hrdliCka] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 51 



prets and is some relative that the baby need not die, and what to 

 do — I note that he is somewhat under the influence of liquor and a 

 little flushed — to my dismay he begins to rant against me as a doctor 

 and against the Government, and wants me perforce, seemingly, to 

 say that the child is going to die and die to-night. There are two 

 guns around and I almost anticipate his catching hold of one. The 

 gist of the piecemeal talk is that they believe I am a Government 

 doctor, who ought to stay four or five days with them and take over 

 the child's treatment, and yet the fellow insists that the child will 

 die before next morning. I do not know what they would say or 

 do to the doctor if he undertook to stay and the child died — or if it 

 recovered. It is dismal. They have the idea that the "Government" 

 is obliged to do all sorts of things for them, without being clear 

 just what, and that it does not do them. They believe, and try to say 

 so, that I am sent and paid by the Government to treat them. 

 Probably they have heard about the Government medical party that 

 is to examine conditions along the river this summer, and think that 

 I do not want to do or give what is necessary. I give all the possi- 

 ble advice, but there is plainly no inclination to follow it. I offer 

 some medicine; they sneer at medicine. Even the father says he does 

 not understand it or want it. They are all surly and in a dangerous, 

 stupid mood. So there is nothing left but to go away as well as 

 one may. 



On way down the bank a woman is seen cleaning and cutting 

 fish — knife steel, with wood or ivory handle, of the Chinese and 

 Eskimo type. A porcupine, bloated, ami with flies and maggots on 

 it already about the nose, mouth, and eyes, lies next to the woman, 

 and its turn will probably come next after the fish. 



Have modest lunch — canned pears, a bit of cold bacon left from 

 morning, a bit of cheese, and coffee; and start once more onward. 

 So much beauty here, and such human discoid. 



3.30 p. m. Passing on right bank a line of bluffs, wholly of loess, 

 about 200 feet high and approximately 4 miles long, and as if shaven 

 with knife from top to water's edge. ' After that flats only on both 

 sides, with but one hill far ahead of us. 



Motor trouble again — same old pump; but not for long; in half 

 an hour on again. A steamer upward passes us — like a stranger, and 

 power. 



Galena 



A little town (village), on a flat promontory. An old consump- 

 tive storekeeper — no knowledge of any old implements or skeletal 

 remains. Lowden village moved here due to mine opposite and better 

 site. About 10 Indian houses here ; inhabitants now mostly in fish- 

 ing camps. 



