snow. In the summer of 1898 a part of the stream of gold
seekers, headed for the Klondike by way of Saint Michael, was deflected
to the Koyukuk River by reports of recent discoveries there. A great
many little steamboat outfits made their way up this river late in the
season, until their excessive draught in the falling water brought them
to a stand. Where they stopped they wintered, building cabins and
starting "towns." In one or two cases the "towns" were electrically lit
from the steamboat's dynamo. The next summer they all left, all save
those who were wrecked by the ice, and the "towns" were abandoned. But
they had got upon the map through some enterprising representative of
the land office, and they figure on some recent maps still. Peavey,
Seaforth, Jimtown, Arctic City, Beaver City, Bergman, are all just names
and nothing else, though at Bergman the Commercial Company had a plant
for a while.

We passed the mouth of the Alatna, where were two or three Indian
cabins, and went on the remaining ten miles to Moses' Village, where the
body of the man frozen to death had been brought. Moses' Village, named
from the chief, was the largest native village on the Koyukuk River, and
we were glad, despite our haste, that we had gone there. The repeated
requests from all the Indians we met for a mission and school on the
Koyukuk River and the neglected condition of the people had moved me the
previous year to take up the matter. This was my first visit, however,
so far down the river.

We found the coffin unmade and the grave undug, and set men vigorously
to work at both. The frozen body had been found fallen forward on hands
and feet, and since to straighten it would be impossible without
several days' thawing in a cabin, the coffin had to be of the size and
shape of a packing-case; of course the ground for the grave had to be
thawed down, for so are all graves dug in Alaska, and that is a slow
business. A fire is kindled on the ground, and when it has burned out,
as much ground as it has thawed is dug, and then another fire is
kindled. We had our own gruesome task. The body should be examined to
make legally sure that death came from natural causes. With difficulty
the clothes were stripped from the poor marble corpse, my companion made
the examination, and as a notary public I swore him to a report for the
nearest United States commissioner. This would furnish legal proof of
death were it ever required; otherwise, since