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

FriendlY Faces 157Rampart House, 1920.Franklin Hugo Kitto. Onthe left is the two-stor9house of the trader DanielCadzow. NAC PA101582.Old Crow was a landmark in our journey, not only geographically butmentally, for it marked the end of our solitude. From there onwards we were tomeet, at intervals, one friendly face after another, and everyone we met wasdeeply interesting. We did not, of course, at once shift our whole attention topeople; on the contrary our allegiance to the vast country in which we travelledwas whole-hearted and enduring and some of the river scenery between OldCrow and Fort Yukon was magnificent. But every man of the North who began totell us even a fragment of his own life story was like the Ancient Mariner. Hewould hold us spellbound. The people whom we met, like the people on theAthabasca and the Distributor, were unlike anyone we had ever encountered b~fore.There may have been some rogues and some rapscallions but there was never adull dog among them. Of course the hospitality of men in unpeopled places isproverbial but there was something more than hospitality in the welcomes that wemet, something that spoke directly to our own hidden feelings. Perhaps it wasthat we understood and admired their passionate love of wild country and ofindependence.We soon realised that we were making good headway and should meet thedreaded Ramparts that evening, but there was no need to indulge our fears nowthat we had a guide. Our friend Mr Frost had assured us that we should find awelcome there from the North-West Mounted Police. We did reach the Ramparts