CONSOLIDATION 115 



the Little Whale River while Mr. Peck was there, 

 and therefore was independent of his help. Here 

 is another case taken from Mr. Peck's diary : 

 " Some Eskimos arrived in the evening . . . One 

 young fellow, whom I had never seen before, had 

 almost learned to read, and had some knowledge of 

 Christianity. It appeared that he had met another 

 Eskimo who had done his best to instruct him. 

 Other cases might be quoted, but there is no need 

 to do so, in the light of the statement, which has 

 already been made, that practically all the Eskimos 

 at Little Whale River could now read." 



Isolation is always one of the great trials of a 

 missionary's life. St. Paul felt it when he wrote : 

 " Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him 

 with thee." And from Apostolic days down to 

 the present experience is the same. The spiritually- 

 minded man needs the fellowship of the Spirit in 

 others. But generally in these days of railways, 

 telegraphs and telephones, though the missionary 

 may be cut off from the sympathy and fellowship 

 of personal contact, he has aids to realize communion 

 in his regular mail service. The worker in 

 Arctic scenes, however, has not this comfort. His 

 isolation is complete, and if he has not learned to 

 lean wholly upon his God for support, his lot is 

 indeed a sad and hard one. 



We can understand this to some extent when we 

 read Mr. Peck's words to Miss Tolley, a warm sup- 



