's eye, gone back to their homes here +and there on the Yukon and the Tanana after their two or three years at +this school, carrying with them some better ideal of human life than +they could ever get from the elders of the tribe, from the little sordid +village trader, from most of the whites they would be thrown with, +keeping something of the vision of gentle womanhood, something of the +"unbought grace of life," something of the keen sense of truth and +honour, of the nobility of service, something deeper and stronger than +mere words of the love of God, which they had learned of her whom they +all revered; each one, however much overflowed again by the surrounding +waters of mere animal living, tending a little shrine of sweeter and +better things in his heart. + +[Sidenote: LONG-REMEMBERED TEACHING] + +Here, three years after the visit and the journey narrated, when these +words are written with diaries and letters and memoranda around me, I am +just come from a long native powwow, a meeting of all the Indians of a +village for the annual election of a village council, important in the +evolution of that self-government we covet for these people, but +undeniably tedious. And, because at our missions we seek to associate +with us every force that looks to the betterment of the natives, we had +invited the new government teacher, a lady of long experience in Indian +schools, to be present. She had sat patiently through the protracted +meeting, and at its close, when she rose to go, a young Indian man +jumped up and held her fur cloak for her and put it gently about her +shoulders. When she had thanked him she asked with a smile: "Where did +you learn to be so polite?" A gleam came into the fellow's eyes, then he +dropped them and replied, "Miss Farthing taught me." + +Two days before, returning from a journey, I had spent the night at a +road-house kept by a white man married to an Indian woman. There was +excellent yeast bread on the table, and good bread is a rare thing in +Alaska. "Where did you learn to make such good bread?" I inquired of the +woman. There came the same light to her eyes and the same answer to her +lips. Yet it was nine years ago, long before the school at Nenana was +started, that this Indian boy and girl had been under Miss Farthing's +teaching at Circle City. + +They tell us there is no longer much place or use for gentility in the +world, for men and women nurtured and refined above the common level; +tell us in particular that woman is only now emancipating herself from +centuries of ineffectual nonage, only now entering upon her active +career. + +Yet I am of opinion, from such opportunities to observe and compare as +my constant travel has given me, that the quiet work of this gracious +woman of the old school, with her dignity that nothing ever invaded and +her poise that nothing ever disturbed, is perhaps the most powerful +single influence that has come into the lives of the natives of interior +Alaska. + +Two days brought us past the little native village and mission at Chena +(which is pronounced Shen-a['w]), past the little white town of the same +name, to Fairbanks, the chief town of interior Alaska. Chena is at the +virtual head of the navigation of the Tanana River and is quite as near +to the gold-producing creeks as Fairbanks, which latter place is not on +the Tanana River at all but on a slough, impracticable for almost any +craft at low water. For every topographical reason, from every +consideration of natural advantage, Chena should have been the river +port and town of these gold-fields. But Chena was so sure of her +manifold natural advantages that she became unduly confident and +grasping. When the traders at Fairbanks offered to remove to Chena at +the beginning of the camp, if the traders at Chena would provide a site, +the offer was scornfully rejected. "They would have to come, anyway, or +go out of business." But they did not come; rather they put their backs +up and fought. And because Fairbanks was enterprising and far-sighted, +while Chena was avaricious and narrow, because Fairbanks offered free +sites and Chena charged enormously for water-front, business went the +ten miles up the often unnavigable slough and settled there, and by and +by built a little railway that it might be independent of the uncertain +boat service. The company came, the courts came, the hospital came, the +churches came, and Chena woke up from its dreams of easy wealth to find +itself and its manifold natural advantages passed by and ignored and the +big town firmly established elsewhere. + +How well I remember the virulent little newspaper published at Chena in +those days and the bitterness and vituperation it used to pour out week +by week! One wishes a file of it had been preserved. Alaskan journalism +has presented many amusing curiosities that no one has had leisure to +collect, but nothing more amusing than the frenzy of impotent wrath +Chena vented when it saw its cherished prospects and opportunities +slipping out of its grasp for ever. + + "If of all words on tongue or pen, + The saddest are 'it might have been,' + Full sad are those we often see, + It is, but it hadn't ought to be." + +It takes Bret Harte to strike the note for such rivalry and such +disappointment. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[C] In December, 1912, a determined effort was made by the better +element of the little handful of white people in this town to secure the +withdrawal of the licence of this saloon. The justice of the peace, the +government school-teacher, the postmaster, and others went up to +Fairbanks (a week's journey over the trail) and opposed the granting of +the licence in court. It was shown that the white men of the locality +were so reduced in numbers that the business could not be carried on at +a profit unless liquor was sold, directly or indirectly, to the Indians. +But because by hook and by crook the names of a majority of one or two +of all the white residents of the precinct were secured for a petition +in favour of the licence (two or three were secured by telegraph at the +last moment) the judge held that he had no option under the law but to +grant the licence. So, on the one hand, it is a felony to sell liquor to +Indians, and annually thousands of dollars are expended in trying to +suppress such sale, while, on the other hand, a man is licenced to sell +liquor when it is shown that he cannot make a living unless he sells to +Indians; that is to say he is virtually granted a licence to sell to +Indians. This note is not intended to reflect upon the judge who granted +the licence, although all his predecessors have not put that +construction upon the law, but upon a law open to that construction. + +[D] This was written some two years before the opportunity came. On the +7th of June, 1913, the writer and three companions reached the summit of +Denali. ("The Ascent of Denali," Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914.) + +[E] In 1913 it was finally destroyed by fire. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +TANANA CROSSING TO FORTYMILE AND DOWN THE YUKON--A PATRIARCHAL +CHIEF--SWARMING CARIBOU--EAGLE AND FORT EGBERT--CIRCLE CITY AND FORT +YUKON + + +FAIRBANKS was a different place in 1910 from the centre of feverish +trade and feverish vice of 1904-5, when the stores were open all day and +half the night and the dance-halls and gambling dens all night and half +the day; when the Jews cornered all the salt and all the sugar in the +camp and the gamblers all the silver and currency; when the curious +notion prevailed that in some mysterious way general profligacy was good +for business, and the Commercial Club held an indignation meeting upon a +threat of closing down the public gaming and refusing liquor licences to +the dance-halls, and voted unanimously in favour of an "open town"; when +a diamond star was presented to the "chief of police" by the enforced +contributions of the prostitutes; when the weekly gold-dust from the +clean-ups on the creeks came picturesquely into town escorted by +horsemen armed to the teeth. The outward and visible signs of the Wild +West are gone; the dance-halls and gambling tables are a thing of the +past; the creeks are all connected with Fairbanks by railway and +telephone; an early closing movement has prevailed in the shops; and +the local choral society is lamenting the customary dearth of tenors for +its production of "The Messiah." + +Despite the steady decline in the gold output of late years, a drop of +from twenty millions down to four or five, there is little visible decay +in its trade, and despite stampedes to new diggings all over Alaska, +there is no marked visible diminution in its population, though as a +matter of fact both must have largely fallen off. The thing that more +than any other has sustained the spirits and retained the presence of +the business men is the expectation that seems to grow brighter and +brighter, of the development of a quartz camp now that the placers are +being exhausted. And in that hope lies the chance of Fairbanks to become +the one permanent considerable town of interior Alaska. It is a +substantial place, with good business houses and many comfortable homes +electric-lit, steam-heated, well protected against fire--better than +against flood--and, though it does not display the style and luxury of +the palmy days of Nome, it has amenities enough to make disinterested +visitors and passers-by wish that its hard-rock hopes may be realised. + +[Sidenote: FAIRBANKS] + +The little log church that is still, as a local artist put it, "the only +thing in Fairbanks worth making a picture of," no longer stands open all +day and all night as the town's library and reading-room, but has +withdrawn into decorous Sabbath use in favour of the commodious public +library built by a Philadelphia churchman; the hospital adjoining it, +that for two or three years cared for all the sick of the camp, is +supplemented by another and a larger across the slough; young +birch-trees have been successfully planted all along the principal +streets, and the front yards everywhere are ablaze with flowers the +summer through. You may eat hot-house lettuce and radishes in March; +hot-house strawberries (at about ten cents apiece) in July and August; +while common outdoor garden-truck of all kinds is plentiful and good in +its short season. + +We had another canine misfortune while we lay there. Doc, one of our +leaders, got his chain twisted around his foot the night before we were +to leave, and, in pulling to free it, stopped the circulation of the +blood and the foot froze. It was as hard as wood and sounded like wood +when it hit the sidewalks, from which the snow had been cleared, as the +dog came limping along. An hour's soaking in cold water drew the frost +out of the foot, and we swathed it in cotton saturated with carron oil, +upon which it swelled so greatly that it was impossible to tell the +extent of the injury or to determine whether or not the dog would ever +be of use again. A kindly nurse at the hospital undertook his care, and +we left him behind. One does not buy a dog so late in the season, with +all the idle summer to feed him through, if any shift can be made to +avoid it, and there was a Great Dane pup at the Salchaket, forty miles +away, that I might pick up as I passed and perhaps make some use of for +the remainder of the winter. + +That mission was the next stop on our journey, and we reached it over +the level mail trail, the chief winter highway of Alaska, connecting +Fairbanks with Valdez on the coast. Three times a week there is a horse +stage with mail and passengers passing over this trail each way, +together with much other travel. The Alaska Road Commission has lavished +large sums of money upon it, and the four hundred miles or thereabout is +made in a week. + +[Sidenote: THE SALCHAKET] + +A day and a half brought us to the Salchaket, one of a chain of missions +along the Tanana River, established by the energy and zeal of the +Reverend Charles Eugene Betticher, Jr., during his incumbency at +Fairbanks, that have already brought a great change for the better in +native conditions. Five years had elapsed since last I visited this +tribe, a reconnoitring visit on one of the first steamboats that ever +went up the Tanana River above Fairbanks, and it was a delight to see +the new, clean village with the little gardens round the cabins, and to +note the appreciative attitude which the Indians showed. So highly do +they value the missionary nurse in charge that however far afield their +hunting may lead them, one of their number is sent back every week to +see that the mission does not lack wood and water and meat; a simple, +docile, kindly people that one's heart warms to. + +This mission was our last outpost to the south. My farther journey had +for its prime object the visiting of the natives of the upper Tanana as +far as the Tanana Crossing, some two hundred and fifty miles beyond the +Salchaket, the inquiring into their condition and into the desirability +of establishing a post amongst them. + +[Sidenote: THE UPPER TANANA] + +The upper Tanana is probably one of the most difficult streams in the +world to navigate that can by any stretch of the term be called +navigable. The great Alaskan range begins to approach the Tanana River +so soon as one gets above Fairbanks. Its prominent peaks, ten thousand +to twelve thousand feet high, are continually in view from one angle to +another as one pursues the river trail, and come constantly nearer and +nearer. All the streams that are confluent with the Tanana on its left +bank are glacial streams draining the high ice of these mountains. They +come down laden thick with silt, at times foaming torrents, at times +merely trickling watercourses that seam with numerous small runnels the +wide deltas at their mouths. The tributaries of the right bank flow for +the most part through heavily wooded country, and come out cleanly into +the river. So the glacial waters form shoals and bars, and the woodland +waters during freshets pile them high with driftwood. Such is the chief +characteristic of the upper Tanana; a multiplicity of swift, narrow +channels amidst bars laden with drift. It is subject to sudden rises of +great violence; the attempt to stem a freshet on the upper Tanana is a +hair-raising experience as the log of the _Pelican_ would show, but does +not come within this narrative. Owing to the origin of much of its +water, the Tanana is often in flood in dry, hot seasons, when other +rivers run meagrely, as well as in times of rain. It cannot be stemmed +in flood; its shoals deny passage in drouth; there must be just the +right stage of water to permit its navigation, and that stage, "without +o'erflowing, full," is not often found of duration to serve the voyage +after the month of June. + +A river difficult to navigate in summer is usually a river difficult to +travel upon in winter, and the upper Tanana is notoriously dangerous and +treacherous. Scarce a winter or a summer that it does not claim victims. +It is emphatically a "bad river." Therefore, as far as there is any +travel to speak of, land trails parallel the river. Past Richardson +where the next night is spent, a decayed mining and trading town that +dates back to the stampedes of 1905-6 when it was thought the upper +Tanana would prove rich in gold, past Tenderfoot Creek on which the +discoveries were made, past the mouth of the Big Delta with the great +bluff on the opposite shore and the rushing black water at its foot that +never entirely closes all the winter, and on the other hand the wide +barrens of the Big Delta itself giving the whole fine sweep of the +Alaskan range, we came at length to McCarthy's, the last telegraph +station on the river,--for the line strikes across country thence to +Valdez following the government trail,--and there spent another night, +and here we leave the government-made trail and take to the river +surface and the wilderness. + +[Illustration: A PLEASANT WOODLAND TRAIL.] + +[Illustration: AN ALASKAN CHIEF AND HIS HENCHMAN.] + +Twelve miles through the woods along the left bank of the river brought +us to the aptly named Clearwater Creek, a tributary that comes only from +the foot-hills and carries no glacial water. This stream by reason of +hot springs runs wide open all the winter and must be crossed by a +ferry--a raft on a heavy wire. The man who owned the ferry and the house +adjacent was gone from home, so we proceeded to cross as best we could. +The raft was so small that first we took the dogs across then unloaded +the sled and took part of the load, and returned for the remainder +and the sled itself. Finally a canoe was loaded on the raft and, when it +had been moored on the side we found it, Arthur paddled himself back. It +was a strange scene, rafting and paddling a canoe in interior Alaska on +the 2d of March, with the thermometer at -15°. Some eight miles farther +along the portage trail we came to a little cabin about dusk, but +disdaining its dirt and darkness we pitched our tent. + +Another eighteen miles the next day is noted in my diary for pleasant +woodland travel and for the particular interest of the numerous animal +tracks we passed. Here a moose had crossed the trail, ploughing through +the snow like a great cart-horse; here for two or three miles a lynx had +urgent business in the direction of the Healy River. A lynx will always +follow a trail if there be one, and will pick out the best going on the +ice or snow in the absence of trail. I once followed a lynx track from +the head of the Dall River to its mouth, and, save for turning aside +occasionally to investigate a clump of willows or brush, the lynx was an +excellent guide. Here were rabbit tracks and every now and then the +little sharp tracks of a squirrel. We stopped for lunch under a tall +cottonwood-tree, and Arthur pointed out that the trunk, up to a high +crotch, was all seamed by bear claws. He said that the black bear +climbed the same tree season after season, and told me that, according +to the Indians, this was chiefly done when first he came from his winter +den,--for the purpose of getting his bearings, as the boy suggested with +a chuckle. A fox, a marten, and a weasel had all passed across lately, +and of course then came the exclamation that scarce fails from native +lips when a fox track is seen: "I wonder if it were a black fox!" A +black fox means sudden wealth beyond the dreams of avarice to an Indian, +and any fox track may be the track of a black fox. + +The end of that portage brought us out on the Tanana River opposite the +little trading-post at the mouth of the Healy--the last post of any kind +we should see. + +[Sidenote: INDIAN TRADERS] + +The trader, by whom we were hospitably entertained, had heard of our +projected occupation of the upper Tanana, and alert to his own +interests, was anxious to know the plans for the establishment of a +mission--plans which were yet all to make. He naturally favoured this +spot, which it was already plain was quite out of the question, but +professed his readiness to move to any place that we might decide upon, +and his entire sympathy and co-operation. + +The question of the trader, which always arises upon the establishment +of a new mission site, is an important and sometimes a vexatious one, +for he wields an influence amongst the Indians second only to that of +the mission itself, and may be either a great help or a great hindrance. +There is a natural desire to secure a man of character for the new post, +and at the same time a natural reluctance to disturb vested interests +and arouse bitter enmity by diverting trade. The suggestion has often +been made that the mission should itself undertake a store in the +interest of the natives, but those with most experience in such matters +will agree that it is the wisdom of the bishop that sets his face +against mission trading. The two offices are so essentially dissimilar +as to be almost incompatible with one another; either the person in +charge is a missionary first and a trader afterwards, in which case the +store suffers, or he is a trader first and a missionary afterwards, in +which case he is not a missionary at all. A clean, sober, and honest +trader, content to take his time about getting rich, is a blessing to an +Indian community. There are some such, one thinks, but they are not +numerous. The profits are large, though the turnover is but one a year; +the capital required is small; it is a life with much leisure; but in +the main it attracts only a certain class of men. + +A band of Indians to whom word of our visit had been sent had come down +the river this far to meet us and escort us, but dog food was scarce and +our arrival was delayed, and they had been compelled to return to their +hunting camp whither we must follow them. We were now farther up the +Tanana River than either of us had ever been before; the country had the +fascination of a new country; every bend of the river held unknown +possibilities, and the keenness and elation that only the penetration of +a new country brings were upon the boy as well as upon myself. + +The river and the mountains were already drawn much closer together, and +as we pursued our journey upon the one we had continual fine views of +the other. The going was good--too good--for much of it was new ice and +spoke of recent overflow, and all too soon we came upon the water. At +the mouth of the Johnson River, one of the glacial streams, the whole +river was overflowed, and we waded for a mile through water that +deepened continually until there was risk of wetting our load. Then we +were compelled to take to the woods and to cut a portage around the +worst and deepest of it, and so passed beyond it to good ice and to an +empty cabin where we spent the night, glad to be sheltered from an +exceedingly bitter wind that had blown all day and had taken all the +pleasure out of travel. + +[Sidenote: THE THERMOS BOTTLES] + +It is in such weather particularly that the thermos flasks prove such a +boon to the musher. To stop and build a fire in the wind means to get +chilled through. There is no pleasure in it at all, and I would rather +push on until the day's journey is done. But the native boy must have +his lunch, and will build a fire in any sort of weather and make a pot +of tea. The thermos bottle, with its boiling-hot cocoa, gives one the +stimulation and nourishment that are desired without stopping for more +than a few moments. I have carried a pair of these bottles all day at +60° below zero, and, when opened, snow had to be put into the cocoa +before it was cool enough to drink. Of course it is perfectly +simple--all the astonishing things are--but I never open one of those +bottles in the cold weather and pour out its contents without marvelling +at it. + +We left the river and struck inland towards the foot-hills of the +Alaskan range, a long, rough journey over a trail that had been made by +the band that came out to the Healy to meet us, and had been travelled +no more than by their coming and going. The snow in this region had been +as much lighter than usual as the snow in the Koyukuk had been heavier. +Through the tangle of prostrate trunks of a burned-over forest and the +dense underbrush that follows such a fire, with not enough snow to give +smooth passage over the obstacles, we made our toilsome way, the labour +of the dogs calling for the continual supplement of the men, one at the +gee pole and one at the handle-bars. Some twenty miles, perhaps, a long +day's continuous journey, we pushed laboriously into the hills and then +pitched our tent; but in a few miles, next morning, we had struck the +main Indian trail from the village near the Tanana Crossing, by which +the hunting party had come, and what little was left of the journey went +easily enough until we reached the considerable native encampment. + +The men were all gone after moose save one half-naked, blear-eyed old +paralytic, a dreadful creature who shambled and hobbled up asking for +tobacco. The women were expecting us, however, and took the encamping +out of our hands entirely, setting up the tent, hauling stove wood and +splitting it up, making our couch of spruce boughs, starting a fire, and +bringing a plentiful present of moose and caribou meat for ourselves and +our dogs. Nothing could have been kinder than our reception; the full +hospitality of the wilderness was heaped upon us. It was not until dark +that the men returned, and we had all the afternoon to get acquainted +with the women and children. Already the chief difficulty we had to +encounter presented itself. These people did not speak the language of +the lower Tanana and middle Yukon--Arthur's language--at all. Their +speech had much more affinity with the upper Yukon language, and it +dawned upon me that they were not of the migration that had pushed up +the Tanana River from the Yukon, as all the natives as far as the +Salchaket certainly did, were not of that tribe or that movement at all, +but had come across country by the Ketchumstock from the neighbourhood +of Eagle--the route we should return to the Yukon by--and were of the +Porcupine and Peel River stock. This was certainly a surprise; I had +deemed all the Tanana River Indians of the same extraction and tongue, +but the stretch of bad water from the Salchaket to the Tanana Crossing +was evidently the boundary between two peoples. + +[Sidenote: CHIEF ISAAC] + +That night we met Chief Isaac and the principal men of his tribe. At +first it seemed that such broken English as three or four of them had +would be our only medium of intercourse, but later one was discovered +who had visited the lower Tanana and the Yukon and who understood Arthur +indifferently well, and by the double interpretation, halting and +inefficient, but growing somewhat better as we proceeded, it was +possible to enter into communication. These preliminaries arranged, the +chief made a set speech of dignity and force. He thanked me for coming +to them, and regretted he had not been able to wait longer at the Healy +River to help us to his camp. When he was a boy he had been across to +the Yukon and had seen Bishop Bompas, and had been taught and baptized +by him, but he was an old man now and he had forgotten what he had +learned. I was the first minister most of his people had ever seen. They +heard that Indians in other places had mission and school, and they had +felt sorry a long time that no one came to teach them; for they were +very ignorant, little children who knew nothing, and when they heard a +rumour that a mission and school would be brought to them their hearts +were very glad. Wherever we should see fit to "make mission," there he +and his people would go, and would help build for us and help us in +every way; but he hoped it would be near Lake Mansfield and the +Crossing, where most of them lived at present. Farther down the river +was not so good for their hunting and fishing, but they would go +wherever we said. That was the burden of the chief's speech. + +I took a liking to the old man at once. He was evidently a chief that +was a chief. The chieftainship here was plainly not the effete and +decaying institution it is in many places on the Yukon. He spoke for all +his people without hesitation or question, and one felt that what he +said was law amongst them. + +There followed for two days an almost continuous course of instruction +in the elements of the Christian faith and Christian morals, all day +long and far into the night, with no more interval than cooking and +eating required. In the largest tent of the encampment, packed full of +men and women, the children wedged in where they could get, myself +seated on a pile of robes and skins, my interpreters at my side, my +hearers squatted on the spruce boughs of the floor, the instruction went +on. As it proceeded, the interpretation improved, though it was still +difficult and clumsy, as speaking through two minds and two mouths must +always be. Whenever I stopped there was urgent request to go on, until +at last my voice was almost gone with incessant use. Over and over the +same things I went; the cardinal facts of religion--the Incarnation, the +Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension; the cardinal laws of +morality--the prohibition of murder, adultery, theft, and falsehood; +that something definite might be left behind that should not be lost in +the vagueness of general recollection, and always with the insistence +that this was God's world and not the devil's world, a world in which +good should ultimately prevail in spite of all opposition. + +[Sidenote: SAVAGE, HEATHEN, PAGAN] + +It is at once a high privilege and a solemn responsibility to deal with +souls to whom the appeal of the Christian religion had never before been +made, as were most of my hearers. One cannot call them "heathen." One +never thinks of these Alaskan natives as heathen. "Savage" and "heathen" +and "pagan" all meant, of course, in their origin, just country people, +and point to some old-time, tremendous superciliousness of the +city-bred, long since disappeared, except, perhaps, from such places as +Whitechapel and the Bowery. A savage is simply a forest dweller, a +heathen a heath dweller, and for a large part of each year I come, +etymologically, within the terms myself. But with its ordinary +implication of ferocity and bloodthirstiness it is absurd to apply the +word "savage" to the mild and gentle Alaskan Indian, and, with its +ordinary implication of bowing down to wood and stone, it is misleading +to apply the term "heathen" to those who never made any sort of graven +image. + +Much has been written, and cleverly written, about the Alaskan Indian +that is preposterously untrue. Arthur, my half-breed boy, had recently +been reading a story by Jack London, dealing with the Indians in the +vicinity of Tanana, where he was bred and born, and his indignation at +the representation of his people in this story was amusing. The story +was called _The Wit of Porportuk_, and it presented a native chief in +almost baronial state, with slaves waiting upon him in a large +banqueting hall and I know not what accumulated wealth of furs and gold. +Such pictures are far more flagrantly untrue to any conditions that ever +existed in Alaska than anything Fenimore Cooper wrote about the Five +Nations. There were never any slaves in the interior; there was never +any wealth amongst the Indians; there was never any state and +circumstance of life. And the more one lives amongst them and knows +them, the less one believes that they could ever have been a warlike +people, despite their own traditions. Sporadic forays, fostered by their +ignorant dread of one another or stirred up by rival medicine-men, there +may have been between different tribes--and there certainly were between +the Indians and the Esquimaux--with ambuscade and slaughter of isolated +hunting parties that ventured too far beyond the confines of their own +territory; and one such affair would furnish tradition for generations +to dilate upon. I have myself found all the men of Nulato gone scouting, +or hiding--I could not determine which--in the hills with their guns, +upon a rumour that the "Huskies," or Esquimaux, were coming; I have +known the Indians of the Yukon and the Tanana, and as far as the +Koyukuk, excited and alarmed over the friendly visit of a handful of +ragged natives from the Copper River to Nenana at Christmas time, +although in either case it must certainly have been fifty years since +there was any actual hostile incursion, and probably much longer. + +[Sidenote: A GENTLE, TIMID PEOPLE] + +They are a very timid people, and an exceedingly peaceable people. Years +and years may be spent amongst them without knowledge of a single act of +violence between Indian men; they do not quarrel and fight. Bold enough +in the chase, willing to face dangers of ice and water and wild beast, +they have a dread of anything like personal encounter, and will submit +to a surprising amount of imposition and overbearing on the part of a +white man without resorting to it. I knew a certain white man who +claimed a whole river valley north of the Yukon as his, who warned off +hunting parties of Indians who ventured upon it, and made them give up +game killed in "his territory." They came to the mission and complained +about it, but they never withstood the usurper. It ought to be added +that it always appeared more as the making good of a practical joke than +as a serious pretension, but the point is--the Indians submitted. + +So far as these natives of the interior are concerned they were never +idolaters. I cannot find that they had any distinct notion of worship at +all. Their religion had root in a certain frantic terror of the unknown, +and found expression in ceaseless efforts to propitiate the malign +spirits surrounding them on every side. Thus they were given over to the +mastery of those amongst them who had the traditional art of such +propitiation, and fell more or less completely under that cruellest and +most venal of sways, the tyranny of the witch-doctor. It is impossible +to doubt, and hard to exaggerate, the grinding and brutal exactions to +which this rule led. Anything that a man possessed might be demanded and +must be yielded, on pain of disease and death, even to the whole +season's catch of fur or the deflowering of a young daughter. The utmost +greed and lust that can disgrace humanity found its Indian expression in +the lives of some of these medicine-men. + +Since every sort of tyranny has its vulnerable spot, since the despotism +of Russia was tempered by assassination and of Japan by the effect of +public suicide, so melioration of the tyranny of the medicine-man seems +to have been found in rivalry amongst members of the craft itself. +Oppressed beyond endurance by one practitioner, allegiance would be +transferred to some new claimant of occult powers, and the breaking of +the monopoly of magic would be followed by a temporary lightening of the +burdens. Some of the most lurid of Alaskan legends deal with the +thaumaturgic contests of rival medicine-men, and one judges that sleight +of hand and even hypnotic suggestion were cultivated to a fine point. + +To such minds the Christian teaching comes with glad and one may say +instantaneous acceptance. Their attitude is entirely childlike. They are +anxious to be told more and more about it, to be told it over and over +again. There is never the slightest sign of incredulity. It does not +occur to them as possible that a man should be sent all this way to +them, should hunt them up and seek them out to tell it to them, unless +it were true. And one learns over again how universal is the appeal the +Christian religion, and in particular the Life of Our Lord, makes to +mankind. I have seen Indians and Esquimaux mixed, hearing for the first +time the