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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 + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH<br /> +A DOG SLED</h1> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i"></a><a href="images/i.png">[i]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</h3> + + +<div class='center'><b>THE ASCENT OF DENALI (MT. McKINLEY).</b></div> + +<div class='blockquot2'>A narrative of the first complete ascent of <span class="smcap">The Highest +Mountain in North America</span> and the most northerly +high mountain in the world.</div> + +<div class='center'>Profusely illustrated. 8vo. $1.75 <i>net</i></div> + +<div class="blockquot2"><p>"Few climbers have had such good fortune on a supreme +occasion, but few have better deserved it."</p> +<div class='right'> +—<i>London Spectator.</i><br /></div></div> +<p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii"></a><a href="images/ii.png">[ii]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 258px;"> +<a href="images/gs003.jpg"><img src="images/gs003_th.jpg" width="258" height="446" alt="Handwritten: Hudson Stuck." title="Handwritten: Hudson Stuck." /></a></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii"></a><a href="images/iii.png">[iii]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1> +TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH<br /> +A DOG SLED<br /> +</h1> +<h3>A NARRATIVE OF WINTER TRAVEL IN INTERIOR ALASKA<br /> +<br /> +BY<br /> +</h3> +<h2>HUDSON STUCK, D.D., F.R.G.S.<br /></h2> +<h4>ARCHDEACON OF THE YUKON</h4> +<div class='center'><small>AUTHOR OF "THE ASCENT OF DENALI (MOUNT McKINLEY)"</small><br /> +<br /><br /><br /> +ILLUSTRATED<br /> +<br /><br /><br /> +SECOND EDITION<br /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> +NEW YORK<br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> +1916<br /></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv"></a><a href="images/iv.png">[iv]</a></span></p> +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap"><small>Copyright, 1914, 1916, by</small></span><br /> +<small>CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</small><br /></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v"></a><a href="images/v.png">[v]</a></span></p> + +<div class='center'> +<b>TO</b><br /> +GRAFTON BURKE, M.D.<br /> +<small>AND</small><br /> +EDGAR WEBB LOOMIS, M.D.<br /> +<br /> +<small>PUPILS, COMRADES, COLLEAGUES,</small><br /> +<small>COMPANIONS ON SOME OF THESE JOURNEYS,</small><br /> +<small>ALWAYS DEAR FRIENDS,</small><br /> +<br /> +<small>AND TO</small><br /> +<br /> +THE MOTHER OF THE THREE OF US<br /> +<br /> +<big>SEWANEE</big><br /> +<br /> +<small>THE COLLEGE ON THE MOUNTAIN-TOP</small><br /> +<small>WHERE THE OLD IDEALS ARE STILL</small><br /> +<small>UNFLINCHINGLY MAINTAINED</small><br /> +<br /> +THIS VOLUME<br /> +<small>IS</small><br /> +AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED<br /> +<small>BY</small><br /> +THE AUTHOR<br /></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a><a href="images/vi.png">[vi]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii"></a><a href="images/vii.png">[vii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">This</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It is a great, wild country, little known save along<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii"></a><a href="images/viii.png">[viii]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix"></a><a href="images/ix.png">[ix]</a></span> +men in the world. The reader will come into contact +with both in these pages.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x"></a><a href="images/x.png">[x]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But as regards the stringent laws enacted by Congress +for the protection of these native people, and especially<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi"></a><a href="images/xi.png">[xi]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii"></a><a href="images/xii.png">[xii]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii"></a><a href="images/xiii.png">[xiii]</a></span> +which the missions are helpless, for there is no wise +combination of religion and trade.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class='right'> +<span class="smcap">Hudson Stuck.</span><br /></div> +<div> +<span class="smcap">New York</span>,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>March</i>, 1914.</span><br /></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv"></a><a href="images/xv.png">[xv]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi"></a><a href="images/xvi.png">[xvi]</a></span> +destruction of our forests, for had we not the inexhaustible +timber resources of the interior of Alaska to +draw upon?</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii"></a><a href="images/xvii.png">[xvii]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii"></a><a href="images/xviii.png">[xviii]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p> +April, 1916.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix"></a><a href="images/xix.png">[xix]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td align='center'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Preface</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Fairbanks to the Chandalar Through Circle City and Fort Yukon</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chandalar Village to Bettles, Coldfoot, and the Koyukuk</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bettles to the Pacific—The Alatna, Kobuk Portage, Kobuk Village, Kotzebue Sound</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Seward Peninsula—Candle Creek, Council, and Nome</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Nome to Fairbanks—Norton Sound—The Kaltag Portage—Nulato—Up the Yukon to Tanana</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The "First Ice"—An Autumn Adventure on the Koyukuk</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Koyukuk to the Yukon and to Tanana—Christmas Holidays at Saint John's-in-the-Wilderness</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">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</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_219">219</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tanana Crossing to Fortymile and Down the Yukon—A Patriarchal Chief—Swarming Caribou—Eagle and Fort Egbert—Circle City and Fort Yukon</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_251">251</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx"></a><a href="images/xx.png">[xx]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">From the Tanana River to the Kuskokwim—Thence to the Iditarod Mining Camp—Thence to the Yukon, and Up That River to Fort Yukon</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_294">294</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Natives of Alaska</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_348">348</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Photography in the Arctic</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_371">371</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Northern Lights</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_380">380</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Alaskan Dogs</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_392">392</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'> </td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Index</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_413">413</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi"></a><a href="images/xxi.png">[xxi]</a></span></p> + +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Illustrations"> +<tr><td align='left'>Hudson Stuck (<i>photogravure</i>)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_ii"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'><span class="smcap"><small>Facing Page</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sunrise on the Chandalar-Koyukuk portage</td><td align='right'><a href="#sunrise">36</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Coldfoot on the Koyukuk</td><td align='right'><a href="#coldfoot">37</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The upper Koyukuk</td><td align='right'><a href="#upper">50</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The barren shores of Kotzebue Sound</td><td align='right'><a href="#barren">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gold-mining at Nome</td><td align='right'><a href="#gold">122</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Pulling the <i>Pelican</i> out with a "Spanish windlass"</td><td align='right'><a href="#pulling">123</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The start over the "first ice"</td><td align='right'><a href="#start">164</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"Rough going"</td><td align='right'><a href="#rough">165</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Arthur and Doctor Burke</td><td align='right'><a href="#arthur">178</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Saint John's-in-the-Wilderness, Allakaket, Koyukuk River</td><td align='right'><a href="#saint">179</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The double interpretation at the Allakaket</td><td align='right'><a href="#double">186</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The wind-swept Yukon within the ramparts</td><td align='right'><a href="#wind">187</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A pleasant woodland trail</td><td align='right'><a href="#pleasant">256</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>An Alaskan chief and his henchman</td><td align='right'><a href="#alaskan">257</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Tanana crossing</td><td align='right'><a href="#tanana">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Good going on the Yukon</td><td align='right'><a href="#good">271</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"A portage that comes so finely down to the Yukon that there is pleasure in anticipating the view it affords"</td><td align='right'><a href="#portage">290</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fort Yukon</td><td align='right'><a href="#fort">291</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>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</td><td align='right'><a href="#breaking">296</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii"></a><a href="images/xxii.png">[xxii]</a></span>Esquimaux of the upper Kuskokwim</td><td align='right'><a href="#esquimauxpic">297</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"The 'summit' is high above timber-line and the trail pursues a hogback ridge for a mile and a half at the summit level"</td><td align='right'><a href="#summit">324</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A street in Iditarod City</td><td align='right'><a href="#street">325</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The end of the portage trail</td><td align='right'><a href="#portagetrail">334</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rough ice on the Yukon</td><td align='right'><a href="#ice">335</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A docile folk, eager for instruction</td><td align='right'><a href="#docile">350</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The mission type</td><td align='right'><a href="#mission">351</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Wild and shy</td><td align='right'><a href="#wild">351</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The native communicant</td><td align='right'><a href="#native">360</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Raw material</td><td align='right'><a href="#raw">360</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>An Esquimau youth</td><td align='right'><a href="#esquimau">361</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A half-breed Indian</td><td align='right'><a href="#half">361</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>An aged couple</td><td align='right'><a href="#aged">366</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Football at the Allakaket, exposure 1-1000 second, April, after a new light snowfall</td><td align='right'><a href="#football">367</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The sun dogs</td><td align='right'><a href="#sun">388</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"Tan," of mixed breed</td><td align='right'><a href="#tan">389</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"Muk," a pure malamute</td><td align='right'><a href="#muk">389</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Map of the interior of Alaska showing journeys described in this book</td><td align='right' colspan='2'><a href="#end"><i>At end of volume</i></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a><a href="images/1.png">[1]</a></span></p> + +<h2>TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH<br /> +A DOG SLED</h2> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a><a href="images/2.png">[2]</a></span></p> + +<h2>AUTHOR'S NOTE</h2> + + +<p>Three fundamental facts are to be borne constantly in +mind by those who would form any intelligent conception of +the Territory of Alaska.</p> + +<p>(1) Its area of approximately 590,000 square miles makes +it two and a half times as large as the State of Texas.</p> + +<p>(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—</p> + +<p>(3) These different countries are not merely different from +one another, they are <i>separated</i> from one another by formidable +natural barriers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a><a href="images/3.png">[3]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH<br /> +A DOG SLED</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>FAIRBANKS TO THE CHANDALAR THROUGH CIRCLE CITY +AND FORT YUKON</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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.</p> + +<p>The course of winter travel in Alaska follows the +frozen waterways so far as they lead in the general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a><a href="images/4.png">[4]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE GOLD TRAIN</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a><a href="images/5.png">[5]</a></span> +later from one who knew his history, had "travelled on +his looks all his life." He earned the name of "Jimmy +the Fake."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a><a href="images/6.png">[6]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">OVERFLOW WATER AND ICE</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a><a href="images/7.png">[7]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a><a href="images/8.png">[8]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">"OVERFLOW" ICE</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a><a href="images/9.png">[9]</a></span> +between the dogs and the sled for several hundred +yards at a time, breaking down the overflow ice with +his feet.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a><a href="images/10.png">[10]</a></span> +about to descend a gully from which we could hardly +have recovered it.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a><a href="images/11.png">[11]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">"SUMMITS"</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a><a href="images/12.png">[12]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a><a href="images/13.png">[13]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE YUKON FLATS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a><a href="images/14.png">[14]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a><a href="images/15.png">[15]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SUNRISE AND SUNSET</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a><a href="images/16.png">[16]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">AN ESCAPADE ON THE YUKON</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a><a href="images/17.png">[17]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>With our reduced burden we made better progress,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a><a href="images/18.png">[18]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a><a href="images/19.png">[19]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">AN ESCAPADE ON THE YUKON</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a><a href="images/20.png">[20]</a></span> +mail cabin, two miles farther on, and the mail-carrier +was at that time occupying it at the end of his day's +run.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a><a href="images/21.png">[21]</a></span> +of blundering foolhardiness for which we were +deeply thankful.