part
House and La Pierre House.

A few hours' journey brought us to the Tanana River again, which we
crossed, and took a portage on the other side that went up a long defile
and then along a ridge and then down another long defile until at night
we reached the native village at Lake Mansfield; a picturesque spot, for
the lake is entirely surrounded by mountains except on the side which
opens to the river. Here the Alaskan range and the Tanana River have
approached so close that the water almost washes the base of the
foot-hills, and the scenery is as fine and bold as any in Alaska. And
here, at Lake Mansfield, if only there were navigable connection between
the lake and the river into which it drains, would be an admirable place
for a mission station.

A couple of hours next day took us the seven remaining miles to the
Tanana Crossing. Here, at that time, was a station of the military
telegraph connecting Valdez on the coast with Fort Egbert (Eagle) on the
Yukon, a line maintained, at enormous expense, purely for military
purposes. It passed through an almost entirely uninhabited country in
which perhaps scarcely a dozen messages would originate in a year. The
telegraph-line and Fort Egbert itself are now abandoned. Strategic
considerations constitute a vague and variable quantity.

It was strange to find this little station with two or three men of the
signal-corps away out here in the wilderness. Their post was supplied by
mule pack-train from Fort Egbert, more than two hundred miles away, and
they told me that only ten pounds out of every hundred that left Fort
Egbert reached the Crossing, so self-limited is a pack-train through
such country. We amused ourselves calculating just how much farther
mules and men could go until they ate up _all_ they could carry.

The Tanana Crossing is a central spot for the Indians of this region.
Two days' journey up the river was the village of the Tetlin Indians.
Two days' journey into the mountain range were the Mantasta Indians. Two
days' journey across towards the Yukon were the Ketchumstock Indians.
Most of them would congregate at this spot for certain parts of the
year, should we plant a mission there, and despite the picturesque
situation of Lake Mansfield, it looked as if the Crossing were the best
point for building.

[Sidenote: THE TANANA CROSSING]

Our route lay northeast, across country to Fortymile on the Yukon, two
hundred and fifty miles away, along the trail f