details of the Passion, stirred to as great indignation as was +that barbarian chieftain who laid his hand on his sword and cried, +"Would I and my men had been there!" or those Western cowboys, so the +story runs, bred in illiteracy and irreligion, to whose children a +school-teacher had given an account of the same great events, and who +rode up to the schoolhouse the next day with guns and ropes, and asked: +"Which way did them blamed Jews go?" + +The medicine-man lies low; may himself profess acceptance of the new +teaching, may even really accept it (for it is very hard, indeed, to +follow and judge all the mental processes of an Indian)--yes, though it +expressly sweep all his devils away, out of the sick, out of the wind +and storm, from off every grave mound, though it leave him no paltry +net-tearing or trap-springing sprite to work upon with his conjurations; +yet the old superstition dies hard, often crops up when one had thought +it perished, and even sometimes maintains itself, sub rosa, side by side +with definite, regular Christian worship. + +[Sidenote: THE OLD, OLD STORY] + +The arctic explorer Stefanson, a careful and acute observer who has had +exceptional opportunities for observation of the intimate life of the +Esquimaux, has written much lately of the grafting of Christianity upon +native superstition and the existence of both together, as though it +were some new thing or newly noticed by himself. Yet every one familiar +with the history of Christianity knows that it has characterised the +progress of religion in all ages. There was never a people yet that did +not in great measure do this thing, nor is it reasonable to suppose that +it could have been otherwise. It is impossible to make a _tabula rasa_ +of men's minds. It is impossible to uproot customs of immemorial +antiquity without leaving some rootlets behind. And what is acquired +joins itself insensibly to what is retained, and either the incongruity +is hidden beneath a change of nomenclature or is not hidden at all. Our +own social life is threaded through and through with customs and +practices which go back to a superstitious origin. The matter is such a +commonplace of history that it is bootless to labour it here. + +A scientist is only a "scientist." How that name tends continually to +depreciate itself as the pursuit of physical science is divorced more +and more completely from a knowledge of literature, from a knowledge of +the humanities! And a scientist is a poor guide to an acquaintance with +man, civilised or uncivilised. To come to the study of any race of man, +even the most primitive, without some knowledge of all the long history +of man, of all the long history of man's thought, man's methods, man's +strivings, man's accomplishments, man's failures, is to come so ill +equipped that no just conclusions are likely to be reached. Your +exclusive "scientist"--and such are most of them to-day--may be +competent to deal with circles and triangles, with wheels and levers +with cells and glands, with germs and bacilli and micro-organisms +generally, with magnetos and dynamos, with all the heavenly host if you +like, but he has no equipment to deal with man! Somatic anthropology in +particular tends to assume in some quarters such an overimportance that +one falls back upon the recollection that the original head measurers +were hatters and that all hatters are proverbially mad. The occupation +would seem to carry the taint. + +It was with much pleasure that I was able to hold out hope to Chief +Isaac of the mission and the school he desired so earnestly for his +people. It must not be supposed that all of them were in the completely +unevangelised state which has been dwelt upon, that to all of them the +teaching of those two full days was novel; some of them, like the chief +himself, had been across to the Yukon long ago and still bore some trace +of the early labours of the Church of England missionaries to whom this +region of Alaska that adjoins Canada is so much indebted. Others had +once been to the Ketchumstock, upon the occasion of a visit from our +missionary at Eagle, and had received instruction from him. But there +were many present in that tent who had never seen any missionary, never +had any teaching, to whom it was wholly new save as they might have +picked up some inkling from those that had been more fortunate. + +[Illustration: THE TANANA CROSSING.] + +[Illustration: GOOD GOING ON THE YUKON.] + +[Sidenote: TRIBAL CONNECTIONS] + +When we left this encampment Isaac sent two of his young men to guide +us, with a sled drawn by three or four small dogs, so gaily caparisoned +with _tapis_ and ribbons, tinsel, and pompons, that they might have +been circus dogs. Here again is evidence of this tribe's affinity +with the upper Yukon natives, and so with those of the Mackenzie. I +never saw the _tapis_, a broad, bright ornamented cloth that lies upon +the dog's back under his harness, on the Middle Yukon. It is +characteristic of the Peel River Indians who come across by the Rampart +House and La Pierre House. + +A few hours' journey brought us to the Tanana River again, which we +crossed, and took a portage on the other side that went up a long defile +and then along a ridge and then down another long defile until at night +we reached the native village at Lake Mansfield; a picturesque spot, for +the lake is entirely surrounded by mountains except on the side which +opens to the river. Here the Alaskan range and the Tanana River have +approached so close that the water almost washes the base of the +foot-hills, and the scenery is as fine and bold as any in Alaska. And +here, at Lake Mansfield, if only there were navigable connection between +the lake and the river into which it drains, would be an admirable place +for a mission station. + +A couple of hours next day took us the seven remaining miles to the +Tanana Crossing. Here, at that time, was a station of the military +telegraph connecting Valdez on the coast with Fort Egbert (Eagle) on the +Yukon, a line maintained, at enormous expense, purely for military +purposes. It passed through an almost entirely uninhabited country in +which perhaps scarcely a dozen messages would originate in a year. The +telegraph-line and Fort Egbert itself are now abandoned. Strategic +considerations constitute a vague and variable quantity. + +It was strange to find this little station with two or three men of the +signal-corps away out here in the wilderness. Their post was supplied by +mule pack-train from Fort Egbert, more than two hundred miles away, and +they told me that only ten pounds out of every hundred that left Fort +Egbert reached the Crossing, so self-limited is a pack-train through +such country. We amused ourselves calculating just how much farther +mules and men could go until they ate up _all_ they could carry. + +The Tanana Crossing is a central spot for the Indians of this region. +Two days' journey up the river was the village of the Tetlin Indians. +Two days' journey into the mountain range were the Mantasta Indians. Two +days' journey across towards the Yukon were the Ketchumstock Indians. +Most of them would congregate at this spot for certain parts of the +year, should we plant a mission there, and despite the picturesque +situation of Lake Mansfield, it looked as if the Crossing were the best +point for building. + +[Sidenote: THE TANANA CROSSING] + +Our route lay northeast, across country to Fortymile on the Yukon, two +hundred and fifty miles away, along the trail for the greater part of +the distance by which the mule train reached the Tanana Crossing. The +first five miles was all up-hill, a long, stiff, steady climb to the +crest of the mountain that rises just behind the Crossing. We had to +take it slowly, with frequent stops, so steep was the grade, and every +now and then we got tantalising glimpses through the timber of the scene +that spread wider and wider below us. Bend after bend of the Tanana +River unfolded itself; the Alaskan range gave peak after peak; there +lay Lake Mansfield, deep in its amphitheatre of hills, with the Indian +village at its head. + +At last my impatience for the view that promised made me leave the boys +(we still had Isaac's young men) and push on alone to the top. And it +was indeed by far the noblest view of the winter, one of the grandest +and most extensive panoramas I had ever seen in my life. + +Perhaps three miles away, as the crow flies, from the river, and +seventeen hundred and fifty feet above it, as the aneroid gave it, we +were already on the watershed, and everywhere in the direction we were +travelling the wide-flung draws and gullies of the Fortymile River +stretched out, so clear and beautiful a display of the beginnings of a +great drainage system that my attention was arrested, notwithstanding my +eagerness for the sight that awaited my turning around. But it was upon +turning around and looking in the direction from which we had come that +the grandeur and sublimity entered into the scene. There was, indeed, no +one great dominating feature in this prospect as in the view of Denali +from the Rampart portage, but the whole background, bounding the vision +completely, was one vast wall of lofty white peaks, stretching without a +break for a hundred miles. Enormous cloud masses rose and fell about +this barrier, now unfolding to reveal dark chasms and glittering +glaciers, now enshrouding them again. In the middle distance the Tanana +River wound and twisted its firm white line amidst broken patches of +snow and timber far away to either hand, and, where glacial affluents +discharged into it, were finer, threadlike lines that marked the many +mouths. The thick spruce mantling the slope in the foreground gave a +sombre contrast to the fields of snow, and the yellow March sunshine was +poured over all the wide landscape save where the great clouds contended +with the great mountains. + +The boys had stopped to build a fire and brew some tea before leaving +the timber, and I was glad of it, for it gave me the chance to gaze my +fill upon the inspiring and fascinating scene in the pleasant warmth of +the mountain top, with the thermometer at 30° in the shade and just 12° +higher in the sunshine. + +[Sidenote: A NOBLE VIEW] + +How grateful I was for the clear bright day! What a disappointment it +has been again and again to reach such an eminence and see--nothing! It +was the most extensive view of the great Alaskan range I had ever +secured--that long line of sharp peaks that stretches and broadens from +the coast inland until it culminates in the highest point of the North +American continent and then curves its way back to the coast again. Of +course, what lay here within the vision was only a small part of one arm +of the range; it stopped far short of Denali on the one hand and Mount +Sanford on the other, though it included Mount Kimball and Mount Hayes; +yet it was the most impressive sight of a mountain chain I had ever +beheld. It was a sight to be glad and grateful for, to put high amongst +one's joyful remembrances; and with this notable sight we bade farewell +to the Tanana valley. + +Down the hill we went into Fortymile water and into a rolling country +crossed by the military mule trail. If the morning had been glorious the +evening was full of penance. Long before night our feet were sore from +slipping and sliding into those wretched mule tracks. One cannot take +one's eyes from the trail for a moment, every footstep must be watched, +and even then one is continually stumbling. + +We were able, however, to rig our team with the double hitch that is so +much more economical of power than the tandem hitch, whenever the width +of the trail permits it. We now carry a convertible rig, so that on +narrow trails or in deep snow we can string out the dogs one in front of +the other, and when the trail is wide enough can hitch them side by +side. "Seal," the Great Dane pup we got at the Salchaket, was a good and +strong puller, but he had no coat and no sense. It is bad enough to have +no coat in this country, but to have no coat and no sense is fatal--as +he found. His feet were continually sore and he had to be specially +provided for at night if it were at all cold--a dog utterly unsuited to +Alaska. + +Thirty miles of such going as has been described is tiring in the +extreme, and when we reached the Lone Cabin, behold! fifteen Indians +camped about it, for whom, when supper was done, followed two hours of +teaching and the baptism of six children. I would have liked to have +stayed a day with them, but if we were to spend Palm Sunday at Fortymile +and Easter at Eagle as had been promised, the time remaining did no more +than serve; and there was a large band of Indians to visit at +Ketchumstock. + +The next day took us into and across the Ketchumstock Flats, a wide +basin surrounded by hills and drained by the Mosquito Fork of the +Fortymile. The telegraph-line, supported on tripods against the summer +yielding of the marshy soil, cuts straight across country. This basin +and the hills around form one of the greatest caribou countries, +perhaps, in the world. All day we had passed fragments of the long +fences that were in use in times past by the Indians for driving the +animals into convenient places for slaughter. + +The annual migration of the vast herd that roams the section of Alaska +between the Yukon and the Tanana Rivers swarms over this Flat and +through these hills, and we were told at the Ketchumstock telegraph +station by the signal-corps men that they estimated that upward of one +hundred thousand animals crossed the Mosquito Fork the previous October. + +[Sidenote: CARIBOU] + +The big game of Alaska is not yet seriously diminished, though there was +need for the legal protection that has of late years been given. It is +probable that more caribou and young moose are killed every year by +wolves than by hunters. Only in the neighbourhood of a considerable +settlement is there danger of reckless and wasteful slaughter, and some +attention is paid by game wardens to the markets of such places. The +mountain-sheep stands in greater danger of extermination than either +caribou or moose. Its meat, the most delicious mutton in the world, as +it has been pronounced by epicures, brings a higher price than other +wild meat, and it is easy to destroy a band completely. The sheep on the +mountains of the Alaskan range nearest to Fairbanks have, it is said, +been very greatly diminished, and that need not be wondered at when one +sees sled load after sled load, aggregating several tons of meat, +brought in at one shipment. The law protecting the sheep probably needs +tightening up. + +The big game is a great resource to all the people of the country, white +and native. It is no small advantage to be able to take one's gun in the +fall and go out in the valleys and kill a moose that will suffice for +one man's meat almost the whole winter, or go into the hills and kill +four or five caribou that will stock his larder equally well. The fresh, +clean meat of the wilds has to most palates far finer flavour than any +cold-storage meat that can be brought into the country; and, save at one +or two centres of population and distribution, cold-storage meat is not +available at all. Without its big game Alaska would be virtually +uninhabitable. Therefore most white men are content that the necessary +measures be taken to prevent the wasteful slaughter of the game; for the +rights of the prospector and trapper and traveller, and the rights of +the natives to kill at any time what is necessary for food, are +explicitly reserved. + +[Sidenote: THE KETCHUMSTOCK] + +We reached the village and telegraph post of Ketchumstock for the night +only to find all the natives gone hunting; but since they had gone in +the direction of Chicken Creek, towards which we were travelling, we +were able to catch up with them the next morning without going far out +of our way. While we were pitching our tent near their encampment came +two or three natives with dog teams, and as the dogs hesitated to pass +our dogs, loose on the trail, a voluble string of curses in English fell +from the Indian lips. Such is usually the first indication of contact +with white men, and in this case it spoke of the proximity of the mining +on Chicken Creek. To discover the women chewing tobacco was to add but +another evidence of the sophistication of this tribe; a different people +from Chief Isaac's tribe, different through many years' familiarity with +the whites at these diggings. If the mission to be built at the Crossing +tends to keep these Indians on the Tanana River and thus away from the +demoralisation of the diggings, it will do them solid service. + +In some way foul and profane language falls even more offensively from +Indians than from whites; for the same reason, perhaps, that it sounds +more offensive and shocking from children than from adults. Sometimes +the Indian does not in the least understand the meaning of the words he +uses; they are the first English words he ever heard and he hears them +over and over again. + +So here another day and a half was spent in instruction. There are some +forty souls in this tribe and they have had teaching from time to time, +though not in the last few years, at the mouths of missionaries from +Yukon posts. Most of the adults had been baptized; I baptized sixteen +children. One curious feature of my stay was the megaphonic +recapitulation of the heads of the instruction, after each session, by +an elderly Indian who stood out in the midst of the tents. What on earth +this man, with his town-crier voice, was proclaiming at such length, we +were at a loss to conjecture, and upon inquiry were informed: "Them +women, not much sense; one time tell 'em, quick forget; two time tell +'em, maybe little remember." So when we stopped for dinner and for +supper and for bed, each time this brazen-lunged spieler stood forth and +reiterated the main points of the discourse "for the _hareem_," as +Doughty would say, whose account of the attitude of the Arabs to their +women often reminds me of the Alaskan Indians. It was interesting, but I +should have preferred to edit the recapitulation. + +When all was done for the day and we thought to go to bed came an Indian +named "Bum-Eyed-Bob" (these white man's nicknames, however dreadful, are +always accepted and used) for a long confabulation about the affairs of +the tribe, and I gathered incidentally that gambling at the telegraph +station had been the main diversion of the winter. It seems ungracious +to insist so much upon the evil influence of the white men--we had been +cordially received and entertained at that very place, and our money +refused--but there is little doubt that the abandonment of the +telegraph-line will be a good thing for these natives. Put two or three +young men of no special intellectual resource or ambition down in a +lonely spot like this, with no society at all save that of the natives +and practically nothing to do, and there is a natural and almost +inevitable trend to evil. To the exceptional man with the desire of +promotion, with books, and all this leisure, it would be an admirable +opportunity, but he would be quite an exceptional man who should rise +altogether superior to the temptations to idleness and debauchery. One +may have true and deep sympathy with these young men and yet be +conscious of the harm they often bring about. + +Ten miles or so from the encampment brought us to Chicken Creek, and +from that point we took the Fortymile River. The direct trail to Eagle +with its exasperating mule tracks was now left, and our journey was on +the ice. But so warm was the weather that 16th of March that we were +wet-foot all day, and within the space of eight hours that we were +travelling we had snow, sleet, rain, and sunshine. Leaving the main +river, we turned up Walker Fork and, after a few miles, leaving that, we +turned up Jack Wade Creek and pursued it far up towards its head ere we +reached the road-house for the night. + +[Sidenote: THE FORTYMILE] + +We were now on historic ground, so far as gold mining in Alaska is +concerned. The "Fortymilers" bear the same pioneer relation to gold +mining in the North that the "Fortyniners" bear to gold mining in +California. Ever since 1886 placers have been worked in this district, +and it still yields gold, though the output and the number of men are +alike much reduced. It is interesting to talk with some of the original +locators of this camp, who may yet be found here and there in the +country, and to learn of the conditions in those early days when a +steamboat came up the Yukon once in a season bringing such supplies and +mail as the men received for the year. It was here that the problem of +working frozen ground was first confronted and solved; here that the +first "miner's law" was promulgated, the first "miners' meeting" dealt +out justice. Your "old-timer" anywhere is commonly _laudator temporis +acti_, but there is good reason to believe that these early, and +certainly most adventurous, gold-miners, some of whom forced a way into +the country when there were no routes of travel, and subsisted on its +resources while they explored and prospected it, were men of a higher +stamp than many who have come in since. The extent to which that early +prospecting was carried is not generally known, for these men, after the +manner of their kind, left no record behind them. There are few creek +beds that give any promise at all in the whole of this vast country that +have not had some holes sunk in them. Even in districts so remote as the +Koyukuk, signs of old prospecting are encountered. When a stampede took +place to the Red Mountain or Indian River country of the middle Koyukuk +in 1911-12, I was told that there was not a creek in the camp that did +not show signs of having been prospected long before, although it had +passed altogether out of knowledge that this particular region had ever +been visited by prospectors. + +[Sidenote: "SNIPING ON THE BARS"] + +As the Fortymile is the oldest gold camp in the North, some of its trail +making is of the best in Alaska. In particular the trail from the head +of Jack Wade Creek down into Steel Creek reminded one of the Alpine +roads in its bold, not to say daring, engineering. It drops from bench +to bench in great sweeping curves always with a practicable grade, and +must descend nigh a thousand feet in a couple of miles. At the mouth of +Steel Creek we are on the Fortymile River again, having saved a day's +journey by this traverse. And here, on the Fortymile, we passed several +men "sniping on the bars," as the very first Alaskan gold-miners did on +this same river, and probably on these same bars, twenty-five years ago. +One hand moved the "rocker" to and fro and the other poured water into +it with the "long Tom"; so was the gold washed out of the gravel taken +from just below the ice. It was interesting to see this primitive method +still in practice and to learn from the men that they were making +"better than wages." + +The Fortymile is a very picturesque but most tortuous river. In one +place, called appropriately "The Kink," I was able to clamber over a +ridge of rocks and reach another bend of the river in six or seven +minutes, and then had to wait twenty-five minutes for the dog team, +going at a good clip, to come around to me. At length we reached the +spot where a vista cut through the timber that clothes both banks, +marked the 141st meridian, the international boundary, and passed out of +Alaska into British territory. A few miles more brought us to Moose +Creek, where a little Canadian custom-house is situated, and there we +spent the night. + +The next day we reached the Yukon; passing gold dredges laid up for the +winter and other signs of still-persisting mining activity, going +through the narrow wild cañon of the Fortymile, and so to the little +town at its mouth of the same name, where there is a mission of the +Church of England and a post of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police. I +never come into contact with this admirable body of men without wishing +that we had a similar body charged with the enforcement of the law in +Alaska. + +Sunday was spent there officiating for the layman in charge of the +mission and in interesting talk with the sergeant of police about the +annual winter journey from Dawson to Fort McPherson on the McKenzie, +from which he had just returned with a detail of men. The next winter he +and his detail lost their way and starved and froze to death on the same +journey. + +Here at one time was a flourishing Indian mission and school, and here +Bishop Bompas, the true "Apostle of the North," lived for some time. The +story of this man's forty-five years' single-eyed devotion to the +Indians of the Yukon and McKenzie Rivers is one of the brave chapters of +missionary history. But the Church of England "does not advertise." +Writers about Alaska, even writers about Alaskan missions, carefully +collect all the data of the early Russian missions on the coast, but +ignore altogether the equally influential and lasting work done along +five hundred miles of what is now the American Yukon by the missionary +clergy of the English Church before and after the Purchase. Bishop +Bompas identified himself so closely with the natives as to become +almost one of them in the eyes of the white men, and many curious +stories linger amongst the old-timers as to his habits and appearance. +It is interesting to know that the bishop was a son of that Sergeant +Bompas of the English bar from whom Dickens drew the character of +Sergeant Buzfuz, counsel for the plaintiff in the famous suit of +"Bardell v. Pickwick." + +But the natives have all left Fortymile, some to the large village of +Moosehide just below Dawson, some to Eagle. The town, too, like all the +upper Yukon towns, is much decayed; the custom-house, the police +barracks, the company's store, the road-house, and the little mission +embracing nearly all its activities and housing nearly all its +population. + +There is always some feeling of satisfaction in reaching the broad +highway of the Yukon again, even though rough ice make bad going and one +of the most notorious, dirty road-houses in the North hold its menace +over one all day and amply fulfil it at night. There is indeed so little +travel on the river now that it does not pay any one to keep a +road-house save as incidental to a steamboat wood camp and summer +fishing station. Two short days' travel brought us across the +international boundary again to Eagle in Alaska, where at that time Fort +Egbert was garrisoned with two companies of soldiers. + +[Sidenote: EAGLE] + +Eagle and Fort Egbert together, for the one begins where the other ends, +have perhaps the finest and most commanding situation of any settlement +on the Yukon River. The mountains rise with dignity just across the +water and break pleasingly into the valley of Eagle Creek, a few miles +up-stream. To the rear of the town an inconsiderable flat does but give +space and setting before the mountains rise again; while just below the +military post stands the bold and lofty bluff called the Eagle Rock, +with Mission Creek winding into the Yukon at its foot. Robert Louis +Stevenson said that Edinburgh has the finest situation of any capital +in Europe and pays for it by having the worst climate of any city in the +world. It would not be just to paraphrase this description with regard +to Eagle, for while it is unsurpassed on the Yukon for site, there are +spots on that river where still more disagreeable weather prevails; yet +it cannot be denied that the position of the place subjects it to +exceedingly bitter winds, or that the valley of Eagle Creek, which gives +pleasing variety to the prospect, acts also as a channel to convey the +full force of the blast. Climate everywhere is a very local thing; +topographical considerations often altogether outweigh geographical; and +nowhere is this truer than in Alaska. Commanding sites are necessarily +exposed sites, and he who would dwell in comfort must build in +seclusion. + +A native village of eighty or ninety souls, with its church and school, +lies three miles up-stream from the town, so that the relative positions +of village, town, and military post exactly duplicate those at Tanana. +It must at once be stated, however, that this situation has not led to +anything like the demoralisation amongst the natives at Eagle that +thrusts itself into notice at the other place. Whether it were the +longer training in Christian morals that lay behind these people, or +better hap in the matter of post commanders (certainly there was never +such scandalous irregularity and indifference at Egbert as marked one +administration at Gibbon), or the vigilance during a number of +consecutive years of an especially active deputy marshal and the wisdom +and concern through an even longer period of a commissioner much above +the common stamp,[F] or all these causes combined, the natives at Eagle +have not suffered from the proximity of soldiers and civilians in the +same measure as the natives at Tanana. Drunkenness and debauchery there +have been again and again, but they have been severely checked and +restrained by both the civil and military authorities. + +It was pleasant during Holy Week and Easter to see so many of the +enlisted men of the garrison taking part in the services in town; +pleasant, especially, to see officers and men singing together in the +choir, a tribute to the tact and zeal of the earnest layman in charge of +this mission; and it was pleasant at the village to hear the native +liturgy again and to see old men and women following the lessons in the +native Bible. + +[Sidenote: FORT EGBERT ABANDONED] + +Fort Egbert is abandoned now, another addition to the melancholy of the +Yukon; its extensive buildings, barracks, and officers' quarters, +post-exchange and commissariat, hospital, sawmill, and artisans' shops, +a spacious, complete gymnasium only recently built, are all vacant and +deserted. In the yards lie three thousand cords of dry wood, a year's +supply; cut on the hills, awaiting the expected annual contracts, lie as +many more--six thousand cords of wood left to rot! Some of us perverse +"conservationists," upon whom the unanimous Alaskan press delights to +pour scorn, lament the trees more than the troops. + +One may write thus and yet have many pleasant personal associations +with the post and those who have lived there. A large and varied +military acquaintanceship is acquired by regular visits to these Alaskan +forts, for the whole command changes every two years. If one stayed in +the country long enough one would get to know the whole United States +army, as regiment after regiment spent its brief term of "foreign +service" in the North. Gazing upon the empty quarters, the occasion of +my first visit came back vividly, when there was diphtheria amongst the +natives at Circle and none to cope with it save the missionary nurse. +The civil codes containing no provision for quarantine, the United +States commissioner at Circle could not help, and the Indians grew +restive and rebellious, and when Christmas came broke through the +restrictions completely. Even some of the whites of the place defied her +prohibition and attended native dances and encouraged the Indians in +their self-willed folly. + +[Sidenote: SOME ARMY OFFICERS] + +So I went up the week's journey to Eagle and sought assistance from +Major Plummer, the officer commanding the post, who, after telegraphing +to Washington, promptly despatched a hospital steward and a couple of +soldiers, and placed them entirely at the nurse's disposal. "I don't +think we have any law for it," he said, "but we'll bluff it out." And +bluff it out they did very effectively until the disease was stamped +out, and then they thoroughly disinfected and whitewashed every cabin +that had been occupied by the sick. I used to tell that nurse that, so +far as I knew, she was the only woman who had ever had command of United +States soldiers. + +Then there was Captain Langdon of the same regiment, the scholarly +soldier, with the account of every great campaign in history at his +fingers' ends. I recollect one evening, when we had been talking of the +Peninsular War, I ventured to spring on him the ancient schoolboy +conundrum: "What lines are those, the most famous ever made by an +Englishman, yet that are never quoted?" "Lines?" said he, "lines?" +though I don't think he had ever heard the jest. "They must be the Lines +of Torres Vedras." How well I remember the musical box that used to +arouse me at seven in the morning, however late we had sat talking the +night before! + +And that young lieutenant, of wealthy New York people, just arrived from +West Point, who was sent by another commandant to report upon the +condition of the natives at the village and who came back and reported +the whole population in utter destitution and recommended the issue of +free rations to them all! As a matter of fact, during the administration +of this commanding officer, some sixteen or eighteen persons were put +upon the list for gratuitous grub, and it took a written protest to get +them off. For no one who has the welfare of the natives at heart can +tolerate the notion of making them paupers; these who have always fended +abundantly for themselves, and can entirely do so yet. With free rations +there would be no more hunting, no more trapping, no more fishing; and a +hardy, self-supporting race would sink at once to sloth and beggary and +forget all that made men of them. If it were designed to destroy the +Indian at a blow, here is an easy way to do it. Yet there are some, +obsessed with the craze about what is called education, regarding it as +an end in itself and not as a means to any end, who recommend this +pauperising because it would permit the execution of a compulsory +school-attendance law. Or is it a personal delusion of mine that esteems +an honest, industrious, self-supporting Indian who cannot read and write +English above one who can read and write English--and can do nothing +else--and so separates me from many who are working amongst the natives? + +These days at the end of March, when the sun shines more than twelve +hours in the twenty-four, are too long for the ordinary winter day's +twenty-five miles or so, and yet not quite long enough, even if man and +dogs could stand it, to double the stage; so that there is much daylight +leisure at road-houses. One grows anxious, after four months on the +trail, to be done with it; to draw as quickly as may be to one's +"thawing-out" place. One even becomes a little impatient of the +continual dog talk and mining talk of the road-houses, to which one has +listened all the winter. On the other hand, the travelling is very +pleasant and the going usually very good, so that one may often ride on +the sled for long