HROI.ti KA] 



WRITER'S TIIIP OX YUKON 103 



after another the native women and men bring out a few articles, 

 good, bad. or indifferent, lay them on the stone. I select what I want, 

 lay so much money against the articles, and usually get them. 

 Everybody in the best of humor. The natives surely enjoy the 

 sport, and so do I, if only I was not hurried. Thus trade for at 

 least an hour until my pockets are bulging. Then once more to the 

 school and once more to the mission. In the latter get my tilings, 

 as nolxulv is there yet. Doctor Goodman having doubtless been de- 

 layed on the boat. I hear that there are prospects of both him and 

 Mr. La Voy going north with us on a little vacation. Send the coat 

 with spare bags to the school by a native I meet, while I go to look 

 at the rib cemetery and photograph it. Find the bones have been 

 interred in its middle and a low mound raised over them, so there 

 is for the moment nothing to do there. Therefore go over the 

 plain a little farther, picking up a few odds and ends, a damaged 

 skull, and finally, from a fairly recent burial box, a fine skull with 

 its lower jaw. Then attempt to pass a pool of water and sink in 

 the mud to above my rubber boots, so that the icy water runs in, 

 wetting me thoroughly, and gurgling henceforth with every step 

 in the shoes. Try to get these off but can not. The feet must be 

 congested. So spill out all I can by raising the feet, and then do 

 some hard walking which takes away the cold. 



Evening, though no dusk approaching. Sit on gravel to empty 

 more water from shoes, but can still hardly get one off. And just as 

 I succeed I see. across another long pool, two men. one with a cap of 

 an officer of the ship, waving their arms, evidently signifying to 

 me that the time is up and I am to return. Call to them to wait. 

 Impossible to make them hear me or for me to hear them. All 

 here is elusive — enchantedlike — distances, sounds. Finally they 

 stop. I catch up with them after passing a broad ditch and learn 

 that the ship is about to sail and they are waiting for me. My coat, 

 however, and collections are still at the school, over a mile away, 

 so once more it is necessary to hurry to the school and then back 

 to the ship. So things go when promises go wrong and one is 

 alone under a constant apprehension. 



The boys collected four bags full. Moreover, they undertook to 

 bring them toward the boat, and are bringing the last two just as 

 I approach the beach. There are Eskimos on the beach with dog 

 teams and sledges waiting to cart off what was unloaded from the 

 ship. Photograph one of the teams and then on into the boat and 

 to the Bear with the four bags, a box full, part of another bag. and 

 all pockets full of specimens. Only to learn when we reach the 

 boat that both Doctor Goodman and Mr. La Voy are going with 

 us and that the former after supper is still to go and get his things 



