File:In the Alaskan wilderness (1917) (14754390216).jpg

Identifier: inalaskanwildern00gord (find matches)
Title: In the Alaskan wilderness
Year: 1917 (1910s)
Authors: Gordon, G. B. (George Byron), 1870-1927
Subjects: Eskimo languages Alaska -- Description and travel
Publisher: Philadelphia : The John C. Winston Company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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l-lowing his movements, though not his words,we soon made out that he was drawing a mapof the river from the point where we stood downnearly to its mouth. He showed that after fol-lowing a straight course for some miles the riverdoubled back on itself. If we followed it wewould have to go a long distance to get to Mamtre-lich, which he indicated in its position on the map.But here was the important point; there was ashort cut. Only about four miles below the pointwhere we stood he drew two straight lines indi-cating a canal uniting the two sides of the loopin the river and cutting off the big bend. In aninstant the whole situation was perfectly clear.He had evidently understood our signs from thefirst and only relented when he saw us goingaway disappointed. Soon after we left him a breeze sprang up andwe put up our sail and when we judged we hadrun the distance we watched for the canal and,sure enough, we soon picked it up, half concealedby the willows on the bank, and running into126
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it, we lowered the sail. It was a narrow, deepslough, or natural canal, running almost straightacross the neck of land. In about half an hourwe found ourselves again on the broad river,having saved ourselves a long journey of manymiles that we would have been obliged to makehad we followed the river, as we certainly wouldhave done if we had not been so accuratelyinformed. At half after six on that day, the first of Sep-tember, we arrived at the native village of Mam-trelich, where the Moravian Mission of Bethel isestablished under the protection of the MoravianCollege at Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. Wefound the Mission in charge of Mr. Stecher, who,with his devoted wife, had been for five yearsat this station without having seen the outsideworld. They were assisted by two other mis-sionaries. There was also a small trading storeon the other side of the village opposite theMission. At Bethel, which is near the mouth of the river,we found to our surprise two of the flat-bottomedstern-whee

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