stretches. + +By river and portage--one portage that comes so finely down to the Yukon +from a bench that there is pleasure in anticipating the view it +affords--in two days we reached the Nation road-house, just below the +mouth of the Nation River, a name that has always puzzled me. Here all +night long the wolves howling around the carcass of a horse kept our +dogs awake, and the whimpering of the dogs kept us awake. The country +beyond the Yukon to the northeast, the large area included between the +Yukon and the Porcupine, into which the Nation River offers passage, is +one of the wildest and least known portions of Alaska, abounding in game +and beasts of prey. + +[Sidenote: THE GLARE OF THE SUN] + +At the Charley River we visited the native village and held service and +instruction as well as inadequate interpretation permitted. Round Coal +Creek and Woodchopper Creek the scenery becomes bold and attractive, but +we found, as usual, that as we pushed farther and farther down the river +the snow was deeper and the going not so good. The sun grows very bright +upon the snow these days of late March and early April. Even through +heavily tinted glasses it inflames the eyes more or less, and a couple +of hours without protection would bring snow-blindness. Bright days at +this season are the only days in all the year when the camera shutter +may be used at its full speed. When the sun comes out after a flurry of +new snow in April, the light is many times greater than in midsummer. + +[Illustration: "A PORTAGE THAT COMES SO FINELY DOWN TO THE YUKON THAT +THERE IS PLEASURE IN ANTICIPATING THE VIEW IT AFFORDS."] + +[Illustration: FORT YUKON.] + +We reached Circle in a day and a half from Woodchopper Creek, in time to +spend Sunday there. Circle had not changed much in the five years that +had elapsed since the first visit to it mentioned in these pages. The +slender trellis of the wireless telegraph had added a prominent feature +to its river bank; a few more empty cabins had been torn down for +fire-wood. Here it was necessary to shoot the Great Dane pup we got at +the Salchaket. His feet were still very sore and he quite useless for +the next winter, while Doc was returned to me from Fairbanks, not +much the worse for his severe frost-bite. Indian after Indian begged for +the dog, but I had more regard for him than to turn him over to the +tender mercies of an Indian. There are exceptional Indians, but for my +part I would rather be a dead dog than an ordinary Indian's dog--so he +died. + +There remained the seventy-five or eighty miles through the Yukon Flats +to Fort Yukon--always the most dangerous stretch of the river, and at +this season, when the winter's trail was beginning to break up, +particularly so. It would be entirely practicable to cut a land trail +that should not touch the river at all, or not at more than one point, +between Circle and Fort Yukon, and such a portage besides removing all +the danger would save perhaps twenty miles. In many places it was +necessary for one of us to go ahead with an axe, constantly sounding and +testing the ice. Here and there we made a circuit around open water into +which the ice that bore the trail had collapsed bodily--one of them a +particularly ugly place, with black water twenty feet deep running at +six or seven miles an hour. I never pass this stretch of river without a +feeling of gratitude that I am safely over it once more. + +[Sidenote: CAPTAIN AMUNDSEN] + +As we left the Halfway Island we passed an Indian from Fort Yukon going +up the river with dogs and toboggan, and I chuckled, as I returned his +very polite salutation and shook hands with him, at the success of the +way he had been dealt with the previous fall, for he had been a +particularly churlish fellow with an insolent manner. Six or seven +years before he had been taken by Captain Amundsen, of the _Gjoa_, as +guide along this stretch of the river. It will be remembered that when +that skilful and fortunate navigator had reached Herschell Island from +the east, he left his ship in winter quarters and made a rapid journey +with Esquimaux across country to Fort Yukon expecting to find a +telegraph station there from which he could send word of his success. +But to his disappointment he found it necessary to go two hundred and +thirty miles farther up the river to Eagle, before he could despatch his +message. So he left his Esquimaux at Fort Yukon and took this Indian as +guide. And in his modest and most interesting book he mentions the man's +surliness and says he was glad to get rid of him at Circle. + +Some new outbreak of insolence for which he had been flung out of a +store decided that he must be dealt with, and I sent for him, for the +chief, the native minister, and the interpreter. With these assessors +beside me, and Captain Amundsen's book open on the table, I spoke to the +man of his general conduct and reputation. I read the derogatory remark +about him in the book "printed for all the world to read," and told him +that of all the people, white and native, the captain had met on his +journeys, only one was spoken of harshly and he was the one. It made a +great impression on the man. The chief and the native minister followed +it up with their harangues, and the net result was a thorough change in +his whole attitude and demeanour. He told us he felt the shame of being +held up to the world as rude and impudent and would try to amend. He has +tried so successfully that he is now one of the politest and most +courteous Indians in the village, for which, if this should ever chance +to reach Captain Amundsen's eye, I trust he will accept our thanks. + +Fort Yukon, where the headquarters of the archdeaconry of the Yukon are +now fixed, grows in native population and importance. A new and sightly +church, a new schoolhouse, a new two-story mission house, a medical +missionary and a nurse in residence, as well as a native clergyman, mark +the Indian metropolis of this region and perhaps of all interior Alaska. +Self-government is fostered amongst the people by a village council +elected annually, that settles native troubles and disputes and takes +charge of movements for the general good, and of the relief of native +poverty. The resident physician has been appointed justice of the peace +and there is effort to enforce the law of the land at a place where +every man has been a law unto himself. But it is a very slow and +difficult matter to enforce law in this country at all, and more +particularly at these remote points; and the class of white men who are +to be found around native villages, many of whom "fear not God neither +regard man," pursue their debauchery and deviltry long time unwhipped. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[F] I take pleasure in naming Mr. U. G. Myers as the United States +commissioner in question and Mr. Jack Robinson as the deputy United +States marshal, and I mention their names the more readily because Mr. +Myers, after his long and excellent service, has just been removed for +political reasons. (May, 1916.) + + + + +CHAPTER X + +FROM THE TANANA RIVER TO THE KUSKOKWIM--THENCE TO THE IDITAROD MINING +CAMP--THENCE TO THE YUKON, AND UP THAT RIVER TO FORT YUKON + + +THE discovery of gold on the Innoko in the winter of 1906-7, and the +"strike" on the Iditarod, a tributary of the Innoko, some three years +later, opened up a new region of Alaska. It is characteristic of a gold +discovery in a new district that it sets men feverishly to work +prospecting all the adjacent country, and sends them as far afield from +it as the new base of supplies will allow them to stretch their tether. +A glance at the map will show that the Innoko and Iditarod country lies +between the two great rivers of Alaska, the Yukon and the Kuskokwim, +much lower down the Yukon than any of the earlier gold discoveries; that +is to say that while the Tanana gold fields lie off the Middle Yukon, +the Circle fields off the upper Yukon, the Iditarod camp belongs to the +lower river. The Innoko workings were not extensive nor very rich, but +they furnished a base for prospecting from which the Iditarod was +reached, and Flat Creek, in the latter district, promised to be +wonderfully rich. Immediately upon the news of this strike reaching the +other camps of the interior, preparations were made far and wide for +migrating thither upon the opening of Yukon navigation, and the early +summer of 1910 saw a wild stampede to the Iditarod. Saloon-keepers, +store-keepers, traders of all kinds, and the rag-tag and bobtail that +always flock to a new camp were on the move so soon as the ice went out. +From Dawson, from the Fortymile, from Circle, from Fairbanks, from the +Koyukuk, and as soon as Bering Sea permitted, from Nome, all sorts of +craft bore all sorts of people to the new Eldorado, while the first +through steamboats from the outside were crowded with people from the +Pacific coast eager to share in the opportunity of wealth. The +sensational magazines had been printing article after article about "The +incalculable riches of Alaska," and here were people hoping to pick some +of it up. Iditarod City sprang into life as the largest "city" of the +interior; the centre of gravity of the population of the interior of +Alaska was shifted a thousand miles in a month. + +Iditarod City furnished a new and large base of supplies. Amidst the +heterogeneous mass of humanity that swarmed into the place, though by no +means the largest element in it, were experienced prospectors from every +other district in Alaska. Under the iniquitous law that then prevailed +and has only recently been modified, by which there was no limit at all +to the number of claims in a district which one man could stake for +himself and others, every creek adjacent to Flat Creek, every creek for +many miles in every direction, had long since been tied up by the men +with lead-pencils and hatchets. So the newly arrived prospectors must +spread out yet wider, and they were soon scattered over all the rugged +hundred miles between Iditarod City and the Kuskokwim River. Here and +there they found prospects; and here and there what promised to be +"pay." They started a new town, Georgetown, on the Kuskokwim itself; +another town sprang up on the Takotna, a tributary of the Kuskokwim; and +the great Commercial Company of Alaska, ever alert for new developments, +put a steamboat on the Kuskokwim and built trading-posts at both these +points. Thus the Kuskokwim country, which for long had been one of the +least-known portions of Alaska, was opened up almost at a stroke. + +[Sidenote: CAMP AT 50° BELOW] + +It was my purpose to visit Iditarod City during the winter of 1910-11, +although, by reason of the distance to be travelled, a journey thither +would involve the omission of the customary winter visit to upper Yukon +points. When the northern trip to the Koyukuk was returned from at +Tanana, a sad journey had to be made to Nenana to bury the body of Miss +Farthing, and Doctor Loomis, missionary physician at Tanana, who +accompanied me on this errand, had almost as rough a breaking-in to the +Alaska trail as we came back to Tanana again as Doctor Burke had in our +journey over the "first ice" of the Koyukuk two years before. Two feet +of new snow lay on the trail, and the thermometer went down to 60° below +zero. We were camped once on the mail trail, unable to reach a +road-house, at 50° below zero. + +[Illustration: THE ROUGH BREAKING IN OF DOCTOR LOOMIS, CAMPED ON THE +MAIL TRAIL AT 50° BELOW ZERO, UNABLE TO REACH A ROAD-HOUSE FOR THE DEEP +SNOW.] + +[Illustration: ESQUIMAUX OF THE UPPER KUSKOKWIM.] + +[Sidenote: THE ROUTE TO THE IDITAROD] + +From Tanana the beaten track to the Iditarod lay one hundred and sixty +miles down the Yukon to Lewis's Landing, and then across country by the +Lewis Cut-Off one hundred miles to Dishkaket on the Innoko, and +thence across country another hundred miles to Iditarod City. But I +designed to penetrate to the Iditarod by another route. I had long +desired to visit Lake Minchúmina and its little band of Indians, and to +pass through the upper Kuskokwim country. So I had engaged a Minchúmina +Indian as a guide, and laid my course up the Tanana River to the +Coschaket, and then due south across country to Lake Minchúmina and the +upper Kuskokwim. + +The Cosna is a small stream confluent with the Tanana, about thirty +miles above the mouth of that river, and we had hoped to reach it by the +river trail upon the same day we left the mission at Tanana, the 18th of +February, 1911. But the trail was too heavy and the going too slow and +the start too late. When we had reached Fish Creek, about half-way, it +was already growing dark, and we were glad to stop in a native cabin, +where was an old widow woman with a blind daughter. The daughter, +unmarried, had a little baby, and I inquired through Walter who the +father was and whether the girl had willingly received the man or if he +had taken advantage of her blindness. She named an unmarried Indian, +known to me, and declared that she had not been consenting. It seemed a +paltry and contemptible trick to take advantage of a fatherless blind +girl. I baptized the baby and resolved to make the man marry the girl. + +The next night we reached the Coschaket, which, following the Indian +rule, means "mouth of the Cosna," and found that our guide, Minchúmina +John, had already relayed a load of grub that Walter had previously +brought here from Tanana, one day's march upon our journey. Our course +from the Coschaket left the Tanana River and struck across country by an +old Indian trail that had not been used that winter. Through scrubby +spruce and over frozen lakes and swamps, crossing the Cosna several +times--a narrow little river with high steep banks--the trail went, +until it brought us to a hunting camp of the Indians, about eighteen +miles from the Coschaket. Here our stuff was cached and here we spent +the night, doctoring the sick amongst them as well as we could. My eyes +had been sorely tried this day despite dark smoked glasses, for we were +travelling almost due south, and the sun was now some hours in the sky +and yet low enough to shine right in one's face. So Walter stopped at a +birch-tree, stripped some of the bark, and made an eye-shade that was a +great comfort and relief. + +From this place began the slow work of double-tripping. The unbroken +snow was too deep to permit the hauling of our increased load over it +without a preliminary breaking out of a trail on snow-shoes. So camp was +left standing and Walter and John went ahead all day and returned late +at night with eight or nine miles of trail broken, while I stayed in +camp and had dog feed cooked and supper ready. The next day we advanced +the camp so far as the trail was broken. A moose had used the trail for +some distance, however, since the boys left it, and his great plunging +hoofs had torn up the snow worse than a horse would have done. + +A driving wind and heavy snowfall had drifted the new trail in the night +so badly, moreover, that we were not able to cover the full stretch +that had been snow-shoed, but camped in the dusk after we had gone eight +miles. Eight miles in two days was certainly very poor travel, and at +this rate our supplies would never take us down to the forks of the +Kuskokwim. Yet there was no other way in which we could proceed. The +weather was exceedingly mild, too mild for comfort--the thermometer +ranging from 20° to 25° above--and the dogs felt the unseasonable +warmth. It took us all that week to make the watershed between the +drainage of the Tanana and the drainage of the Kuskokwim, a point about +half-way to Lake Minchúmina. One day trail was broken, the next day the +loads went forward. Tie the dogs as securely as one would, it was not +safe to go off and leave our supplies exposed to the ravages that a +broken chain or a slipped collar might bring, so two went forward and I +sat down in camp. The boys on their return usually brought with them a +few brace of ptarmigan or grouse or spruce hen or, at the least, a +rabbit or so. + +[Sidenote: THE CAMP-ROBBERS] + +The camp-robbers, to my mind the most interesting of Alaskan birds, +became very friendly and tame on these vigils. They stay in the country +all the winter, when most birds have migrated, like prosperous mine +owners, to less rigorous climates; they turn up everywhere, in the most +mysterious way, so soon as one begins to make any preparation for +camping, and they are bold and fearless and take all sorts of chances. +On this journey more than once they alighted on a moving sled and pecked +at the dried fish that happened to be exposed. Yet they are so alert and +so quick in their movements that it would be difficult to catch them +were they actually under one's hand. One of them, during a long day in +camp, grew so tame that it pecked crumbs off the toe of my moccasin, and +in another day or two would, one feels sure, have eaten out of the hand. +There is a curious belief, strongly intrenched in the Alaskan mind, that +the nest of this most common bird has never been found, and that the +Smithsonian Institution has a standing offer of a large sum of money for +the discovery. They build in the spruce-trees, ten or twelve feet above +the ground, a nest of rough twigs, and lay five very small eggs, grey +spotted with black. This, at any rate, is the description that Walter +gives me of a nest he discovered with the bird sitting upon it, and I +have found the boy's accounts of such matters entirely trustworthy. It +is curious, however, that the nest of a bird so common all over Alaska +as the camp-robber should be so rarely found. At times they are very +mischievous and destructive, and the man who builds a careless cache +will often be heard denouncing them, but to my mind a bird who gives us +his enlivening company throughout the dead of an Alaskan winter deserves +what pickings he can get. + +[Sidenote: SOFT WEATHER] + +On Saturday, the 25th of February, after climbing a rather stiff hill, +we passed temporarily out of Yukon into Kuskokwim waters, for the +tributaries of these two great drainage systems interlock in these +hills. At the foot of the hill we stopped for lunch, a roaring fire was +soon built, and a great cube of beaten snow impaled upon a stake was set +up before the fire to drip into a pan for tea water, while the boys +roasted rabbits. In a few hours more we were on the banks of one of the +tributaries of the East Fork (properly the North Fork) of the Kuskokwim. +Here, in an unoccupied native cabin, we made our camp and lay over +Sunday, and here began the most remarkable spell of weather I have known +in the interior at this season of the year. The thermometer rose to 37° +and then to 40°; the snow everywhere was thawing, and presently it began +to rain steadily. It was the first time I had seen a decided thaw in +February, let alone rain. + +Next day the rain turned to snow, but since the thermometer still stood +around 40°, the snow melted as it fell, and we were wet through all day. +The snow underfoot, however, was so much less and so much harder that we +were able to proceed without preliminary trail breaking. But it was a +most disagreeable day and the prelude to a more disagreeable night. +Soft, wet snow clings to everything it touches. The dogs are soon +carrying an additional burden; balls of snow form on all projecting +tufts of hair; masses of snow must continually be beaten off the sled. +Every time a snow-shoe is lifted from the ground it lifts a few pounds +of snow with it. One's moccasins and socks are soon wet through, and the +feet, encased in this sodden cold covering, grow numb and stay so. We +crossed a considerable mountain pass in driving snow, and should never +have found the way without John, for much of it was above timber, and +when it took us through woods the blazes on the trees were so bleached +with age as to be difficult of recognition. The Indians have used this +trail for generations; but few white men have ever passed along it. + +Wet snow, wet spruce boughs, wet tent, wet wood, wet clothing make poor +camping. Water-proof equipment is so rarely needed on the winter trail +that one does not bother with it. But the climate of the Kuskokwim +valley is evidently different from that of the rest of the interior, if, +as John said, such weather is not remarkable in these parts at this +season. A third day was of much the same description; thawing and +heavily snowing all day, the thermometer between 36° and 40°. The labour +of going ahead of the teams and breaking trail, on the snow-shoes, +through slush, grew so great that I relinquished it to John and took the +handle-bars of his sled. We were approaching Lake Minchúmina, but the +hills that led us into Yukon waters once more and should have given us +views of the lake and the great mountains beyond gave nothing. It is a +keen disappointment to be utterly denied great views, the expectation of +which has been a support through long distances and fatigues. + +At noon we built a fire with considerable difficulty, but once it was +started we plied it with fuel till we had a noble, roaring bonfire, and +we hung our wet socks and moccasins and parkees and caps and mitts +around it and stayed there until they were dry, though the resumption of +our journey in the continuous melting snow soon wet everything through +again. + +[Sidenote: LAKE MINCHÚMINA] + +At length, late in the evening of the 28th of February, we descended a +long ridge and came upon the northeastern shore of Lake Minchúmina, one +of the most considerable lakes of interior Alaska. It stretched its +broad expanse away into the misty distance, the farther shore quite +invisible, the snow driving slowly over it, and it looked as though we +had stumbled by mistake upon the shores of the Arctic Ocean. There was +no sort of trail upon it and the snow-shoes sank through the melting +snow of its surface into the water that lay upon the ice and brought up +a load of slush at every step; yet the going would have been still worse +without them. The recollection of the six miles we trudged across that +lake is a dismal recollection of utter fatigue, of mechanical lifting +and falling of encumbered feet with the recurring feeling that it would +be impossible to lift them any more. All across that lake I ate snow, +and that and the back-ache legacy of an old strain are my signs of +approaching exhaustion. Four hours passed ere we heard the noise of dogs +and saw the glimmer of a light through the darkness, and the hearts of +men and beasts alike leaped to the expectation of rest and shelter. We +had feared the village might be deserted and were rejoiced that the +Indians were still there. + +Never was hospitality more grateful than that we had from the little +remote band of natives at the Minchúmina village. They made a pot of tea +and fried some flap-jacks for us, and that was our supper, though I +think the boys ate some boiled moose meat from a pot on the stove. We +had plenty of grub, but were too weary to cook it; we spread our bedding +down on the floor amongst a dozen others and fell almost at once into a +deep sleep. Almost at once; for the arrival of our eight dogs had made a +commotion amongst the canine population of the place, that after +repeated outbreaks of noisy animosity and defiance seemed to turn by +common consent into a friendly and most protracted howling contest in +which my malamute "Muk" plainly outdid all competitors. How much longer +the noise would have kept up it is hard to say--dogs never seem too +tired to howl--but when the limit of Indian patience was reached, an +aged crone rolled out of the bed into which she had rolled "all +standing," seized a staff and went outdoors to lay it impartially upon +the backs of all the disturbers of the peace, domestic and foreign, with +a screech that was as formidable as the blows. The rest was silence. + +The next morning a dozen alarm-clocks went off within a few minutes of +each other. Every adult in that cabin owned a separate alarm-clock, and +rose, one supposes, to the summons of no other timepiece. At any rate, +the clocks went off at intervals, and the natives arose one by one and +seemed hugely to enjoy the clatter. Let one purchase a new thing and +every individual in the community must have one also. + +But what struck me instantly upon arising was the miraculous +transformation that had taken place outdoors. The sun was shining +brilliantly through a clear sky! I hastened to dress and, not waiting +for breakfast, seized my camera and started out. The chinook was over; +the sharp, welcome tang of frost was in the air; the snow was hard +underfoot. Out upon the gleaming surface of the lake I went for nigh a +mile, resolutely refusing to look behind. I knew what vision awaited me +when I turned around, had, indeed, caught a slight glimpse as I left the +cabin, and I wanted the smooth, open foreground of the lake that I +might see it to the best advantage. + +[Sidenote: DENALI AND HIS WIFE] + +There is probably no other view of North America's greatest mountain +group comparable to that from Lake Minchúmina. From almost every other +coign of vantage in the interior I had seen it and found it more or less +unsatisfying. Only from distant points like the Pedro Dome or the summit +between Rampart and Glen Gulch does the whole mass and uplift of it come +into view with dignity and impressiveness. At close range the peaks seem +stunted and inconspicuous, their rounded, retreating slopes lacking +strong lines and decided character. But from the lake the precipitous +western face of Denali and Denali's Wife rise sheer, revealed by the +level foreground of the snow from base to summit. It was, indeed, a +glorious scene. There stood the master peak, seeming a stupendous +vertical wall of rock rising twenty thousand feet to a splendid sharp +crest perhaps some forty or fifty miles away; there, a little farther to +the south, rose the companion mass, a smaller but still enormous +elevation of equally savage inaccessibility; while between them, near +the base, little sharp peaks stretched like a corridor of ruined arches +from mass to mass. One was struck at once by the simple appropriateness +of the native names for these mountains. The master peak is Denali--the +great one; the lesser peak is Denali's Wife; and the little peaks +between are the children. And my indignation kindled at the substitution +of modern names for these ancient mountain names bestowed immemorially +by the original inhabitants of the land! Is it too late to strike Mount +McKinley and Mount Foraker from the map? The names were given fifteen or +sixteen years ago only, by one who saw them no nearer than a hundred +miles. Is it too late to restore the native names contemptuously +displaced? + +The majesty of the scene grew upon me as I gazed, and presently hand +went to camera that some record of it might be attempted. But alas for +the limitations of photography! I knew, even as I made the exposures, +first at one one-hundredth of a second and then at one-fiftieth, that +there was little hope of securing a picture; the air was yet faintly +hazy with thin vapour; the early sun made too acute an angle with the +peaks; and the yellow lens screen was left in the hind-sack of the sled. +It was even as I feared. When developed some months later, the film held +absolutely no trace of the mighty mountains that had risen so proudly +before it. I promised myself that at noon, when the sun had removed to a +greater distance from the mountains and made a more favourable angle +with them, I would return and try again; but by noon had come another +sudden, violent change of the weather, and snow was falling once more. + +[Sidenote: THE MINCHÚMINA FOLK] + +So I got no picture, save the picture indelibly impressed upon my +memory, of the noblest mountain scene I had ever gazed upon which made +memorable this 1st of March; perhaps one of the noblest mountain scenes +in the whole world, for one does not recall another so great uplift from +so low a base. The marshy, flat country that stretches from Minchúmina +to the mountains cannot be much more than one thousand feet above the +sea. Those awful precipices dropping thousands of feet at a leap, those +peaks rising serene and everlasting into the highest heaven, the +overwhelming size and strength and solidity of their rocky bulk, all +this sank into my heart, and there sprang up once again the passionate +desire of exploring the bowels of them, of creeping along their glaciers +and up their icy ridges, of penetrating their hidden chambers, inviolate +since the foundation of the world, and maybe scaling their ultimate +summits and looking down upon all the earth even as they look down! + +Men, however, and not mountains, made the immediate demand upon one's +interest and attention, and I returned to breakfast and the duties of +the day. The Minchúmina people are a very feeble folk, some sixteen all +told at the time of our visit, greatly reduced by the epidemics of the +last decade, living remote from all others on the verge of their race's +habitat. They trade chiefly at Tanana, a hundred and thirty miles or so +away, walking an annual trip thither with their furs, and owning a +nominal allegiance to our mission at that place. It was the first time +that any clergyman had ever visited them, and the whole of the day was +spent with them, discovering what they knew and trying to teach them a +little more. The people sat around on the floor and hung upon the lips +of the interpreter. But what a barrier a difference of language is! An +interpreter is like a mountain pass, a means of access but at the cost +of time and labour. He does not remove the obstruction. The Minchúmina +people occupy a fine country that could amply support ten times the +Indian population that now inhabits it. We were, indeed, now entering a +country that has been almost depopulated by successive epidemics of +contagious diseases. The measles in 1900 slew most of them, and +diphtheria in 1906 destroyed all the children and many of the adults +that remained. The chief of this little band wore a hat proudly adorned +with ribbons and plumes, and flew a flag before his dwelling with the +initials of the North American Trading and Transportation Company on +it--a defunct Alaskan corporation. We could not learn the origin +thereof; the flag and the letters were plainly home-made. It was +probably a mere imitation of a flag he had seen years ago at Tanana, +copied without knowledge of the meaning of the letters, as the Esquimaux +often copy into the decoration of their clothing and equipment the +legends from canned foods. + +Lake Minchúmina drains by a fork of the Kantishna River into the Tanana +and so into the Yukon. Just beyond the southwestern edge of the lake +runs a deep gully for perhaps a mile that leads to another lake called +Tsórmina, which drains into Minchúmina. And just beyond Tsórmina is a +little height of land, on the other side of which lies Lake Sishwóymina, +which drains into the Kuskokwim. So that little height of land is +another watershed between Alaska's two great rivers. Lakes Tsórmina and +Sishwóymina are not on any maps; indeed, this region has never been +mapped save very crudely from the distant flanks of Denali upon one of +Alfred Brook's early bold journeys into the interior of Alaska on +behalf of the Geological Survey. Although the Russians had +establishments on the lower Kuskokwim seventy-five years ago, and the +river is the second largest in Alaska and easy of navigation, yet the +white man had penetrated very little into this country until the Innoko +and Iditarod "strikes" of 1908 and 1909 respectively. + +It was our plan to follow the main valley of the Kuskokwim until the +confluence of the Takotna with that stream, just below the junction of +the main North and South Forks of the Kuskokwim, and then strike +northwestward across country to the Iditarod. + +The snow had passed and the sun was bright and the thermometer around +zero all day when we left Minchúmina to pursue our journey. The welcome +change in the weather had brought a still more welcome change in travel. +The decided and continued thaw followed by sharp cold had put a crust on +the snow that would hold up the dogs and the sled and a man on small +trail snow-shoes anywhere. Trail making was no longer necessary, and in +two days we made upward of fifty miles. So much difference does surface +make. + +[Sidenote: TALIDA] + +Across the end of Lake Minchúmina, across Tsórmina and Sishwóymina and a +number of lesser lakes we went, following a faint show-shoe trail +towards a distant mountain group to the southwest, the Talida Mountains, +at the foot of which lay the Talida village. On the other hand, to the +east and southeast, we had tantalising glimpses through haze and cloud +of the two great mountains, and presently of the lesser peaks of the +whole Alaskan range, sweeping its proud curve to the coast. For a long +way on the second day we travelled on the flat top of a narrow ridge +that must surely have been a lateral moraine of a glacier, what time the +ice poured down from the heights and stretched far over this +valley--then through scattered timber, increasing in size and thickness +and already displaying character that differed somewhat from the +familiar forests of the Yukon. The show-shoe trail we were following was +made by a messenger despatched by the Minchúmina people to invite the +Talida people to a potlatch; for the caches were filled with moose meat +beyond local consumption. Early on the second day we met him returning +and learned that he had gone on to yet another village a day's journey +farther, still on our route. + +The people were all gone hunting from the tiny native hamlet of Talida, +but we entered a cabin and made ourselves at home. We had passed into +the region where the Greek Church holds nominal sway, of which the icons +with little candles before them on the walls gave token. No priest ever +visits them, but a native at a village on the south fork where is a +church holds some position analogous to that of a lay reader. The +nearest priest is a half-breed, ill spoken of for irregularity of life, +some two hundred miles farther down the river. The Greek Church is +relaxing its hold in Alaska, perhaps inevitably, and suffers sadly since +the removal of the bishop from Sitka from lack of supervision. Also we +had passed out of Indian country into the land of the Esquimaux, for +these people, far up towards the head of the river as they were, had +yet come at some period from the mouth. We were out of Walter's language +range now, and were glad that the bilingual John of the march country +was with us to serve as interpreter. + +Standing proudly up against the wall in one corner of the cabin was a +rather pathetic object to my eyes--an elaborate gilt-handled silk +umbrella. There needed no one to tell its story; it spoke of a