274 THE UPPER YUKON 



she was able to gather incidents in his life 

 work at first hand: 



"We are told that Bishop Bompas's father 

 was Dickens's prototype for Sergeant Buzfuz. 

 A new vista would open up to the counsel for 

 Mrs. Burdell could he turn from his chops 

 and tomato sauce to follow the forty years' 

 wandering in the wilderness of this splendid 

 man of God, who succeeded, if ever man suc- 

 ceeds, in following Paul's advice of keeping 

 his body under. Bishop Bompas was one of 

 the greatest linguists the mother country ever 

 produced. Steeped in Hebrew and the clas- 

 sics when he entered the northland, he imme- 

 diately set himself to studying the various na- 

 tive languages, becoming thoroughly master 

 of the Slavi, Beaver, Dog-Rib, and Tukudk 

 dialects. 



"When Mrs. Bompas sent him a Syriac tes- 

 tament and lexicon, he threw himself with 

 characteristic energy into the study of that 

 tongue. There is something in the picture of 

 this devoted man writing Gospels in Slavi, 

 Primers in Dog-Rib, and a Prayer Book in 

 Chipewyan, which brings to mind the figure 

 of Caxton bending his silvered head over the 

 blocks of the first printing press in the old 

 almonry so many years before. What were 



