The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-12-30
INTERIOR OF ALASKA.
Wonderful Tales Related by Re-
turned Missionary.
Place Where 1t Is So Still and COLD
That One Could Hear Himself Breathe
Wonders Of the Aurora
BOrealis.

A remarkable story is told by Rev.
e. c. Wallis, a missionary of the Epis-
copal church, who arrived here recent
ly from the Porcupine river, in the
British possessions, just over the line OF
Alaska, on the edge of the Rocky
mountains. 1t is mainly about the in
tense cold, the immense herds OF
reindeer, and the sublime magnifcenee
Of the aurora borealis. DIR. Wallis,
SAYS the San Francisco Examiner, has
been seven years in the wilds of the
Porcupine river, and for the last
eighteen months his wife has been
with him assisting in teaching the In
dians.
It does not appear to be generally
known that there are vast herds of
reindeer in that part of the country
DR.. Sheldon Jackson, superintendent
of education for Alaska, and Capt.
Healy of the Bear have for a couple of
years been importing reindeer from
Siberia, and this is the reason for the
supposed scarcity throughout that
region; but the scarcity appears to be
towards the southern, southwestern
and northern coasts. In the far in
terror there are myriads of them.
"They are remarkably numerous
everywhere about my mission near the
mouth of the Porcupine river" said
the reverend gentleman. Back to-
wards the mountains from my house
have seen great bands of them, and al
most everywhere l looked could see
them. This summer when the ice
broke up on the river / remember see
ing six or seven of them on cake of ice
floating down, and / saw many others
floating on the ice.
ssFor much of the time I have lived
at the mission. l have subsisted almost
exclusively on reindeer meat. 1t is
very good, and l may say it is about
the only kind of meat you don't get
tired of. l think it is better, all things
considered, than beef, and you can eat
it longer without it's palling on you.
The Indians eat it almost exclusively,
and they are very big and strong.
Some of them are six feet in height,
and the average is about FIVE feet ten
inches. They are genuine North Amer
lean Indians, and not the Aleuts, Es-
uuimaux, or mixture of the two.
Il keep an Indian hunter, and he
supplies me with all the reindeer'meat
want. He also brings in grouse,
ducks, bear and other game as I need
it. | have learned to shoot pretty well
myself, as all white men do in that re-
gion. The ducks and grouse, like the
reindeer, are remarkably good eating
ssIt is fearfully cold there. Last win
ter the thermometer was for a week at
time down to sixty degrees, and l
have seen it go even considerably low
er. At no time in the winter, nor dur
ing other winters that | have been
there, was it higher than forty degrees.
This cold is excruciating. We lived in
a solid log house, good warm one, but
many time | have awakened in the
night and found the blankets, which
were kept up well under the nose,
frozen into cake of ice. Sometimes
the intense cold cakes the blankets for
long distance down.
ssMeats and everything froze, and
you would throw them anywhere with
out thinking. The worst experience
was trying to make bread. The yeast
would freeze in spite of you, often
times even when the greatest care was
exercised. If you stepped out, every
thing was so still and SO intensely cold
YOU could hear yourself breathe. Ithad
rustling sound.
81 discovered a queer thing about
the cold, and it was this: Below forty
degrees you didn't notice it any more
than forty degrees It might go to
sixty degrees, or even more, but it
made so little difference that you didn't
notice it. 1t was all practically the
same to you.
ssThe wonders of the aurora borealis
in that region cannot be told. The
heavens all winter long are lit up with
a golden glow. Indeed, may say the
colors-the sparkles and fashes-are
SO many, constant and varied that no
one can describe them. There is prac-
tically no day during the year. For
two or three months, up to December
Is, from nine to twelve o'clock, there
is a sort of dawn, but the rest Of the
time 1t is night IL is SO clear tHaI you
can go out and read newspaper any
where.
ssThe four or five hundred Indians at
my mission are bright, and good prog
ress has been made in instructlng
them. Nearly all of them can read IN
their own language. have translated
various religious and other books,
which have been printed in England,
for their USE They have an entirely
different language from any other In
dians There are five different Ian
guages, for instance, from there down
to the mouth of the Yukon, and no one
tribe. can understand the other. The
languages are all as different as French
is from German"
COLDIN THE SOUTHERN STA e