visit to +the Yukon with furs to sell and the usual foolish purchase of gay and +glittering trash--novel and quite useless. What easy prey these poor +people are to the wiles of the trader! Said one of them to me recently, +when I asked the purpose of an "annex" to his store with a huge +billiard-table in it--at an exclusive native village--"It's to get their +money; there's no use trying to fool you; if we can't get it one way +we've got to get it another." This gorgeous silk umbrella was concrete +expression of the same sentiment. It was bought outside, it was brought +into the country, it was set on exhibition in the store, because some +trader judged it likely to attract a native eye. No one, white or +native, uses an umbrella in interior Alaska. + +We made twenty-five miles the next day through a wide, open country, +well wooded in places with a park-like distribution of trees, unwonted +in our travels and attractive. A new species of spruce threw thick +branches right down to the ground and tapered up to a perfect cone; each +tree apart from the others and surrounded by sward instead of +underbrush. There was a dignity about these trees that the common Yukon +spruce never attains. Rolling hills of small elevation stretched on +either hand and game signs abounded. After eight hours of such travel +we spoke of camping, but presently saw footprints in the snow and pushed +on to the bank of a little river, the Chedolothna, where stood a cabin, +a tent, and several high caches. Here, with two families that occupied +the cabin, we stayed the night. + +[Sidenote: MEASLES AND DIPHTHERIA] + +Six people at this place, six at Talida, sixteen at Minchúmina, make up +all the population of a region perhaps a hundred and fifty miles square. +Yet it is a noble Indian country, one of the most favourable in all the +interior, capable of supporting hundreds of people. Signs, indeed, of a +much larger occupation of it were not wanting, and all accounts speak of +the wholesale destruction of the natives by disease. We were told of a +village a little farther up this stream where every living being, save +one old man, died of diphtheria five years previously, while those who +have heard the stories of the horrors of the epidemic of measles in +1900, usually connected in some way with the stampede to Nome of that +year when the disease seems to have entered the country, will understand +how a region once thickly peopled, for Alaska, has become the most +thinly peopled in all the territory. + +A half-breed trader, long resident at a point perhaps two hundred miles +lower down the Kuskokwim, told me of coming back to a populous village +after an absence of a few weeks, to find every person dead and the +starving dogs tearing at the rotting corpses. It is terrible to think +what the irruption of a new disease may mean to these primitive natives. +Even a disease like measles, rarely fatal and not commonly regarded as +serious amongst whites, takes to itself a strange and awful virulence +when it invades this virgin blood. The people know no proper treatment; +maddened by the itching rash that covers the body, they fling off all +cover, rush outdoors naked, whatever the weather, and either roll in the +snow or plunge into the stream; with the result that the disease +"strikes in" and kills them. Such is the description that is given of +its course along the lower Yukon and Kuskokwim. At many a Yukon village +half the people died, despite the aid the few missionaries then on the +river could afford; upon the Kuskokwim the havoc seems to have been +still greater. Six years later, death again stalked through this region +after having visited the Yukon, and this time seized his victims by the +throat. In another chapter has been given some account of an outbreak of +diphtheria on the Chandalar, following a more serious epidemic at Circle +City and Fort Yukon. It was during that same winter the disease raged in +this region, remote from any sort of medical or even intelligent lay +aid, and swept off all the children that had been spared by the measles +or had been born since that time. At our next stopping-place we saw the +graves of nineteen children who died in one day! + +[Sidenote: THE INDIAN GUIDE] + +We learned that we were now within one day's travel of a road-house, at +or near the junction of the forks of the Kuskokwim, and that a +government trail had been surveyed and staked from the Iditarod to the +Sushitna, passing close to the same point, and that during the present +winter road-houses had sprung up along the western portion of it, so +that we should not have to make camp again on the way to Iditarod City. +All of which Minchúmina John had collected from the people in the +cabin, and now presented to me as reason why he should be released from +further service. I was loath to let him go until we were actually _at_ +the road-house described, but he wanted to go back to the lake for the +potlatch then preparing, and said that two days' delay would bar him +from the best of the festivities. + +So I settled with him, giving him fifty dollars of the sixty dollars +covenanted to the Iditarod, and grub enough to take him back to the +lake, and a rifle, for he was unprovided with firearms, and he went his +way back, richly content, to the gorging of unlimited moose meat that +awaited him, and the boy and I went ours. So far as merely his company +was concerned I was not sorry to lose him. The old saying holds good +upon the trail that "two is company and three is none." He interfered +with my boy's lessons. Since he had scarce any English, and could not be +ignored, the conversation was mainly in Indian. In a word he pulled the +company down to a native level. And I was anxious that Walter's +education should proceed. + +This boy had been with me for two years, winter and summer, and it was a +great pleasure to witness his gracious development of body, mind, and +character. Clean-limbed, smooth-skinned, slender, and supple, his Indian +blood showing chiefly in a slight swarth of complexion and aquilinity of +feature, he now approached his twentieth year and began to gain the +strength of his manhood and to give promise of more than the average +stature and physical power. With only one full year's schooling behind +him, the year before he came to me, his active intelligence had made +such quick use of it that there was good foundation to build upon; and +our desultory lessons in camp--reading aloud, writing from dictation, +geography and history in such snippets as circumstances permitted--were +eagerly made the most of, and his mental horizon broadened continually. +Until his sixteenth year he had lived amongst the Indians almost +exclusively and had little English and could not read nor write. He was +adept in all wilderness arts. An axe, a rifle, a flaying knife, a skin +needle with its sinew thread--with all these he was at home; he could +construct a sled or a pair of snow-shoes, going to the woods for his +birch, drying it and steaming it and bending it; and could pitch camp +with all the native comforts and amenities as quickly as anybody I ever +saw. He spoke the naked truth, and was so gentle and unobtrusive in +manner that he was a welcome guest at the table of any mission we +visited. Miss Farthing at Nenana had laid her mark deep upon him in the +one year he was with her. + +[Sidenote: THE HALF-BREED] + +Before he came to me I had another half-breed for two years, and before +that there had been a series of full-blooded native boys. I found the +half-breed greatly preferable. With full command of the native language, +with such insight into the native mind as few white men ever attain, he +combines the white man's quickness of apprehension and desire for +knowledge; and the companionship had been pleasant and profitable. Both +these boys had picked up quickly and efficiently, without the slightest +previous experience, the running and the care of the four-cylinder +gasoline engine of the mission launch, and took a great and intelligent +interest in all machinery. As an interpreter the half-breed is far +superior to most full-bloods; he takes one's purport immediately; his +mind seems to leap with the speaker's mind, not only to follow +faithfully but to anticipate. And the further his English progresses, so +much the more excellent interpreter does he become. + +My heart goes out to the large and rapidly increasing number of these +youths of mixed blood in Alaska. It is common to hear them spoken of +slightingly and contemptuously. There is what my mind always regards as +a damnable epigram current in the country to the effect that the +half-breed inherits the vices of both races and the virtues of neither. +The white man who utters this saying with a chuckle at his second-hand +wit has generally not much virtue to transmit, were virtue heritable. +But to thoughtful men nowadays this talk of the inheritance of virtues +and vices is mere folly. The half-breed in Alaska, as elsewhere, is the +product of his environment. Often without legitimate father--although in +an Indian community, where nothing is secret, his parentage is usually +well known--he is left for some native woman to support with the aid of +her native husband. He is reared with the full-blooded offspring of the +couple in the frankness that knows no reserve and the intimacy that +knows no restraint, of Indian life. The full extent of that frankness +and intimacy shocks even the loosest-living white man when he first +becomes aware of it. Where religion and decency have not been +faithfully inculcated there is no bound to it at all--it is complete. +Presently, as his superior intellectual inheritance begins to manifest +itself, as he grows up into consciousness that he is different from, and +in many ways superior to, the Indians around him, he is naturally drawn +to such white society as comes his way. + +[Sidenote: THE LOW-DOWN WHITE] + +In this book a good deal has been said, and, it may be thought by the +reader, said with a good deal of asperity, about the whites who frequent +Indian communities and come most into contact with the native people; +yet the more the author sees of this class, the less is he disposed to +modify any of the strictures he has put upon it. "The Low-Down White" is +the subject of one of the most powerful and scathing of Robert Service's +ballads, those most unequal productions with their mixture of strength +and feebleness, of true and forced notes, the best of which should +certainly live amongst the scant literature of the North. And, indeed, +the spectacle of the man of the higher race, with all the age-long +traditions and habits of civilisation behind him, descending below the +level of the savage, corrupting and debauching the savage and making +this corrupting and debauching the sole exercise of his more intelligent +and cultivated mind, is one that has aroused the disgust and indignation +of whites in all quarters of the world. Kipling and Conrad have drawn +him in the East; Robert Louis Stevenson in the South Sea Islands; any +army officer will draw him for you in the Philippines, which lack as yet +their great delineator; Service has not overdrawn him on the Yukon. + +Now, it is to this man's society, for lack of other white society open +to him, that the young half-breed who feels his father's blood stirring +within him is drawn and is made welcome. He finds standards even lower, +because more sophisticated, than the standards of the Indians +themselves. He finds that honesty and morality are a sham, religion a +laughing-stock. He finds the chastity of women and the honour of men +sneeringly regarded as non-existent. He is taught to curse and swear, to +talk lewdly, to drink and gamble. He is taught that drunkenness and +sensuality are the only enjoyments worth looking forward to, and he soon +becomes as vile as his preceptors. The back room of the Indian trader's +store is often the scene of this tuition--barroom, assignation house, +gambling hell in one. But let that same youth be taken early in hand by +one who has a care for him and will be at some personal pains to train +him cleanly and uprightly, and he is as amenable to the good influences +as he would be to the bad if they were his sole environment. Conscious +all the time of his equivocal position, shy and timid about asserting +himself amongst whites, he is easy prey to the viciously as he is apt +pupil to the virtuously disposed. + +What is said here of the male half-breeds applies _a fortiori_ to the +female. Unless early taken in hand by the missionary, or put under the +protection of some church boarding-school--and sometimes despite all +such care and teaching--the lot of the half-breed girl is a sad one; and +some of the lowest and vilest women of the land are of mixed blood. + +The half-breed is assuredly to be reckoned with in the future of Alaska. +He is here to stay. He is here in increasing numbers. He is the natural +leader of the Indian population. There seems little doubt that when he +cares to assert his rights he is already an American citizen, although +judicial decisions are uncertain and conflicting in this matter. + +The missions in the interior have recognised, though perhaps somewhat +tardily, the importance of the half-breeds, and have picked them up here +and there along the rivers and become responsible for their decent +rearing. Some, assuredly, of the future leaders of the native people are +now in training at the mission schools. Some, unfortunately, are in +quite as assiduous training by the unscrupulous Indian trader and his +coterie of low-down whites. + +The skies had threatened snow since we arose, and when our diminished +expedition was well upon its way the snow began to fall. For thirty-six +hours it fell without cessation. Three days of good travel had put us +forward seventy-five or eighty miles; now once more we were "up against" +deep snow and trail breaking. An old native whom we met on his way to +the potlatch later in the day spread out his hands with a look of +despair and cried: "Good trail all lose'm!" All day we pushed on against +the driving storm, the flakes stinging our faces and striking painfully +against our eyeballs, now following a narrow steep woodland trail, now +awhile along a creek bed, now across open country with increasing +difficulty in finding our way, until it grew dark while yet we were +some miles from our destination, and we made camp; and all night long +the heavy snow continued. + +So soon as we had struck our tent, crusted with ice, and had broken up +our wet camp next morning there was trouble about finding the trail. +Wide open spaces with never an indication of direction stretched before +us. Again and again we cast about, the boy to the left, I to the right, +to find some blaze or mark, but much of the course lay across open +country that bore none. And then I sorely regretted having let John go +back. Some miles before we came to a stop the previous evening, we +passed a native encampment with naught but women and children in it--the +men gone hunting. But we could not speak with them or get any +information from them, for our Kuskokwim interpreter was gone. And now +it seemed likely that we should lose our way in this wilderness. At last +we were entirely at a loss, the boy returning on the one side and I on +the other from wide detours, in which we had found no sign at all. The +snow still fell heavily; there lay more than a foot of it upon the late +crust; trail or sign of a trail, on the snow or above it, was not at +all. + +[Sidenote: THE DOG GUIDES] + +Then occurred one of the most remarkable things I have known in all my +journeyings. Straight ahead in the middle distance I spied two stray +dogs making a direct course towards us; not wandering about, but +evidently going somewhere. Now there are no such things as unattached +dogs in Alaska; any dog entirely detached from human ownership and some +sort of human maintenance would soon be a dead dog. The explanation, +full of hope, sprang at once to the boy's mind. The dogs must belong to +the native encampment some six miles back, and they had been to the +road-house for what scraps they could pick up, and were returning. It +was probably a daily excursion and they had doubtless followed their +accustomed trail. So it turned out. All the way to that road-house, +eight miles farther, we followed the trail left by those dogs, growing +fainter and fainter indeed as the new snow fell upon it, but still +discernible until we had almost reached the road-house. It led across +open swampy wastes, and presently across two considerable lakes, over +which we should never have been able to find our way, for the trail +swung to one hand or the other and did not leave the lake in the same +general direction by which it had reached it. Walter cut a bundle of +boughs and staked the trail out as we pursued it, lest we should return +this way, but from the moment we saw the dogs there was never any +question about the trail; they kept it perfectly. We were four and a +half hours making the eight miles or so to Nicoli's Village and the +road-house, but we might have been days making it but for those dogs. +And at the road-house we learned that the boy's theory of their +movements was the right one. They came across the twelve or fourteen +miles every day for such scraps as they could pick up. + +[Sidenote: THE WILDERNESS POET] + +So here was our first white man in sixteen days, an intelligent man of +meagre education, with a great bent for versifying. A courteous approval +of one set of verse brought upon us the accumulated output of years in +the wilderness without much opportunity of audience, as one supposes, +and most of the afternoon and evening was thus spent. Amidst the +overwrought sentimentality and faulty scansion which marked most of the +pieces was one simple little poem that struck a true note, said its +little say, and quit--without a superfluous word. Its author set no +store by it at all compared with his more pretentious and meretricious +work; yet it was the one poem in the whole mass. It described the +writing of a letter to his father; he had spent all he had in +prospecting and working a small claim, and had just realised that a +year's labour was gone for naught. His father would worry if he got no +word at all, but there was no use telling the old man he was broke, so +he just wrote that he was well, and that was all. The old man would come +pretty near understanding anyway. In simple lines that scanned and +rhymed naturally, that was what the three or four stanzas said. And it +was so typical of many a man's situation in this country, gave so simply +and well the reason why many men cease writing to their relatives at +all, that it pleased me and seemed of value. That note came from the +heart and from the life's experience. + +Nicoli's Village is a very small place with a mere handful of people, +situated on the South Fork of the Kuskokwim some forty miles by river +above the junction of the forks. Before the epidemics devastated it it +had been a considerable native community. A Greek church, which the +natives built entirely themselves, and which boasted a large painted +icon of sorts, was the most important building in the place, and was +served by the lay minister referred to before. Thus far the Kuskokwim +is navigable for vessels of light draught, and a small stern-wheel +steamboat lay wintering upon the bank. + +[Sidenote: ROAD-HOUSES] + +Our way now left the Kuskokwim and struck across country to a point just +below the junction of the forks, and then across country again to a +tributary of the right bank, the Takotna; with a general northerly +direction. Road-houses there indeed were, in the crudity and discomfort +of their first season, and other evidences of the proximity of the white +man. Here were two men camped, hunting moose for the Iditarod market, +more than a hundred and twenty-five miles away, and here, at the end of +the second day, near the mouth of the Takotna, was the new post of the +Commercial Company in the charge of an old acquaintance who welcomed us +warmly and entertained us most hospitably. After camping and road-house +experience of nearly three weeks, a comfortable bed and well-spread +table, and the general unmistakable ménage of a home-making woman are +very highly enjoyed. That night the whole population of the settlement, +fourteen persons, gathered in the store for Divine service. + +Sixteen miles farther on was another settlement, the "Upper Takotna" +Post, with a rival company established and some larger population. Here, +also, we spent a night with old Fairbanks acquaintances. We were yet a +hundred miles from Iditarod City, and the trail lay over a very rugged, +hilly country, up one creek to its head, over a divide, and down +another, in the way of the usual cross-country traverse. + +There had not been so much snowfall in this section, but the weather +began to be very severe. The thermometer fell to -45° and -50° and -55° +on three successive nights, and all day long rose not above -20°, with a +keen wind. The cost of transporting supplies to the road-houses on this +trail justified the high prices charged--one dollar and a half for a +poor meal of rabbits and beans and bacon, or ptarmigan and beans and +bacon, and one dollar for a lunch of coffee, bread and butter, and dried +fruit. But no such exigency could be pleaded to excuse the dirt and +discomfort and lack of the commonest provision of outhouse decency at +most of these places--'twas mere shiftlessness. There is not often much +middle ground in Alaskan road-houses; they are either very good in their +way or very bad; either kept by professional victuallers who take pride +in them or by idle incompetents who make an easy living out of the +necessities of travellers. One wishes that some of the old-time +travellers who used to wax so eloquently indignant over the inns in the +Pyrenees could make a winter journey in the interior of Alaska. + +[Illustration: "THE 'SUMMIT' IS HIGH ABOVE TIMBER-LINE AND THE TRAIL +PURSUES A HOGBACK RIDGE FOR A MILE AND A HALF AT THE SUMMIT LEVEL."] + +[Illustration: A STREET IN IDITAROD CITY.] + +One thing pleased me at these road-houses. The only reading-matter in +any of them consisted of magazines bearing the rubber stamp of Saint +Matthew's Reading-Room at Fairbanks, part of a five-hundred-pound cargo +of magazines which the mission launch _Pelican_ brought to the Iditarod +the previous summer; virtually the only reading-matter in the whole +camp. It was pleasant to know that we had been able to avert the real +calamity of a total absence of anything to read for a whole winter +throughout this wide district. But, although they were brought to the +Iditarod and distributed absolutely free, each of these magazines had +cost the road-house keeper twenty-five cents for carriage over the trail +from Iditarod City, and they had been read to death. Some of them were +so black and greasy from continued handling that the print at the edges +of the pages was almost unreadable. + +These creeks swarmed with ptarmigan, and it was well they did, for the +new camp was ill supplied with food, and we found ourselves in a region +of growing scarcity as we approached the Iditarod. The ptarmigan seem to +have supplemented the meagre stocks in the Iditarod during this winter +of 1910-11 as effectively as the rabbits did in the Fairbanks camp in +the scarce winter of 1904-5. In place after place the whole creek +valley, where it was open, was crisscrossed with ptarmigan tracks, and +the birds rose in coveys, uttering their harsh, guttural cry at every +turn of the trail. + +The summit between the head of Moose Creek and the head of Bonanza Creek +is again a watershed between the waters of the Kuskokwim and the waters +of the Yukon; for Moose Creek is tributary to the Takotna and Bonanza +Creek is tributary to Otter Creek, which is tributary to the Iditarod +River. The "summit" is high above timber-line, and when the trail has +reached it it does not descend immediately but pursues a hogback ridge +for a mile and a half at about the summit level. We passed over it in +clear, bright weather without difficulty, but it would be a bad passage +in wind or snow or fog. The rugged, broken country, with small, rounded +domes of hills, stretched away in all directions, a maze of little +valleys threading in and out amongst them. + +[Sidenote: PLACE-NAMES] + +The Bonanza Creek road-house was by far the best of any between the +Kuskokwim and the Iditarod, and showed what can be done for comfort, +even under adverse circumstances, by a couple who care and try. But how +the names of gold-bearing creeks, or creeks that are expected to be +gold-bearing are repeated again and again in every new camp! I once +counted up the following list of mining place-names in Alaska: Bonanza +Creeks, 10; Eldorados and Little Eldorados, 10; Nugget Creeks or +Gulches, 17; Gold Creeks, 12; Gold Runs, 7. Nor is it only in creeks +with auriferous deposit or expectation of auriferous deposit that this +reduplication occurs; there are Bear Creeks, 16; Boulder Creeks, 13; +Moose Creeks, 13; Willow Creeks, 17; Canyon Creeks, 12; Glacier Creeks, +14. + +The imagination of the average prospector is not his most active +faculty, but even when his imagination is given play and he names a +place "Twilight," as he did the original settlement at this base of +supplies, the ineradicable prose of trade comes along the next summer +and changes it to "Iditarod City." There must have been some remarkable +personality strong enough to repress the "chamber of commerce" at +Tombstone, Arizona, or the place would have lost its distinctive name so +soon as it grew large enough to have mercantile establishments instead +of stores. + +[Sidenote: IDITAROD CITY] + +We went through "Discovery Otter" and into "Flat City," on Flat Creek, +the jealous rival of Iditarod City, and so over the hills to Iditarod +City, on the wings of a storm. The wind whirled the snow behind us and +drove the sled along almost on top of the dogs. In its bleak situation +and its exposure to the full force of the wind, Iditarod City reminds +one of Nome or Candle on the Seward Peninsula. The hills and flats that +surround it are in the main treeless, and the snow drifts and drives +over everything. Almost all the week that we spent in the town it was +smothered up in a howling wind-storm, so that it was quite a serious +undertaking to walk a block or two along the streets. Deep drifts were +piled up on all the corners and on the lee side of all buildings. We +reached Iditarod City on Monday, the 13th of March. Until the following +Friday morning was no cessation or moderation of the wind-storm; and +this, they told us, represented most of the weather since the 1st of +January. + +Overgrown and overdone in every way, the place presented all the +features, sordid and otherwise, of a raw mining town. Prices had risen +enormously on all manner of supplies, for everything that was not +actually "short" was believed to be "cornered." Bacon was ninety cents a +pound; butter one dollar and a half a pound; flour was twenty dollars a +hundred pounds, and most things in like ratio. Some said the grub was +not in the camp; others that the tradesmen had it cached away waiting +for the still higher prices they believed would obtain before fresh +supplies could arrive in July. There was a general feeling of +disappointment and discouragement, enhanced by discomfort and actual +suffering from the terrible stormy weather of the winter and the +exorbitant and growing price of provisions. Many men without occupation +were living on one meal a day. The saloons and the parasitical classes, +male and female, seemed to flourish and to play their usual prominent +part in the life of such places. The doings of notorious women whose +sobriquets seemed household words, the lavish expenditures of certain +men upon them, the presents of diamonds they received, with the amount +paid for them, constituted a large part of the general talk. + +One is compelled to admire the vigour and enthusiastic enterprise, +daunted by no difficulty, that is displayed in the wonderfully rapid +upraising of a new mining-camp town. The building goes far ahead of the +known wealth of the camp and commonly far ahead of the reasonable +expectation. But the element of chance is so important a factor in +placer mining that the whole thing partakes more of the nature of +gambling than of a commercial venture. Any new camp may suddenly present +the world with a new Klondike; with riches abundant and to spare for +every one who is fortunate enough to be on the spot. Here was Flat Creek +with a surprisingly rich deposit; why should there not be a dozen such +amidst the multitudinous creeks of the district? How could any one know +that it would be almost the only creek on which pay would be found at +all? For there is no law about the distribution of gold deposits; there +is not even a general rule that has not its notable exceptions. It is +very generally believed by the old prospectors and miners that somewhere +in the Bible may be found these words, "Silver occurs in veins, but gold +is where you find it," which of course, is a mere misreading or faulty +remembering of a verse in the Book of Job: "Surely there is a vein for +the silver and a place for the gold where they fine it" (refine it). But +that "gold is where you find it" is about the only law touching +auriferous deposits that holds universally good. + +Three long parallel streets of one and two story wooden buildings, with +cross streets connecting them, made up the town. Because the country is +poorly timbered, the usual log construction had yielded in the main to +framed buildings, and great quantities of lumber had been brought the +previous summer from Fairbanks, and even from Nome and the outside, to +supplement the low-grade output of two local mills. But the price of +building materials had been very high, and the average dwelling was very +small and incommodious. People accustomed to the comparative luxury of +the older camps had suffered a good deal from the lack of all domestic +conveniences in this new will-o'-the-wisp of an eldorado. + +So there the town stretched away, lumber and paper,--the usual +tinder-box Alaskan construction--stores slap up against one another, +with no alleyways between; in the busiest part of it and along the +water-front even an adequate provision of side streets grudged; +furnace-heated and kiln-dried and gasoline-lit; waiting for the careless +match and the fanning wind and the five minutes' start that should send +it all up in smoke. A week after we left it came; as it came to Dawson, +as it came to Nome, as it came to Fairbanks, without teaching any lesson +or leaving any precautionary regulations on the statute book to save +men from their own competitive greed. Two or three weeks after the fire, +however, it was all rebuilt, and a plunging local bank held mortgages on +most of the structures for the cost of the new material--and holds them +yet. + +[Sidenote: THOUSANDS WITHOUT CHURCH] + +With at least a thousand people resident in the town, not to mention the +thousands more out upon the creeks and at Flat City and "Discovery[G] +Otter," there was no minister of religion of any sort in the whole +region, nor had public Divine service been conducted since the occasion +of the _Pelican's_ visit the previous summer. Yet there were many in the +place who sorely missed the opportunities of worship. Twice on Sunday +the largest dancing hall in the town was crowded at service; at night it +could have been filled a second time with those unable to get in. + +Places like this present very difficult problems to those desirous of +providing for their religious need. To occupy them at all they should be +occupied at once when yet eligible sites may be had for the staking; if +they prosper, to come into them later means buying at a high price. Yet +what seventh son of a seventh son shall have foresight enough to tell +the fortunes of them? The North is strewn with "cities" of one winter. +Nor is the selection of suitable men to minister to such communities a +simple matter. Amidst the overthrow of all the usual criteria of +conduct, the fading out of the usual dividing lines and the blending +into one another of the usual divisions, it requires a tactful and +prudent man "to keep the happy mean between too much stiffness in +refusing and to much easiness in admitting" variations from conventional +standards. His point of view, if he is to have any influence whatever, +must not exclude the point of view of the great majority; he must accept +the situation in order to have any chance of improving the situation. +And yet in the fundamentals of character and conduct he must be +unswerving. And if on any such fundamental the battle gauge is thrown +down, he must take it up and fight the quarrel out at whatever cost. + +We left Iditarod City on Monday, the 20th of March, the dogs the fatter +and fresher for their week's rest, resolved not to return by the +Kuskokwim but to take the beaten trail out to the Yukon, and so all the +way up that stream to Fort Yukon. The monthly mail had arrived a few +days previously--a monthly mail was all that the thousands of men in +this camp could secure--and had gone out again the very next morning, +before people had time to answer their letters, before the registered +mail had even been delivered. So our departure for the Yukon was eagerly +seized upon and advertised as a means of despatching probably the last +mail that would go outside over the ice. I was sworn in as special +carrier, and a heavy sack of first-class mail added to our load as far +as Tanana. The first stage of thirty miles led to Dikeman, a town at the +headwaters of ordinary steamboat navigation of the Iditarod River, at +which the Commercial Company had built a depot and extensive warehouse, +since in the main abandoned. Two streets of cabins lined the bank, but +forty or fifty souls comprised the population, and almost all of them +gathered for Divine service that night. + +[Sidenote: THE "MOVING OF THE MEAT"] + +From Dikeman to Dishkaket, on the Innoko River, a distance of some +seventy miles, our route lay over one of the dreariest and most dismal +regions in all Alaska. It is one succession of lakes and swamps, with +narrow, almost knife-edge, ridges between, fringed with stunted spruce. +Far as the eye could reach to right and left the country was the same; +it is safe to say broadly that all the land between the Iditarod and +Innoko Rivers is of this character. We passed over it in mild weather, +but it must be a terrible country to cross in storm or through deep +snow. For ten miles at a stretch there was scarcely a place where a man +might make a decent camp. At a midway road-house was gathered the +greatest assemblage of dogs and loaded sleds I had ever seen together at +one time, each team with an Indian driver; they