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

From Providence to AklQvik 51excitement when, after the rocks on either side had been gradually closing in onus, we suddenly observed that our vessel was charging a wall of rock. We awaitedthe shock, bracing ourselves for total destruction, but the rock quietly opened alittle and we slid into a narrow channel where the river had cut its way through aridge of limestone. On either side, the cliff towered above us for some 200 feetand this channel was four or five miles long. We were in the famous Ramparts.I find this experience narrated briefly in my diary with the comment: "a mostamazing show," and am led to wonder, as one does so often wonder in old age, atthe total inadequacy of hUInan words for describing human experience. Theguide pamphlet supplied by the Alberta and Arctic Transportation Co. Ltd.bears me out in this conviction, for it describes the Ramparts as "an astonishingpicture of nature's force and grandeur." I find little to choose between theirword "picture" and my word "show."We carne to Fort Good Hope in the night and a few miles further on enteredthe Arctic Circle, the Land of the Midnight Sun. Next day was cold and windySS Distributor nearFart Goad Hope. n.d.Louis August RamanetPapers, Universi!y ofAlberta Archives 72-81,7/1/9:485.