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FORT YUKON </div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a><a href="images/22.png">[22]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ARCHDEACON MACDONALD </div> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a><a href="images/23.png">[23]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a><a href="images/24.png">[24]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a><a href="images/25.png">[25]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JIMMY</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>A mail once a month went at that time from Fort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a><a href="images/26.png">[26]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CHANDALAR</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a><a href="images/27.png">[27]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DIPHTHERIA</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a><a href="images/28.png">[28]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a><a href="images/29.png">[29]</a></span> +no experience with the disease at all. It was resolved +to send back to Fort Yukon for supplies and for the +nurse.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a><a href="images/30.png">[30]</a></span></p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a><a href="images/31.png">[31]</a></span> +part of his translation of the Bible, according to the +Indian account.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE SHORTEST DAY</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a><a href="images/32.png">[32]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The anti-diphtheritic serum is now kept in readiness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a><a href="images/33.png">[33]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE MISSIONARY NURSE</div> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Aren't you afraid to stay all by yourself?" I asked, +somewhat fatuously.</p> + +<p>"Afraid? Afraid of what? You surely don't mean +afraid of the natives?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a><a href="images/34.png">[34]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>CHANDALAR VILLAGE TO BETTLES, COLDFOOT, +AND THE KOYUKUK</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">At</span> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a><a href="images/35.png">[35]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CHANDALAR GAP</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="sunrise" id="sunrise"></a><a href="images/gs060.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs060_th.jpg" width="500" height="320" alt="Sunrise on the Chandalar-Koyukuk portage." title="Sunrise on the Chandalar-Koyukuk portage." /> +</a><span class="caption">Sunrise on the Chandalar-Koyukuk portage.</span> +</div> + +<p>Unfortunately, in the confusion of striking the tent +and packing in the dark, my scarf had been rolled up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a><a href="images/36.png">[36]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="coldfoot" id="coldfoot"></a><a href="images/gs061.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs061_th.jpg" width="500" height="314" alt="Coldfoot on the Koyukuk." title="Coldfoot on the Koyukuk." /> +</a><span class="caption">Coldfoot on the Koyukuk.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote">A COLD LODGING</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a><a href="images/37.png">[37]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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°<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a><a href="images/38.png">[38]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a><a href="images/39.png">[39]</a></span> +for camping, the dry for fire and the green for couch, +and there we halted for the night.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">JOHN MUIR</div> + +<p>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 <i>Mountains of California</i> +(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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a><a href="images/40.png">[40]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a><a href="images/41.png">[41]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CAMP MAKING</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a><a href="images/42.png">[42]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a><a href="images/43.png">[43]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CAMP COOKING</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a><a href="images/44.png">[44]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DOG-HARNESS</div> + +<p>Therein lies the cruelty of depriving them of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a><a href="images/45.png">[45]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a><a href="images/46.png">[46]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a><a href="images/47.png">[47]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE KOYUKUK GOLD CAMP</div> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a><a href="images/48.png">[48]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MINERS' GENEROSITY</div> + +<p>Yet the smallness and the isolation of the camp have +their compensations. There is more community life,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a><a href="images/49.png">[49]</a></span> +more <i>esprit de corps</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="upper" id="upper"></a><a href="images/gs076.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs076_th.jpg" width="500" height="321" alt="The Upper Koyukuk." title="The Upper Koyukuk." /> +</a><span class="caption">The Upper Koyukuk.</span> +</div> + +<p>Upon our return to Coldfoot from the creek visits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a><a href="images/50.png">[50]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="barren" id="barren"></a><a href="images/gs077.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs077_th.jpg" width="500" height="320" alt="The barren shores of Kotzebue Sound." title="The barren shores of Kotzebue Sound." /> +</a><span class="caption">The barren shores of Kotzebue Sound.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote">LINGO</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a><a href="images/51.png">[51]</a></span> +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 <i>Men That Fought at +Minden</i>:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"For fatigue it was their pride<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And they would <i>not</i> be denied</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">To clean the cook-house floor."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a><a href="images/52.png">[52]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a><a href="images/53.png">[53]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TRAVELLING AT "50 BELOW"</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>There is no more striking phenomenon of the arctic +trail than the behaviour of smoke in cold weather. As<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a><a href="images/54.png">[54]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a><a href="images/55.png">[55]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">METEOROLOGICAL</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a><a href="images/56.png">[56]</a></span> +hospital telephone with inquiries about the barometer, +the hospital having the only barometer in the country.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PARASELENÆ</div> + +<p>Some of the weather during that two weeks' wait +was of quite exceptional severity. One night is fixed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a><a href="images/57.png">[57]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a><a href="images/58.png">[58]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE STRONG COLD</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a><a href="images/59.png">[59]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a><a href="images/60.png">[60]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">"FOUND FROZEN"</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a><a href="images/61.png">[61]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The view from the top was brilliantly clear and far-reaching.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a><a href="images/62.png">[62]</a></span> +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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a><a href="images/63.png">[63]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>BETTLES TO THE PACIFIC—THE ALATNA, KOBUK PORTAGE, +KOBUK VILLAGE, KOTZEBUE SOUND</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">All</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a><a href="images/64.png">[64]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE KOYUKUK "TOWNS" OF '98</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a><a href="images/65.png">[65]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a><a href="images/66.png">[66]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A WILDERNESS TRAGEDY</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a><a href="images/67.png">[67]</a></span> +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!</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Answered never a word,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">For a frozen corpse was he."</span><br /></div> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a><a href="images/68.png">[68]</a></span>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.</div> + +<p>We buried the body on a bench of the bluff across +the river from the native village, the natives all standing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a><a href="images/69.png">[69]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">NEGLECTED NATIVES</div> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a><a href="images/70.png">[70]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE INLAND ESQUIMAUX</div> + +<p>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;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a><a href="images/71.png">[71]</a></span> +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 +<i>Arabia Deserta</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>At midday on the 3d of February we left the Alatna +River and took our way across country for the Kobuk.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a><a href="images/72.png">[72]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a><a href="images/73.png">[73]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE SUNRISE AND THE MOUNTAINS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a><a href="images/74.png">[74]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a><a href="images/75.png">[75]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TRAVELLING KOBUK LADS</div> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a><a href="images/76.png">[76]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE KOBUK RIVER</div> + +<p>The upper Kobuk is a picturesque river, the timber<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a><a href="images/77.png">[77]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>The division of the labour of camping amongst four +gave us all some leisure at night, and I found time to +read through again <i>The Cloister and the Hearth</i> and +<i>Westward Ho!</i> 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 <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Bergundy'">Burgundy</ins>, with his "<i>Courage, camarades, le diable est +mort!</i>" 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.</p> + +<p>The days were much lengthened now, and the worst<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a><a href="images/78.png">[78]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a><a href="images/79.png">[79]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE MISSION</div> + +<div class="sidenote">ENGLISH AND ESQUIMAU</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a><a href="images/80.png">[80]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a><a href="images/81.png">[81]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a><a href="images/82.png">[82]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE "DOUBLE STANDARD"</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a><a href="images/83.png">[83]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a><a href="images/84.png">[84]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PERSONAL CLEANLINESS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a><a href="images/85.png">[85]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a><a href="images/86.png">[86]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a><a href="images/87.png">[87]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">A LIGHT-HEARTED FOLK</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>walrus</i>," 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.</p> + +<p>The boy was straightforward and conscientious. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a><a href="images/88.png">[88]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>We left Long Beach with a grateful feeling for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a><a href="images/89.png">[89]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE JADE MOUNTAINS</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a><a href="images/90.png">[90]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a><a href="images/91.png">[91]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A BELATED CAMP</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a><a href="images/92.png">[92]</a></span> +nine-forty-five when we started out next morning, and +we made only fifteen miles that day.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a><a href="images/93.png">[93]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CANINE INTRUDER</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a><a href="images/94.png">[94]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SLEEPING CUSTOMS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a><a href="images/95.png">[95]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a><a href="images/96.png">[96]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a><a href="images/97.png">[97]</a></span> +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 <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'rouch'">rough</ins> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ARCTIC OCEAN</div> + +<p>So here was my first sight of the Arctic Ocean. All +day long I had anticipated it, and it stirred me,—a dim,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a><a href="images/98.png">[98]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TOTAL-ABSTINENCE ESQUIMAUX</div> + +<p>The Californian Society of Friends, established here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a><a href="images/99.png">[99]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a><a href="images/100.png">[100]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE RESOLUTION TO TURN SOUTH</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a><a href="images/101.png">[101]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a><a href="images/102.png">[102]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE SEWARD PENINSULA—CANDLE CREEK, COUNCIL, +AND NOME</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">One</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a><a href="images/103.png">[103]</a></span> +<i>Riley</i>, 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A BAD NIGHT</div> + +<div class="sidenote">CAMPED IN THE OPEN</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a><a href="images/104.png">[104]</a></span> +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 <i>before</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a><a href="images/105.png">[105]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a><a href="images/106.png">[106]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a><a href="images/107.png">[107]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CANDLE CREEK</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a><a href="images/108.png">[108]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a><a href="images/109.png">[109]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE SEWARD PENINSULA</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a><a href="images/110.png">[110]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A "SIDLING" TRAIL</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a><a href="images/111.png">[111]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a><a href="images/112.png">[112]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a><a href="images/113.png">[113]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">DEATH VALLEY</div> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a><a href="images/114.png">[114]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE KINDLY SWEDE</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a><a href="images/115.png">[115]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a><a href="images/116.png">[116]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">NORTON SOUND</div> + +<p>In warmer weather, the thermometer no lower than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a><a href="images/117.png">[117]</a></span> +-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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a><a href="images/118.png">[118]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a><a href="images/119.png">[119]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DOGS AND REINDEER</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a><a href="images/120.png">[120]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">NOME</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a><a href="images/121.png">[121]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But Nome is also a fine instance of the way men in +the North conquer local conditions and wring comfort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a><a href="images/122.png">[122]</a></span> +out of bleakness and desolation by the clever adaptation +of means to ends.