where one met them last. A new "strike" will draw men from every mining
camp in Alaska. A big strike will shift the centre of gravity of the
whole white population in a few months. Indeed, a certain restless
belief in the superior opportunities of some other spot is one of the
characteristics of the prospector. The tide of white men that has flowed
into an Indian neighbourhood gradually ebbs away and leaves the Indian
behind with new habits, with new desires, with new diseases, with new
vices, and with a varied assortment of illegitimate half-breed children
to support. The Indian remains, usually in diminished numbers, with
impaired character, with lowered physique, with the tag-ends of the
white man's blackguardism as his chief acquirement in English--but he
remains.

It is unquestionable that the best natives in the country are those that
have had the least intimacy with the white man, and it follows that the
most hopeful and promising mission stations are those far up the
tributary streams, away from mining camps and off the routes of travel,
difficult of access, winter or summer, never seen by tourists at all;
seen only of those who seek them with cost and trouble. At such stations
the improvement of the Indian is manifest and the population increases.
By reason of their remoteness they are very expensive to equip and
maintain, but they are well worth while. One such has been described on
the Koyukuk; another, at this writing, is establishing with equal
promise at the Tanana Crossing, one of the most difficult points to
reach in all interior Alaska.

This chapter must not close without a few words about the native
children. Dirty, of course, they almost always are; children in a state
of nature will always be dirty, and even those farthest removed from
that state show a marked tendency to revert to it; but when one has
become sufficiently used to their dirt to be able to ignore it, they are
very attractive. Intolerance of dirt is largely an acquired habit
anyway. In view of their indulgent rearing, for Indian parents are
perhaps the most indulgent in the world, they are singularly docile;
they have an affectionate disposition and are quick and eager to learn.
Many of them are very pretty, with a soft beauty of complexion and a
delicate moulding of feature that are lost as they grow older. It takes
some time to overcome their shyness and win their confidence, but when
friendly relations have been established one gr