"Before I sit down, gentlemen, just one word more.  I must congratulate you on having found out so soon, not only the wisdom, but the pleasure of looking at this Arctic world with intelligent eyes, and learning some of her wonderful lessons.  It is so that, now the hardest work is finished, you will keep up your spirits and avoid the disease that attacks all new-comers who simply eat, sleep, and wait for the ice to go out.  When I hear cheechalkos complaining of boredom up here in this world of daily miracles, I think of the native boy in the history-class, who, called on to describe the progress of civilisation, said:  ’In those days men had as many wives as they liked, and that was called polygamy.  Now they have only one wife, and that’s called monotony.’"

While O’Flynn howled with delight, the priest wound up: 

"Gentlemen, if we find monotony up here, it’s not the country’s fault, but a defect in our own civilisation." Wherewith he sat down amid cheers.

“Now, Colonel, is Mac goin’ to recite some Border ballads?” inquired the Boy, “or will he make a speech, or do a Highland fling?”

The Colonel called formally upon Mr. MacCann.

Mac was no sooner on his legs than Kaviak, determined not to lose his grasp of the situation, climbed upon the three-legged stool just vacated, and resumed his former relations with the friendly coat-tail.

Everybody laughed but Mac, who pretended not to know what was going on behind his back.

“Gentlemen,” he began harshly, with the air of one about to launch a heavy indictment, “there’s one element largely represented here by numbers and by interests”—­he turned round suddenly toward the natives, and almost swung Kaviak off into space—­“one element not explicitly referred to in the speeches, either of welcome or of thanks.  But, gentlemen, I submit that these hitherto unrecognised Natives are our real hosts, and a word about them won’t be out of place.  I’ve been told to-day that, whether in Alaska, Greenland, or British America, they call themselves Innuits, which means human beings.  They believed, no doubt, that they were the only ones in the world.  I’ve been thinking a great deal about these Esquimaux of late—­”

“Hear, hear!”

“About their origin and their destiny.” (Mac was beginning to enjoy himself.  The Boy was beginning to be bored and to drum softly with his fingers.) “Now, gentlemen, Buffon says that the poles were the first portions of the earth’s crust to cool.  While the equator, and even the tropics of Cancer and of Capricorn, were still too boiling hot to support life, up here in the Arctic regions there was a carboniferous era goin’ on—­”

“Where’s the coal, then?” sneered Potts.

“It’s bein’ discovered ... all over ... ask him” (indicating Father Wills, who smiled assent).  “Tropical forests grew where there are glayshers now, and elephants and mastodons began life here.”