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="gold" id="gold"></a><a href="images/gs150.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs150_th.jpg" width="500" height="316" alt="Gold-mining at Nome." title="Gold-mining at Nome." /> +</a><span class="caption">Gold-mining at Nome.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="pulling" id="pulling"></a><a href="images/gs151.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs151_th.jpg" width="500" height="319" alt="Pulling the "Pelican" out with a "Spanish windlass."" title="Pulling the "Pelican" out with a "Spanish windlass."" /> +</a><span class="caption">Pulling the "Pelican" out with a "Spanish windlass."</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a><a href="images/123.png">[123]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">MINING AT NOME</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a><a href="images/124.png">[124]</a></span> +mud from a decided "soft snap," the thermometer standing +well above freezing for days in succession.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a><a href="images/125.png">[125]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>NOME TO FAIRBANKS—NORTON SOUND—THE KALTAG +PORTAGE—NULATO—UP THE YUKON TO TANANA</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a><a href="images/126.png">[126]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a><a href="images/127.png">[127]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">ICE TRAVEL</div> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a><a href="images/128.png">[128]</a></span> +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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a><a href="images/129.png">[129]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">UNALAKLÍK</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a><a href="images/130.png">[130]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a><a href="images/131.png">[131]</a></span> +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</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Extol the treasures of their finny seas<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And their long nights of revelry and ease";</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>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 +<i>The Evils of Keeping Bad Company</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a><a href="images/132.png">[132]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a><a href="images/133.png">[133]</a></span> +interest in the comfort of his guests, they are highly +appreciative.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE KALTAG PORTAGE</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a><a href="images/134.png">[134]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a><a href="images/135.png">[135]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE U. S. SIGNAL-CORPS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a><a href="images/136.png">[136]</a></span> +the trouble and repair it. In all sorts of weather, unless +the thermometer be below -40°, out they must go.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a><a href="images/137.png">[137]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">MORE SNOW</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a><a href="images/138.png">[138]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a><a href="images/139.png">[139]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE YUKON ONCE MORE</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a><a href="images/140.png">[140]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A LEARNED JESUIT</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a><a href="images/141.png">[141]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a><a href="images/142.png">[142]</a></span> +ordinary college, gladly consecrating his life to the teaching +of an Indian school!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE NULATO MASSACRE</div> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a><a href="images/143.png">[143]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a><a href="images/144.png">[144]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>localness</i> 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a><a href="images/145.png">[145]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SNOW GLASSES</div> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a><a href="images/146.png">[146]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SNOW-BLINDNESS</div> + +<p>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 <i>had</i> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a><a href="images/147.png">[147]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a><a href="images/148.png">[148]</a></span> +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 name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">HORSES AND MULES</div> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a><a href="images/149.png">[149]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a><a href="images/150.png">[150]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ARMY POSTS AND NATIVES</div> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a><a href="images/151.png">[151]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a><a href="images/152.png">[152]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a><a href="images/153.png">[153]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">WHISKY-PEDDLERS</div> + +<p>During the Reverend Jules Prevost's time at Tanana—and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a><a href="images/154.png">[154]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a><a href="images/155.png">[155]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CHENA AND FAIRBANKS</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a><a href="images/156.png">[156]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a><a href="images/157.png">[157]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE "FIRST ICE"—AN AUTUMN ADVENTURE ON THE +KOYUKUK</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a><a href="images/158.png">[158]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DOCTOR GRAFTON BURKE</div> + +<p>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 <i>Pelican</i> on almost all the navigable waters of interior<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a><a href="images/159.png">[159]</a></span> +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 <i>Pelican</i> +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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a><a href="images/160.png">[160]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE RUNNING ICE</div> + +<p>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 <i>was</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a><a href="images/161.png">[161]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a><a href="images/162.png">[162]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE PROSPECTOR</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a><a href="images/163.png">[163]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a><a href="images/164.png">[164]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="start" id="start"></a><a href="images/gs194.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs194_th.jpg" width="500" height="314" alt="The start over the "first ice."" title="The start over the "first ice."" /> +</a><span class="caption">The start over the "first ice."</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="rough" id="rough"></a><a href="images/gs195.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs195_th.jpg" width="500" height="320" alt=""Rough going."" title=""Rough going."" /> +</a><span class="caption">"Rough going."</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a><a href="images/165.png">[165]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE START</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a><a href="images/166.png">[166]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>We came that morning to the longest and roughest +ice-jam we had so far encountered. It was as though a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a><a href="images/167.png">[167]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">"BY THE BACK OF THE FACE"</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BEAR MEAT AND BEANS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a><a href="images/168.png">[168]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a><a href="images/169.png">[169]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a><a href="images/170.png">[170]</a></span> +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 <i>that</i> was only the +second inhabited house in three hundred miles.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BREAKING THROUGH</div> + +<p>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 <i>on</i> 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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>As soon as old "Atler" (I have never been quite sure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a><a href="images/171.png">[171]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a><a href="images/172.png">[172]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">"ONE-EYED WILLIAM"</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a><a href="images/173.png">[173]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a><a href="images/174.png">[174]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">FIDO</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a><a href="images/175.png">[175]</a></span> +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 +<i>Pelican's</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a><a href="images/176.png">[176]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a><a href="images/177.png">[177]</a></span> +closing river. We picked our way wet-foot much of the +day, and towards evening came to a complete <i>impasse</i> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE RED MOUNTAIN</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a><a href="images/178.png">[178]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="arthur" id="arthur"></a><a href="images/gs210.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs210_th.jpg" width="500" height="339" alt="Arthur and Doctor Burke." title="Arthur and Doctor Burke." /> +</a><span class="caption">Arthur and Doctor Burke.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="saint" id="saint"></a><a href="images/gs211.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs211_th.jpg" width="500" height="306" alt="Saint John's-in-the-Wilderness, Allakaket, Koyukuk River." title="Saint John's-in-the-Wilderness, Allakaket, Koyukuk River." /> +</a><span class="caption">Saint John's-in-the-Wilderness, Allakaket, Koyukuk River.</span> +</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a><a href="images/179.png">[179]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A NARROW ESCAPE</div> + +<div class="sidenote">RUBBER ICE</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a><a href="images/180.png">[180]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a><a href="images/181.png">[181]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SATURATED SNOW</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a><a href="images/182.png">[182]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a><a href="images/183.png">[183]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A STARVING WHITE MAN</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a><a href="images/184.png">[184]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a><a href="images/185.png">[185]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TWO INTERPRETERS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a><a href="images/186.png">[186]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="double" id="double"></a><a href="images/gs220.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs220_th.jpg" width="500" height="293" alt="The double interpretation at the Allakaket." title="The double interpretation at the Allakaket." /> +</a><span class="caption">The double interpretation at the Allakaket.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="wind" id="wind"></a><a href="images/gs221.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs221_th.jpg" width="500" height="306" alt="The wind-swept Yukon within the ramparts." title="The wind-swept Yukon within the ramparts." /> +</a><span class="caption">The wind-swept Yukon within the ramparts.</span> +</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a><a href="images/187.png">[187]</a></span> +"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."</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a><a href="images/188.png">[188]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE KOYUKUK TO THE YUKON AND TO TANANA—CHRISTMAS +HOLIDAYS AT SAINT JOHN'S-IN-THE-WILDERNESS</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Leaving</span> 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 <i>mean</i> 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.</p> + +<p>It was the beginning of a severe winter, with much +snow north of the Yukon and long periods of great cold.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">BIRTH, BURIAL, AND DANCING</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a><a href="images/189.png">[189]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a><a href="images/190.png">[190]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">"BEFORE" AND "AFTER"</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a><a href="images/191.png">[191]</a></span> +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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a><a href="images/192.png">[192]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a><a href="images/193.png">[193]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A BARREN UNIFORMITY</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a><a href="images/194.png">[194]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a><a href="images/195.png">[195]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MATTERS METEOROLOGICAL</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a><a href="images/196.png">[196]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a><a href="images/197.png">[197]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">TRAIL BREAKING</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a><a href="images/198.png">[198]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a><a href="images/199.png">[199]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DOG DRIVING</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a><a href="images/200.png">[200]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a><a href="images/201.png">[201]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">VIOLENT FLUCTUATIONS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a><a href="images/202.png">[202]</a></span> +was rejoiced to find had wrought a great improvement in +Arthur's condition.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a><a href="images/203.png">[203]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SIXTY-FIVE BELOW ZERO</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a><a href="images/204.png">[204]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a><a href="images/205.png">[205]</a></span> +the banks of the little creek where it grew, on snow-shoes, +at 65° below zero.