Rcvicic of BiU^ifirs, l/lllis. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



901 



MISSIONING IN ALASKA. 



Writing recently, m the si>ecial 

 " Alaska Number "of the Spint of Mis- 

 sions (New York), Archdeacon Stuck, 

 of the Diocese of Alaska, who, by the 

 way, recently achieved international 

 fame by his ascent of Mt. McKinley, 

 said : 



Whenever a man talks about Alaska he 

 means h'lH Alaska, and that is one of the 

 reasons why so many contradictory and 

 wholly irreconcilable things are said' about 

 Alaska. When a Nome man talks about 

 Alaska he means Prince AVilliam Sound and 

 tiie Cook Inlet country. When a Juneau 

 man talks about Alaska he means the soutli- 

 eastern coast. So when I talk about Alaska 

 ] mean the interior, which is the lion's share, 

 though the other Alaskas would each make 

 a great state. 



Perhaps a more definite idea of the 

 vastness of this " Great Country," as the 

 Indians call Alaska, may be realised b)' 

 placing Ketchikan (the most south- 

 easterly mission of the Diocese of 

 Alaska) upon the city of Sydney. Then 

 Point Hope, the most north-westerly mis- 

 sion, would fall in the Gulf of Carpen- 

 taria, while the westerniriost of the Aleu- 

 tian Islands A\ould reach beyond the 

 coast at Perth. 



Just across the border, on the Cana- 

 dian side, IS another vast missionarx^ 

 field, known as the Diocese of the 

 Yukon. These two dioceses, American 

 and Anglican, are the largest in the 

 world, and, in many respects, unique. 



As illustrating this, we find two men, 

 bishops of the Church, the one an 

 American, the Right Reverend Peter 

 Trimble Rowe, and the other an Angli- 

 can, the Right Reverend Isaac O. 

 Stringer, their fields of work separated 

 onl}' by the international boundary line 

 between the United States and the 

 British territories, living and working in 

 loneliness and hardship. 



Some idea of the vastness of Bishop 

 Stringer's diocese may be gained from 

 the fact that somewhat over a )'ear ago 

 the Bisho]) started from Dawson, the 

 seat of the Episcopal residence, on a 

 trip to Fort McPherson, some 300 miles 

 to the north. To get there it was neces- 

 sary to travel 5000 miles by wa_\' of 

 steamer, rail, stage and canoe. 



The long distances, lack of means of 

 transportation and communication, and 



the severe climate of this vast Arctic 

 region make great demands upon physi- 

 cal courage and endurance. Every- 

 where, to quote an extract from Bishop 

 Rovve's diary : 



only the great white desolation, silent, awful, 

 broken by the wail of wolves or the cracking 

 of ice, as thougli strange spirits were all 

 about you. The days were .strange as the 

 nights. Close Ijy the river crept the spruce, 

 and through this there trotted, dog-like, 

 l)acks of wolves, invisible but none the less 

 real, a.s their bowlings indicated. 



It requires, too, executive and adminis- 

 trative ability of the highest order on 

 the part of these overseers, since by rea- 

 son of the long distances and uncertain 

 periods of communication each year, 

 work must be planned months, and even 

 years, in advance. 



Sitka is the see city of the Alaska 

 diocese, and from here Bishop Rowe 

 makes his trips into the interior and the 

 north, travelling nearly eleven months 

 in every year, covering more than 20,000 

 miles, and holding an average of one 

 hundred services. 



Two qualities are essential for travel- 

 ling in this great countr)-, grit and an 

 instinct to find one's way, and both these 

 Bishop Stringer and Bishop Rowe 

 possess in a remarkable degree. Blind- 

 ing storms and blizzards, bitter cold (the 

 thermometer sometimes registering 65 

 degrees below zero), frozen fingers and 

 feet, bad ice and open water, short 

 rations (on one occasion neither Bishop 

 Rowe nor his dogs had any food for 

 three days ; while Bishoji Stringer sub- 

 sisted for the same length of time only 

 on his own footgear), physical injury, 

 lost trail, howling wolves, treacherous 

 natives — ^all these perils and difficulties 

 must be encountered and overcome }'ear 

 after year. 



Both of these valiant soldiers of the 

 Cross are discharging their dut\-, no{ 

 alone to the Church, but, through the 

 Church, to their respective countries as 

 well, for the Church occupies an enviable 

 position in the moral and spiritual de- 

 \cloi)mcnt of this north-west countr\-. It 

 nnnislers alike to bodv, mind and soul 

 of the Eskimo, the Indian, and the white 

 man. Medicallv, industrially, intellec- 



