C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

26 THE LADIES , THE GWICH'IN, AND THE RATSSAthabasca River.n.d. PAA 12104.gauntlet gloves for protection from splinters of wood and brightly embroideredmoccasins. In single hIe they return up the gangway plank on board, each with alog on his shoulder. The air is fragrant with resin.Nowwe have loaded up and pushed out into mid-stream. Two scows are lashedto our bows, piled with canoes, tins of gasoline and packing cases. Navigation isslow and uncertain, last year's chart always being useless, for every summer, afterthe melting of the ice, new shoals and sand-bars are formed and old ones arewashed away. At 9 the sun has just set and we steam on towards the northernafterglow, with the river widening out ahead of us. Whither are we drifting? Intothe porth land? Into infmity? Who knows? Who cares? A blue haze hangs on theleft bank among dark spruces. On the right are ghostly white-stemmed poplarslike slender marble pillars. Ahead the water is amethyst and purple, still as death,and in the western sky there hangs one molten cloud, casting into the water ahery reflection.