pronounced, unusual inflections that
aroused their merriment. The phonograph is becoming a powerful agency
for disseminating a knowledge of English amongst the natives throughout
Alaska, and one wishes that it were put to better use than the
reproduction of silly and often vulgar monologue and dialogue and trashy
ragtime music. As an index of the taste of those who purchase records,
the selection brought to this country points low.

The third day the thermometer stood at -49 deg. and we were free to leave
without actually breaking the rule we had made after the escapade on the
Yukon. Two other teams were going down the river, so we started with
them on the sixty-five mile journey to Bettles. Twenty miles or so below
Coldfoot the Koyukuk passes for several miles in a narrow channel
between steep rock bluffs, with here and there great detached masses
standing in the middle of the river. One has a grotesque resemblance to
an aged bishop in his vestments and is known as the Bishop Rock; another
a more remote likeness to an Indian woman, and this is known as the
Squaw Rock. This part of the river, which is called the canon of the
Koyukuk, though it is not a true canon, is very picturesque, and because
of frequent overflow, offers glare ice and swift passage to the
traveller when it does not embarrass him with running water. We were
fortunate enough to pass it without getting our dogs' feet wet, and made
the half-way road-house in a brilliant moon that rendered travelling at
night pleasanter than during the day.

[Sidenote: TRAVELLING AT "50 BELOW"]

The next day we started again at near 50 deg. below, but because there was a
good trail and a road-house for noon, the travelling was rather pleasant
than otherwise. If there be a warm house to break the day's march and
eat in, where ice-incrusted scarfs and parkees and caps and mittens may
be dried out, with a warm outhouse where the dogs may rest in comfort,
travelling in such weather is not too risky or too severely trying. The
continual condensation of the moisture from the breath upon everything
about the head and face is a decided inconvenience, and when it
condenses upon the eye-lashes, and the upper and the lower lashes freeze
together, the ice must be removed or it is impossible to open the eyes.
This requires the momentary application of the bare hand, and every time
it goes back into the mitten it carries some moisture with it, so that
after a while mittens are wet a