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

74 THE LADIES, THE GWlCH ' lN, AND THE RATSgt Frederick Anderton atFort Wriglry, 1922.Miriam Green Ellis. M. C.Ellis Collection, Universi!yof Alberta Archives, Box 1,no. 71.local topics; also about our own forthcoming journey. He had not actually beenup the Rat River in summer, but he knew the whole country well and there was aquiet confidence about him which was very infectious."It will be perfectly all right for you to do those hundred-odd miles alone," heassured us, "it will take you about three days or possibly less."Three days absolutely alone in the Arctic wilderness, with our canoe and ourprovisions. For the first time we saw this journey not as a dream but as a soberfact. As we came nearer and nearer to it, the Rat River adventure seemed to growsmaller and more ordinary.Sergeant Anderton went on to talk more about the Eskimos, telling us howuseless is their evidence at trials, since their minds are like the mind of a 12 -yearoldchild and only from their facial expressions can one get any reliable evidence.It had taken him a whole year to bring in to Aklavik the murderer who had justbeen acquitted. The mounted police, he said, go about their duties with theirlives in their hands and control the Eskimos by bluffing about the numbers of thepolice force. Two Eskimo murderers. who had been taken out to Edmonton andimprisoned for a while. had come back deeply impressed by the immense