?—?He wonders why you ask this.
?—?The other day I went up the hillside to get a clear view of the valley. His men stopped me. Why?
?—?You were going the wrong direction to get to your home.
?—?All right then, if we go the way we intend, over the mountains, how long will it take for us to get to the Tanana?
?—?He doesn’t know because he isn’t a Red Beard. You might take longer, or go faster.
?—?The servant who cares for Pruitt. Where did she come from?
?—?She is not one of our people, but she has lived with us for several seasons. She is getting used to our ways.
?—?His knife?—?it is made of a metal we call copper. We have seen your people with decorations made of gold, too. Does this metal come from these mountains?
?—?Yes.
?—?Where in the mountains?
?—?He says he has never met a grown man who asks so many questions.
?—?I apologize. There is much I don’t know.
?—?That is why you ask so many questions?
?—?Yes. [Is he getting ready to leave?] Please, just a few more. What about the salmon? They are an important food for your village, aren’t they? When are they coming?
[That’s why they’re building their skin boats, Colonel. The salmon should be coming into the Wolverine any day now. They’re heading out in two, maybe three days.]
?—?The entire village goes, then?
[Every last one of them. The Wolverine is their summer ground.]
?—?The tyone says you and your men can go along if you want, in their boats down the river to the Wolverine.
Lieut. Col. Allen Forrester
May 23, 1885
Many questions are still unanswered, yet I am glad to have at last talked with the tyone. He is an astute leader, with some humor & insight. It is remarkable to think he is probably not yet 20. In return, Samuelson says the tyone finds my character confounding?—?that I should be so old yet still ask so many questions, do the work of my men.
I would have liked to have been more forthright with him. No army follows me directly up the Wolverine. Yet it will come eventually, in one form or another. I suspect it will be men of Samuelson & Boyd’s ilk who will clear the trail. Prospectors have incentive more than most.
All I would offer the Midnooskies, however, is conjecture.
The Mednovtsy invited me to visit their country. I told them, ‘I would be glad to come to you, but it is hard to get to your country. I am not a bird and do not have wings. Neither will have I energy and resources to cover on foot such a great distance. It will take two or three months to go through forests, tundras, and swamps and I will have to spend the same time in order to come back home. May those who wish to be baptized come to my place themselves.’
?—?From Hegumen Nikolai, Travel Journal, July 1860,
Through Orthodox Eyes
Sophie Forrester
Portland, Oregon
May 22, 1885
It is no chore to find Borax and methylated spirits in a city of this size, but then came hours of futile dashing about the city, sometimes in carriage, often by foot. Evelyn was indispensable in ways I did not predict. She is both bold and charming in her own way, so that while I managed to set against me every clerk I encountered, Evelyn would appear at my elbow with some bit of coquetry, and we would suddenly find ourselves being assisted, although the value of that assistance varied greatly.
When I asked for “negative varnish,” one druggist teased that I would better benefit from a “positive varnish,” while another suggested I go back to my husband and have him write out the list more clearly so I might be able to make sense of it. A young boy left alone in charge at one shop was too humiliated to admit to me that he had no idea what I was talking about, so insisted that they were out of stock, of every single item on my list. I began to think that even with its half dozen druggists, Portland would fail me. Fortunately another customer in that shop was kind enough to direct us toward Redington’s. “He knows a thing or two about cameras,” the man said.
If only we had known to go there from the first! When I entered Redington’s, I could scarcely bring myself to ask for negative varnish. Instead of a mocking reply, however, the soft-spoken gentleman said, “Making pictures, are you?”
What glad relief! Not only did he know the items I sought, but he possessed the knowledge and supplies to simplify the process for me. It seems that the book Mr Pruitt lent me, published just two years ago, is already out of date, and that the manufacturers of dry gelatine plates now include their own developing solutions. I had already spent so much money on this piecemeal of chemicals! Even on that account, Mr Redington set my mind at ease, saying that I will need them, as very soon I will prefer to mix my own solutions in order to achieve better results. The prepared developers, he said, are best for beginners.