en, for the book
was projected and the title adopted some years ago, and the journeys
have continued. But ten thousand is a good round titular number, and is
none the worse for being well within the mark.

So far as mere distance is concerned, anyway, there is nothing
noteworthy in this record. There are many men in Alaska who have done
much more. A mail-carrier on one of the longer dog routes will cover
four thousand miles in a winter, while the writer's average is less than
two thousand. But his sled has gone far off the beaten track, across the
arctic wilderness, into many remote corners; wherever, indeed, white men
or natives were to be found in all the great interior.

These journeys were connected primarily with the administration of the
extensive work of the Episcopal Church in the interior of Alaska, under
the bishop of the diocese; but that feature of them has been fully set
forth from time to time in the church publications, and finds only
incidental reference here.

It is a great, wild country, little known save along accustomed routes
of travel; a country with a beauty and a fascination all its own; mere
arctic wilderness, indeed, and nine tenths of it probably destined
always to remain such, yet full of interest and charm.

Common opinion "outside" about Alaska seems to be veering from the view
that it is a land of perpetual snow and ice to the other extreme of
holding it to be a "world's treasure-house" of mineral wealth and
agricultural possibility. The world's treasure is deposited in many
houses, and Alaska has its share; its mineral wealth is very great, and
"hidden doors of opulence" may open at any time, but its agricultural
possibilities, in the ordinary sense in which the phrase is used, are
confined to very small areas in proportion to the enormous whole, and in
very limited degree.

It is no new thing for those who would build railways to write in
high-flown style about the regions they would penetrate, and, indeed, to
speak of "millions of acres waiting for the plough" is not necessarily a
misrepresentation; they are waiting. Nor is it altogether unnatural that
professional agricultural experimenters at the stations established by
the government should make the most of their experiments. When Dean
Stanley spoke disdainfully of dogma, Lord Beaconsfield replied; "Ah! but
you must always remember, no dogmas, no deans."

Besides the physical attractions of this country, it has a gentle
aborig