ders wood the natural fuel
for the production of the steam that thaws the ground, but the scarcity
of wood on the Seward Peninsula substitutes coal. There is coal on the
peninsula itself, but of very inferior quality, mixed with ice. One may
see chunks of coal with veins of ice running through them thrown upon
the fire. The wood of the interior is a great factor in its commercial
and domestic economy, and its absence on the Seward Peninsula makes
great change not only in the natural aspect of the country but in the
whole aspect of its industrial and domestic life also. Wood-chopping for
the stove and the mill, wood-sawing, wood-hauling employ no small
percentage of all the white men in the interior--occupations which do
not exist at all on the peninsula. But its encompassment by the sea, its
peninsularity, is the dominating difference between the Seward Peninsula
and the interior, and does indeed make a different country of it
altogether. All prices are very much lower on the peninsula because
ships can bring merchandise directly from the "outside." Thus amongst
those who have money to spend there is a more lavish scale of living
than in the interior towns, and luxuries may be enjoyed here that are
out of the question there. Perhaps, conversely, it is true that life on
the peninsula is somewhat harder for the poorer class. Whether a railway
from salt water to the mid-Yukon would redress this great difference in
the cost of everything may be doubted. Railways do not usually operate
at less than water-rates. There will probably always be an advantage in
the cost of living and mining in favour of the Seward Peninsula camps.

There had been no public religious service of any sort in Candle, with
its several hundreds of population, in three years, so there was special
satisfaction in having reached the place for Sunday when many miners
were in town from the creeks, and an overflowing congregation was
readily assembled. And there was great pleasure in three days' rest at
the hospitable home of a friend while the temperature remained below
-40 deg., 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 s