ssuring. Men who seemed to be of a sturdy, reliable sort, and who
said that they had been there, reported that it was not worth while, and
dilated upon the arduous work of dragging one's self and one's boat up
the shallow streams, eaten up by mosquitos, to find everything staked
and nothing doing. I recall a Hebrew who made us a visit, and, almost
with tears in his eyes, entreated us not to blight our young lives by
going to Council City; and what a chapter of horrors he detailed! He
maintained that we should go to Eagle City, about fifteen hundred miles
distant via the Yukon River, where nuggets as large as one's fist lay
carelessly about, and where there was a great field for lawyers. He
insisted that we take his picture, in order that in the future we could
point to it, saying, "This is the man who advised us _not_ to go to
Council City." It was subsequently learned that this gentleman had gone
half-way to Council, and no farther. We met some, however, who believed
it to be a good country, and who were making ready to set out for it. To
get freight up the rivers a narrow and shallow boat is essential, and
such a craft, twenty-two feet in length, was quickly and dexterously
knocked together out of rough lumber by two enterprising carpenters who
were doing a land-office business. Each one of us became a
quarter-owner in the _Mush-on_, as the boat was christened.

Living at Chenik was not agreeable, and we were willing to tackle
Council City anyhow. We four, together with the more valuable of the
supplies, occupied a ten-by-twelve tent, and the water proposition was
worse than that at Nome. It meant a long walk up a hill past the Indian
graves and along the high cliff descending steep to the water's edge, to
a crevice in it which held a bank of frozen snow. This was brought back
in buckets and melted, and, for drinking purposes, boiled and filtered.
Then, too, the general epidemic of sickness which prevailed during the
season of 1900 among the natives throughout northwestern Alaska was here
manifest. They all coughed, and while we were at Chenik there were
several deaths from a complication of measles and pneumonia. Two young
Swedish women, belonging to the mission, were faithfully ministering to
the sick, for the Eskimo is as helpless when ill as are the members of
his household to care for him. Later, Dexter found a dozen of the
unfortunates dead across the bay, and tumbled their remains into a
single grave.

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