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

88 THE LADIES, THE GWICH'IN, AND THE RATHBG Store and WirelessStation, Aklavik, 1926.John F. Moran.NAG PA102512.would never be any awkward pauses in the conversation, every newcomer broughthis own entertainment although what they gained from us I cannot imagine,except the interest of seeing Gwen's sketches.One day, a Swiss visitor was quite absorbed in them and when, at last, we gothim to talk about himself, he told us many things that he had learned, selftaught,about the cunning of foxes. "You must choose a windy spot for yourtraps, to blow away your scent," he said to us seriously, as if he thought we weregoing out then and there to trap foxes. Enthralled, we waited for more, as if ourlives depended on catching a fox and then another and another. "You bait withfish or meat," he went on, "but stale muskrat is the best, and often a trampledroundsite is the best, for the fox knows how to think and he has reckoned it outthat a trampled place will most often have camp refuse, good for a meal."The charm of all such talk lay in its first-hand quality. It had a freshness andcloseness to life that one seldom meets in civilized circles. Everything the Swissboy had learned about foxes and traps and the ways of the North, he had learnedslowly, by his own experience and watchfulness,Our next visitor was a bearded German, a lay brother who came in to call on usone evening; he had been in the North for 31 years and had forgotten how tospeak his own language.One of our visitors, a trader, told us a story of an Indian carrying the wintermail from Fort McPherson. He met bad weather and the dog-team was played