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

Prelude to Adventure 99Beginning of swift water onthe Rat River and probablelocation of DestructionCity. 1994. MichaelPeake. Collection of thephotographer.log for a bear. We did, however, see three muskrats on the water's edge and one ofthem was swimming; they were yellow, serious-looking, rabbit-nosed creatures.We had travelled about 70 miles from Aklavik to the point where the Rat entersthe Husky. "We shall leave you," Mr Parsons had said, "25 miles up the Rat, atDestruction City." Throughout that 25 miles we felt like the Ancient Mariner;surely "we were the £Irst that ever burst" into that silent water. Surely our puffingengine was the £Irst mechanical sound that had ever broken the age-long silenceof the river.It was after midnight when we came out from the narrow channel into a widespace where we could see, ahead, a mountain barrier suffused with a light of thestrangest quality. The mountains were a deep amethyst turning slowly to pink,then to a fainter shade as if they were veiled in rose-coloured dew; yet the outlineremained clear-cut as if dehned by some light that came from beyond the range.In the immediate space about us there were only mud banks and a desolate tractofland overgrown with spongy moss."Here," said Mr Parsons, "we are at Destruction City."We looked about us in surprise. There was no sign that any human being hadever passed that way, not a charred log of a dead £Ire nor any broken timber thatmight once have been part of a hut. As we helped the others to dump our bundles