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The next day gave us fresh temperature fluctuations. +At nine <span class="smcap">a. m.</span> it clouded and rose to 35° below, by noon it +had cleared again and the thermometer fell to 55° below, +and at nine <span class="smcap">p. m.</span> 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 <i>Life of Samuel Johnson</i> +over again. Some such little India-paper classic it is my +habit to carry each winter. Last year I reread Pepys's +<i>Diary</i> and the year before much of the <i>Decline and Fall</i>. +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 <i>Lorna Doone</i>, which I read for +the sixth or seventh time on my first journey along it, as +Exmoor itself; and <i>The Cloister and the Hearth</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>The boys came back after dark, having broken some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a><a href="images/206.png">[206]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SEVENTY BELOW ZERO</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the weather, that evening the mail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a><a href="images/207.png">[207]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CLOSE QUARTERS</div> + +<p>It is strange how some scenes of the trail linger in the +memory, while others are completely forgotten. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a><a href="images/208.png">[208]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a><a href="images/209.png">[209]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a><a href="images/210.png">[210]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE STAKED TRAIL</div> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ARCTIC SKIES</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a><a href="images/211.png">[211]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a><a href="images/212.png">[212]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a><a href="images/213.png">[213]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a><a href="images/214.png">[214]</a></span> +town on the morrow, the 17th of January, having taken +fifteen days to make a journey that is normally made in +five.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE MAIL-CARRIER</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>So far as there is anything heroic about the Alaskan +trail, the mail-carriers are the real heroes. They must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a><a href="images/215.png">[215]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a><a href="images/216.png">[216]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SINGLE MEN IN BARRACKS</div> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Add to the trouble given by the soldiers the constant +operation of the slinking bootleggers of the town, a score<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a><a href="images/217.png">[217]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DEATH-RATE AND BIRTH-RATE</div> + +<p>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'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a><a href="images/218.png">[218]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a><a href="images/219.png">[219]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>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</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Our</span> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a><a href="images/220.png">[220]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a><a href="images/221.png">[221]</a></span> +abandonment of the Yukon River by the post-office and +several petitions for its restoration, but it has not been +restored.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE WIND-SWEPT YUKON</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">RAMPART AND ITS SALOON</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a><a href="images/222.png">[222]</a></span> +the agency of two or three dissolute squaw men and half-breeds +to the natives up and down the river.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a></p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a><a href="images/223.png">[223]</a></span> +band of white folks still remaining were gathered together +at night, and appreciated, I thought, their semiannual +opportunity for Divine service.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">"DEVELOPED"</div> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>When the debit and credit sides of the ledger are balanced, +what remains to Alaska of all these thousands of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a><a href="images/224.png">[224]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a><a href="images/225.png">[225]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a><a href="images/226.png">[226]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE HOT SPRINGS</div> + +<p>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"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a><a href="images/227.png">[227]</a></span> +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.<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a><a href="images/228.png">[228]</a></span></p> +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ARCTIC AGRICULTURE</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a><a href="images/229.png">[229]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a><a href="images/230.png">[230]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a><a href="images/231.png">[231]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">NANOOK'S DEATH</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a><a href="images/232.png">[232]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a><a href="images/233.png">[233]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE TALKING DOG</div> + +<p>Nanook was in as good spirits as ever I knew him that +last night, coming to me and plumping his huge fore paws<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a><a href="images/234.png">[234]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a><a href="images/235.png">[235]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a><a href="images/236.png">[236]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CANINE CHARACTER</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a><a href="images/237.png">[237]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a><a href="images/238.png">[238]</a></span> +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-<i>wow</i>-wow-wow-wow-<i>wow</i>!" 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 <i>you</i> can go to. That's the doggonedest +dog I ever seen!"</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PARTNERS</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Well, that long partnership was dissolved by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a><a href="images/239.png">[239]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a><a href="images/240.png">[240]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="sidenote">THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a><a href="images/241.png">[241]</a></span> +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 <i>vade mecum</i> at his +fingers' ends.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>armatures</i> get badly imposed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a><a href="images/242.png">[242]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>vespers</i> which beats the sulphur match all to +thunder."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE SULPHUR MATCH</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a><a href="images/243.png">[243]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a><a href="images/244.png">[244]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A NOTABLE GENTLEWOMAN</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a><a href="images/245.png">[245]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CHIVALROUS INDIAN YOUTH</div> + +<p>All the boys in the school, I think, swarmed across the +river with us when we started away early in the morning,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a><a href="images/246.png">[246]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a><a href="images/247.png">[247]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LONG-REMEMBERED TEACHING</div> + +<p>Here, three years after the visit and the journey narrated,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a><a href="images/248.png">[248]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a><a href="images/249.png">[249]</a></span> +that woman is only now emancipating herself from centuries +of ineffectual nonage, only now entering upon her +active career.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Two days brought us past the little native village and +mission at Chena (which is pronounced Shen-aẁ), 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a><a href="images/250.png">[250]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"If of all words on tongue or pen,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The saddest are 'it might have been,'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Full sad are those we often see,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">It is, but it hadn't ought to be."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>It takes Bret Harte to strike the note for such rivalry +and such disappointment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"></a><a href="images/251.png">[251]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>TANANA CROSSING TO FORTYMILE AND DOWN THE +YUKON—A PATRIARCHAL CHIEF—SWARMING CARIBOU—EAGLE +AND FORT EGBERT—CIRCLE +CITY AND FORT YUKON</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Fairbanks</span> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a><a href="images/252.png">[252]</a></span> +in the shops; and the local choral society is lamenting +the customary dearth of tenors for its production of +"The Messiah."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FAIRBANKS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a><a href="images/253.png">[253]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a><a href="images/254.png">[254]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE SALCHAKET</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE UPPER TANANA</div> + +<p>The upper Tanana is probably one of the most difficult +streams in the world to navigate that can by any stretch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"></a><a href="images/255.png">[255]</a></span> +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 <i>Pelican</i> 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.</p> + +<p>A river difficult to navigate in summer is usually a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"></a><a href="images/256.png">[256]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="pleasant" id="pleasant"></a><a href="images/gs292.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs292_th.jpg" width="500" height="341" alt="A pleasant woodland trail." title="A pleasant woodland trail." /> +</a><span class="caption">A pleasant woodland trail.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 312px;"><a name="alaskan" id="alaskan"></a><a href="images/gs293.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs293_th.jpg" width="312" height="500" alt="An Alaskan chief and his henchman." title="An Alaskan chief and his henchman." /> +</a><span class="caption">An Alaskan chief and his henchman.</span> +</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a><a href="images/257.png">[257]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a><a href="images/258.png">[258]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">INDIAN TRADERS</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a><a href="images/259.png">[259]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a><a href="images/260.png">[260]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE THERMOS BOTTLES</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261"></a><a href="images/261.png">[261]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a><a href="images/262.png">[262]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CHIEF ISAAC</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a><a href="images/263.png">[263]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a><a href="images/264.png">[264]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SAVAGE, HEATHEN, PAGAN</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Much has been written, and cleverly written, about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a><a href="images/265.png">[265]</a></span> +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 <i>The Wit +of Porportuk</i>, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266"></a><a href="images/266.png">[266]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A GENTLE, TIMID PEOPLE</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a><a href="images/267.png">[267]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a><a href="images/268.png">[268]</a></span> +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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE OLD, OLD STORY</div> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269"></a><a href="images/269.png">[269]</a></span> +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 <i>tabula rasa</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270"></a><a href="images/270.png">[270]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="tanana" id="tanana"></a><a href="images/gs308.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs308_th.jpg" width="500" height="309" alt="The Tanana crossing." title="The Tanana crossing." /> +</a><span class="caption">The Tanana crossing.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="good" id="good"></a><a href="images/gs309.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs309_th.jpg" width="500" height="316" alt="Good going on the Yukon." title="Good going on the Yukon." /> +</a><span class="caption">Good going on the Yukon.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote">TRIBAL CONNECTIONS</div> + +<p>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 <i>tapis</i> and ribbons, +tinsel, and pompons, that they might have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271"></a><a href="images/271.png">[271]</a></span> +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 <i>tapis</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"></a><a href="images/272.png">[272]</a></span></p> + +<p>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 <i>all</i> they could carry.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE TANANA CROSSING</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273"></a><a href="images/273.png">[273]</a></span> +gave peak after peak; there lay Lake Mansfield, deep in +its amphitheatre of hills, with the Indian village at its +head.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274"></a><a href="images/274.png">[274]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A NOBLE VIEW</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Down the hill we went into Fortymile water and into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"></a><a href="images/275.png">[275]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276"></a><a href="images/276.png">[276]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CARIBOU</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277"></a><a href="images/277.png">[277]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE KETCHUMSTOCK</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278"></a><a href="images/278.png">[278]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279"></a><a href="images/279.png">[279]</a></span> +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 <i>hareem</i>," 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280"></a><a href="images/280.png">[280]</a></span> +One may have true and deep sympathy with these young +men and yet be conscious of the harm they often bring +about.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE FORTYMILE</div> + +<p>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"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281"></a><a href="images/281.png">[281]</a></span> +dealt out justice. Your "old-timer" anywhere is +commonly <i>laudator temporis acti</i>, 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">"SNIPING ON THE BARS"</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282"></a><a href="images/282.png">[282]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283"></a><a href="images/283.png">[283]</a></span> +similar body charged with the enforcement of the law +in Alaska.