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

I36THE LADIES, THE GWICH'IN, AND THE RATpaddled across the Divide, moving through the water from Loon Lake to theLittle Bell River which was now to become our highway during the next stage. Wehad begun the descent. Canada was behind us. We were going down, down, downinto the Yukon.At first the Little Bell was very like the Rat, sluggish and winding, with highbanks on either side, but we had come into much wilder country and were nownearer the mountains. We sat in the canoe in utter lazy contentment, relaxingevery muscle and at first it seemed as if we were going down at a terrific pace, soaccustomed had we become to the inch-by-inch progress of toiling upstream.There were gleams of sunshine every now and then, lighting up the mountainpeaks that towered above us; they were rocky peaks, some black, others reddish,others streaked with lines of gray and yellow where mosses seamed their slopes.One was snow-clad on the summit, reminding us, as those lumps of ice fallinginto the river had reminded us, that we really were in the Arctic world. Thosehigh peaks seemed to be revolving round us, for as we followed the loops of theriver a given peak would at one moment be on our right and then a few minuteslater on our left. It made us feel quite giddy until we realised that we could, if welost our way, steer a course by the mountains. Since we had discovered the rightchannel of the Rat when the guides had taken the wrong one, we had begun tolook upon ourselves as Pathfinders.Mter a while the nature of the small river changed completely. It becameturbulent as it grew larger, the current ran more swiftly and was often brokeninto short rapids. We shot a succession of these, Gwen becoming on each occasionalmost lyrical with delight while I was silent with fear. I found some comfort,however, in realising that these rapids were not nearly so deep as those that wehad crossed obliquely on the Rat and that they were much shallower, so that weshould probably escape death from drowning when the crash came. We had alsoto endure a new form of excitement. When we came to rough and very shallowwater over stones, we went bumping downriver from one stone to another,expecting to capsize at any moment or to get caught in the branches of dead treeslying in mid-stream. It was almost a relief when the water again became so shallowthat we had to get out to lighten the load, but our spirits fell when we found thatduring the next hour or so we had to negotiate about a mile of open countryacross nigger heads. Before we plunged into that miserable stretch of country, wetook one last look at the sunlight falling on glorious mountain screes and a groupof rocks to the southward which was like a man-made castle. Then, for a long