96 THE LIFE OF E. J. PECK 



Then, again, almost immediately after Mr. Peck's 

 arrival at Little Whale River, Bishop Horden had 

 written an urgent letter to the Church Missionary 

 Society in England asking that an iron church might 

 be sent out to him. 



" It is," said the Bishop, " quite indispensable. 

 No wood grows near there at all fit for buildings, 

 and he cannot preach to or teach his people in the 

 open air with the thermometer at 40 degrees below 

 zero. It should be large enough to accommodate 

 150 people." 



Through the kindness of private friends, among 

 whom were the Rev. Henry Wright and Miss Wright 

 (now Mrs. Moule), a pretty little iron building of 

 the size required had been purchased, costing alto- 

 gether 300, and had been sent out in pieces in the 

 Hudson's Bay Company's annual ship to Moose 

 Factory. 



We can readily understand, after the preaching 

 and teaching in snow-houses, how anxious Mr. Peck 

 was to convey this iron building to Little Whale 

 River. Writing on .September 5, he says he hopes 

 to take it back to his Eskimo station when the winter 

 is over. But in this hope he was for a time dis- 

 appointed. 



The winter passed in learning, reading with the 

 Bishop, translating and transcribing. " While 

 here," he writes, " I finished transcribing into the 

 Syllabic character portions of the New Testament. 