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284"></a><a href="images/284.png">[284]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">EAGLE</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285"></a><a href="images/285.png">[285]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286"></a><a href="images/286.png">[286]</a></span> +much above the common stamp,<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FORT EGBERT ABANDONED</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>One may write thus and yet have many pleasant personal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287"></a><a href="images/287.png">[287]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SOME ARMY OFFICERS</div> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288"></a><a href="images/288.png">[288]</a></span></p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289"></a><a href="images/289.png">[289]</a></span> +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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290"></a><a href="images/290.png">[290]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE GLARE OF THE SUN</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="portage" id="portage"></a><a href="images/gs330.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs330_th.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt=""A portage that comes so finely down to the Yukon that there is pleasure in anticipating the view it affords."" title=""A portage that comes so finely down to the Yukon that there is pleasure in anticipating the view it affords."" /> +</a><span class="caption">"A portage that comes so finely down to the Yukon that there is pleasure in anticipating the view it affords."</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="fort" id="fort"></a><a href="images/gs331.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs331_th.jpg" width="500" height="322" alt="Fort Yukon." title="Fort Yukon." /> +</a><span class="caption">Fort Yukon.</span> +</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291"></a><a href="images/291.png">[291]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CAPTAIN AMUNDSEN</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292"></a><a href="images/292.png">[292]</a></span> +manner. Six or seven years before he had been taken +by Captain Amundsen, of the <i>Gjoa</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293"></a><a href="images/293.png">[293]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294"></a><a href="images/294.png">[294]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>FROM THE TANANA RIVER TO THE KUSKOKWIM—THENCE TO +THE IDITAROD MINING CAMP—THENCE TO THE YUKON, +AND UP THAT RIVER TO FORT YUKON</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"></a><a href="images/295.png">[295]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296"></a><a href="images/296.png">[296]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CAMP AT 50° BELOW</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="breaking" id="breaking"></a><a href="images/gs338.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs338_th.jpg" width="500" height="304" alt="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." title="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." /> +</a><span class="caption">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.</span> +</div> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="esquimauxpic" id="esquimauxpic"></a><a href="images/gs339.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs339_th.jpg" width="500" height="288" alt="Esquimaux of the Upper Kuskokwim." title="Esquimaux of the Upper Kuskokwim." /> +</a><span class="caption">Esquimaux of the Upper Kuskokwim.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ROUTE TO THE IDITAROD</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"></a><a href="images/297.png">[297]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298"></a><a href="images/298.png">[298]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>A driving wind and heavy snowfall had drifted the +new trail in the night so badly, moreover, that we were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299"></a><a href="images/299.png">[299]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE CAMP-ROBBERS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300"></a><a href="images/300.png">[300]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SOFT WEATHER</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301"></a><a href="images/301.png">[301]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302"></a><a href="images/302.png">[302]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LAKE MINCHÚMINA</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303"></a><a href="images/303.png">[303]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304"></a><a href="images/304.png">[304]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305"></a><a href="images/305.png">[305]</a></span> +of the lake that I might see it to the best +advantage.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DENALI AND HIS WIFE</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306"></a><a href="images/306.png">[306]</a></span> +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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'MINCHUMINA'">MINCHÚMINA</ins> FOLK</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307"></a><a href="images/307.png">[307]</a></span> +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!</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308"></a><a href="images/308.png">[308]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309"></a><a href="images/309.png">[309]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TALIDA</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310"></a><a href="images/310.png">[310]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311"></a><a href="images/311.png">[311]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312"></a><a href="images/312.png">[312]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MEASLES AND DIPHTHERIA</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313"></a><a href="images/313.png">[313]</a></span> +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!</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE INDIAN GUIDE</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314"></a><a href="images/314.png">[314]</a></span> +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 <i>at</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315"></a><a href="images/315.png">[315]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE HALF-BREED</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316"></a><a href="images/316.png">[316]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317"></a><a href="images/317.png">[317]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE LOW-DOWN WHITE</div> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318"></a><a href="images/318.png">[318]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>What is said here of the male half-breeds applies <i>a +fortiori</i> 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319"></a><a href="images/319.png">[319]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320"></a><a href="images/320.png">[320]</a></span> +were some miles from our destination, and we made camp; +and all night long the heavy snow continued.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE DOG GUIDES</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321"></a><a href="images/321.png">[321]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE WILDERNESS POET</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322"></a><a href="images/322.png">[322]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323"></a><a href="images/323.png">[323]</a></span> +is navigable for vessels of light draught, and a small +stern-wheel steamboat lay wintering upon the bank.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ROAD-HOUSES</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>There had not been so much snowfall in this section,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324"></a><a href="images/324.png">[324]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="summit" id="summit"></a><a href="images/gs368.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs368_th.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt=""The 'summit' is high above timber-line and the trail pursues a hogback ridge for a mile and a half at the summit level."" title=""The 'summit' is high above timber-line and the trail pursues a hogback ridge for a mile and a half at the summit level."" /> +</a><span class="caption">"The 'summit' is high above timber-line and the trail pursues a hogback ridge for a mile and a half at the summit level."</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="street" id="street"></a><a href="images/gs369.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs369_th.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="A street in Iditarod City." title="A street in Iditarod City." /> +</a><span class="caption">A street in Iditarod City.</span> +</div> + +<p>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 <i>Pelican</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325"></a><a href="images/325.png">[325]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326"></a><a href="images/326.png">[326]</a></span> +domes of hills, stretched away in all directions, a maze of +little valleys threading in and out amongst them.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">PLACE-NAMES</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">IDITAROD CITY</div> + +<p>We went through "Discovery Otter" and into "Flat +City," on Flat Creek, the jealous rival of Iditarod City,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327"></a><a href="images/327.png">[327]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328"></a><a href="images/328.png">[328]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329"></a><a href="images/329.png">[329]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330"></a><a href="images/330.png">[330]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THOUSANDS WITHOUT CHURCH</div> + +<p>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<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> 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 <i>Pelican's</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331"></a><a href="images/331.png">[331]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332"></a><a href="images/332.png">[332]</a></span> +lined the bank, but forty or fifty souls comprised the population, +and almost all of them gathered for Divine service +that night.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE "MOVING OF THE MEAT"</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Dishkaket was merely a native village on the Innoko +River two or three years before; but since three new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333"></a><a href="images/333.png">[333]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334"></a><a href="images/334.png">[334]</a></span> +twenty-five we made the first day was probably not much +more than twenty.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">MILLINERY</div> + +<p>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 +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Iditerod'">Iditarod</ins>, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335"></a><a href="images/335.png">[335]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="portagetrail" id="portagetrail"></a><a href="images/gs380.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs380_th.jpg" width="500" height="332" alt="The end of the portage trail." title="The end of the portage trail." /> +</a><span class="caption">The end of the portage trail.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="ice" id="ice"></a><a href="images/gs381.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs381_th.jpg" width="500" height="330" alt="Rough ice on the Yukon." title="Rough ice on the Yukon." /> +</a><span class="caption">Rough ice on the Yukon.</span> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336"></a><a href="images/336.png">[336]</a></span> +your way," sneered another. Lewis's road-house <i>is</i> 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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">"TREASURE ISLAND"</div> + +<p>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 +<i>Treasure Island</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337"></a><a href="images/337.png">[337]</a></span> +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 <span class="smcap">a. m.</span> instead of 5.15 <span class="smcap">a. m.</span>, 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">AN UNTRAVELLED RIVER</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Five days of almost ceaseless snow-storm during our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338"></a><a href="images/338.png">[338]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339"></a><a href="images/339.png">[339]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">WIND AND SNOW</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340"></a><a href="images/340.png">[340]</a></span> +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 <span class="smcap">p. m.</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341"></a><a href="images/341.png">[341]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">ALASKAN "FORTS"</div> + +<p>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 <span class="smcap">p. m.</span>, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342"></a><a href="images/342.png">[342]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">TRAVELLING BY NIGHT</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343"></a><a href="images/343.png">[343]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344"></a><a href="images/344.png">[344]</a></span> +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 <span class="smcap">p. m.</span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345"></a><a href="images/345.png">[345]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LAST DAY</div> + +<p>We left Beaver at eleven <span class="smcap">p. m.</span> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346"></a><a href="images/346.png">[346]</a></span> +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 <span class="smcap">p. m.</span> entered upon what we hoped would +be our last run.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347"></a><a href="images/347.png">[347]</a></span> +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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348"></a><a href="images/348.png">[348]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>THE NATIVES OF ALASKA</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349"></a><a href="images/349.png">[349]</a></span> +tools and weapons and the knowledge of easier and more +comfortable ways of life are available.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE ATHABASCANS</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350"></a><a href="images/350.png">[350]</a></span> +differences, until the Indians overlap the Esquimaux, six +hundred miles farther down.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="docile" id="docile"></a><a href="images/gs398.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs398_th.jpg" width="500" height="327" alt="A docile folk, eager for instruction." title="A docile folk, eager for instruction." /> +</a><span class="caption">A docile folk, eager for instruction.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;"><a name="mission" id="mission"></a><a href="images/gs399a.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs399a_th.jpg" width="250" height="259" alt="The mission type." title="The mission type." /> +</a><span class="caption">The mission type.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;"><a name="wild" id="wild"></a><a href="images/gs399b.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs399b_th.jpg" width="300" height="197" alt="Wild and shy." title="Wild and shy." /> +</a><span class="caption">Wild and shy.</span> +</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351"></a><a href="images/351.png">[351]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">AN INOFFENSIVE PEOPLE</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352"></a><a href="images/352.png">[352]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>They are capable of hard work, though apparently +not of continuous hard work; they will cheerfully support<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353"></a><a href="images/353.png">[353]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SEXUAL MORALITY</div> + +<p>In the matter of sexual morality the Indian standards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354"></a><a href="images/354.png">[354]</a></span> +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 <i>un</i>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355"></a><a href="images/355.png">[355]</a></span> +education of the Indian, and has set up a bureau charged +with the establishment and conduct of native schools.