must have covered a +quarter or a third of a mile. It was a freight train engaged in +transporting a whole boat-load of butcher's meat to Iditarod City, the +cargo of a steamboat that had frozen in on the Yukon the previous +October or early November. All the winter through efforts had been made +to get this meat two hundred odd miles overland to its destination; but +the weather had been so stormy and the snow so deep that near the end of +March most of it was still on the way, and some yet far down the trail +towards the Yukon waiting for another trip of the teams. + +Dishkaket was merely a native village on the Innoko River two or three +years before; but since three new trails from the Yukon come together +here--from Kaltag Nulato, and Lewis's Landing--and in the other +directions two trails branch off here, to the Innoko diggings at Ophir +and to the Iditarod, a store or two and a couple of road-houses had +sprung up. + +From Dishkaket, after crossing the Innoko, we took the most northerly of +the three trails to the Yukon, the Lewis Cut-Off, a trail of a hundred +miles that strikes straight across country and reaches the Yukon eighty +miles farther up that stream than the Nulato trail and a hundred and +twenty miles farther up than the Kaltag trail. The Kaltag trail is the +trail to Nome; the Nulato trail is the mail trail simply because it +suits the contractors to throw business to Nulato. The Lewis Cut-Off is +the direct route, the shortest by about a hundred miles, but it was cut +by the private individual whose name it bears, and leads out to his +store and road-house on the Yukon; so a rival road-house was built close +by on the river and the prestige and advertisement of the "United States +mail route" thrown to the trail that covers one hundred unnecessary +miles--for no other reason than to deprive Lewis of the legitimate fruit +of his enterprise. + +The character of the country changed so soon as the Innoko was crossed; +the wide swamps gave place to a broken, light-timbered country of ridges +and hollows, and the rough, laborious, horse-ruined trail across it made +bad travelling. "Buckskin Bill," with his cayuses, was also engaged in +"moving the meat." The measured miles, moreover, gave place to estimated +miles, and the nominal twenty-five we made the first day was probably +not much more than twenty. + +[Sidenote: MILLINERY] + +The first fifty miles of the country between the Innoko and the Yukon is +much the same, and we were climbing and descending ridges for a couple +of days. Then we crossed a high ridge and dropped out of Innoko waters +into the valley of the Yukatna, a tributary of the Yukon, and passed +down this valley for thirty or forty miles, and then across some more +broken country to the Yukon. At one of the road-houses a woman was +stopping, going in with three or four large sled loads of millinery and +"ladies' furnishings." We were told that the merchandise had cost her +twelve thousand dollars in Fairbanks, and that she expected to realise +thirty thousand dollars by selling it to the "sporting" women of the +Iditarod, now a whole winter debarred from "the latest imported French +fashions." This woman was dressed in overalls, like a man, and the +drivers of her teams, two white men and a native, cursed and swore and +used filthy language to the dogs in her presence. It always angers me to +hear an Indian curse; to hear one curse in the presence of a white woman +was particularly disgusting and exasperating; but what could one expect +when the white men put no slightest restraint upon themselves and the +woman seemed utterly indifferent? I called the Indian aside and spoke +very plainly to him, and he ceased his ribaldry; but the white men still +poured it out as they struggled to hitch their many dogs. At last I +could stand it no longer. "Madam," I said to the woman, "I don't know +who you are, save that you are a white woman, and as a white woman, +if I were you, I would make those blackguards treat me with more respect +than to use such language before me." She flushed and made no reply. The +men, who heard what I said, scowled and made no reply. Presently +dispositions were done and the train moved off, but I did not hear any +more foul language. This is set down here chiefly because it was the +first and only time in all his travels in Alaska that the writer heard +such language in such presence. + +[Illustration: THE END OF THE PORTAGE TRAIL.] + +[Illustration: ROUGH ICE ON THE YUKON.] + +Another road-house was kept by a man who had been cook upon a recent +arctic expedition off the coast of Alaska, and he gave some interesting +inside information about an enterprise the published narrative of which +had always seemed unsatisfactory. It was just gossip from a drunken +scamp, but it filled several gaps in the book. + +As we approached the Yukon we passed several meat caches where great +quarters of beef sewn up in burlap were piled on the side of the trail. +At one of these caches the camp-robbers had been at work industriously. +They had stripped the burlap from parts of several quarters, exposing +the fat, and had dug out and carried it away little by little until it +was all gone. The hard-frozen lean probably defied their best efforts; +at any rate, the fat offered less resistance. But where else in the +world could men dump quarters of beef beside the road and go off and +leave them for weeks with no more danger of depredation than the bills +of birds can effect? + +A few miles from the river the rival road-house signs began to appear. +"Patronise Lewis; he cut this trail at his own expense," pleaded one. +"Why go five miles out of your way," sneered another. Lewis's +road-house _is_ across the wide Yukon, and there was no point in +crossing the river save one's determination to lend no countenance to +the spitefulness of these mail runners. So across the river we went and +were glad to be on the Yukon again. The next morning we encountered the +same rival signs at the point where the trail from Lewis's joined the +"mail trail." + +[Sidenote: "TREASURE ISLAND"] + +Most of our travelling was now upon the surface of the Yukon, and four +hundred and fifty miles of it stretched ahead of us ere our winter's +travel should end at Fort Yukon. Four hours brought us to the military +telegraph station at Melozi, and we were able to send word ahead that we +were safely out of the Kuskokwim wilderness. Then a portage was crossed +and then the river pursued again until with about thirty miles to our +credit we made camp. The days were lengthening out now, the weather +growing mild, although a keen, cold, down-river breeze was rarely +absent, and travel began to be pleasant and camping no hardship. We +preferred camping, on several scores, when the day's work had not been +too arduous, chief amongst them being that it gave more opportunity and +privacy for Walter's schooling. He was reading _Treasure Island_ aloud, +and I was getting as great pleasure from renewing as he from beginning +an acquaintance with that prince of all pirate stories. Kokrines and +Mouse Point one day, the next The Birches; we passed these well-known +Yukon landmarks, camping, after a run of thirty-eight miles, some six +miles beyond the last-named place, with a run of forty-four miles before +us to Tanana. I judged it too much; but the trail was greatly improved +and we decided to attempt it in one stage. A misreading of the watch, so +that I roused myself and Walter at 3.30 A. M. instead of 5.15 A. M., and +did not realise the mistake until the fire was made and it was not worth +while returning to bed, gave us a fine start and we made good progress. +Gold Mountain (so called, one supposes, because there is no gold there; +there is no other reason), Grant Creek, "Old Station" were passed by, +and at length Tanana loomed before us while yet ten miles away. In just +eleven hours we ran the forty-four miles, making, with three additional +miles out to the mission, forty-seven altogether, by far the longest +journey of the winter. We reached Tanana on the 1st of April, just six +weeks since we left. + +[Sidenote: AN UNTRAVELLED RIVER] + +We spent eight days at Tanana, including two Sundays, Passion Sunday and +Palm Sunday, but I was under an old promise to spend Easter there also. +Now, Easter, 1911, fell on the 16th of April, and for the +three-hundred-mile journey to Fort Yukon a period of ten or twelve days +at the least would be necessary, that might easily stretch to two weeks. +Travelling on the Yukon ice so late in April as this would involve was +not only fraught with great difficulty and discomfort, but also with +actual danger, and I had to beg to be absolved of my promise. Some +considerable preparation was on foot for the festival, and I was loath +to leave, for Tanana was then without any resident minister, but it +seemed foolish to take the chances that would have to be taken if we +stayed. + +Five days of almost ceaseless snow-storm during our stay at Tanana did +not give prospect of good travelling, and, indeed, when we pulled out +from the mission on the Monday in Holy Week there was no sign of any +trail. From Tanana up to Fort Yukon there is very little travel; since +the whole of this long stretch of river was deprived of winter mail a +year or two before, no through travel at all. Cabins may usually be +found to camp in, but there are no road-houses. What travel still takes +place is local. + +The journey divided itself into two roughly equal parts, a hundred and +fifty miles through the Lower Ramparts, and a hundred and fifty miles +through the Yukon Flats, almost all of it on the surface of the river. +It was hoped to reach Stephen's Village, a native settlement just within +the second half of the journey, for Easter. + +Snow does not lie long at rest upon the river within the Ramparts, and +particularly within the narrow, cañon-like stretch of seventy-five miles +from Tanana to Rampart City. Violent and almost ceaseless down-stream +winds sweep the deep defile in the mountains through which the river +winds its course. In places the ice is bare of snow; in places the snow +is piled in huge, hardened drifts. So strong and so persistent is this +wind that it is often possible to skate over an uninterrupted black +surface of ice, polished like plate glass, for twenty miles on a +down-river journey. To make way over such a surface up-stream, against +such wind, is, however, almost impossible. The dogs get no footing and +the wind carries the sled where it listeth. The journey so far as +Rampart City has been described before; it will suffice now that it +took three days of toilsome battling against wind and bad surface, with +nights spent upon the floor of grimy cabins. So cold was the wind that +it is noted in my diary with surprise, on the 12th of April, that I had +worn fur cap, parkee, and muffler all day, as though it had been the +dead of winter instead of three weeks past the vernal equinox. + +On Wednesday night there was Divine service at Rampart, and on Maundy +Thursday, after four miles upon the river, we took the portage of eleven +miles that cuts a chord to the arc of the greatest bend of the river +within the Ramparts and so saves nine miles. Three miles more took us to +the deserted cabin at the site of the abandoned coal-mine opposite the +mouth of the Mike Hess River, here confluent with the Yukon, and in that +cabin we spent the night, having had the high, bitter wind in our faces +all day. We hated to leave the shelter of the wooded portage and face +the blast of the last three miles. + +[Sidenote: WIND AND SNOW] + +We woke the next morning to a veritable gale of wind and snow, and lay +in the cabin till noon, occupied with the exercises of the solemn +anniversary. The wind having then abated somewhat and the snow ceased, +we sallied forth, still hopeful of making Stephen's Village for Easter. +But when we got down upon the river surface it became doubtful if we +could proceed, and as we turned the first bend we encountered a fresh +gale that did not fall short of a blizzard. The air was filled with +flying snow that stung our faces and blinded us. The dogs' muzzles +became incrusted with snow and their eyes filled with it so that it was +hard to keep them facing it. I could not see the boy at all when he was +a hundred feet ahead of the team. We struggled along for four miles, +and, since it was then evident that we could not go much farther without +useless risk, we turned to a spot on the bank where Walter knew another +deserted cabin to stand; for he knows every foot of this section of the +river and once spent a summer, camped at the coal-mine, fishing. The +spot was reached, but the cabin was gone. The fish rack still stood +there, but the cabin was burned down. There was nothing for it but to +return to the coal-mine cabin; so, for the first and only time in all my +journeyings, it was necessary to abandon a day's march that had been +entered upon and go back whence we had come. We ran before the gale at +great speed and were within the cabin again by 2.30 P. M. All the +evening and all night the storm raged, and I was in two minds about +running back to Rampart before it for Easter, since it was now out of +the question to reach Stephen's Village. If the season had not been so +far advanced this is what I should have done, but it would set us back +three days more on the journey, and on reflection I was not willing to +take that chance with the break-up so near. + +So on the morning of Easter Eve we sallied up-stream again, snow falling +and driving heavily, and the wind still strong but with yesterday's keen +edge blunted. By the time we had beaten around the long bend up which we +had fought our way the day before, the snow had ceased, and by noon the +wind had dropped and the sun was shining, and in a few moments of his +unobscured strength all the loose snow on the sled was melted--a +warning of the rapidity with which the general thaw would proceed once +the skies were clear. That night saw us in the habitable though dirty, +deserted cabin at Salt Creek (so called, one supposes, because the water +of it is perfectly fresh) at which we had hoped to lodge the previous +night. + +[Sidenote: ALASKAN "FORTS"] + +Buoyed by the hope of doing a double stage in a clear, windless day and +thus reaching Stephen's Village for service at night, we made a very +early start that beautiful Easter morning. But it was not to be. Such +trail as there was ran high up on the bank ice--level, doubtless, when +it was made much earlier in the season, but now at a slope towards the +middle of the river through the falling of the water, and seamed with +great cracks. Such a trail, called a "sidling" trail in the vernacular +of mushing, is always difficult and laborious to travel, for the sled +slips continually off it into the loose snow or the ice cracks, and +often for long stretches at a time one man must hold up the nose of the +sled while the other toils at the handle-bars. In one place, while thus +holding the front of the sled on the trail, Walter slipped into an ugly +ice crack concealed by drifted snow, and so wedged his foot that I had +difficulty in extricating him. The last two bends of the river within +the Ramparts seemed interminable and it was 6.30 P. M., with twelve +hours' travel behind us, when we reached old Fort Hamlin, on the verge +of the Yukon Flats. These "forts," it might be explained, if one chose +to pursue the elucidation of Alaskan nomenclature in the same strain, +are so called because they never had any defences and never needed any. +As a matter of fact, in the early days, when the Hudson Bay Company +made its first establishments on the upper river, there was supposed to +be some need of fortification, and Fort Selkirk and Fort Yukon were +stockaded. Fort Selkirk, indeed, was sacked and burned sixty years ago, +but not by Yukon Indians. The Chilkats from the coast, indignant at the +loss of their middle-man profits by the invasion of the interior, +crossed the mountains, descended the river, and destroyed the post. It +thus became customary to call a trading-post a "fort," and every little +point where a store and a warehouse stood was so dignified. Hence Fort +Reliance, Fort Hamlin, Fort Adams. + +For years Fort Hamlin had been quite deserted, but now smoke issued from +the stovepipe and dogs gave tongue at our approach, and we found a white +man with an Esquimau wife from Saint Michael and a half-breed child +dwelling there and carrying a few goods for sale. With him we made our +lodging, and with him and his family said our evening service of Easter, +and so to bed, thoroughly tired. + +[Sidenote: TRAVELLING BY NIGHT] + +A mile beyond Fort Hamlin the Ramparts suddenly cease and the wide +expanse of the Yukon Flats opens at once. Ten miles or so brought us to +Stephen's Village, where we had been long expected and where a very busy +day was spent. A number of Indians were gathered and there were children +to baptize and couples to marry, as well as the lesson of the season to +teach. It was a great disappointment that we had been unable to get here +before, and matter of regret that, being here at such labour, only so +short a time could be spent. But the closing season called to us +loudly. A mild, warm day set all the banks running with melting snow and +made the surface of the river mushy. There was really no time to lose, +for the next seventy-five miles was to give us the most difficult and +disagreeable travelling of the journey. Here, in the Flats, where is +greatest need of travel direction on the whole river, was no trail at +all beyond part of the first day's journey. Within the Ramparts the +river is confined in one channel; however bad the travelling may be, +there is no danger of losing the way; but in the Flats the river divides +into many wide channels and these lead off into many more back sloughs, +with low, timbered banks and no salient landmarks at all. Behind us were +the bluffs of the Ramparts, already growing faint; afar off on the +horizon, to the right, were the dim shapes of the Beaver Mountains. All +the rest was level for a couple of hundred miles. + +A local trail to a neighbouring wood-chopper's took us some twelve +miles, and then we were at a loss. The general direction we knew, and +previous journeys both in winter and summer gave us some notion of the +river bends to follow, but we wallowed and floundered until late at +night before we reached the cabin we were bound for, the snow exceeding +soft and wet for hours in the middle of the day. + +The time had plainly come to change our day travel into night travel, +for freezing was resumed each night after the sun was set, and the +surface grew hard again. So at this cabin we lay all the next day, with +an interesting recluse of these parts who knows many passages of +Shakespeare by heart, and who drew us a chart of our course to the next +habitation, marking every bend to be followed and the place where the +river must be crossed. But there is always difficulty in getting a new +travel schedule under way, and we did not leave until five in the +morning instead of at two as we had planned. This gave us insufficient +time to make the day's march before the sun softened the snow, and +moccasins grew wet, and snow-shoe strings began to stretch, and the +webbing underfoot to yield and sag--and we had to content ourselves with +half a stage. By nine P. M. we were off again and did pretty well until +the night grew so dark that we could no longer distinguish our +landmarks. Then we went to the bank and built a big fire and made a pot +of tea and sat and dozed around it for a couple of hours or so until the +brief darkness of Alaskan spring was overpast, and the dawn began to +give light enough to see our way again. + +When our course lay on the open river, the snow had crust enough to hold +us upon our snow-shoes; but when it took us through little sheltered +sloughs, the crust was too thin and we broke through all the time, and +that makes slow, painful travel. At last we came to a portage that cuts +off a number of miles, but the snow slope by which the top of the bank +should be reached had a southern exposure and was entirely melted and +gone. The dogs had to be unhitched, the sled to be unloaded, the stuff +packed in repeated journeys up the steep bank, and the sled hauled up +with a rope. Then came the repacking and reloading and the rehitching; +and when the portage was crossed the same thing had to be done to get +down to the river bed again. Twice more on that day the process was gone +through, and each time it took nigh an hour to get up the bank, so that +it was around noon, and the snow miserably wet and mushy again, when we +reached Beaver and went to bed at the only road-house between Fort Yukon +and Tanana. + +"Beaver City" owes its existence to quartz prospects in the Chandalar, +in which men of money and influence in the East were interested. The +Alaska Road Commission had built a trail some years before from the +Chandalar diggings out to the Yukon, striking the river at this point, +and on the opposite side of the river another trail is projected and +"swamped out" direct to Fairbanks. The opening up of this route was +expected to bring much travel through Beaver, and a town site was staked +and many cabins built. But "Chandalar quartz" remains an interesting +prospect, and the Chandalar placers have not proved productive, and all +but a few of the cabins at "Beaver City" are unoccupied. If "the +Chandalar" should ever make good, "Beaver City" will be its river port. + +[Sidenote: LAST DAY] + +We left Beaver at eleven P. M. on Friday night, hoping in two long +all-night runs to cover the eighty miles and reach Fort Yukon by Sunday +morning. Here was the first trail since we left Stephen's Village and +the first fairly good trail since we left Tanana, for there had been +some recent travel between Fort Yukon and Beaver. Here for the first +time we had no need of snow-shoes, and when they have been worn +virtually all the winter through and nigh a couple of thousand miles +travelled in them, walking is strange at first in the naked moccasin. It +is a blessed relief, however, to be rid of even the lightest of trail +snow-shoes. We stepped out gaily into a beautiful clear night, with a +sharp tang of frost in the air, and even the dogs rejoiced in the +knowledge that the end of the journey was at hand. All night long we +made good time and kept it up without a stop until eight o'clock in the +morning, when we reached an inhabited but just then unoccupied cabin and +ate supper or breakfast as one chooses to call it and went to bed, +having covered fully half the distance to Fort Yukon. About noon we were +rudely awakened by one of the usual Alaskan accompaniments of +approaching summer. The heat of the sun was melting the snow above us, +and water came trickling through the dirt roof upon our bed. We moved to +a dry part of the cabin and slept again until the evening, and at nine +P. M. entered upon what we hoped would be our last run. + +But once more our plans to spend Sunday were frustrated. The trail led +through dry sloughs from which the advancing thaw had removed the snow +in great patches. Sometimes the sled had to be hauled over bare sand; +sometimes wide detours had to be made to avoid such sand; sometimes +pools of open water covered with only that night's ice lay across our +path. By eight o'clock in the morning we estimated that we were not more +than seven or eight miles from Fort Yukon. But already the snow grew +soft and our feet wet, and the dogs were very weary with the eleven +hours' mushing. It would take a long time and much toil to plough +through slush, even that seven or eight miles. So I gave the word to +stop, and we made an open-air camp on a sunny bank, and after breakfast +we covered our heads in the blankets from the glare of the sun, and +slept till five. Then we ate our last trail meal, and were washed up and +packed up and hitched up an hour and more before the snow was frozen +enough for travel. A couple of hours' run took us to Fort Yukon, and so +ended the winter journey of 1910-11, on the 23d of April, having been +started on the 17th of November. We were back none too soon. Every day +we should have found travelling decidedly worse. In a few more days the +river would have begun to open in places, and only the middle would be +safe for travel, with streams of water against either bank and no way of +getting ashore. Seventeen days later the ice was gone out and the Yukon +flowing bank full. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[G] The "claim" on a creek on which gold is first found is called +"Discovery"; the claims above are numbered one, two, three, etc., +"above" and the claims below, one, two, three, etc., "below." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE NATIVES OF ALASKA + + +WHEN one contemplates the native people of the interior of Alaska in the +mass, when, with the stories told by the old men and old women of the +days before they saw the white man in mind, one reconstructs that +primitive life, lacking any of the implements, the conveniences, the +alleviations of civilisation, the chief feeling that arises is a feeling +of admiration and respect. + +What a hardy people they must have been! How successfully for untold +generations did they pit themselves against the rigour of this most +inhospitable climate! With no tool but the stone-axe and the flint +knife, with no weapon but the bow and arrow and spear, with no material +for fish nets but root fibres, or for fish-hooks or needles but bone, +and with no means of fire making save two dry sticks--one wonders at the +skill and patient endurance that rendered subsistence possible at all. +And there follows quickly upon such wonder a hot flush of indignation +that, after so conquering their savage environment or accommodating +themselves to it, that they not only held their own but increased +throughout the land, they should be threatened with a wanton +extermination now that the resources of civilisation are opened to them, +now that tools and weapons and the knowledge of easier and more +comfortable ways of life are available. + +The natives of the interior are of two races, the Indian and the +Esquimau. The Indian inhabits the valley of the Yukon down to within +three or four hundred miles of its mouth; the Esquimau occupies the +lower reaches of the Yukon and the Kuskokwim and the whole of the rivers +that drain into the Arctic Ocean west and north. These inland Esquimaux +are of the same race as the coast Esquimaux and constitute an +interesting people, of whom something has been said in the account of +journeys through their country. + +[Sidenote: THE ATHABASCANS] + +The Indians of the interior are of one general stock, the Athabascan, as +it is called, and of two main languages derived from a common root but +differing as much perhaps as Spanish and Portuguese. The language of the +upper Yukon (and by this term in these pages is meant the upper American +Yukon) is almost identical with the language of the lower Mackenzie, +from which region, doubtless, these people came, and with it have always +maintained intercourse. The theory of the Asiatic origin of the natives +of interior Alaska has always seemed fanciful and far-fetched to the +writer. The same translations of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer +serve for the lower Mackenzie and the upper Yukon and are in active use +to-day through all that wide region, despite minor dialectical +variations. + +Near the lower ramparts of the Yukon, at Stephen's Village, the language +changes and the new tongue maintains itself, though with continually +increasing dialectical differences, until the Indians overlap the +Esquimaux, six hundred miles farther down. + +Fort Yukon is the most populous place on the river, and the last place +on the river, where the upper language, or Takhud, is spoken. A stretch +of one hundred and fifty miles separates it from the next native +village, and the inhabitants of that village are not intelligible to the +Fort Yukon Indians--an unintelligibility which seems to speak of long +ages of little intercourse. + + * * * * * + +The history of the migrations of the Indians from the Athabascan or +Mackenzie region is impossible to trace now. It is highly probable that +the movement was by way of the Porcupine River. And it would seem that +there must have been two distinct migrations: one that passed down the +Yukon to the Tanana district and spread thence up the Tanana River and +up the Koyukuk; and long after, as one supposes, a migration that +peopled the upper Yukon. A portion of this last migration must have gone +across country to the Ketchumstock and the upper Tanana, for the +inhabitants of the upper Tanana do not speak the Tanana tongue, which is +the tongue of the Middle Yukon but a variant of the tongue of the upper +Yukon. + +[Illustration: A DOCILE FOLK, EAGER FOR INSTRUCTION.] + +[Illustration: THE MISSION TYPE.] + +[Illustration: WILD AND SHY.] + +How long ago these migrations took place there is not the slightest +knowledge to base even a surmise upon. The natives themselves have no +records nor even traditions, and the first point of contact between +white men and the natives of the interior is within three quarters of a +century ago. It may have been two or three families only which +penetrated to this region or to that and settled there, and what +pressure started them on their wanderings no one will ever know. Perhaps +some venturesome hunter pursuing his game across the highlands that +separate the Mackenzie from the Yukon was disabled and compelled to +remain until the summer, and then discovered the salmon that made their +way up the tributaries of the Porcupine. The Mackenzie has no salmon. Or +a local tribal quarrel may have sent fugitives over the divide. + +When first the white man came to the upper Yukon, in 1846 and 1847, no +one knew that it was the same river at the mouth of which the Russians +had built Redoubt Saint Michael ten or twelve years before. The natives +of the upper river knew nothing about the lower river. It is an easy +matter to float down the Yukon for a thousand miles in a birch-bark +canoe, but an exceedingly difficult matter to come up again. It was not +until the voyageurs of the Hudson Bay Company, in their adventurous +fur-trading expeditions, met at the mouth of the Tanana River the agents +of the Russian Fur Company, come up from Nulato on the same quest, that +the identity of the Yukon and Kwikpak Rivers was discovered; and that +seems to have been well past the middle of the century. In the map of +North America that the writer first used at school, the Yukon flowed +north into the Arctic Ocean, parallel with the Mackenzie. + +[Sidenote: AN INOFFENSIVE PEOPLE] + +The Indians of the interior of Alaska are a gentle and kindly and +tractable people. They have old traditions of bloody tribal warfare that +have grown in ferocity, one supposes, with the lapse of time, for it is +very difficult for one who knows them to believe that so mild a race +could ever have been pugnacious or bloodthirsty. Whether it were that +the exigencies of subsistence under arctic conditions demanded almost +all their energies, or that a realisation of their constant dependence +upon one another checked the play of passion, they differ most widely +and, it seems certain, always differed most widely in character from the +Indians of the American plains. A personal knowledge of the greater part +of all the natives of interior Alaska, gained by living amongst them and +travelling from village to village during seven or eight years, +furnishes but a single instance of an Indian man guilty of any sort of +violence against another Indian or against a white man--except under the +influence of liquor. + +It is true that there are unquestioned murders that have been +committed--murders of white men at that; but in the sixty years from the +Nulato massacre of 1851, over the whole vast interior, these crimes can +be counted on the fingers of one hand. They are not a revengeful people. +They do not cherish the memory of injuries and await opportunities of +repayment; that trait is foreign to their character. On the contrary, +they are exceedingly placable and bear no malice. Moreover, they are +very submissive, even to the point of being imposed upon. In fact, they +are decidedly a timid people in the matter of personal encounter. In all +these characteristics they differ from the North American Indian +generally as he appears in history. + +They are capable of hard work, though apparently not of continuous hard +work; they will cheerfully support great privation and fatigue; but +when the immediate necessity is past they enjoy long periods of feasting +and leisure. Having no property nor desire of property, save their +clothes, their implements and weapons, and the rude furnishings of their +cabins, there is no incentive to hard and continuous work. + +After all, where is the high and peculiar virtue that lies in the +performance of continuous hard work? Why should any one labour +incessantly? This is the question the Indian would ask, and one is not +always sure that the mills of Massachusetts and the coal-mines of +Pennsylvania return an entirely satisfactory answer. As regards thrift, +the Indian knows little of it; but the average white man of the country +does not know much more. There is little difference as regards thrift +between wasting one's substance in a "potlatch," which is a feast for +all comers, and wasting it in drunkenness, which is a feast for the +liquor sellers, save that one is barbarous and the other civilised, as +the terms go. + +It would seem that the general timidity of the native character is the +reason for a very general untruthfulness, though there one must speak +with qualification and exception. There are Indians whose word may be +taken as unhesitatingly as the word of any white man, and there are +white men in the country whose word carries no more assurance than the +word of any Indian. The Indian is prone to evasion and quibbling rather +than to downright lying, though there are many who are utterly +unreliable and untrustworthy. + +[Sidenote: SEXUAL MORALITY] + +In the matter of sexual morality the Indian standards are very low, +though certainly not any lower than the standards of the average white +man in the country. One is forced to this constant comparison; the white +man in the country is the only white man the Indian knows anything +about. To the Indian a physical act is merely a physical act; all down +his generations there has been no moral connotation therewith, and it is +hard to change the point of view of ages when it affects personal +indulgence so profoundly. The white man has been taught, down as many +ages, perhaps, that these physical acts have moral connotation and are +illicit when divorced therefrom, yet he is as careless and immoral