capital
in Europe and pays for it by having the worst climate of any city in the
world. It would not be just to paraphrase this description with regard
to Eagle, for while it is unsurpassed on the Yukon for site, there are
spots on that river where still more disagreeable weather prevails; yet
it cannot be denied that the position of the place subjects it to
exceedingly bitter winds, or that the valley of Eagle Creek, which gives
pleasing variety to the prospect, acts also as a channel to convey the
full force of the blast. Climate everywhere is a very local thing;
topographical considerations often altogether outweigh geographical; and
nowhere is this truer than in Alaska. Commanding sites are necessarily
exposed sites, and he who would dwell in comfort must build in
seclusion.

A native village of eighty or ninety souls, with its church and school,
lies three miles up-stream from the town, so that the relative positions
of village, town, and military post exactly duplicate those at Tanana.
It must at once be stated, however, that this situation has not led to
anything like the demoralisation amongst the natives at Eagle that
thrusts itself into notice at the other place. Whether it were the
longer training in Christian morals that lay behind these people, or
better hap in the matter of post commanders (certainly there was never
such scandalous irregularity and indifference at Egbert as marked one
administration at Gibbon), or the vigilance during a number of
consecutive years of an especially active deputy marshal and the wisdom
and concern through an even longer period of a commissioner much above
the common stamp,[F] or all these causes combined, the natives at Eagle
have not suffered from the proximity of soldiers and civilians in the
same measure as the natives at Tanana. Drunkenness and debauchery there
have been again and again, but they have been severely checked and
restrained by both the civil and military authorities.

It was pleasant during Holy Week and Easter to see so many of the
enlisted men of the garrison taking part in the services in town;
pleasant, especially, to see officers and men singing together in the
choir, a tribute to the tact and zeal of the earnest layman in charge of
this mission; and it was pleasant at the village to hear the native
liturgy again and to see old men and women following the lessons in the
native Bible.

[Sidenote: FORT EGBERT ABANDONED]

Fort Egbert is abandoned no