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356"></a><a href="images/356.png">[356]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357"></a><a href="images/357.png">[357]</a></span> +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 <i>after</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Indian school problem is not an easy one in the +sense that it can be solved by issuing rules and regulations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358"></a><a href="images/358.png">[358]</a></span> +at Washington, but it can be solved by sympathetic +study and by the careful selection of intelligent, cultured +teachers.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE THREAT OF EXTINCTION</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359"></a><a href="images/359.png">[359]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DWELLING AND CLOTHING</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360"></a><a href="images/360.png">[360]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 213px;"><a name="native" id="native"></a><a href="images/gs410a.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs410a_th.jpg" width="213" height="300" alt="The Native communicant." title="The Native communicant." /> +</a><span class="caption">The Native communicant.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 215px;"><a name="raw" id="raw"></a><a href="images/gs410b.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs410b_th.jpg" width="215" height="300" alt="Raw material." title="Raw material." /> +</a><span class="caption">Raw material.</span> +</div> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361"></a><a href="images/361.png">[361]</a></span> +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.</p> + + +<div class="sidenote">THE INDIAN TRADER</div> + +<p>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.</p> +<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;"><a name="esquimau" id="esquimau"></a><a href="images/gs411a.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs411a_th.jpg" width="250" height="220" alt="An Esquimau youth." title="An Esquimau youth." /> +</a><span class="caption">An Esquimau youth.</span> +</div> + + +<p>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 <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'satteens'">sateens</ins> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362"></a><a href="images/362.png">[362]</a></span> +Indian has done his trading the trader has most of his +money back again.</p> + + +<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;"><a name="half" id="half"></a><a href="images/gs411b.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs411b_th.jpg" width="300" height="236" alt="A half-breed Indian." title="A half-breed Indian." /> +</a><span class="caption">A half-breed Indian.</span> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The missions help the Indians, especially the women<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363"></a><a href="images/363.png">[363]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">UNPAID COMMISSIONERS</div> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364"></a><a href="images/364.png">[364]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365"></a><a href="images/365.png">[365]</a></span> +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 <i>Bab Ballads</i>. 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">LIQUOR AND POLITICS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366"></a><a href="images/366.png">[366]</a></span> +conviction that what should have been a matter of administrative +righteousness only was a political matter as +well.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 294px;"><a name="aged" id="aged"></a><a href="images/gs418.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs418_th.jpg" width="294" height="500" alt="An aged couple." title="An aged couple." /> +</a><span class="caption">An aged couple.</span> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="football" id="football"></a><a href="images/gs419.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs419_th.jpg" width="500" height="315" alt="Football at the Allakaket, exposure 1-1000 second, April, after a new light snowfall." title="Football at the Allakaket, exposure 1-1000 second, April, after a new light snowfall." /> +</a><span class="caption">Football at the Allakaket, exposure 1-1000 second, April, after a new light snowfall.</span> +</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367"></a><a href="images/367.png">[367]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">FOOD AND FURS</div> + +<p>The game and the fish of Alaska, the natural subsistence +of the Indian, are virtually undiminished. Vast<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368"></a><a href="images/368.png">[368]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369"></a><a href="images/369.png">[369]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>This chapter must not close without a few words<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370"></a><a href="images/370.png">[370]</a></span> +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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371"></a><a href="images/371.png">[371]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE ARCTIC</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372"></a><a href="images/372.png">[372]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">CARE OF FILMS AND CAMERAS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373"></a><a href="images/373.png">[373]</a></span> +be summed up in one general rule—keep instrument and +films always outdoors.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374"></a><a href="images/374.png">[374]</a></span> +One learns, by and by, to have all films sent sealed up in +tin cans, <i>and to put them back and seal them up again when +exposed</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375"></a><a href="images/375.png">[375]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The difficulties of winter photography in Alaska do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376"></a><a href="images/376.png">[376]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">EFFECT OF COLD ON EMULSIONS</div> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377"></a><a href="images/377.png">[377]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378"></a><a href="images/378.png">[378]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">INDIANS AND PHOTOGRAPHS</div> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379"></a><a href="images/379.png">[379]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380"></a><a href="images/380.png">[380]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>THE NORTHERN LIGHTS</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A GENERAL AURORA</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381"></a><a href="images/381.png">[381]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382"></a><a href="images/382.png">[382]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383"></a><a href="images/383.png">[383]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384"></a><a href="images/384.png">[384]</a></span></p> + +<div class="sidenote">A LOCAL AURORA</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385"></a><a href="images/385.png">[385]</a></span> +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 <i>local</i> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A RED AURORA</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386"></a><a href="images/386.png">[386]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387"></a><a href="images/387.png">[387]</a></span> +seemed no higher than the mountain top—seemed to be +the mountain top itself—and its extent seemed confined +within the river valley.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A GRAND GENERAL DISPLAY</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388"></a><a href="images/388.png">[388]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="sun" id="sun"></a><a href="images/gs442.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs442_th.jpg" width="500" height="160" alt="Photo by Paul Schultz. The sun dogs." title="Photo by Paul Schultz. The sun dogs." /> +</a>Photo by Paul Schultz.<br /> +<span class="caption">The sun dogs.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 230px;"><a name="tan" id="tan"></a><a href="images/gs443a.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs443a_th.jpg" width="230" height="300" alt=""Tan," of mixed breed." title=""Tan," of mixed breed." /> +</a><span class="caption">"Tan," of mixed breed.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 228px;"><a name="muk" id="muk"></a><a href="images/gs443b.jpg"> +<img src="images/gs443b_th.jpg" width="228" height="300" alt=""Muk," a pure malamute." title=""Muk," a pure malamute." /> +</a><span class="caption">"Muk," a pure malamute.</span> +</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389"></a><a href="images/389.png">[389]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>All night long the splendour kept up, and all night +long, as the dogs went at a good clip and one of us rode<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390"></a><a href="images/390.png">[390]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">SOUND AND SMELL</div> + +<p>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 <i>ought</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391"></a><a href="images/391.png">[391]</a></span> +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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392"></a><a href="images/392.png">[392]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>THE ALASKAN DOGS</h3> + + +<div class="sidenote">MALAMUTE, HUSKY, AND SIWASH</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393"></a><a href="images/393.png">[393]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394"></a><a href="images/394.png">[394]</a></span> +However, pets that give little trouble seldom give much +pleasure.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395"></a><a href="images/395.png">[395]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DOG BREEDING</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Indeed, it seems a rare thing when any sort of pains +is taken about the breeding of dogs. In a country where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396"></a><a href="images/396.png">[396]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397"></a><a href="images/397.png">[397]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE DOCKING OF TAILS</div> + +<p>One advantage of the change from single to double +rig is the decay of the cruel custom of "bobbing" the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398"></a><a href="images/398.png">[398]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399"></a><a href="images/399.png">[399]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DOG LOYALTY</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400"></a><a href="images/400.png">[400]</a></span> +very close, and the understanding complete. Sometimes +the dog will be his master's sole society for the whole +winter.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401"></a><a href="images/401.png">[401]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402"></a><a href="images/402.png">[402]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="sidenote">REINDEER</div> + +<div class="sidenote">REINDEER AS DRAUGHT ANIMALS</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403"></a><a href="images/403.png">[403]</a></span> +that the reindeer will never "eliminate the husky dog" +in Labrador.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404"></a><a href="images/404.png">[404]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405"></a><a href="images/405.png">[405]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">DOG FOOD</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it would be putting it better to say that a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406"></a><a href="images/406.png">[406]</a></span> +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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407"></a><a href="images/407.png">[407]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">THE REINDEER'S USEFULNESS</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Wherein, then, lies the success of the reindeer experiment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408"></a><a href="images/408.png">[408]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409"></a><a href="images/409.png">[409]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410"></a><a href="images/410.png">[410]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411"></a><a href="images/411.png">[411]</a></span> +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 +<i>really</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412"></a><a href="images/412.png">[412]</a></span> +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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413"></a><a href="images/413.png">[413]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414"></a><a href="images/414.png">[414]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415"></a><a href="images/415.png">[415]</a></span></p> + +<h2>INDEX</h2> + + +<div> +Agriculture, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a><br /> +<br /> +Alarm-clocks, <a href="#Page_304">304</a><br /> +<br /> +Alatna River, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br /> +<br /> +Albert the pilot, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br /> +<br /> +Allakaket, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>-<a href="#Page_195">195</a><br /> +<br /> +Alphabet, <a href="#Page_69">69</a><br /> +<br /> +Amundsen, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a><br /> +<br /> +Animals, wild, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br /> +<br /> +Anthropologists, <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br /> +<br /> +Arctic Ocean, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +<br /> +Army posts: economic value, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discipline and life, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frequent changes, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">surgeons, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Arthur, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a><br /> +<br /> +Athabascan language, <a href="#Page_349">349</a><br /> +<br /> +Atler, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +Auroras, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>-<a href="#Page_391">391</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Baker Creek Springs, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br /> +<br /> +Bathing, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br /> +<br /> +Beaver City, <a href="#Page_345">345</a><br /> +<br /> +Bering Sea, <a href="#Page_129">129</a><br /> +<br /> +Betticher, C. E., <a href="#Page_254">254</a><br /> +<br /> +Bettles, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br /> +<br /> +Black fox, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a><br /> +<br /> +Blizzard, <a href="#Page_40">40</a><br /> +<br /> +Blossom Cape, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +<br /> +Blow-holes, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br /> +<br /> +Bluff, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br /> +<br /> +Bompas, Bishop, <a href="#Page_283">283</a><br /> +<br /> +Brook, Alfred, <a href="#Page_309">309</a><br /> +<br /> +Burke, Dr., <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Caching, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a><br /> +<br /> +Camp: making details, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">night made, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">devices, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in wet snow, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Camp-Robbers, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a><br /> +<br /> +Candle, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br /> +<br /> +Candles, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br /> +<br /> +Caribou, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a><br /> +<br /> +Carter, Miss, <a href="#Page_184">184</a><br /> +<br /> +Chandalar: River, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">village, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gap, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Chatanika River, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br /> +<br /> +Chena, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a><br /> +<br /> +Chief Isaac, <a href="#Page_263">263</a><br /> +<br /> +Chinnik, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br /> +<br /> +Choris Peninsula, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +<br /> +Circle City, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a><br /> +<br /> +Clearwater Creek, <a href="#Page_256">256</a><br /> +<br /> +Clothes: drying, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">moose hide, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tuberculosis, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">missions, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Coal, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br /> +<br /> +Coldfoot, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br /> +<br /> +Cook, Dr., <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br /> +<br /> +Cooking: camp dishes, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cleanliness, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bear meat, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">by relays, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">for dog, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Council, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br /> +<br /> +Creepers, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br /> +<br /> +Cribbage, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Death Valley, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br /> +<br /> +Denali (Mt. McKinley), <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a><br /> +<br /> +Deputy marshals, <a href="#Page_365">365</a><br /> +<br /> +Development schemes, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="diphtheria" id="diphtheria"></a>Diphtheria, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a><br /> +<br /> +Disease: epidemic, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>; <i>cf.