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

108 THE LADIES, THE GWICH'IN, AND THE RAToners and we feel weak as kittens in the hands of fate, our high hopes like fallenpetals of a flower. All our strength and powers of endurance, are they to besnuffed out like a candle extinguished? Is the Rat a malignant enemy and are weunwelcome, fatally doomed intruders?There were moods too of perfect confidence in Lazarus and Jimmy who wereproving themselves bold, resourceful and tireless but there were also moodswhen, not understanding a word they said to each other, we found ourselves inthe deadly grip of suspicion. But we were completely in their power and there wasnothing we could do to escape. There were moods of fear too, from which I,being less courageous than Gwen, suffered much, especially the fear of rapids.Then there were moments of utter delight when we found some beautiful flower,or caught a glimpse of mountains ahead, or reckoned up our progress and agreedthat even if it was slow it was surely and steadily forward. So, liable to such giddyalternations of hope and fear, happiness and suspicion, we crawled out eachmorning, taking it in turns to waken our guides at about 8. It was no easy matterto dress under a mosquito net, but we always emerged fully clothed; the onlygarments we discarded when we slept were boots and hats and puttees, but itrequired a gymnastic effort to struggle even into these from a half lying-downposition and as for doing one's hair, it gave one a frightful crick in the neck.Gwen scored over me here, for after the First night she kept hers plaited, by nightand by day, in a coronal.On the third morning of our canoe journey, after a night when we wereconscious of every bone in our bodies touching our mattress of spruce boughs,we woke early. The sun was shining and the river no longer gave out a loud roar,only a pleasant burble. Gwen got out and shook Lazarus, and in the usual twohours we had breakfasted, packed and loaded the canoe. The rapid that hadchecked our advance was now only swift water, but it was still unnavigable for acraft going upstream, so the men ferried themselves to the other side afterLazarus had directed us to walk on over the levelland, until they could cross overand rejoin us.We set off, happily confident that our guides would cross the river again beforewe reached our hill of the previous day, but we had not reckoned with thechangeful Rat that now seemed capable of showing a new form of malice everyday. We had to force our way along the bank, splashing in swamps or pushingthrough alder and willow, or climbing over fallen boughs. Moreover the riverhere was quite a quarter of a mile wide and was full of channels between islands