banks.
But alas! for the fine Yukon trail we had promised ourselves! As we
looked out across the broad river there was no narrow, dark line
undulating over its surface, nor even a faint, continuous inequality to
hint that trail had been, on snow "less hideously serene"; its perfect
smoothness and whiteness were unscarred and unsullied. The trail was
wiped out and swallowed up by the late snows and winds.

[Sidenote: A LEARNED JESUIT]

There is little interest in lingering over the long, laborious,
monotonous grind up that river on show-shoes. When one has looked
forward to pleasant, quick travel, the disappointment at slow, heavy
plodding is the keener. The first little bit of trail we had was as we
approached Nulato two days later on a Sunday morning, and it was made by
the villagers from below going up to church at the Roman Catholic
mission. We arrived in time for service, and enjoyed the natives' voices
raised in the Latin chants as well as in hymns wisely put into the
vernacular. It is historically a little curious to find Roman Catholic
natives singing praises in their own tongue, and Protestant missions,
like those on the Kobuk and Kotzebue Sound, using a language "not
understanded of the people." The day was the Feast of the Annunciation
as well as Sunday, and there was some special decorating of the church
and perhaps some elaboration of the music. Here for the first and only
time I listened to a white man so fluent and vigorous in the native
tongue that he gave one the impression of eloquence. Father Jette of the
Society of Jesus is the most distinguished scholar in Alaska. He is the
chief authority on the native language, and manners and customs, beliefs
and traditions of the Middle Yukon, and has brought to the patient,
enthusiastic labour of years the skill of the trained philologist. It
is said by the Indians that he knows more of the Indian language than
any one of them does, and this is not hard to believe when it is
understood that he has systematically gleaned his knowledge from widely
scattered segments of tribes, jotting down in his note-books old forms
of speech lingering amongst isolated communities, and legends and
folk-lore stories still remembered by the aged but not much repeated
nowadays; always keen to add to his store or to verify or disprove some
etymological conjecture that has occurred to his fertile mind. His work
is recognised by the ethnological societies of Europe, and much of his
c