in +this country as the Indian is careless and _un_moral. And the white +man's careless and immoral conduct is the chief obstacle which those who +would engraft upon the Indian the moral consciousness must contend +against. + +The Indian woman is not chaste because the Indian man does not demand +chastity of her, does not set any special value upon her chastity as +such. And the example of the chastity which the white man demands of his +women, though he be not chaste himself, is an example with which the +native of Alaska has not come much into contact. Too often, in the +vicinity of mining camps, the white women who are most in evidence are +of another class. + +[Sidenote: GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS] + +The Indian is commonly intelligent and teachable, and in most cases +eager to learn and eager that his children may learn. Here it becomes +necessary to deal with a difficult and somewhat contentious matter that +one would rather let alone. The government has undertaken the education +of the Indian, and has set up a bureau charged with the establishment +and conduct of native schools. + +There are five such schools on the Yukon between Eagle and Tanana, +including these two points, amongst Indians all of whom belong to the +Episcopal Church, and five more between Tanana and Anvik, amongst +natives divided in allegiance between the Episcopal and the Roman +Catholic Churches. Below Anvik to the river's mouth the natives are +divided between the Roman and the Greek Churches, and they are outside +the scope of this book. On the tributaries of the Yukon the only native +schools are conducted by the missions of the Episcopal Church, on the +Koyukuk and Tanana Rivers, and have no connection with the government. + +When, somewhat late in the day, the government set its hand to the +education of the natives, mission schools had been conducted for many +years at the five stations of the Episcopal Church above Tanana and at +the various mission stations below that point. The Bureau of Education +professed its earnest purpose of working in harmony with the mission +authorities, and upon this profession it secured deeds of gift for +government school sites within the mission reservations from the Bishop +of Alaska. + +It cannot be stated, upon a survey of the last five or six years, that +this profession has been carried out. The administration of the Bureau +of Education has shared too much the common fault of other departments +of the government in a detached and lofty, not to say supercilious, +attitude. Things are not necessarily right because a government bureau +orders them, nor are government officials invested with superior wisdom +merely by reason of their connection with Washington. It is just as +important for a government school as for a mission school to be in +harmony with its environment, to adapt itself to the needs of the people +it designs to serve; and that harmony and adaptation may only be secured +by a single-minded study of the situation and of the habits and +character, the occupations and resources of the people. + +To keep a school in session when the population of a village is gone on +its necessary occasions of hunting or trapping, and to have the annual +recess when all the population is returned again, is folly, whoever +orders it, in accord with what time-honoured routine soever, and this +has not infrequently been done. Moreover, it is folly to fail to +recognise that the apprenticeship of an Indian boy to the arts by which +he must make a living, the arts of hunting and trapping, is more +important than schooling, however important the latter may be, and that +any talk--and there has been loud talk--of a compulsory education law +which shall compel such boys to be in school at times when they should +be off in the wilds with their parents, is worse than mere folly, and +would, if carried out, be a fatal blunder. If such boys grow up +incompetent to make a living out of the surrounding wilderness, whence +shall their living come? + +The next step would be the issuing of rations, and that would mean the +ultimate degradation and extinction of the natives. When the question is +stated in its baldest terms, is the writer perverse and barbarous and +uncivilised if he avow his belief that a race of hardy, peaceful, +independent, self-supporting illiterates is of more value and worthy of +more respect than a race of literate paupers? Be it remembered also that +many of these "illiterates" can read the Bible in their own tongue and +can make written communication with one another in the same--very +scornful as the officials of the bureau have been about such attainment. +One grows a little impatient sometimes when a high official at +Washington writes in response to a request for permission to use a +school building _after_ school hours, for a class of instruction in the +native Bible, that the law requires that all instruction in the school +be in the English language, and that it is against the policy of +Congress to use public money for religious instruction! When the +thermometer drops to 50° below zero and stays there for a couple of +weeks, it is an expensive matter to heat a church for a Bible class +three times a week--and the schoolhouse is already cosy and warm. + +But the question does not reduce itself to the bald terms referred to +above; by proper advantage of times and seasons the Indian boy may have +all the English education that will be of any service to him, and may +yet serve his apprenticeship in the indispensable wilderness arts. And, +given a kindly and competent teacher, there is no need of any sort of +compulsion to bring Indian boys and girls to school when they are within +reach of it. + +The Indian school problem is not an easy one in the sense that it can be +solved by issuing rules and regulations at Washington, but it can be +solved by sympathetic study and by the careful selection of intelligent, +cultured teachers. + +After all, this last is the most important requisite. Too often it is +assumed that any one can teach ignorant youth: and women with no culture +at all, or with none beyond the bald "pedagogy" of a low-grade +schoolroom, have been sent to Alaska. There have, indeed, been notable +exceptions; there have been some very valuable and capable teachers, and +with such there has never been friction at the missions, but glad +co-operation. + +The situation shows signs of improvement; there are signs of withdrawal +from its detached and supercilious attitude on the part of the bureau, +signs which are very welcome to those connected with the missions. For +the best interest of the native demands that the two agencies at work +for his good work heartily and sympathetically together. The missions +can do without the government--did do without it for many years, though +glad of the government's aid in carrying the burden of the schools--but +the government cannot do without the missions; and if the missions were +forced to the re-establishment of their own schools, there would be +empty benches in the schools of the government. + +[Sidenote: THE THREAT OF EXTINCTION] + +That the Indian race of interior Alaska is threatened with extinction, +there is unhappily little room to doubt; and that the threat may be +averted is the hope and labour of the missionaries amongst them. At most +places where vital statistics are kept the death-rate exceeds the +birth-rate, though it is sometimes very difficult to secure accurate +statistics and to be sure that they always cover the same ground. The +natives wander; within certain territorial limits they wander widely. +Whenever a child is born it is certain that if it lives long enough it +will be brought to a mission to be baptized, but a death often occurs at +some isolated camp that is not reported till long after, and may escape +registration altogether. + +Certain diseases that have played havoc in the past are not much feared +now. For the last seven years supplies of the diphtheritic antitoxin +have been kept at all the missions of the Episcopal Church, and in the +summer of 1911, when there was an outbreak of smallpox at Porcupine +River, almost every Indian of interior Alaska was vaccinated, mainly by +the mission staffs. Diphtheria has been a dreadful scourge. The valley +of the upper Kuskokwim was almost depopulated by it in 1906. A disease +resembling measles took half the population of the lower Yukon villages +in 1900. In the last few years there have been no serious epidemics; but +epidemic disease does not constitute the chief danger that threatens the +native. + +[Sidenote: DWELLING AND CLOTHING] + +That chief danger looms from two things: tuberculosis and whisky. +Whether tuberculosis is a disease indigenous to these parts, or whether +it was introduced with the white man, has been disputed and would be +difficult of determination. Probably it was always present amongst the +natives; the old ones declare that it was; but the changed conditions of +their lives have certainly much aggravated it. They lived much more in +the open when they had no tree-felling tool but a stone-axe and did not +build cabins. The winter residence in those days was, it is true, a +dark, half-underground hut covered with earth and poles, but the time of +residence therein was much shorter; the skin tent sheltered them most of +the year. Indeed, some tribes, such as the Chandalar, lived in their +skin tents the year round. Now an ill-ventilated and very commonly +overcrowded cabin shelters them most of the year. It is true that the +cabins are constantly improving and the standard of living within them +is constantly rising. The process is slow, despite all urgings and +warnings, and overcrowding and lack of ventilation still prevail. + +[Illustration: THE NATIVE COMMUNICANT.] + +[Illustration: RAW MATERIAL.] + +Perhaps as great a cause of the spread of tuberculosis is the change in +clothing. The original native was clad in skins, which are the warmest +clothing in the world. Moose hide or caribou hide garments, tanned and +smoked, are impervious to the wind, and a parkee of muskrat or squirrel, +or, as was not uncommon in the old days, of marten, or one of caribou +tanned with the hair on, with boots of this last material, give all the +warmth that exposure to the coldest weather requires. Nowadays fur +garments of any sort are not usual amongst the natives. There is a +market, at an ever-growing price, for all the furs they can procure. A +law has, indeed, gone recently into effect prohibiting the sale of +beaver for a term of years, and already beaver coats and caps begin to +appear again amongst the people. It would be an excellent, wise thing, +worthy of a government that takes a fatherly interest in very childlike +folks, to make this law permanent. If it were fit to prohibit the +sale of beaver pelts for a term of years to protect the beaver, surely +it would be proper to perpetuate the enactment to protect the Indian. It +would mean warm clothing for man, woman, and child. + +[Illustration: AN ESQUIMAU YOUTH.] + +[Illustration: A HALF-BREED INDIAN.] + +[Sidenote: THE INDIAN TRADER] + +The Indian usually sells all his furs and then turns round and buys +manufactured clothing from the trader at a fancy price. That clothing is +almost always cotton and shoddy. Genuine woollens are not to be found in +the Indian trader's stock at all, and in whatever guise it may +masquerade, and by whatever alias it may pass, the native wear is +cotton. Yet there is no country in the world where it is more +imperative, for the preservation of health, that wool be worn. + +However much fur the Indian may catch and sell, he is always poor. He is +paid in trade, not in cash; and when the merchant has bought the +Indian's catch of fur he straightway spreads out before him an alluring +display of goods specially manufactured for native trade. Here are +brilliant cotton velvets and sateens and tinselled muslins and gay +ribbons that take the eye of his women folk; here are trays of Brummagem +knickknacks, brass watches, and rings set with coloured glass, gorgeous +celluloid hair combs, mirrors with elaborate, gilded frames, and brass +lamps with "hand-painted" shades and dangling lustres; here are German +accordions and mouth-organs and all sorts of pocket-knives and +alarm-clocks--the greatest collection of glittering and noisy trash that +can be imagined, bought at so much a dozen and retailed, usually, at +about the same price for one. And when the Indian has done his trading +the trader has most of his money back again. + +The news that an Indian has caught a black fox, the most exciting item +of news that ever flies around a native village, does not give any great +pleasure to one who is acquainted with native conditions, because he +knows that it will bring little real benefit to the Indian. There will +be keen competition, within limits, of course, amongst the traders for +it; and the fortunate trapper may get three or four hundred dollars in +trade for a skin that will fetch eight hundred or a thousand in cash on +the London market; but if his wife get the solid advantage of a new +cooking-stove or a sewing-machine from it she is doing well. + +Food the Indian never buys much beyond his present need, unless it is to +squander it in feast after feast, to which every one is invited and at +which there is the greatest lavishness. If a son is born, or a black fox +is caught, or a member of the family recovers from a severe illness, +custom permits, if it do not actually demand, that a "potlatch" be +given, and most Indians are eager, whenever they are able, to be the +heroes of the prandial hour. + +So he, his women, and his children go clad mainly in cotton, and there +is abundant evidence that the tendency to pulmonary trouble, always +latent amongst them, is developed by the severe colds which they catch +through the inadequate covering of their bodies, and is then cherished +into virulent activity by the close atmosphere of overcrowded, +overheated cabins. + +The missions help the Indians, especially the women and children, in +this matter of clothing as much as possible. Every year large bales of +good though left-off under and over wear are secured through church +organisations outside, and are traded to the natives at nominal prices, +usually for fish or game or a little labour in sawing wood. And this +naturally does not ingratiate missions with the trading class. One's +anger is aroused sometimes at seeing the cotton-flannel underclothes and +"cotton-filled" blankets and the "all-wool" cotton coats and trousers +which they pay high prices for at the stores. The Canadian Indians, who +are their neighbours, buy genuine Hudson Bay blankets and other real +woollen goods, but the Alaskan Indian can buy nothing but cotton. + +But far and away beyond any other cause of the native decline stands the +curse of the country, whisky. Recognising by its long Indian experience +the consequences of forming liquor-drinking habits amongst the natives, +the government has forbidden under penalty the giving or selling of any +intoxicants to them. A few years ago a new law passed making such giving +or selling a felony. These laws are largely a dead letter. + +[Sidenote: UNPAID COMMISSIONERS] + +The country is a very large one, very sparsely populated; the distances +are enormous, the means of transportation entirely primitive, and the +police and legal machinery insufficient to the end of suppressing this +illicit traffic, especially in view of the fact that a considerable part +of the whole population does not look with favour upon any vigorous +attempt to suppress it. Great areas of the country are without +telegraphic communication, and in parts mail is received only once a +month. One stretch of two hundred and fifty miles of the Yukon receives +no mail at all during the winter months--more than half the year. In +that instance, as in many others, the country has gone distinctly +backward in the past few years. The magistrates--"commissioners" they +are called, receive no salary, but eke out a precarious and often +wretched existence on fees, so that it is frequently impossible to get +men of character and capacity to accept such offices. + +One would have supposed that amongst all the legislating that has been +done for and about Alaska in the last year or two, one crying evil that +the attention of successive administrations has been called to for +twenty years past would have been remedied. That evil is the unpaid +magistrate and the vicious fee system by which he must make a living. It +is a system that has been abolished in nearly all civilised countries; a +system that lends itself to all sorts of petty abuse; a system that no +one pretends to defend. No greater single step in advance could be made +in the government of Alaska, no measure could be enacted that would tend +to bring about in greater degree respect for the law than the abolition +of the unpaid magistracy and the setting up of a body of stipendiaries +of character and ability. + +The anomalies of the present situation are in some cases amusing. At one +place on the Yukon it is only possible for a man to make a living as +United States commissioner if he can combine the office of postmaster +with it. A man who was removed as commissioner still retained the +post-office, and no one could be found to accept the vacant judgeship. +In another precinct the commissioner was moving all those whom he +thought had influence to get him appointed deputy marshal instead of +commissioner, because the deputy marshal gets a salary of two thousand +dollars a year and allowances, which was more than the commissionership +yielded. One is reminded of some comic-opera topsyturvyism when the +judge tries in vain to get off the bench and be appointed constable. It +sounds like the _Bab Ballads_. The district court is compelled to wink +at irregularities of life and conduct in its commissioners because it +cannot get men of a higher stamp to accept its appointments. + +[Sidenote: LIQUOR AND POLITICS] + +The only policemen are deputy United States marshals, primarily +process-servers and not at all fitted in the majority of cases for any +sort of detective work. Their appointment is often dictated and their +action often hampered by political considerations. The liquor interest +is very strong and knows how to bring pressure to bear against a marshal +who is offensively active. They are responsible only to the United +States marshal of their district, and he is responsible to the +attorney-general, the head of the department of justice. But Washington +is a long way off, and the attorney-general is a very busy man, not +without his own interest, moreover, in politics. An attempt to get some +notice taken of a particular case in which it was the general opinion +that an energetic and vigilant deputy had been removed, and an elderly +lethargic man substituted, because of too great activity in the +prosecution of liquor cases, resulted in the conviction that what +should have been a matter of administrative righteousness only was a +political matter as well. + +The threatened extinction of the Alaskan native was referred to as +wanton, and the term was used in the sense that there are no necessary +natural causes fighting against his survival. + +Here is no economic pressure of white settlers determined to occupy the +land, such as drove the Indians of the plains farther and farther west +until there was no more west to be driven to. If such delusion possess +any mind as a result of foolish newspaper and magazine writings, let it +be dismissed at once. No man who has lived in the country and travelled +in the country will countenance such notion. The white men in Alaska are +miners and prospectors, trappers and traders, wood-choppers and +steamboat men. Around a mining camp will be found a few truck-farmers; +alongside road-houses and wood camps will often be found flourishing +vegetable gardens, but outside of such agriculture there are, speaking +broadly, no farmers at all in the interior of Alaska. Probably a +majority of all the homesteads that have been taken up have been located +that the trees on them might be cut down and hauled to town to be sold +for fire-wood. A few miles away from the towns there are no homesteads, +except perhaps on a well-travelled trail where a man has homesteaded a +road-house. + +[Illustration: AN AGED COUPLE.] + +[Illustration: FOOTBALL AT THE ALLAKAKET, EXPOSURE 1-1000 SECOND, APRIL, +AFTER A NEW LIGHT SNOWFALL.] + +All the settlements in the country are on the rivers, save the purely +mining settlements that die and are abandoned as the placers play out. +Yet one will travel two hundred and fifty miles up the Porcupine--till +Canada is reached--and pass not more than three white men's cabins, all +of them trappers; one will travel three hundred and fifty miles up the +Koyukuk before the first white man's cabin is reached, and as many miles +up the Innoko and the Iditarod and find no white men save wood-choppers. +There are a few more white men on the Tanana than on any other tributary +of the Yukon, because Fairbanks is on that river and there is more +steamboat traffic, but they are mainly wood-choppers, while on the +lesser tributaries of the Yukon, it is safe to say, there are no settled +white men at all. As soon as one leaves the rivers and starts across +country one is in the uninhabited wilderness. + +The writer is no prophet; he cannot tell what may happen agriculturally +in Alaska or the rest of the arctic regions when the world outside is +filled up and all unfrozen lands are under cultivation. Still less is he +one who would belittle a country he has learned to love or detract in +any way from its due claims to the attention of mankind. There is in the +territory a false newspaper sentiment that every one who lives in the +land should be continually singing extravagant praises of it and +continually making extravagant claims for it. A man may love Alaska +because he believes it to have "vast agricultural possibilities," +because, in his visions, he sees its barren wilds transformed into +"waving fields of golden grain." But a man may also love it who regards +all such visions as delusions. + +[Sidenote: FOOD AND FURS] + +The game and the fish of Alaska, the natural subsistence of the Indian, +are virtually undiminished. Vast herds of caribou still wander on the +hills, and far more are killed every year by wolves than by men. Great +numbers of moose still roam the lowlands. The rivers still teem with +salmon and grayling and the lakes with whitefish, ling, and lush. Unless +the outrage of canneries should be permitted at the mouths of the +Yukon--and that would threaten the chief subsistence of all the Indians +of the interior--there seems no danger of permanent failure of the +salmon run, though, of course, it varies greatly from year to year. +Furs, though they diminish in number, continually rise in price. There +are localities, it is true, where the game has been largely killed off +and the furs trapped out; the Koyukuk country is one of them, though +perhaps that region never was a very good game country. In this region, +when a few years ago there was a partial failure of the salmon, there +was distress amongst the Indians. But the country on the whole is almost +as good an Indian country as ever it was, and there are few signs that +it tends otherwise, though things happen so quickly and changes come +with so little warning in Alaska that one does not like to be too +confident. + +The Indian is the only settled inhabitant of interior Alaska to-day; for +the prospectors and miners, who constitute the bulk of the white +population, are not often very long in one place. Many of them might +rightly be classed as permanent, but very few as settled inhabitants. It +is the commonest thing to meet men a thousand miles away from the place +where one met them last. A new "strike" will draw men from every mining +camp in Alaska. A big strike will shift the centre of gravity of the +whole white population in a few months. Indeed, a certain restless +belief in the superior opportunities of some other spot is one of the +characteristics of the prospector. The tide of white men that has flowed +into an Indian neighbourhood gradually ebbs away and leaves the Indian +behind with new habits, with new desires, with new diseases, with new +vices, and with a varied assortment of illegitimate half-breed children +to support. The Indian remains, usually in diminished numbers, with +impaired character, with lowered physique, with the tag-ends of the +white man's blackguardism as his chief acquirement in English--but he +remains. + +It is unquestionable that the best natives in the country are those that +have had the least intimacy with the white man, and it follows that the +most hopeful and promising mission stations are those far up the +tributary streams, away from mining camps and off the routes of travel, +difficult of access, winter or summer, never seen by tourists at all; +seen only of those who seek them with cost and trouble. At such stations +the improvement of the Indian is manifest and the population increases. +By reason of their remoteness they are very expensive to equip and +maintain, but they are well worth while. One such has been described on +the Koyukuk; another, at this writing, is establishing with equal +promise at the Tanana Crossing, one of the most difficult points to +reach in all interior Alaska. + +This chapter must not close without a few words about the native +children. Dirty, of course, they almost always are; children in a state +of nature will always be dirty, and even those farthest removed from +that state show a marked tendency to revert to it; but when one has +become sufficiently used to their dirt to be able to ignore it, they are +very attractive. Intolerance of dirt is largely an acquired habit +anyway. In view of their indulgent rearing, for Indian parents are +perhaps the most indulgent in the world, they are singularly docile; +they have an affectionate disposition and are quick and eager to learn. +Many of them are very pretty, with a soft beauty of complexion and a +delicate moulding of feature that are lost as they grow older. It takes +some time to overcome their shyness and win their confidence, but when +friendly relations have been established one grows very fond of them. +Foregathering with them again is distinctly something to look forward to +upon the return to a mission, and to see them come running, to have them +press around, thrusting their little hands into one's own or hanging to +one's coat, is a delight that compensates for much disappointment with +the grown ups. In the midst of such a crowd of healthy, vivacious +youngsters, clear-eyed, clean-limbed, and eager, one positively refuses +to be hopeless about the race. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE ARCTIC + + +THERE is no country in which an anastigmatic lens is of more use to the +photographer than Alaska, and every camera with which it is hoped to +take winter scenes should have this equipment. During two or three +months in the year it makes the difference in practice between getting +photographs and getting none. In theory one may always set up a tripod +and increase length of exposure as light diminishes. But the most +interesting scenes, the most attractive effects often present themselves +under the severest conditions of weather, and he must be an enthusiast, +indeed, who will get his tripod from the sled, pull out its telescoped +tubes, set it up and adjust it for a picture with the thermometer at 40° +or 50° below zero; and when he is done he is very likely to be a frozen +enthusiast. + +With an anastigmatic lens working at, say f. 6-3, and with a "speed" +film (glass plates are utterly out of the question on the trail), it is +possible to make a snap-shot at one twenty-fifth of a second on a clear +day, around noon, even in the dead of winter, in any part of Alaska that +the writer has travelled in. There are those who write that they can +always hold a camera still enough to get a sharp negative at even one +tenth of a second. Probably the personal equation counts largely in +such a matter, and a man of very decided phlegmatic temperament may have +advantage over his more sanguine and nervous brother. The thing may be +done; the writer has done it himself; but the point is it cannot be +depended on; at this speed three out of four of his exposures will be +blurred, whereas at one twenty-fifth of a second a sharp, clear negative +may always be secured. + +It may be admitted at once that at extremely low temperatures the +working of any shutter becomes doubtful, and most of them go out of any +reliable action altogether. After trying and failing completely with +three or four of the more expensive makes of shutters, the writer has +for the last few years used a "Volute" with general satisfaction, though +in the great cold even that shutter (from which all trace of grease or +oil was carefully removed by the makers) is somewhat slowed up, so that +a rare exposure at 50° or 60° below zero would be made at an indicated +speed of one fiftieth rather than at one twenty-fifth, taking the chance +of an under-exposed rather than a blurred negative. To wish for a +shutter of absolute correctness and of absolute dependability under all +circumstances, arranged for exposures of one fifteenth and one twentieth +as well as one tenth and one twenty-fifth, is probably to wish for the +unobtainable. + +[Sidenote: CARE OF FILMS AND CAMERAS] + +The care of the camera and the films, exposed and unexposed, the winter +through, when travelling on the Alaskan trail, is a very important and +very simple matter, though not generally learned until many negatives +have been spoiled and sometimes lenses injured. It may be summed up in +one general rule--keep instrument and films always outdoors. + +One unfamiliar with arctic conditions would not suppose that much +trouble would be caused by that arch-enemy of all photographic +preparations and apparatus--damp, in a country where the thermometer +rarely goes above freezing the winter through; and that is a just +conclusion provided such things be kept in the natural temperature, +outdoors. But consider the great range of temperature when the +thermometer stands at -50° outdoors, and, say, 75° indoors. Here is a +difference of 125°. Anything wooden or metallic, especially anything +metallic, brought into the house immediately condenses the moisture with +which the warm interior atmosphere is laden and becomes in a few moments +covered with frost. Gradually, as the article assumes the temperature of +the room, the frost melts, the water is absorbed, and the damage is done +as surely as though it had been soused in a bucket. If it be necessary +to take camera and films indoors for an interior view--which one does +somewhat reluctantly--the films must be taken at once to the stove and +the camera only very gradually; leaving the latter on the floor, the +coldest part of the room, for a while and shifting its position nearer +and nearer until the frost it has accumulated begins to melt, whereupon +it should be placed close to the heat that the water may evaporate as +fast as it forms. + +Outdoors, camera and films alike are perfectly safe, however intense the +cold. Indeed, films keep almost indefinitely in the cold and do not +deteriorate at all. One learns, by and by, to have all films sent +sealed up in tin cans, _and to put them back and seal them up again when +exposed_, despite the maker's instructions not to do so. The maker knows +the rules, but the user learns the exceptions. When films are thus +protected they may be taken indoors or left out indifferently, as no +moist air can get to them. + +The rule given is one that all men in this country follow with firearms. +They are always left outdoors, and no iron will rust outdoors in the +winter. Unless a man intend to take his gun to pieces and clean it +thoroughly, he never brings it in the house. The writer has on several +occasions removed an exposed film and inserted a new one outdoors, using +the loaded sled for a table, at 50° below zero; taking the chance of +freezing his fingers rather than of ruining the film. It is an +interesting exercise in dexterity of manipulation. Everything that can +be done with the mittened hand is done, the material is placed within +easy reach--then off with the mittens and gloves, and make the change as +quickly as may be! + +There is just one brief season in the year when high speeds of shutters +may be used: in the month of April, when a new flurry of snow has put a +mantle of dazzling whiteness upon the earth and the sun mounts +comparatively high in the heavens. Under such circumstances there is +almost, if not quite, tropical illumination. Here is a picture of native +football at the Allakaket, just north of the Arctic Circle, made late in +April with a Graflex, fitted with a lens working at f. 4.5, at the full +speed of its focal-plane shutter--one one-thousandth of a second. In +five years' use that was the only time when that speed was used, or any +speed above one two-hundred-and-fiftieth. Commonly, even in summer, many +more exposures are made with it at one fiftieth than at one +one-hundredth, for this is not a brightly lit country in summer, and +nearly all visitors and tourists find their negatives much under-timed. + +The Graflex, though unapproached in its own sphere, is not a good +all-round camera, despite confident assertions to the contrary. It is +too bulky to carry at all in the winter, and its mechanism is apt to +refuse duty in the cold. The 3A Graflex cannot be turned to make a +perpendicular photograph, but must always be used with the greatest +dimension horizontal. Except in brilliant sunshine it is difficult to +get a sharp focus, and, even though the focus appear sharp on the ground +glass, the negative may prove blurred. Then the instrument is a great +dust catcher and seems to have been constructed with a perverse +ingenuity so as to make it as difficult as possible to clean. + +The writer uses his Graflex almost solely for native portraits and +studies, for which purpose it is admirable, and has enabled him to +secure negatives that he could not have obtained with any other hand +camera. Even in the summer, however, he always carries his 3A Folding +Pocket Kodak as well, and uses it instead of the Graflex for landscapes +and large groups. If he had to choose between the two instruments and +confine himself to one, he would unhesitatingly choose the Folding +Pocket Kodak. + +The difficulties of winter photography in Alaska do not end with the +making of the exposure. All water must be brought up in a bucket from a +water-hole in the river, and though it be clear water when it is dipped +up from under the ice, it is chiefly ice by the time it reaches the +house, during any cold spell. One learns to be very economical of water +when it