llKOLK'KA] 



WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 59 



river, particularly from Ruby, the more the Eskimoid physical char- 

 acteristics become marked and the Indian diluted, until at Anvik 

 most, or at least much, physical and cultural, is clearly Eskimo. 



Have further learned quite definitely that native villages on the 

 Yukon were seldom if ever stable. Have been known (as at Kaltag 

 and elsewhere) to have changed location as much as three times 

 within the last few scores of years, though in general they keep to the 

 same locality in a larger sense of the word. Anvik alone seems to 

 have remained on the old site since the advent of the whites. 



Anvik, Tuesday, June 29. Last night gave talk on evolution to 

 white teachers, etc. Quite appreciated, regardless of previous state 

 of mentality. 



Caught up with some sleep, even though my attic room was hi 

 hot that the gum from the spruce boards was dropping down on me. 

 Good breakfast with the doctor — canned grapefruit, corn flakes with 

 canned milk, bread toasted in the oven, and coffee. 



Pack up my Greyling skeleton — much drier to-day — and dispatch 

 by parcel post, through the doctor as postmaster. 



Photograph school children and village. Gnats bad and have to 

 wear substantial underclothing (limbs are already full of dark red 

 itching blotches where bitten by them) though it is a hot day again. 



The full-blood and especially the slightly mixed children would 

 be fine, not seldom lovely, were they fully healthy; but their lungs 

 are often weak or there is some other tubercular trouble. 



The color of the full-bloods, juvenile and others, on the body, is 

 invariably submedium to near medium brown, the exposed parts 

 darker; and the chest test (mine) for full-bloodedness holds true. 

 The young are often good looking; the old rather ugly. 



All adults fishing now, the fish running much since a day or 

 two; all busy at the fish camps, not many, in the daytime especially, 

 about the mission. 



At noon air fills with haze — soon recognized as smoke from a fire 

 which is located at only about a mile, and that with the wind, from 

 the mission. We all hasten to some of the houses in the brush — 

 find enough clearing about them for safety. The school here burned 

 two years ago and so all are apprehensive. Natives from across 

 the river hasten to their caches. Luckily not much wind. 



After lunch children come running in saying they hear thunder; 

 one girl saying in their usual choppy, picturesque way, "Outside 

 is thunder"': another smaller one says, "It hollers above.'" Before 

 long a sprinkle and then gradually more and more rain until there 

 is a downpour followed by several thunderclaps (as with us) and 

 then some more rain. That, of course, stops the fire from ap- 

 proaching closer and all is safe. Such storms are rare occurrences 

 hereabouts. 



