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.

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 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