than the reindeer steaks
and the coffee we took amongst those still sleeping Esquimaux. I should
have liked to spend the day and the next night there, for they were
friendly and kindly, but the wind had moderated somewhat and there was
still a chance to reach Candle for Sunday. With the offer of a sack of
flour at Kewalik we induced a couple of Esquimaux to accompany us, for I
knew we had to cross the mouth of a bay over the ice to reach the
mainland and I wanted to take no more chances.

Our company, again raised to four, started out about nine, and until the
Choris Peninsula was reached the trail still skirted the shore. It is
strange that Kotzebue, who named this peninsula of a peninsula for the
artist who accompanied his expedition in 1816, should have left the main
peninsula itself unnamed, and that the British expedition which named
Cape Blossom ten years later should have failed to supply the omission.
It still bears no name on the map. We portaged across the Choris
Peninsula and at the end of the portage took a straight course across
the mouth of Escholtz Bay (Escholtz was Kotzebue's surgeon) for Kewalik
on the mainland, passing Chamisso Island, named for Kotzebue's poet
friend. There is something very interesting to me in this voyage of
Kotzebue's, and I have long wished to come across a full narrative of
it. But the bitter wind that swept across that ice-sheet with the
thermometer at -30 deg. 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 deg.
and 60 deg. below in the interior, and I was very glad to procure from one
of our native companions a pair of caribou mitts with the hair inside,
an almost invulnerable gauntlet against cold. If that wind had been in
our faces instead of on our sides I am sure we could not have travelled
at all. At last we won across the ice and brought up at a comfortable
road-house at Kewalik, about ten miles from Candle. Here we lay
overnight, taking the opportunity of thawing out and drying the
frost-crusted bedding, leaving the short run into town for the morning.

[Sidenote: CANDLE CREEK]

The diggings on Candle Creek yield to the Koyukuk diggings only as the
most northerly gold mining in the world. Although the general methods
are the same in all Alaskan camps, local circumstances introduce many
differences. In all Alaskan camps the ground is frozen and must be
thawed down. The timber of the interior ren