is procured with such difficulty, learns to dry prints with +blotting-paper between the successive washings, which is the best way of +washing with the minimum of water. Blotting-paper is decidedly cheaper +than water under some circumstances. + +While the rivers run perfectly clear and bright under the ice in the +winter, in summer the turbid water of nearly all our large streams +introduces another difficulty, and photographic operation must sometimes +be deferred for weeks, unless the rain barrels be full or enough ice be +found in the ice-house, over and above the domestic needs, to serve. + +[Sidenote: EFFECT OF COLD ON EMULSIONS] + +It seems certain that the speed of the sensitive emulsions with which +the films are covered is reduced in very cold weather. To determine +whether or not this was so, the following experiments were resorted to. +The camera was brought out of the house half an hour before noon, at 50° +below zero, and an exposure made immediately. Then the camera was left +in position for an hour and another exposure made. There was little +difference in the strength of the negatives, and what difference there +was seemed in favour of the second exposure. Evidently, if the emulsion +had slowed, the shutter had slowed also; so opportunity was awaited to +make a more decisive test. When there remained but one exposure on a +roll of film, the camera was set outdoors at a temperature of 55° below +zero and left for an hour. Then an exposure was made and the film wound +up and withdrawn; while a new film, just brought from the house, was as +quickly as possible inserted in its place and a second exposure made. +The latter was appreciably stronger. Even this test is, of course, not +entirely conclusive; one would have to be quite sure that the emulsions +were identical; but it confirms the writer's impression that extreme +cold slows the film. It would be an easy matter for the manufacturers to +settle this point beyond question in a modern laboratory, and it is +certainly worth doing. + +There is much sameness about winter scenes in Alaska, as the reader has +doubtless already remarked; yet the sameness is more due to a lack of +alertness in the photographer than to an absence of variety. If the +traveller had nothing to think about but his camera, if all other +considerations could be subordinated to the securing of negatives, then, +here as elsewhere, the average merit of pictures would be greater. +Sometimes the most interesting scenes occur in the midst of stress of +difficult travel when there is opportunity for no more than a fleeting +recognition of their pictorial interest. "Tight places" often make +attractive pictures, but most commonly do not get made into pictures at +all. The study of the aspects of nature is likely to languish amidst the +severe weather of the Northern winter, and the bright, clear, mild day +gets photographed into undue prominence. Snow is more or less white and +spruce-trees in the mass are more or less black; one dog team is very +like another; a native village has to be known very well, indeed, to be +distinguishable from another native village. Yet there is individuality, +there is distinction, there is variety, there is contrast, if a man have +but the grace to recognise them and the zeal to record them. Snow itself +has infinite variety; trees, all of them, have characters of their own. +Dogs differ as widely as men and Indians as widely as white men. + +[Sidenote: INDIANS AND PHOTOGRAPHS] + +The fear of the camera, or the dislike of the camera, that used to +affect the native mind is gone now, save, perhaps, in certain remote +quarters, and these interesting people are generally quite willing to +stand still and be snapped. They ask for a print, and upon one's next +visit there is clamorous demand for "picter, picter." A famous French +physician said that his dread of the world to come lay in his +expectation that the souls he met would reproach him for not having +cured a certain obstinate malady that he had much repute in dealing +with; so the travelling amateur in photography sometimes feels his +conscience heavy under a load of promised pictures that he has forgotten +or has been unable to make. He feels that his native friends whom he +shall meet in the world to come will assuredly greet him with "where's +my picture?" The burden increases all the time, and the Indian never +forgets. It avails nothing even to explain that the exposure was a +failure. A picture was promised; no picture has been given; that is as +far as the native gets. And the making of extra prints, in the cases +where it is possible to make them, is itself quite a tax upon time and +material. + +Just as it is true that to be well informed on any subject a man must +read a great deal and be content not to have use for a great deal that +he reads, so to secure good photographs of spots and scenes of note as +he travels, he must make many negatives and be content to destroy many. +The records of a second visit in better weather or at a more favourable +season will supersede an earlier; typical groups more casual ones. The +standard that he exacts of himself rises and work he was content with +contents him no more. Sometimes one is tempted to think that the main +difference between an unsuccessful and a successful amateur photographer +is that the former hoards all his negatives while the latter +relentlessly burns those which do not come up to the mark--if not at +once, yet assuredly by and by. So the surprise that one feels at many of +the illustrations in modern books of arctic travel is not that the +travellers made such poor photographs but that they kept them and used +them; for there can be no question that poor photographs are worse than +none at all. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE NORTHERN LIGHTS + + +THE Northern Lights are a very common phenomenon of interior Alaska, +much more common than in the very high latitudes around the North Pole, +for it has been pretty well determined that there is an auroral pole, +just as there is a magnetic pole and a pole of cold, none of which +coincides with the geographical Pole itself. All the arctic explorers +seem agreed that north of the 80th parallel these appearances are less +in frequency and brilliance than in the regions ten or fifteen degrees +farther south. It may be said roundly that it is a rare thing in winter +for a still, clear night, when there is not much moon, to pass without +some auroral display in the interior of Alaska. As long as we have any +night at all in the early summer, and as soon as we begin to have night +again late in the summer, they may be seen; so that one gains the +impression that the phenomenon occurs the year round and is merely +rendered invisible by the perpetual daylight of midsummer. + +[Sidenote: A GENERAL AURORA] + +The Alaskan auroras seem to divide themselves into two great classes, +those that occupy the whole heavens on a grand scale and appear to be at +a great distance above the earth, and those that are smaller and seem +much closer. Inasmuch as a letter written from Fort Yukon to a town in +Massachusetts describing one of the former class brought a reply that on +the same night a brilliant aurora was observed there also, it would seem +that auroras on the grand scale are visible over a large part of the +earth's surface at once, whereas the lesser manifestations, though +sometimes of great brilliance and beauty, give one the impression of +being local. + +One gets, unfortunately, so accustomed to this light in the sky in +Alaska that it becomes a matter of course and is little noticed unless +it be extraordinarily vivid. Again, often very splendid displays occur +in the intensely cold weather, when, no matter how warmly one may be +clad, it is impossible to stand still long outdoors, and outdoors an +observer must be to follow the constant movement that accompanies the +aurora. Moreover, there is something very tantalising in the observing, +for it is impossible to say at what moment an ordinary waving auroral +streamer that stretches its greenish milky light across the sky, +beautiful yet commonplace, may burst forth into a display of the first +magnitude, or if it will do so at all. + +The winter traveller has the best chance for observing this phenomenon, +because much of his travel is done before daylight, and often much more +than he desires or deserves is done after daylight; while, if his +journeys be protracted so long as snow and ice serve for passage at all, +towards spring he will travel entirely at night instead of by day. + +It is intended in this chapter merely to attempt a description of a few +of the more striking auroral displays that the writer has seen, the +accounts being transcribed from journals written within a few hours, at +most, from the time of occurrence, and in the first case written so soon +as he went indoors. + +This was on the 6th of October, 1904, at Fairbanks, a little removed +from the town itself. When first the heavens were noticed there was one +clear bow of milky light stretching from the northern to the southern +horizon, reflected in the broken surface of the river, and glistening on +the ice cakes that swirled down with the swift current. Then the +southern end of the bow began to twist on itself until it had produced a +queer elongated corkscrew appearance half-way up to the zenith, while +the northern end spread out and bellied from east to west. Then the +whole display moved rapidly across the sky until it lay low and faint on +the western horizon, and it seemed to be all over. But before one could +turn to go indoors a new point of light appeared suddenly high up in the +sky and burst like a pyrotechnic bomb into a thousand pear-shaped +globules with a molten centre flung far out to north and south. Then +began one of the most beautiful celestial exhibitions that the writer +has ever seen. These globules stretched into ribbon streamers, dividing +and subdividing until the whole sky was filled with them, and these +ribbon streamers of greenish opalescent light curved constantly inward +and outward upon themselves, with a quick jerking movement like the +cracking of a whip, and every time the ribbons curved, their lower edges +frayed out, and the fringe was prismatic. The pinks and mauves flashed +as the ribbon curved and frayed--and were gone. There was no other +colour in the whole heavens save the milky greenish-white light, but +every time the streamers thrashed back and forth their under edges +fringed into the glowing tints of mother-of-pearl. Presently, the whole +display faded out until it was gone. But, as we turned again to seek the +warmth of the house, all at once tiny fingers of light appeared all over +the upper sky, like the flashing of spicules of alum under a microscope +when a solution has dried to the point of crystallisation, and stretched +up and down, lengthening and lengthening to the horizon, and gathering +themselves together at the zenith into a crown. Three times this was +repeated; each time the light faded gradually but completely from the +sky and flashed out again instantaneously. + +For a full hour, until it was impossible to stand gazing any longer for +the cold, the fascinating display was watched, and how much longer it +continued cannot be said. It was a grand general aurora, high in the +heavens, not vividly coloured save for the prismatic fringes, but of +brilliant illumination, and remarkable amongst all the auroras observed +since for its sudden changes and startling climaxes. Draped auroras are +common in this country, though it has been wrongly stated that they are +only seen near open seas, but their undulations are generally more +deliberate and their character maintained; this one flashed on and off +and changed its nature as though some finger were pressing buttons that +controlled the electrical discharges of the universe. Yet it was noticed +that even in its brightest moments the light of the stars could be seen +through it. + +[Sidenote: A LOCAL AURORA] + +The next aurora to be described was of a totally different kind. It +occurred on the 18th of March, 1905. The writer, with an Indian +attendant, was travelling on the Koyukuk River from Coldfoot to Bettles, +and, owing to a heavy, drifted trail, night had fallen while yet the +road-house was far away. There was no moon and the wind-swept trail was +wholly indistinguishable from the surrounding snow, yet to keep on the +trail was the only chance of going forward at all, for whenever the +toboggan slid off into the deep, soft snow it came to a standstill and +had to be dragged laboriously back again. A good leader would have kept +the trail, but we had none such amongst our dogs that year. Thus, +slowly, we went along in the dark, continually missing the trail on this +side and on that. We did not know on which bank of the river the +road-house was situated, for it was our first journey in those parts. We +only knew the trail would take us there could we follow it. All at once +a light burst forth, seemingly not a hundred yards above our heads, that +lit up that trail like a search-light and threw our shadows black upon +the snow. There was nothing faint and fluorescent about that aurora; it +burned and gleamed like magnesium wire. And by its light we were able to +see our path distinctly and to make good time along it, until in a mile +or two we were gladdened by the sight of the candle shining in the +window of the road-house and were safe for the night. + +Now, one does not really know that this was an aurora at all, save that +there was nothing else it could have been. It was a phenomenon +altogether apart from the one first described; not occupying the vault +of heaven, streaming from horizon to zenith; not remote and majestic. +There was really little opportunity to observe it at all; one's eyes +were fixed upon the trail it illumined, anxious not to set foot to the +right or left. Save for an occasional glance upward, we saw only its +reflected light upon the white expanse beneath. It was simply a streak +of light right above our heads, holding steadily in position, though +fluctuating a little in strength--a light to light us home, that is what +it was to us. And it was the most surprising and opportune example of +what has been referred to here as the _local_ aurora that eight winters +have afforded. The most opportune but not the most beautiful; the next +to be described, though of the local order, was the most striking and +beautiful manifestation of the Northern Lights the writer has ever seen. +It was that rare and lovely thing--a coloured aurora--all of one rich +deep tint. + +[Sidenote: A RED AURORA] + +It was on the 11th of March, 1907, on the Chandalar River, a day's march +above the gap by which that stream enters the Yukon Flats and five days +north of Fort Yukon. A new "strike" had been made on the Chandalar, and +a new town, "Caro," established;--abandoned since. All day long we had +been troubled and hindered by overflow water on the ice, saturating the +snow, an unpleasant feature for which this stream is noted; and when +night fell and we thought we ought to be approaching the town, it seemed +yet unaccountably far off. At last, in the darkness, we came to a creek +that we decided must surely be Flat Creek, near the mouth of which the +new settlement stood; and at the same time we came to overflow water so +deep that it covered both ice and snow and looked dangerous. So the dogs +were halted while the Indian boy went ahead cautiously to see if the +town were not just around the bend, and the writer sat down, tired, on +the sled. While sitting there, all at once, from the top of the +mountainous bluff that marked the mouth of the creek, a clear red light +sprang up and spread out across the sky, dyeing the snow and gleaming in +the water, lighting up all the river valley from mountain to mountain +with a most beautiful carmine of the utmost intensity and depth. In wave +after wave it came, growing brighter and brighter, as though some +gigantic hand on that mountain top were flinging out the liquid radiance +into the night. There was no suggestion of any other colour, it was all +pure carmine, and it seemed to accumulate in mid-air until all the +landscape was bathed in its effulgence. And then it gradually died away. +The native boy was gone just half an hour. It began about five minutes +after he left and ended about five minutes before he returned, so that +its whole duration was twenty minutes. There had been no aurora at all +before; there was nothing after, for his quest had been fruitless, and, +since we would not venture that water in the dark, we made our camp on +the bank and were thus two hours or more yet in the open. The boy had +stopped to look at it himself, "long time," as he said, and declared it +was the only red aurora he had ever seen in his twenty odd years' life. +It was a very rare and beautiful sight, and it was hard to resist that +impression of a gigantic hand flinging liquid red fire from the mountain +top into the sky. Its source seemed no higher than the mountain +top--seemed to be the mountain top itself--and its extent seemed +confined within the river valley. + +[Sidenote: A GRAND GENERAL DISPLAY] + +There is only one other that shall be described, although there are many +mentioned with more or less particularity in the diaries of these +travels. And this last one is of the character of the first and not at +all of the second and third, for it was on the grand scale, filling all +the heavens, a phenomenon, one is convinced, of an order distinct and +different from the local, near-at-hand kind. There was exceptionally +good opportunity for observing this display, since it occurred during an +all-night journey, the night of the 6th of April, 1912, with brilliant +starlight but no moon while we were hastening to reach Eagle for Easter. + +We had made a new traverse from the Tanana to the Yukon, through two +hundred miles of uninhabited country, and had missed the head of the +creek that would have taken us to the latter river in thirty miles, +dropping into one that meandered for upward of a hundred before it +discharged into the great river. It was one o'clock on Good Friday +morning when we reached a road-house on the Yukon eighty miles from +Eagle. The only chance to keep the appointment was to travel all the two +remaining nights. So we cached almost all our load at the road-house, +for we should retrace our steps when Eagle was visited, and thus were +able to travel fast. + +Both nights were marked by fine auroral displays, so extensive and of +such apparent height as to give the impression that they must be visible +over large areas of the earth. Both continued all night long and were +of the same general description, but the second night's display was +emphasised in its main features and elaborated in its detail, and was +the more striking and notable and worthy of description. + +It began by an exquisite and delicate weaving of fine, fluorescent +filaments of light in and out among the stars, until at times a perfect +network was formed, like lace amidst diamonds, first in one quarter of +the heavens, then in another, then stretching and weaving its web right +across the sky. The Yukon runs roughly north and south in these reaches, +and the general trend of the whole display was parallel with the river's +course. For an hour or more the ceaseless extension and looping of these +infinitely elastic threads of light went on, with constant variation in +their brilliance but no change in their form and never an instant's +cessation of motion. + +[Illustration: Photo by Paul Schultz. + +THE SUN DOGS.] + +[Illustration: "TAN," OF MIXED BREED.] + +[Illustration: "MUK," A PURE MALAMUTE.] + +Then the familiar feature of the draped aurora was introduced, always a +beautiful sight to watch. Slowly and most gracefully issued out of the +north band after band, band after band of pale-green fire, each curling +and recurling on itself like the ribbon that carries the motto under a +shield of arms, and each continually fraying out its lower edge into +subdued rainbow tints. Then these bands, never for a moment still, were +gathered up together to the zenith, till from almost all round the +horizon vibrant meridians of light stretched up to a crown of glory +almost but not quite directly overhead, so bright that all the waving +bands that now assumed more the appearance of its rays paled before it. +Then the crown began to revolve, and as it revolved with constantly +increasing speed, it gathered all its rays into one gigantic spiral that +travelled as it spun towards the east until all form was dissipated in a +nebulous mist that withdrew behind the mountains and glowered there like +a dawn and left the skies void of all light save the stars. It was a +fine instance of the stupendous sportiveness of the aurora that +sometimes seems to have no more law or rule than the gambolling of a +kitten, and to build up splendid and majestic effects merely to "whelm +them all in wantonness" a moment later. A particularly fine and striking +phase of an aurora is very likely to be followed by some such sudden +whimsical destruction. It was as though that light hidden behind the +mountains were mocking us. + +Then from out the north again appeared one clear belt of light that +stretched rapidly and steadily all across the heavens until it formed an +arch that stood there stationary. And from that motionless arch, the +only motionless manifestation that whole night, there came a gradual +superb crescendo of light that lit the wide, white river basin from +mountain top to mountain top and threw the shadows of the dogs and the +sled sharper and blacker upon the snow,--and in the very moment of its +climax was gone again utterly while yet the exclamations of wonder were +on our lips. It was as though, piqued at our admiration, the aurora had +wiped itself out; and often and often there is precisely that impression +of wilfulness about it. + +All night long the splendour kept up, and all night long, as the dogs +went at a good clip and one of us rode while the other was at the +sled's handle-bars, we gazed and marvelled at its infinite variety, at +its astonishing fertility of effect, at its whimsical vagaries, until +the true dawn of Easter swallowed up the beauty of the night as we came +in sight of Eagle. And we wondered with what more lavish advertisement +the dawn of the first Easter was heralded into the waste places of the +snow. + +[Sidenote: SOUND AND SMELL] + +There are men in Alaska, whose statements demand every respect, who +claim to have heard frequently and unmistakably a swishing sound +accompanying the movements of the aurora, and there are some who claim +to have detected an odour accompanying it. Without venturing any opinion +on the subject in general, the writer would simply say that, though he +thinks he possesses as good ears and as good a nose as most people, he +has never heard any sound or smelled any odour that he believed to come +from the Northern Lights. Indeed, he has often felt that with all the +light-producing energy and with all the rapid movement of the aurora it +was mysterious that there should be absolutely no sound. The aurora +often looks as if it _ought_ to swish, but to his ears it has never done +it; so much phosphorescent light might naturally be accompanied by some +chemical odour, but to his nostrils never has been. + +Queer, uncertain noises in the silence of an arctic night there often +are--noises of crackling twigs, perhaps, noises of settling snow, noises +in the ice itself--but they are to be heard when there is no aurora as +well as when there is. It is rare to stand on the banks of the Yukon on +a cold night and not hear some faint crepitating sounds, sometimes +running back and forth across the frozen river, sometimes resembling the +ring of distant skates. Without offering any pronouncement upon what is +a very interesting question, it seems to the writer possible that, to an +ear intently listening, some such noise coinciding with a decided +movement of a great auroral streamer might seem to be caused by the +movement it happened to accompany. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE ALASKAN DOGS + + +[Sidenote: MALAMUTE, HUSKY, AND SIWASH] + +THERE are two breeds of native dogs in Alaska, and a third that is +usually spoken of as such. The malamute is the Esquimau dog; and what +for want of a better name is called the "Siwash" is the Indian dog. Many +years ago the Hudson Bay voyageurs bred some selected strains of +imported dog with the Indian dogs of those parts, or else did no more +than carefully select the best individuals of the native species and +bred from them exclusively--it is variously stated--and that is the +accepted origin of the "husky." The malamute and the husky are the two +chief sources of the white man's dog teams, though cross-breeding with +setters and pointers, hounds of various sorts, mastiffs, Saint Bernards, +and Newfoundlands has resulted in a general admixture of breeds, so that +the work dogs of Alaska are an heterogeneous lot to-day. It should also +be stated that the terms "malamute" and "husky" are very generally +confused and often used interchangeably. + +The malamute, the Alaskan Esquimau dog, is precisely the same dog as +that found amongst the natives of Baffin's Bay and Greenland. Knud +Rasmunsen and Amundsen together have established the oneness of the +Esquimaux from the east coast of Greenland all round to Saint Michael; +they are one people, speaking virtually one language. And the malamute +dog is one dog. A photograph that Admiral Peary prints of one of the +Smith Sound dogs that pulled his sled to the North Pole would pass for a +photograph of one of the present writer's team, bred on the Koyukuk +River, the parents coming from Kotzebue Sound. + +There was never animal better adapted to environment than the malamute +dog. His coat, while it is not fluffy, nor the hair long, is yet so +dense and heavy that it affords him a perfect protection against the +utmost severity of cold. His feet are tough and clean, and do not +readily accumulate snow between the toes and therefore do not easily get +sore--which is the great drawback of nearly all "outside" dogs and their +mixed progeny. He is hardy and thrifty and does well on less food than +the mixed breeds; and, despite Peary to the contrary, he will eat +anything. "He will not eat anything but meat," says Peary; "I have tried +and I know." No dog accustomed to a flesh diet willingly leaves it for +other food; the dog is a carnivorous animal. But hunger will whet his +appetite for anything that his bowels can digest. "Muk," the counterpart +of Peary's "King Malamute," has thriven for years on his daily ration of +dried fish, tallow, and rice, and eats biscuits and doughnuts whenever +he can get them. The malamute is affectionate and faithful and likes to +be made a pet of, but he is very jealous and an incorrigible fighter. He +has little of the fawning submissiveness of pet dogs "outside," but is +independent and self-willed and apt to make a troublesome pet. However, +pets that give little trouble seldom give much pleasure. + +His comparative shortness of leg makes him somewhat better adapted to +the hard, crusted snow of the coast than to the soft snow of the +interior, but he is a ceaseless and tireless worker who loves to pull. +His prick ears, always erect, his bushy, graceful tail, carried high +unless it curl upon the back as is the case with some, his compact coat +of silver-grey, his sharp muzzle and black nose and quick narrow eyes +give him an air of keenness and alertness that marks him out amongst +dogs. When he is in good condition and his coat is taken care of he is a +handsome fellow, and he will weigh from seventy-five to eighty-five or +ninety pounds. + +The husky is a long, rangy dog, with more body and longer legs than the +malamute and with a shorter coat. The coat is very thick and dense, +however, and furnishes a sufficient protection. A good, spirited husky +will carry his tail erect like a malamute, but the ears are not +permanently pricked up; they are mobile. He is, perhaps, the general +preference amongst dog drivers in the interior, but he has not the +graceful distinction of appearance of the malamute. + +The "Siwash" dog is the common Indian dog; generally undersized, uncared +for, half starved most of the time, and snappish because not handled +save with roughness. In general appearance he resembles somewhat a small +malamute, though, indeed, nowadays so mixed have breeds become that he +may be any cur or mongrel. He is a wonderful little worker, and the +loads he will pull are astonishing. Sometimes, with it all, he is an +attractive-looking fellow, especially when there has been a good moose +or caribou killing and he has gorged upon the refuse and put some flesh +upon his bones. And if one will take a little trouble to make friends +with him he likes petting as much as any dog. Most Indian dogs "don't +sabe white man," and will snap at one's first advances. On the whole, it +is far better to let them alone; for, encouraged at all, they are +terrible thieves--what hungry creatures are not?--and make all sorts of +trouble with one's own team. The pure malamute and the pure husky do not +bark at all, they howl; barking is a sure sign of an admixture of other +strains. + +[Sidenote: DOG BREEDING] + +Here it may be worth while to say a few words about the general belief +that dogs in Alaska are interbred with wolves. That the dog and the wolf +have a common origin there can be no doubt, and that they will +interbreed is equally sure, but diligent inquiry on the part of the +writer for a number of years, throughout all interior Alaska, amongst +whites and natives, has failed to educe one authentic instance of +intentional interbreeding, has failed to discover one man who knows of +his own knowledge that any living dog is the offspring of such union. + +While, therefore, it is not here stated that such cross-breeding has not +taken place, or even that it does not take place, yet the author is +satisfied that it is a very rare thing, indeed, and that the common +stories of dogs that are "half wolf" are fabulous. + +Indeed, it seems a rare thing when any sort of pains is taken about the +breeding of dogs. In a country where dogs are so important, where they +are indispensable for any sort of travel during six or seven months in +the year over by far the greater portion of it, one would expect that +much attention would be paid to dog breeding; but this is not the case. +Here and there a man who takes pride in a team will carefully mate the +best available couple and carefully rear their offspring, but for the +most part breeding seems left to chance. A team all of malamutes or all +of huskies, a matched team of any sort, is the exception, and excites +interest and remark. + +The market for dogs is so uncertain that it is doubtful if there would +be any money in scientific breeding for the trail. When a stampede to +new diggings takes place, the price of dogs rises enormously. Any sort +of good dog on the spot may be worth a hundred dollars, or a hundred and +fifty, and the man with a kennel would make a small fortune out of hand. +But at other times it is hard to get twenty-five dollars for the best of +dogs. + +The cost of maintenance of a dog team is considerable. When the +mail-routes went all down the Yukon, and dogs were used exclusively, the +contracting company estimated that it cost seventy-five dollars per head +per annum to feed its dogs; while to the traveller in remote regions, +buying dog feed in small parcels here and there, the cost is not less +than one hundred dollars per head. Of course, a man engaged in dog +raising would have his own fish-wheel on the Yukon and would catch +almost all that his dogs would eat. Fish is plentiful in Alaska; it is +transportation that costs. Dogs not working can do very well on +straight dried fish, but for the working dog this ration is supplemented +by rice and tallow or other cereal and fat; not only because the animal +does better on it, but also because straight dried fish is a very bulky +food, and weight for weight goes not nearly so far. Cooking for the dogs +is troublesome, but economical of weight and bulk, and conserves the +vigour of the team. In the summer-time the dogs are still an expense. +They must be boarded at some fish camp, at a cost of about five dollars +per head per month. + +The white man found the dog team in use amongst the natives all over the +interior, but he taught the Indian how to drive dogs. The natives had +never evolved a "leader." Some fleet stripling always ran ahead, and the +dogs followed. The leader, guided by the voice, "geeing" and "hawing," +stopping and advancing at the word of command, is a white man's +innovation, though now universally adopted by the natives. So is the dog +collar. The "Siwash harness" is simply a band that goes round the +shoulders and over the breast. In the interior the universal "Siwash" +hitch was tandem, and is yet, but as trails have widened and improved, +more and more the tendency grows amongst white men to hitch two abreast; +and the most convenient rig is a lead line to which each dog is attached +independently by a single-tree, either two abreast, or, by adding a +further length to the lead line, one behind the other, so that on a +narrow trail the tandem rig may be quickly resorted to. + +[Sidenote: THE DOCKING OF TAILS] + +One advantage of the change from single to double rig is the decay of +the cruel custom of "bobbing" the dogs' tails. When dogs are hitched +one close behind the other (and the closer the better for pulling) the +tail of the dog in front becomes heavy with ice from the condensation of +the breath of the dog behind, until not only is he carrying weight but +the use of the tail for warmth at night is foregone. So it was the +universal practice to cut tails short off. But sleeping out in the open, +as travelling dogs often must do, in all sorts of weather, with the +thermometer at 50° or 60° below zero sometimes, a thick, bushy tail is a +great protection to a dog. With it he covers nose and feet and is tucked +up snug and warm. It is the dog's natural protection for the muzzle and +the thinly haired extremities. A few years ago almost all work dogs in +the interior were bobtailed; now the plumes wave over the teams again. + +Five dogs are usually considered the minimum team, and seven dogs make a +good team. A good, quick-travelling load for a dog team is fifty pounds +to the dog, on ordinary trails. The dogs will pull as much as one +hundred pounds apiece or more, but that becomes more like freighting +than travelling. On a good level trail with strong big dogs, men +sometimes haul two hundred pounds to the dog. These, however, are +"gee-pole propositions," in the slang of the trail, and the man is doing +hard work with a band around his chest