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

145~ Down thelneIt is difficult, at this point, to maintain coherence and continuity inthe story of our travels, although the entries in my diary suddenly became discursive,whereas during our Rat River struggles they had been extremely brief; but allat once the rhythm had completely changed. Then we had been forcing our wayup against the current, now we were moving swiftly downriver. Then we had beenconfined in one narrow river bed, now we were moving across the roof of a wholecontinent. Moreover on the Rat we had seen no living soul other than our twoguides whereas, between La Pierre House and Fort Yukon, encounters withhuman beings became ever more frequent.On the height of land the vastness of the unpeopled country was apparent andat first it was terrifYing, it seemed to be a menace to security, but after a while theopen spaces filled us with exhilaration. This was the country that we had come tosee, the land beyond the bounds of civilization, the wild land that had lured usfrom our homes to cross the Atlantic, to journey across Canada and down theMackenzie River. There were even moments, each evening, when this new worldwas bathed in golden light and we would feel that it was our real home, for it helda hitherto unimagined beauty that had always been missing in our lives.If the true story of our Arctic journey could be recaptured, its main concernwould be with enlightened moments when we were face to face with absolutebeauty and the tale would be told in winged new words, free from cumbersomeassociations; but I have no such words at my command. The name of some flowerthat we found, some bird that we saw, details about camps and bedding and speedof water and weather conditions, such things as these occupy too much space in