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

I39c;; AGriBearOur fre e d 0 m fro m m osq u ito es on that high land was like a release fromprison. As usual we woke early, dressed ourselves standing up in the tent andagreed that dry, clean clothes were a luxury that we had never fully appreciated inour home life. All day we were in the canoe, taking turns at paddling or lying backand drowsing in the sunshine as we went down the sluggish current at about fivemiles an hour. The river was some 50 yards wide and the banks were fairly low.We had come again into the region of white poplars and some of the mountainsabove us were densely wooded. Jimmy shot at and missed some ducks. Lazarus wasall the time straining his eyes for caribou and talking about fresh meat, while wespotted two enormous black eagles and beaver tracks in a patch of mud, and whenwe stopped to lunch there were wolf tracks on the shore. The day brought noanxiety and was filled with only small events, until in the late evening we came tothe most exciting experience of the whole trip.It was after 8 when we reached La Pierre House on our tenth day out fromAklavik. What we had been told about the place was only too true. There was nosign of a settlement nor of any human presence. There were only two desertedwooden shanties, one of them tied up with a dog chain."So much for our old atlas at home," said Gwen with a grunt when she saw thatdog chain. "Our atlas is a liar."We entered the other hut and found tinned food, three bunks, a stove, variousold boots, an encyclopaedia, matches, rifle ammunition, fur coats, axes and,hanging outside, several tubs. All these things had been left there by the traders,Jackson Brothers, for travellers who should come over by land from Fort