and the pole in his hand. For +quick travelling, fifty pounds to the dog is enough. + +The most useful "outside" strains that the white man has introduced into +the dogs of the interior are the pointer and setter and collie. The +bird-dogs themselves make very fast teams and soon adapt themselves to +the climate, but their feet will not stand the strain. The collie's +intelligence would make him a most admirable leader, did he not have so +pronouncedly the faults of his good qualities; he wants to do all the +work; he works himself to death. It is the leader's business to keep the +team strung out; it is not his business to pull the load. But the +admixture of these strains with the native blood has produced some very +fine dogs. The Newfoundland and Saint Bernard strains have been perhaps +the least successful admixtures. They are too heavy and cumbersome and +always have tender feet; their bodies and the bodies of their mongrel +progeny are too heavy for their feet. + +[Sidenote: DOG LOYALTY] + +The last statement, with regard to Newfoundland and Saint Bernard dogs, +has an interesting exception. There is a dog, not uncommon in Alaska, +that by a curious inversion of phrase is known as the "one-man-dog." +What is meant is the "one-dog-man dog," the dog that belongs to the man +that uses only one dog. Many and many a prospector pulls his whole +winter grub-stake a hundred miles or more into the hills with the aid of +one dog. His progress is slow, in bad places or on up grades he must +relay, and all the time he is doing more work than the dog is, but he +manages to get his stuff to his cabin or his camp with no other aid than +one dog can give. It is usually a large heavy dog--speed never being +asked of him, nor steady continuous winter work--often of one of the +breeds mentioned, or of its predominant strain. The companionship +between such a man and such a dog is very close, and the understanding +complete. Sometimes the dog will be his master's sole society for the +whole winter. + +Indeed, any man of feeling who spends the winters with a dog team must +grow to a deep sympathy with the animals, and to a keen, sometimes +almost a poignant, sense of what he owes to them. There is a mystery +about domestic animals of whatever kind. It is a mystery that man should +be able to impose his will upon them, change their habits and +characters, constrain them to his tasks, take up all their lives with +unnatural toil. And that he should get affection and devotion in return +makes the mystery yet more mysterious. + +The dog gets his food--often of poor quality and scant quantity--and +that is all he gets. Yet the life of a work dog that has a kind and +considerate master is not an unhappy one. The dog is as full of the +canine joy of life as though he had never worn a collar, and not only +sports and gambols when free, but really seems to like his work and do +it gladly. He will chafe at inaction; he will come eagerly to the +harness in the morning; often will come before he is called and ask to +be harnessed; and if for any reason--lameness or galled neck or sore +feet--a dog is cut out of the team temporarily, to run loose, he will +try at every chance to get back into his place and will often attack the +dog that seems to him to be occupying it; while a dog left behind will +howl most piteously and make desperate efforts to break his chain and +rejoin his companions and his labour. And the wonderful and pitiful +thing about it is that no sort of severity or brutality on his master's +part will destroy that zealous allegiance. The dog in Alaska is +absolutely dependent upon man for subsistence, and he seems to realise +it. + +There is a great deal of cruelty and brutality amongst dog drivers in +Alaska. At times, it is true, most dogs need some punishment. Dogs +differ as much as men do, and some are lazy and some are self-willed. +The best of them will develop bad trail habits if they are allowed +to--habits which will prove hard to break by and by and be a continual +source of delay and annoyance until broken. But a very slight +punishment, judicially administered at the moment, will usually suffice +just as well as a severe one, and the main source of brutality in the +punishment of dogs is sheer bad temper on the part of the driver, and +has for its only possible end, not the correction of the animal's fault +but the satisfaction of its owner's rage. To see some hulking, +passionate brute lashing a poor little dog with a chain, or beating him +with a club; to see dogs overworked to utter exhaustion and their +lagging steps still hastened by a rain of blows, these are the sickening +sights of the trail--and they are not uncommon. The language of most dog +drivers to their dogs consists of a mixture of cursing and ribaldry, +excused by the statement that only by the use of such speech may dogs be +driven at all. But there is little point in the excuse; such speech is, +to an extent not far from universal, the speech of the country. Swedes +who have little and Indians who have none other English will yet be +volubly profane and obscene; in the latter case often with complete +ignorance of the meaning of the terms. Yet it must be recorded not +ungratefully by the impartial observer that the rare presence of a +decent woman or a clergyman will almost always put a check upon +blackguardly speech, even that of a dog driver; women and clergymen +being supposed the only two classes who could have any possible +objection to foulness of mouth. To refer continually to the excrements +of the body, to sexual commerce, natural and unnatural, all in the +grossest terms, and to mix these matters intimately with the sacred +names, is "manly" speech amongst a large part of the population of +Alaska. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: REINDEER] + +[Sidenote: REINDEER AS DRAUGHT ANIMALS] + +It has been claimed with justice that the introduction of the reindeer +into Alaska has been highly successful; yet there is much misconception +amongst people "outside" as to the nature of that success. Stimulated by +the example of the United States Government, and urged thereto by Doctor +Wilfred Grenfell and others, the Canadian Government is now introducing +reindeer into Labrador; and the distinguished missionary physician, +whose recent decoration gives lustre to the royal bestower as well as to +the recipient, has publicly announced his hope that these domesticated +herbivora will "eliminate that scourge of the country, the husky dog." +To announce such a hope, based upon any results in Alaska, is to +announce misconception of the nature of the success which has attended +Doctor Sheldon Jackson's "reindeer experiment." There is not a dog the +less in Alaska because of the reindeer, nor ever will be; in so far as +similarity of conditions warrant us in expecting similar results, it is +safe to predict that the reindeer will never "eliminate the husky dog" +in Labrador. + +But before discussing the success of the reindeer experiment and its +lack of any bearing upon the number or the usefulness of the dog, the +writer would pause to take strong exception to the description of the +husky dog as the "scourge" of Labrador, and would insist that any such +wholesale condemnation is a boomerang that returns upon the head of the +Labradorian who uses it. For, as the dog is one of the most adaptable of +all domestic animals, and is, to an amazing extent, what his master +makes him, to bring a railing accusation against the whole race of dogs +is in reality to accuse those who breed and rear them. + +Why should the dog have richly earned the gratitude and affection of all +the world except Labrador? Why should he be called the "Friend of Man" +everywhere except amongst these particular people? Far to the north of +them the Esquimaux prize and cherish their dogs. Throughout the whole +wide region to the west and northwest of them the dog is man's +indispensable ally and faithful servant. The same husky dog has made +good his claim upon man in Alaska. It is he and his brother, the +malamute, that have opened up Alaska so far as it has been opened; +without whom to-day the development of the country would suddenly cease. +And to the question that is often asked "outside," as to whether the +Alaskan dog is not a savage beast, it is justly replied: "Not unless he +happens to belong to a savage beast." Is it really otherwise anywhere? +Instead of the reindeer eliminating the dog, there is far greater +likelihood of the dog eliminating the reindeer; and the professed dog +lover, indignant at the opprobrious term applied to a whole race of +dogs, may be disposed to echo Lady Macbeth's wish: "May good digestion +wait on appetite." + +So far as substituting another draught animal for the dog is concerned, +if the whole equine tribe, even down to Manchurian ponies should for +some strange reason be out of the question, the Canadian Government had +better import the polar ox or the yak. It is only amongst a nomadic +people, whose main quest is pasturage, that the reindeer is a +satisfactory draught animal. When introduced into Alaska there was +doubtless expectation that he would be generally useful in this +capacity. For a while certain mail-routes on the Seward Peninsula were +served by him, and here and there a deluded prospector put his +grub-stake on a reindeer sled. It is safe to say that no reindeer are so +employed to-day. They were soon abandoned on the mail trails, and the +prospector, after one season's experience, slaughtered his reindeer and +traded its meat and hide for a couple of dogs. + +Consider that the reindeer feeds upon one thing alone, the moss that is +named after him, and that while this moss is very widely distributed +indeed, throughout Alaska, it is not found at all in the river valleys +or the forests, but only upon the treeless hills at considerable +elevation. Now the rivers are the highways. It is on their frozen +surface, or on "portage" trails through the woods, that the greater part +of all travelling is done and, in particular, that established routes of +regular communication are maintained. To leave the trail after a day's +journey, to wander miles into the hills, to herd the deer while they +browse from slope to slope, digging the snow away in search of their +provender, is wholly incompatible with any sustained or regular travel. +The reindeer is a timid and almost defenceless creature. Wolves and +lynxes prey upon him. One lynx is thought to have killed upward of +twenty head in one season out of the herd that was stationed at Tanana, +leaping upon the backs of the creatures, cutting their throats, sucking +their blood, and riding them until they dropped and died. A few dogs +will soon work havoc in a herd. So the reindeer must be constantly +protected and at the same time must have range over a considerable scope +of country. The care of reindeer is a business in itself, not a mere +detail of the business of transportation or travel. + +[Sidenote: DOG FOOD] + +On the other hand, the dog's ration for many days is carried on the sled +he hauls. There is a definite limit to it, of course, and knowledge of +this limit made every experienced dog driver incredulous, from the +first, of Doctor Cook's claim to have travelled some eleven hundred +miles, from Etah to the North Pole and back, with a team of dogs hauling +their own food. It is possible, however, on fair trails, with rigid +economy, to travel five hundred miles and haul dog food and man food and +the other indispensables of a long journey; and that is twice as far as +it is ever necessary to travel in the interior of Alaska without +reaching a supply point, the northern slope to the Arctic Ocean +excepted. + +Perhaps it would be putting it better to say that a team of seven dogs +can haul their own and their driver's food and the camp equipment, all, +of course, carefully reduced to a minimum, for a month. Dog food of one +sort or another can be bought at any place where anything whatever is +sold. Almost any Indian village will furnish dried fish, and it is often +possible, with no other weapon than a .22 rifle, to feed dogs largely on +the country through which they pass. The writer's team has had many a +meal of ptarmigan, rabbits, quail, and spruce hen, while to enumerate +other articles, on which at times and in stress for proper food, his +dogs have sustained life and strength for travel, would be to enumerate +all the common human comestibles. Aside from the usual ration of fish, +tallow, and rice boiled together, corn-meal, beans, flour, oatmeal, sago +(though that is poor stuff), tapioca, canned meats of all kinds, canned +salmon, even canned kippered herring from Scotland, seal oil, seal and +whale flesh, ham and bacon, horse flesh, moose and caribou and +mountain-sheep flesh, canned "Boston brown bread," canned butter, canned +milk, dried apples, sugar, cheese, crackers of all kinds, and a score of +other matters have at times entered into their food. Dogs have been +"tided over" tight places for days and days on horse oats boiled with +tallow candles, working the while. Anything that a man can eat, and much +that even a starving man would scarcely eat, will make food for dogs. At +the last and worst, dog can be fed to dog and even to man. When a dog +team reaches a mining camp where supplies of all sorts are scarce--and +that is not an uncommon experience--it is sometimes an exceedingly +expensive matter to feed it; but something can always be found that +will serve to keep it going until the return to a better-stocked region. +In the winter of 1910-11, when there was such scarcity in the Iditarod, +it cost the writer thirty-nine dollars and fifty cents to feed seven +dogs for a week, and he has more than once been at almost a similar +charge in the Koyukuk. But in all his travels he has never yet been +unable to procure some sort of food for his dogs. At times they have +been fed for days on rabbits straight; at times on ptarmigan straight. + +[Sidenote: THE REINDEER'S USEFULNESS] + +Speaking broadly, the reindeer is a stupid, unwieldy, and intractable +brute, not comparing for a moment with the dog in intelligence or +adaptability. The common notion that his name is derived from the use of +reins in driving him, thus putting him in the class with the horse, is a +mistake; the word comes from a Norse root which refers to his +moss-browsing habit. The "rein" with which he is driven is a rope tied +around one of his horns. He has no cognisance of "gee" and "haw," nor of +any other vocal direction, but must be yanked hither and thither with +the rope by main force; while to stop him in his mad career, once he is +started, it is often necessary to throw him with the rope. In Lapland +there are doubtless individual deer better trained; the Lap herders tell +of them with pride; but in the main this is a just description of +reindeer handling. All the chief herders in Alaska are Laps, brought +over for their knowledge of the animals, and the writer has repeatedly +ridden behind some of their best deer. + +Wherein, then, lies the success of the reindeer experiment in Alaska? +Chiefly in the provision of a regular meat supply by which the natives +and whites in the vicinity of a herd are relieved from the +precariousness of the chase or the rapacity of the cold-storage butcher +company. The Esquimau, having served his allotted apprenticeship of five +years and entered upon possession of a herd, can at any time kill and +dress a "kid of the flock" for his family or for the market. The price +of butcher's meat has been kept down all over the Seward Peninsula by +the competition of the numerous reindeer herds, to the comfort of the +population and the exasperation of the butcher company, and many an +Esquimau has become passably rich. The skin of the animal also furnishes +a warm and much-needed material for clothing and finds a ready sale at a +good price. + +This success is, however, confined so far to the coast. The herds have +not thriven in the interior and have now all been withdrawn to the +coast. Beasts of prey killed them; a hoof disease destroyed many; others +are supposed to have died from eating some poisonous fungus. In five or +six years the herd at Tanana had not increased at all, but rather +diminished, and the same is true of the other herds on the Yukon. The +Indian, moreover, does not take to herding as the Esquimau does, and can +hardly be induced to the segregation of himself and his family from his +tribe which reindeer herding involves. The "apprentices" on the Yukon +were nearly all of them Esquimaux from the coast. + +It may be that the salt of the coast region is essential to the +well-being of the reindeer; it is not so with the caribou--and the +reindeer is nothing but a domesticated caribou--many herds of which, in +the interior of Alaska, never visit the coast at all; but all caribou +herds have their salt-licks, and one wishes that the oft-recommended +plan of furnishing salt for the herds in the interior had been adopted +by the government for a season before their removal was determined upon. + +Like most other "resources" of Alaska, the imported reindeer, at first +decried and ridiculed, has now become the slender foundation for +extravagant speculations of prosperity. The "millions of acres waiting +for the plough" in the interior have lately been supplemented in this +visionary treasury by the capitalisation of the vast tundras of the +coast, the golden wheat-fields of the one finding counterpart in the +multitudinous herds of the other. The growing dearth of cattle-range in +the United States offers, it seems, to Alaska the opportunity of +supplying the American market with meat, and the kindling fancy of the +enthusiastic "booster" sees trains loaded with frozen reindeer meat +rolling into Chicago. + +While the reindeer will never supersede the dog as a draught animal +anywhere, the horse is rapidly superseding him on good trails in the +more settled and peopled regions. In the Fairbanks and Nome districts, +in the Circle and Koyukuk districts, in the Fortymile and in the +Iditarod--in all districts where any extensive mining is carried +on--heavy freights are moved by horses, and this tendency will doubtless +increase rather than diminish. The dog team cannot compete with the +horse team when it comes to moving heavy loads over good trails. The +grain that the horse eats is imported, and in the main will probably +always be imported, but oats cut green and properly cared for make +excellent fodder, and the native hay, while not nearly as nutritious as +the imported timothy, will sufficiently supplement grain. + +We hear a great deal nowadays of the benefits which are to come to +Alaska from the railroad which the United States is expected to build +from tide-water to the Yukon, and the clamorous voices of the journalist +and the professional promoter and politician, which seem the only voices +which ever reach the ear of government, are insistent that this is the +one great thing that will bring prosperity to the country. Yet the +writer is confident that he expresses almost the unanimous opinion of +those who live in the country, outside of the classes mentioned, when he +says that if the amount of money which this railroad will cost were +expended upon good highways and trails the benefit would be much +greater. It is means of intercommunication between the various parts of +the country that is the great need of Alaska; some of its most promising +sections are almost inaccessible now or accessible only at great trouble +and expense. Access to the country itself, for the introduction of +merchandise, is furnished easily enough during three or four months of +the year by its incomparable system of waterways. Good highways, well +engineered and well maintained, over which horse teams could be used +summer and winter, would remove much of what at present is the almost +prohibitive cost of distributing that merchandise from river points. +Such roads would give an enormous stimulus to prospecting, and would +render it possible to work gold placers all over the country that are of +too low grade to be worked at the present rates of transportation. A +_really_ good highway from Valdez to Fairbanks and the making of the +long-ago begun Valdez-Eagle road; a good highway from Fairbanks to the +upper Tanana as far as the Nabesna, connecting with the one from the +Copper River country and the coast; another from the Yukon into the +Koyukuk and the Chandalar; another from Fairbanks into the Kantishna, +connecting with one from the lower Kuskokwim and one from the Iditarod; +a road from Eagle across the almost unknown region (save for the line of +the 141st meridian) between the Yukon and the Porcupine Rivers; two or +three roads between the Yukon and the Tanana; a road from the Koyukuk to +Kotzebue Sound--these would constitute main arteries of travel and would +open up the country as no trunk railroad will ever do. The expense would +be great, both of construction and maintenance, but it would probably +not be greater than the cost of constructing and maintaining the +proposed railroad. Twenty or thirty ordinary freight trains a year would +bring in all the goods that Alaska consumes. Before that amount can be +very greatly increased there must be a large development of the means by +which it is to be distributed throughout the country. + +Some day, perhaps, these roads will be made, and the horse, not the dog, +will be the draught animal upon them. Yet it would be a rash conclusion +that even then the time will be at hand when there will be no longer +use for the work dog in Alaska. Away from these main arteries of travel +he will still be employed. So long as great part of the land remains a +noble arctic wilderness; so long as the prospector strikes farther and +farther into the rugged mountains; so long as quick travel over great +stretches of country is necessary or desirable; so long as the salmon +swarm up the rivers to furnish food for the catching; so long as the +Indian moves from fishing camp to village and from village to hunting +camp--so long will the dog be hitched to the sled in Alaska; so long +will his joyful yelp and his plaintive whine be heard in the land; so +long will his warm tongue seek his master's hand, even the hand that +strikes him, and his eloquent eyes speak his utter allegiance. + + + + +INDEX + + + + +INDEX + + + Agriculture, 228, 229, 230, 231, 367 + + Alarm-clocks, 304 + + Alatna River, 70 + + Albert the pilot, 60 + + Allakaket, 190-195 + + Alphabet, 69 + + Amundsen, 292, 392 + + Animals, wild, 257, 276, 277, 298, 405 + + Anthropologists, 270 + + Arctic Ocean, 97, 98 + + Army posts: economic value, 151 + discipline and life, 217 + frequent changes, 217 + surgeons, 218 + + Arthur, 158, 163 + + Athabascan language, 349 + + Atler, 170, 171 + + Auroras, 46, 380-391 + + + Baker Creek Springs, 155 + + Bathing, 85 + + Beaver City, 345 + + Bering Sea, 129 + + Betticher, C. E., 254 + + Bettles, 54, 56, 63 + + Black fox, 258, 362 + + Blizzard, 40 + + Blossom Cape, 103, 106 + + Blow-holes, 13 + + Bluff, 126 + + Bompas, Bishop, 283 + + Brook, Alfred, 309 + + Burke, Dr., 158, 167, 169, 187 + + + Caching, 17, 20, 70, 335 + + Camp: making details, 41, 42, 43 + night made, 91 + devices, 243 + in wet snow, 302 + + Camp-Robbers, 335, 299, 300 + + Candle, 102 + + Candles, 108, 109 + + Caribou, 107, 409 + + Carter, Miss, 184 + + Chandalar: River, 26, 27, 35 + village, 27, 28, 29, 34 + Gap, 36, 37 + + Chatanika River, 4, 6, 8 + + Chena, 156, 249, 250 + + Chief Isaac, 263 + + Chinnik, 127 + + Choris Peninsula, 106 + + Circle City, 11, 20, 290 + + Clearwater Creek, 256 + + Clothes: drying, 42, 53 + moose hide, 202, 203 + tuberculosis, 306, 362 + missions, 363 + + Coal, 92, 93 + + Coldfoot, 47, 48, 49 + + Cook, Dr., 405 + + Cooking: camp dishes, 43 + cleanliness, 85 + bear meat, 168 + by relays, 209 + for dog, 397 + + Council, 116 + + Creepers, 111 + + Cribbage, 124 + + + Death Valley, 112, 113 + + Denali (Mt. McKinley), 225, 305 + + Deputy marshals, 365 + + Development schemes, 410, 411 + + Diphtheria, 28, 29, 32, 287, 313 + + Disease: epidemic, 6; _cf._ diphtheria, measles, tuberculosis + + Dishkaket, 332 + + Disinfectants, 32 + + Dogs: price of, 4 + frozen toes, 8 + sled, 20, 25, 45 + beds, 42 + food, 44, 407 + harness, 45 + tails, 45 + fight, 93 + digging up snow, 110 + helpless on smooth ice, 113 + conscience, 115 + on fish food, 115 + with reindeer, 119, 120 + refuse to lead, 125 + preference for land trails, 129 + intelligence, 139, 156; _cf._ Nanook + strength, 174 + dislike wet feet, 178 + cost of boarding, 181 + in trail making, 200 + in soft weather, 213 + suffering on steep trails, 214 + companionship, 223 + moccasin leggings, 224 + houses, 232, 237 + play, 234 + intelligence, 234, 237 + sleeping, 235 + thieving, 236 + partners of man, 238 + working life, 239 + frozen foot, 253 + with no coat, 275 + and Indians, 291 + howling, 303, 304 + stray, 320, 321 + general characteristics, 392-402 + cost of maintenance, 396 + ill used by whites, 397 + + + Eagle, 285 + + Eagle Summit, 10, 11 + + Education: spread of English, 23, 24 + phonograph, 52 + scientific, 58 + novel methods, 80 + ignorance of native language, 81 + artificial methods, 131 + mission, 132, 355 + + Egbert Fort, 286 + + Endicott Mountains, 62 + + Esquimaux: sense of humour, 51, 87 + isolated, 62 + huts, 70 + as hunters, 75 + prayers, 82 + music, 82 + morality, 83 + industry, 86 + Sabbatarianism, 88 + sense of distance, 91 + fish eating, 92 + gut windows, 94 + devoutness, 95 + sleeping customs, 95 + undemonstrativeness, 95 + igloos, 96 + non-alcoholic, 99 + tobacco, 99 + hospitality, 106 + carving, 124 + singing, 130 + attitude of white men toward, 134 + snow goggles, 146 + kindly manners, 182 + antipathy to Indians, 185, 265 + superstitions, 191, 269 + + + Fairbanks, 156, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 382 + + Farthing, Miss, 244, 246, 247, 248 + + Fish Creek, 297 + + Forts: Alaskan, 342 + + Fortymilers, 280 + + Fortymile River, 281, 282 + + + Gambling, 279 + + Game, 257, 277, 325, 368, 369, 406 + + Gold train, 5 + + Greek Church, 310, 322 + + Grenfell, Dr., 402 + + Grimm, Charles, 56 + + + Half-breeds, 315, 316, 318, 319 + + Hamlin, Fort, 342 + + Hammond River, 47 + + Hans, 102, 103, 105 + + Hip-ring, 226 + + Hobo, the frozen, 134, 135 + + Hogatzitna, 76 + + Horses, 409, 410, 411 + + Hospitality, _cf._ Esquimaux and Indians, 49 + + Hot Springs, 227, 228 + + Hotham Inlet, 96 + + Hudson Bay Company, 21, 22 + + Husky, 392 + + + Ice: glare, 9 + rubber, 9, 179, 180 + blow-holes, 13 + bluffs, 79 + mining, 126, 160, 161 + jam, 167 + breaking, 170 + way to determine holding capacity, 179 + + Iditarod City, 294, 295, 296, 297, 327 + + Igloo, 96, 106 + + Indians: civilized, 24 + uncivilized, 25 + religion, 30 + language, 141 + trade with, 152, 153 + diminishing, 153, 154 + disease, 154 + relations with whites, 173 + dancing and sports, 189 + preparation for death, 190 + effect of civilization, 192, 193 + lack of initiative, 197 + demoralization, 216, 278, 279 + birth-rate and death-rate, 217, 218 + best education for, 245 + women teachers, 246, 247 + kindliness, 254 + traders, 258 + hospitality, 261, 303 + missions, 263, 279 + not savages, 264 + fear of Esquimaux, 265 + peaceable, 266 + not idolators, 267 + Christianity, 268, 270 + moral character, 285 + pauperization, 288, 289 + cruelty to dogs, 291 + effect of reproof, 292 + self-government, 293 + whites, 293 + epidemics, 308, 312, 313 + at mercy of traders, 311 + half-breed, 315 + and whites, 317, 318 + meat carriers, 332 + carving, 334 + general discussion of, 348-370 + and photographs, 378 + + Interpreters, 154, 155, 186 + + + Jackson, Dr. S., 402 + + Jade Mountains, 89 + + Jetté, Fr., 140, 141 + + John River, 62 + + Journalism, 250 + + + Kikitaruk, 98, 102 + + Knapp, 100 + + Kobuk: River, 63, 76 + Mountains, 74 + missionary, 80 + town, 182 + + Kobuks, 51 + + Kotzebue, 106, 107 + Sound, 63, 97, 102 + + Koyukuk: River, 39, 40, 48, 52, 65, 384 + Cañon, 52 + deserted towns, 65 + Indians, 158, 142 + mission, 183 + + Krusenstern, 97 + + Kuskokwim River, 322, 323 + + + Lamps, 34 + + Langdon, Captain, 288 + + Launch, motor, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163 + + Lewis Cut-Off, 333 + + Lingo, 51, 115, 239 + + London, Jack, 265 + + Long Beach, 84, 88 + + Lookout Mountain, 61 + + Loomis, Dr., 296 + + Lower ramparts, 219 + + Lunar: phenomena, 18, 157 + eclipse, 78 + + Lynx, 405 + + + MacDonald, Archdeacon, 22, 23, 30, 31 + + Magistrates, 364 + + Mail carrying, 215, 331 + + Malamute, 392 + + Mal-de-raquet, 201 + + Mansfield Lake, 271 + + Matches, 243 + + Measles, 312 + + Medicine men, 246, 247, 267, 268 + + Melozitna, 209 + + Menthol balm, 201 + + Meteorological: phenomena, heat radiation, 55 + rain, rare in winter, 134 + local weather changes, 144 + variable climate in Alaska, 188 + cause of fluctuating temperature readings, 195, 196 + + Minchúmina, 307, 308 + Lake, 303 + + Mining: towns and camps, 5, 6, 11, 12, 47, 48, 65, 251, 252 + town morality, 83, 84, 328, 354 + luxurious life, 108, 122 + fires, 116, 330 + on beach, 123 + in ice, 126 + decayed, 221, 222, 223, 284 + primitive methods, 281, 282 + claims, 295 + flimsy buildings, 328 + morals, 329 + services in, 330 + missionaries, 331 + agriculture, 366 + + Mirage, 90 + + Mission stations: schools, 355, 358 + clothing, 363, 369 + isolated, 369 + + Missionary: nurse, 33 + methods, 69, 81, 84, 194, 195, 307 + + Moccasins, 7 + + Money, 64 + + Moses' Village, 65, 180 + + Mountain: sunshine, 61 + temperature, 61 + + Mukluk, 7, 19, 86 + + Mush, 200, 214 + + + Nanook, 200, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 240 + + Natural religion, 58, 191, 267 + + Nelson, 161, 162 + + Nenana, 244, 245 + + Nicoli's Village, 322 + + Noatak, 90 + + Nome, 120, 122, 123 + + Northern Commercial Company, 241 + + Norton: Bay, 127 + Sound, 117 + + Nose protection, 87, 145 + + Noyutak Lake, 76 + + Nulato, 48, 140 + massacre, 142, 143 + + + Old Woman Mountain, 135 + + One-eyed William, 172, 173, 174 + + Overflow: water, 6, 7, 27, 37 + ice, 9 + + + Paraselene, 57 + + Parkee, 35, 71 + + Peary, Admiral, 393 + + Pedometer, 73 + + Petersen, 114, 115 + + Photographing, 241, 242 + + Photography, 371-379 + + Place names, 326 + + Point Hope, 3, 56, 97, 99, 100 + + Potatoes, 229 + + Potlatch, 310, 353 + + Prevost, Jules, 154 + + Prices, 324, 327, 362 + trading, 362, 396, 407 + + Prospectors: in winter, 78 + and Esquimaux, 88 + pinching out, 92 + ruined, 146 + self-reliance, 161, 162 + poet, 322 + imagination, 326 + knowledge of Bible, 328 + dogs, 399 + visions, 409 + railways, 410 + + Ptarmigan, 325 + + + Quikpak River, 153 + + + Raft, 256 + + Ragarou, Fr., 147 + + Railroads, 410, 411 + + Rampart City, 221, 222, 223, 338, 339 + + Rasmunsen, 392 + + Reading matter, 77, 205, 324, 325, 336 + + Red Mountain, 176 + + Reindeer, 119, 120, 402, 405, 407, 409 + + Roadhouse accommodation, 34, 324 + gambling, 128 + keepers of, 132 + talk, 289 + poet, 321, 322 + reading matter, 324, 325 + Arctic travel reminiscences, 335 + + Roxy, 70, 71, 72, 87, 91, 96, 101 + + Russian Alaska, 142, 143: Church of, _cf._ Greek Church + + + Saint John's-in-the-Wilderness, 188, 195 + + Salchaket, 254 + + Scientists, 269, 270 + + Seasons, 230 + + Seward Peninsula, 109, 111, 112, 113 + + Signal corps, 135, 136, 137, 220 + + Sishwóymina, 309 + + Siwashing, 41, 67, 138, 392, 394 + + Slate Creek, 46 + + Sled: width, 110 + brake, 113 + overturning, 113, 114 + improvised, 164 + in soft snow, 166 + use of willow saplings, 167, 179 + gee pole, 220 + convertible rig, 275 + unpacking, 345 + harness, 397 + team, 397 + weight carried, 398 + dog rations, load, 405 + + Sleeping bag, 104, 105 + + Smoke, 54 + + Snow banners, 39 + melting, 42 + glasses, 145, 146 + blindness, 146, 147, 148, 290 + + Snow-shoes, 7, 346 + + Society of Friends, 99 + + Solar: light, effect on speed-shutters, 374 + phenomena, 15, 16, 31, 39, 45, 57, 73, 74, 90, 103, 211 + + Solomon's, 126 + + Speed, 17, 20, 60, 75, 91, 96, 97, 110, 130, 198, 199, 299, 337 + + Squirrel River, 93, 94, 95 + + Starvation, 184, 185 + + Stefanson, 88, 268, 269 + + Summit, 11 + + + Takotna, 323 + + Tanana, 150, 151, 152, 216, 217, 255, 256, 258, 271, 273, 274, 337, 369 + River, 155, 255, 256 + + Tapis, 271 + + Telegraph system, 136 + + Temperature: low, travel, 14 + animal life, 16 + in river bottoms, 19, 50, 61 + effect on lamps, 34 + on parts of the body, 36 + on log huts, 37 + condensation, 53 + smoke, 54 + clear weather, 55 + wind, 57 + emotional power, 59 + death from freezing, 61, 66, 68 + cleanliness, 86 + altitude, effect of, 204 + greatest cold, effect of, 206 + fluctuations, 212 + confinement, 215 + effect on cameras and films, 372, 374 + on emulsions, 376, 377 + and auroras, 381 + high, 301 + effect on dirt roof, 346 + on Yukon River, 347 + + Thermos bottle, 261 + + Toboggan, 13, 37, 38, 46, 89 + + Topkok, 117 + + Town crier, 278 + + Tozitna, 209, 213 + + Trader: anti-monopolist, 241 + profits, 334 + missions, 258 + articles sold to Indians, 361 + + Trading monopoly, 144 + + Trail: river, 2, 13, 37 + dry and wet, 7 + mountain, 10, 38 + width, 15 + lost, 18, 19, 67, 104, 320 + blazed, 26 + wind-swept, 40 + in snow, 72, 138 + breaking, 74, 75 + exchange, 75 + with hard crust, 109 + telephone, 118 + effect of horses on, 149, 150 + cutting, 176 + making, 198 + always serpentine, 198 + staked, 198, 210 + widening, 202 + stage, 254 + double tripping, 298 + in soft snow, 301 + swampy, 332 + Yukon, 336 + in gale, 340 + "sidling," 341 + at night, 344 + in thaw, 346, 347 + found by aurora, 384 + + Tsórmina, 308 + + Tuberculosis, 359, 360 + + Twelve-Mile Summit, 9 + + + Unalaklík, 132 + + + Walter, 314, 321, 336, 341 + + Whiskey, 153, 222, 363 + + White, John, 121 + + Wind: protection against, 35 + different local velocities, 37 + physical labour, 46 + in extreme cold, 57 + as a malignant spirit, 112 + high velocities, 219 + in The Ramparts, 338 + + Wiseman, 47 + + Wolf, 395 + + + Yukon, 12, 139, 153, 219, 336, 351 + Flats, 12, 13, 343 + Fort, 21, 22, 24, 350 + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE INTERIOR OF ALASKA, SHOWING JOURNEYS DESCRIBED +IN THIS BOOK] + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 77, "Bergundy" changed to "Burgundy" (of Burgundy, with) + +Page 97, "rouch" changed to "rough" (over the rough ice) + +Page 306, sidenote "MINCHUMINA" changed to MINCHÚMINA" (THE MINCHÚMINA +FOLK) + +Page 334, "Iditerod" changed to "Iditarod" (Iditarod, now a whole) + +Page 361, "satteens" changed to "sateens" (velvets and sateens) + +Page 418, "Minchumina" changed to "Minchúmina" (Minchúmina, 307, 308) + +Page 420, "Unalaklik" changed to "Unalaklík" (Unalaklík, 132) + +For this text version, the w with the grave accent is denoted by ['w]. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled, by Hudson Stuck + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH A DOG SLED *** + +***** This file should be named 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