352 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



in the direction of the church, and all bringing loads of men 

 and women with numbers of children, dressed for the occasion 

 in their best clothes, all looking clean and very happy. The 

 service begins with a hymn. The Eskimos sing splendidly, 

 and no surroundings can be more in harmony with a religious 

 service than are those of the Arctic. The missionary, if a 

 sincere man, is deeply interested in his work, and has spent 

 considerable time and labour in learning the language of the 

 people ; preaching in their tongue, he earnestly impresses them 

 with our teaching and morals, and achieves results which must 

 indeed be called remarkable. Where fifteen years ago drinking 

 and worse were the usual Sunday amusements of the inhabit- 

 ants, they now all go to church, and after that they pay quiet 

 visits to one another or come to the stations to talk with the 

 owners. They have something new to live for, a life after death, 

 and they are happy and contented. 



Point Barrow has changed much in these few years, and the 

 change is mostly due to men like Mr. Spriggs and Mr. Brower, 

 each in a different way. Besides being a preacher of the Gospel, 

 "Mr. Spriggs is a physician, and has, I am sorry to say, a large 

 and extensive practice. Such diseases as typhoid fever, 

 measles, and whooping cough are almost permanent visitors in 

 this town of six hundred souls. Every day Mr. Spriggs goes 

 about visiting his patients in storm and calm, and he is often 

 called out of his warm bed at night to put on his furs and 

 follow a call of mercy which may perhaps take him several 

 miles away frcJm his house. It is a big as well as an important 

 addition to his missionary duties, and the Government ought 

 to have a qualified doctor in the place. 



But one more class claims the attention of the Eskimos, the 

 school teachers. The Eskimos go to school, the grown-up 

 people as well as the small boys and girls. Yet schools are 

 not compulsory as with us; the Eskimos go there because they 

 like it, and because the older ones at least know the immense 

 advantage of being able to read, write, and talk the white man's 

 tongue. The Eskimos are industrious and intelligent, and a 

 couple of years' schooling gives them sufficient knowledge to 

 write a letter to each other or to the white men along the coast. 

 The school teacher at Point Barrow, Mr. Hogsworth, with a 

 native assistant, a girl who had been for ten years at Carlyle, 



