The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1894-07-19
STORIES OF INTERIOR ALASKA.
Missionary Tells Wonderful Tales O
Reindeer, the Aurora, and the Cold.

A remarkable story. SAYS the San
Francisco Examiner. is told by The
Rev. +. c. Wallis. a missionary of the
Episcopal church, who arrived here
recently 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 intense cold, the immense herds Of
reindeer, and the sublime magniiicence
of the aurora borealis. DR.. Wallis has
been seven years i'll the wilds of the
Porcupine river, and for the last eight
cen months his wife has been with him
assisting in teaching the indians.
ii does not appear TO be generally
known that there are vast herds of
reindeer in that part Of the country.
Dir. Sheldon Jackson, perintendent
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 t&e
supposed scarcity throughout tha: re-
gion; but the scarcity appears TO be
towards the southern, southwestern
and northern coasts. In the far inte-
rior there are myriads of them.
They are remarkably numerous
everywhere about my mission near the
mouth of the Porcapine river" said the
reverend gentleman. Back towards
the mountains from my house | have
seen great bands of them, and almost
everywhere looked could see them.
This summer when the ice broke up on
the river | remember seeing six or
seven of them on a cake of ice floating
down, and | saw many others floating
on the ice.
For much of the time | have lived
At the mission. | have subsisted al
most exclusively on reindeer meat. 1t
is very good, and may say it is about
the only kind of meat you don't get
tired Of think it is better, all things
considered, than beef, and you can eat
it longer without its pallin9 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-
quimauX, or n mixture of the two.
81 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 J. need
it, | bavc learned to shoot pretty we'll
myself. as all white men do in that re-
gion. The ducks and grouse, like the
reindeer, are remarkably good eating.
1T is fearfully cold there. Last
winter the thermometer was for week
a; 4 time down TO 60 deg, and | have
seen it 90 even considerably lower. At
no time in the winter. nor during other
winters that | have been there, was il
higher than ID deg. This cold is ex-
cruciating. We lived in solid log
house. Il good warm one, but many 4
time have awakened in the night and
found the blankets, which were kept
up well under the nose, frozen into a
cake of ice. Sometimes the intense
cold cakes the blankets for long dis
lance down.
Meats 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. Ii you stepped ont, every
thing was so still and so intensely cold
you could hear yourself breathe. 1t
had a rUstling SQUAD.
Il discovered Il queer thing about
the cold. and it was this: Below 10
degrees YOU didn't notice it any more
than A degrees. 1t might 90 to 60
degrees. or even more, but it made 50
little difference that You didn't notice
it. II wa, all practically the same to
you.
"The wonders of the aurora borealis
in that region cannot be told. The
heavens all winter long are lit up with
golden glow. Indeed, | may say the
colors--lne sparklCs and tiashcs--are
SO many constant and varied that no
one can describe them. There is prac-
HiCa'sy no tav during the wear. For
two or three months, up to Dec. IS.
from TO y o'clock. there is a sort OF
dawn, but the rest of the time it is
night. 1t is so clear that YOU can 20
out and read n newspaper anywhere.
The 400 or 800 Indians at my mis-
sion are bright, and good progress has
been made in inStTucting them. Nearly
all Of them can read i'm their own lam
guage. ! have translated various re-
hgious and other books which have
been printed in England, for their use.
They have an entirely different Ian
guagc from any 0 her Indians. There
are live different languages. for in
stance. from there down to the mouth
OF the Yukon, and no one tribe can I'm
dcrsland the other. The languages
are ali IS different as French is from
GeI man"