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

XVITHE LADIES, THE GWICH'IN, AND THE RATmoccasin telegraph, kept everyone abreast of everything, these northerners knewall about the women's itinerary. Consequently, the visitors encountered many ofthe people, much of the news, and a surprising amount of the flavour ofnorthern life in 19Q6. This account of the journey captures much of it.In 1961, thirty-nve years after making their trip, Rogers, who had taken thename ofVyvyan when she married in 19Q9, published Arctic Adventure. She was the"authoress," as one fellow-traveller and the "Women's Activities" page of theEdmontonJouTna/ called her (Bonnycastle, Diary, 4 May; "Women"). Dorrien Smith,her friend, was the painter. Lazarus Sittichinli and Jim Koe, two Gwich'in,Canada's northernmost Dene from the lower Mackenzie River, guided them toand up against the other prominent character in these travels, the Rat River. It hadas much say in their plans as any of the great institutions serving as their agents.Add two ambitious seekers after the solitude of wilderness to wilderness in theform of the "malignant Rat" and we have a singular set of circumstances: womeneager to shed the identity of lady tourists and become wilderness travellers, and ariver that would challenge them on whatever terms they chose.ArcticAdventure is a story of personal adventure for two women headed north.Down the Athabasca River they went, aiming for the Pacinc Ocean by steamer:across Great Slave Lake, down the length of the Mackenzie River and, later, downthe Yukon River. In between, the tourists, who watched the North ease past themfrom their vantage point on deck, became travellers on an arduous canoe trip upthe Rat River and then down the Bell and Porcupine rivers through YukonTerritory. Critic Paul Fussell has argued that real travellers (as opposed to meretourists) have to prove themselves physically: "Etymologically a traveler is onewho suffers travail" (39). That upriver trek through mosquito-infested bush wasdemanding; just as well that the two women had what one cocky young HBC mancalled "walks like bushwhackers" (Bonnycastle, Diary; 4 May). Seen on the broadscale of history, their adventure completed a route such as Scottish fur trader andexplorer Alexander Mackenzie had hoped to nnd in 1789 and 1793, when hesearched for a waterway leading from the interior of North America to the westcoast. Such was their achievement.Yet, neither their ambition nor their achievement was so very remarkable.Northerners aware of history and weary of many a southern snowbird's wide-