</i> <a href="#diphtheria">diphtheria</a>, <a href="#measles">measles</a>, <a href="#tuberculosis">tuberculosis</a><br /> +<br /> +Dishkaket, <a href="#Page_332">332</a><br /> +<br /> +Disinfectants, <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br /> +<br /> +Dogs: price of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416"></a><a href="images/416.png">[416]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">frozen toes, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sled, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">beds, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">food, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">harness, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tails, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fight, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">digging up snow, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">helpless on smooth ice, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conscience, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on fish food, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with reindeer, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">refuse to lead, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">preference for land trails, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intelligence, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>; <i>cf.</i> <a href="#Nanook">Nanook</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">strength, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dislike wet feet, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cost of boarding, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in trail making, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in soft weather, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suffering on steep trails, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">companionship, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">moccasin leggings, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">houses, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">play, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intelligence, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sleeping, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">thieving, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">partners of man, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">working life, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frozen foot, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with no coat, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Indians, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">howling, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stray, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">general characteristics, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>-<a href="#Page_402">402</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cost of maintenance, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ill used by whites, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Eagle, <a href="#Page_285">285</a><br /> +<br /> +Eagle Summit, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br /> +<br /> +Education: spread of English, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">phonograph, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scientific, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">novel methods, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ignorance of native language, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">artificial methods, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mission, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Egbert Fort, <a href="#Page_286">286</a><br /> +<br /> +Endicott Mountains, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Esquimaux" id="Esquimaux"></a>Esquimaux: sense of humour, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">isolated, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">huts, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as hunters, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prayers, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">music, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">morality, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">industry, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sabbatarianism, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sense of distance, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fish eating, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gut windows, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">devoutness, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sleeping customs, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">undemonstrativeness, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">igloos, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">non-alcoholic, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tobacco, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hospitality, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">carving, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">singing, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of white men toward, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">snow goggles, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">kindly manners, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">antipathy to Indians, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">superstitions, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Fairbanks, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a><br /> +<br /> +Farthing, Miss, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a><br /> +<br /> +Fish Creek, <a href="#Page_297">297</a><br /> +<br /> +Forts: Alaskan, <a href="#Page_342">342</a><br /> +<br /> +Fortymilers, <a href="#Page_280">280</a><br /> +<br /> +Fortymile River, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Gambling, <a href="#Page_279">279</a><br /> +<br /> +Game, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a><br /> +<br /> +Gold train, <a href="#Page_5">5</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Greek" id="Greek"></a>Greek Church, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a><br /> +<br /> +Grenfell, Dr., <a href="#Page_402">402</a><br /> +<br /> +Grimm, Charles, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Half-breeds, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a><br /> +<br /> +Hamlin, Fort, <a href="#Page_342">342</a><br /> +<br /> +Hammond River, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br /> +<br /> +Hans, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417"></a><a href="images/417.png">[417]</a></span>Hip-ring, <a href="#Page_226">226</a><br /> +<br /> +Hobo, the frozen, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br /> +<br /> +Hogatzitna, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br /> +<br /> +Horses, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a><br /> +<br /> +Hospitality, <i>cf.</i> <a href="#Esquimaux">Esquimaux</a> and <a href="#Indians">Indians</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br /> +<br /> +Hot Springs, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a><br /> +<br /> +Hotham Inlet, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br /> +<br /> +Hudson Bay Company, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><br /> +<br /> +Husky, <a href="#Page_392">392</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Ice: glare, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rubber, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blow-holes, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bluffs, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mining, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">jam, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">breaking, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">way to determine holding capacity, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Iditarod City, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a><br /> +<br /> +Igloo, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="Indians" id="Indians"></a>Indians: civilized, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">uncivilized, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">religion, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">language, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trade with, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">diminishing, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">disease, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relations with whites, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dancing and sports, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">preparation for death, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of civilization, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lack of initiative, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">demoralization, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">birth-rate and death-rate, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">best education for, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women teachers, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">kindliness, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">traders, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hospitality, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">missions, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">not savages, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fear of Esquimaux, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">peaceable, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">not idolators, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Christianity, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">moral character, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pauperization, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cruelty to dogs, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of reproof, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">self-government, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">whites, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">epidemics, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at mercy of traders, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">half-breed, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and whites, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">meat carriers, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">carving, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">general discussion of, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>-<a href="#Page_370">370</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and photographs, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Interpreters, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Jackson, Dr. S., <a href="#Page_402">402</a><br /> +<br /> +Jade Mountains, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +Jetté, Fr., <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a><br /> +<br /> +John River, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br /> +<br /> +Journalism, <a href="#Page_250">250</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Kikitaruk, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br /> +<br /> +Knapp, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br /> +<br /> +Kobuk: River, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mountains, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">missionary, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">town, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Kobuks, <a href="#Page_51">51</a><br /> +<br /> +Kotzebue, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sound, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Koyukuk: River, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cañon, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">deserted towns, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Indians, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mission, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Krusenstern, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br /> +<br /> +Kuskokwim River, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Lamps, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br /> +<br /> +Langdon, Captain, <a href="#Page_288">288</a><br /> +<br /> +Launch, motor, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a><br /> +<br /> +Lewis Cut-Off, <a href="#Page_333">333</a><br /> +<br /> +Lingo, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a><br /> +<br /> +London, Jack, <a href="#Page_265">265</a><br /> +<br /> +Long Beach, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br /> +<br /> +Lookout Mountain, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418"></a><a href="images/418.png">[418]</a></span>Loomis, Dr., <a href="#Page_296">296</a><br /> +<br /> +Lower ramparts, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br /> +<br /> +Lunar: phenomena, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eclipse, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lynx, <a href="#Page_405">405</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +MacDonald, Archdeacon, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br /> +<br /> +Magistrates, <a href="#Page_364">364</a><br /> +<br /> +Mail carrying, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a><br /> +<br /> +Malamute, <a href="#Page_392">392</a><br /> +<br /> +Mal-de-raquet, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br /> +<br /> +Mansfield Lake, <a href="#Page_271">271</a><br /> +<br /> +Matches, <a href="#Page_243">243</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="measles" id="measles"></a>Measles, <a href="#Page_312">312</a><br /> +<br /> +Medicine men, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a><br /> +<br /> +Melozitna, <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br /> +<br /> +Menthol balm, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br /> +<br /> +Meteorological: phenomena, heat radiation, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rain, rare in winter, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">local weather changes, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">variable climate in Alaska, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cause of fluctuating temperature readings, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Minchumina'">Minchúmina</ins>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lake, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Mining: