FROM FLAXMAN ISLAND TO ICY CAPE 357 



then had never known a word of English. I admit that he 

 may have been one of the brightest pupils, but when I asked 

 for one of the twenty diaries which Mr. Kilbuck had in his 

 keeping it was difficult to decide which was really the best. 



As a good illustration of what can be done by this people if 

 they are properly taken care of, and have a teacher who can 

 make them interested in their work, I have inserted one of the 

 eight pages of little Shoodlak's diary. 



Besides, they write letters to their friends along the coast, as 

 far south as Point Hope or as far north as Point Barrow, and 

 whenever a traveller drives into camp they all crowd round 

 him, hoping that he has letters for them, and when he leaves 

 he usually is burdened with an extra weight of several pounds 

 of paper. 



The letters do not contain much, but the little they contain 

 is interesting to those people, viz., a description of a particu- 

 larly big and splendid meal, the shooting of a bear, or accounts 

 of the seal hunting. It is good practice, and the teachers, 

 who are interested in their work, do all they can to encourage 

 letter-writing. 



I stayed a whole day at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Kilbuck, 

 partly for my own sake, partly for theirs. The lot of a school 

 teacher in this country of great distances is not enviable. 

 Months go by when they never see another white man, and 

 when one arrives his company must be enjoyed to the utmost. 

 We sat up late and talked about what had happened to us 

 since we " came in " ; events which in themselves are small 

 and insignificant rise into importance and are discussed and 

 considered from all sides. We had not been at this place when 

 we came along the coast a year and a half ago, but the natives 

 had seen our vessel and were grieved to hear that it was " dead" 

 (to use the native phraseology). There were about eighty 

 natives at the place, and the school was daily visited by about 

 twenty-five. Mr. Kilbuck had made the natives utilize the 

 coal mines, which lie in a small river close to the sea. They 

 burn coal themselves and also sell it at $20.00 per ton to the 

 white men at Point Barrow or to others. It is a new source 

 of income to the natives, but they are not very industrious, and 

 but for Mr. Kilbuck's example they would only mine enough 

 for their own use. However, they like the money, they work 



