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

XTHE LADIES, THE GWICH'IN, AND THE RATbook. They were lucky they did not encounter any serious head-winds duringthose days, or anywhere else, for that matter. The Bell and Porcupine are widerivers with long reaches, and head-winds have slowed or stopped many a strongerparty on this route. But fortune smiled, and Clara's account is radiant.The women were also lucky not to have swamped or capsized anywhere on theirroute. Their eighteen-foot canoe seems dangerously small for four adults and atleast four hundred and twenty pounds of food and gear. On departing Aklavik,they appear to have had twenty packages of one sort or another, plus at least tworifles and perhaps other odds and ends. By contrast, and fairly typically for amodern recreational canoe -party, the cargo for each of our seventeen -footcanoes comprised only two people, four packs, and a maximum of two hundredand fifty pounds of food and gear. How did Vyvyan' s party manage? Most of theirtime up the Rat, there were no passengers, but when the women had to be ferriedacross the stream, all four might have been aboard. To scramble into such aloaded canoe, in a swift current and with poor footing, would be quite a feat, andthere can have been little freeboard.River-crossings have to be made frequently on the Rat. Not only were theyhazardous for the Vyvyan party, but hard-won ground was lost each time. Anexperienced canoeist would have used the technique of cross-ferrying-pointingthe canoe upstream and at only a slight angle to the current. In this way, thecrossing can be made without strain and without losing ground. Like mostnortherners by this time, however, Lazarus andJim were motor-boat men andwould simply aim the canoe at their objective across the river, presenting toomuch of a broadside to the current. Lacking the power of a motor, they would beswept downstream, with the risk also of being forced onto shoals or rocks,Lazarus shows his motor-boat conditioning again later in the trip, when theparty bounces down rocky stretches of the Little Bell and Bell rivers, riskingdamage to the fragile canoe. He admits one night that his experience of fastwaters has been on the alluvial Husky and Peel channels, and that he had been upthe Rat in summer only once before, at which time he had vowed never to do soagain. Nevertheless, he was probably the best guide available, physically strong,with good bush sense, and outstandingly conscientious and considerate. He andJim made a good team.Most canoeists, coming back from "another world" at the end of a wildernesstrip, experience a reluctance to face people and civilization. Remarking on howwell Vyvyan conveys these feelings, I have puzzled over why two such independent