tongue of the dumb
sing;

"For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the
desert."

Here in this wild north land, as, thank God, it has been on many other
mission fields, this glorious prophecy had been, and is being, most
literally fulfilled. Eyes long spiritually blinded are now open to
behold the blessed light, deaf ears have been unstopped and now hear His
loving voice, and tongues unloosened by His power make the wilderness
vocal with His praise.

CHAPTER THREE.

PRACTICAL WORK IN INDIAN HOMES.

Since the opening up of the heart of Africa, by the indomitable courage
and zeal of such men as Speke and Moffat, Baker and Livingstone, Stanley
and Cameron, Bishop Taylor and others, perhaps one of the least known
portions of this habitable globe is the northern part of the great
Dominion of Canada. The discovery of the rich gold mines in the great
Yukon River district--the greater number by far being in Canadian
territory--is attracting attention to that part of the hitherto unknown
north-western portion of the great Dominion, and will doubtless lead to
its becoming better known.

It is true that there are vast regions of this great country that are of
but little value to civilised people as a home. Still there are
hundreds of millions of acres, of land as fertile as any in the world,
and thousands of people are crowding in every year and taking possession
of what will yet become one of the greatest wheat producing portions of
the globe.

From east to west, through the Dominion runs the great Canada Pacific
Railway, the longest in the world. This great road has not only broken
the long silence of the wilderness and opened up the grandest route to
the Orient, but it has also unsettled the Indians in their prairie and
forest retreat; it has not only brought trade to their wigwam villages
but also the missionary with the Bible to their very doors.

But north of these new provinces where the whistle of the iron horse is
heard, are vast regions that are as free from the inroads of the
adventurous pioneer as is the Desert of Sahara. This is a country of
magnificent lakes and rivers with their untold wealth of fish. Its vast
forests and morasses abound in fur-bearing animals of great value.
Bears and wolves, reindeer and moose, and many other animals which the
Indians love to hunt, exist in large numbers.

The Indian tribes of these northern regions live altogether by hunting
and fishing