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

lI8THE LADIES, THE GWICH'IN, AND THE RATthe customary morning ritual that we had been obliged to omit during the lastfew days, Then we sat down on boulders and ate our food slowly and happily. Iwas even able to put a film in my Kodak with ungloved hands and, finally, tosmoke a cigarette in peace. Usually Gwen used her rubber mouthpiece, speciallyinserted in the veils for the purpose of smoking, but I had torn my rubber on abough and. once the veil was mended, there was no more smoking for me. Wehad also evolved a technique for collecting and preserving flowers. Even duringthose hard days we would never pass a new one without adding it to our collection.We were skilful now in picking flowers with gloves. but when it came topressing them we could not work in gloves and we had only a limited supply of oilof citronella. While I adjusted the little pieces of sticking paper that held ourspecimens fast on sheets of newspaper, Gwen would stand by and fan my handsvigorously.Many that we found were old friends seen in different parts of the world, butquite a number were new to us. We agreed that among the best thrills life canoffer is the sight of an unknown wild flower; but there is also the thrill of seeingour familiar garden ones growing wild in their own habitat, and last, but notleast, there is the joyous excitement of seeing any wild flower. known orunknown, growing in masses of beautiful colour, as, on one memorable day. wesaw lupins in a spruce wood. There is also special delight in seeing a well-knownflower with a more than usually brilliant shade of colour and this is a commonexperience in far northern lands. Never, until that day on the Rat when we werenearing Barrier River. had we seen wild roses of such a brilliant pink.We had a hard afternoon of travel after that outstanding luncheon-hour, butLazarus andJimmy were undefeated. Sometimes we were all four on the samebank, sometimes we had to follow one shore while the guides struggled up theother and then we would be anxiously watching their movements all the time.Throughout the day they pushed that canoe up the forceful torrent. gaining oneyard after another by sheer perseverance. Often they were both waist-deep in thecurrent, when Lazarus, being the heavier man, would usually allot himself thejob of pushing at the stern, while Jimmy went ahead with the tracking rope andpulled or waded in the water at the bows. Sometimes, when they decided to trackfor a spell and the water was not too swift. Jimmy would sit in the canoe, fendingit off from snags of fallen branches in the river, while Lazarus. with expert judgment,would pass the rope in front of all obstacles that were on the shore or inthe water, often leaning his body out over the current in what seemed to us a most