towns and camps, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">town morality, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">luxurious life, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fires, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on beach, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in ice, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">decayed, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">primitive methods, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">claims, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">flimsy buildings, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">morals, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">services in, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">missionaries, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">agriculture, <a href="#Page_366">366</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Mirage, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br /> +<br /> +Mission stations: schools, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">clothing, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">isolated, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Missionary: nurse, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">methods, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Moccasins, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br /> +<br /> +Money, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br /> +<br /> +Moses' Village, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a><br /> +<br /> +Mountain: sunshine, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">temperature, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Mukluk, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a><br /> +<br /> +Mush, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="Nanook" id="Nanook"></a>Nanook, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a><br /> +<br /> +Natural religion, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a><br /> +<br /> +Nelson, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br /> +<br /> +Nenana, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a><br /> +<br /> +Nicoli's Village, <a href="#Page_322">322</a><br /> +<br /> +Noatak, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br /> +<br /> +Nome, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br /> +<br /> +Northern Commercial Company, <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br /> +<br /> +Norton: Bay, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sound, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Nose protection, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a><br /> +<br /> +Noyutak Lake, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br /> +<br /> +Nulato, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">massacre, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Old Woman Mountain, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br /> +<br /> +One-eyed William, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a><br /> +<br /> +Overflow: water, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ice, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Paraselene, <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br /> +<br /> +Parkee, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br /> +<br /> +Peary, Admiral, <a href="#Page_393">393</a><br /> +<br /> +Pedometer, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +<br /> +Petersen, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br /> +<br /> +Photographing, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a><br /> +<br /> +Photography, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>-<a href="#Page_379">379</a><br /> +<br /> +Place names, <a href="#Page_326">326</a><br /> +<br /> +Point Hope, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br /> +<br /> +Potatoes, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br /> +<br /> +Potlatch, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a><br /> +<br /> +Prevost, Jules, <a href="#Page_154">154</a><br /> +<br /> +Prices, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">trading, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Prospectors: in winter, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Esquimaux, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pinching out, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ruined, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419"></a><a href="images/419.png">[419]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">self-reliance, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poet, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">imagination, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">knowledge of Bible, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dogs, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visions, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">railways, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Ptarmigan, <a href="#Page_325">325</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Quikpak River, <a href="#Page_153">153</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Raft, <a href="#Page_256">256</a><br /> +<br /> +Ragarou, Fr., <a href="#Page_147">147</a><br /> +<br /> +Railroads, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a><br /> +<br /> +Rampart City, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a><br /> +<br /> +Rasmunsen, <a href="#Page_392">392</a><br /> +<br /> +Reading matter, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a><br /> +<br /> +Red Mountain, <a href="#Page_176">176</a><br /> +<br /> +Reindeer, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a><br /> +<br /> +Roadhouse accommodation, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gambling, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">keepers of, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">talk, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">poet, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reading matter, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Arctic travel reminiscences, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Roxy, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br /> +<br /> +Russian Alaska, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>: Church of, <i>cf.</i> <a href="#Greek">Greek Church</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Saint John's-in-the-Wilderness, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br /> +<br /> +Salchaket, <a href="#Page_254">254</a><br /> +<br /> +Scientists, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br /> +<br /> +Seasons, <a href="#Page_230">230</a><br /> +<br /> +Seward Peninsula, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br /> +<br /> +Signal corps, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br /> +<br /> +Sishwóymina, <a href="#Page_309">309</a><br /> +<br /> +Siwashing, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a><br /> +<br /> +Slate Creek, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br /> +<br /> +Sled: width, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brake, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">overturning, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">improvised, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in soft snow, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">use of willow saplings, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gee pole, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">convertible rig, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">unpacking, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">harness, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">team, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">weight carried, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dog rations, load, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Sleeping bag, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br /> +<br /> +Smoke, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br /> +<br /> +Snow banners, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">melting, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">glasses, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blindness, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Snow-shoes, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a><br /> +<br /> +Society of Friends, <a href="#Page_99">99</a><br /> +<br /> +Solar: light, effect on speed-shutters, <a href="#Page_374">374</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">phenomena, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Solomon's, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br /> +<br /> +Speed, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a><br /> +<br /> +Squirrel River, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br /> +<br /> +Starvation, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a><br /> +<br /> +Stefanson, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a><br /> +<br /> +Summit, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Takotna, <a href="#Page_323">323</a><br /> +<br /> +Tanana, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">River, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Tapis, <a href="#Page_271">271</a><br /> +<br /> +Telegraph system, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br /> +<br /> +Temperature: low, travel, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">animal life, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in river bottoms, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect on lamps, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on parts of the body, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on log huts, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">condensation, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">smoke, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">clear weather, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wind, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">emotional power, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death from freezing, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cleanliness, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">altitude, effect of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">greatest cold, effect of, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420"></a><a href="images/420.png">[420]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">fluctuations, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">confinement, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect on cameras and films, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on emulsions, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and auroras, <a href="#Page_381">381</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">high, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect on dirt roof, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Yukon River, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Thermos bottle, <a href="#Page_261">261</a><br /> +<br /> +Toboggan, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +Topkok, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br /> +<br /> +Town crier, <a href="#Page_278">278</a><br /> +<br /> +Tozitna, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a><br /> +<br /> +Trader: anti-monopolist, <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">profits, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">missions, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">articles sold to Indians, <a href="#Page_361">361</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Trading monopoly, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><br /> +<br /> +Trail: river, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dry and wet, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mountain, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">width, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lost, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blazed, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">wind-swept, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in snow, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">breaking, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">exchange, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with hard crust, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">telephone, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of horses on, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cutting, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">making, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">always serpentine, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">staked, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">widening, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stage, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">double tripping, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in soft snow, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">swampy, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yukon, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in gale, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"sidling," 341</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at night, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in thaw, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">found by aurora, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Tsórmina, <a href="#Page_308">308</a><br /> +<br /> +<a name="tuberculosis" id="tuberculosis"></a>Tuberculosis, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a><br /> +<br /> +Twelve-Mile Summit, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Unalaklik'">Unalaklík</ins>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Walter, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a><br /> +<br /> +Whiskey, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a><br /> +<br /> +White, John, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><br /> +<br /> +Wind: protection against, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">different local velocities, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">physical labour, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in extreme cold, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as a malignant spirit, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">high velocities, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in The Ramparts, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Wiseman, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br /> +<br /> +Wolf, <a href="#Page_395">395</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Yukon, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Flats, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fort, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></span><br /> +</div> + +<p><a name="end" id="end"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a href="images/map2000.jpg"> +<img src="images/map200.jpg" width="200" height="112" alt="Map of the Interior of Alaska, Showing Journeys Described in this Book" title="Map of the Interior of Alaska, Showing Journeys Described in this Book" /> +</a><span class="caption">Map of the Interior of Alaska, Showing Journeys Described in this Book</span> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> This was written before the writer learned the superior protection +afforded by <i>amber</i> glass.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> See illustration, p. 374.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> In December, , 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> 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.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> In 1913 it was finally destroyed by fire.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> 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.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> 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."</p></div></div> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> +<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p> +<p>To aid the reader in finding the illustrations and not interrupt the flow +of the text, the List of Illustrations links to the illustration itself instead +of the page listed.</p> +<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +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 22965-h.htm or 22965-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/9/6/22965/ + +Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net and +the booksmiths at http://www.eBookForge.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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