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

I70THE LADIES, THE GWICH'IN, AND THE RATSS Yukon, leaving FortYukon, Alaska. n.d.A.L. WIshburn Collection,Archives, Alaska and PolarRegions Dept, Elmer E.Rasmuson Library.Universi!y of AlaskaFairbanks,82-S8-218N."It is gay here in winter," she said, "but just now Fort Yukon is emptying forthe fall."We had watched the trappers pulling out one by one, each with his scow lashedto a gas boat, his goods, dogs and families all piled together on the scow. Theywould go up the Porcupine, the Black or the Salmon rivers, spend six weeksgetting their cabins ready and after a solitary winter would come down again nextyear after the melting of the ice.We lingered talking to a grand old man of go with a gangrenous leg. One foothad got frostbitten and he had been for weeks alone with his dogs and now it wastoo late to operate."You should be here in the winter to see it all," he said. "It's a good life." Andthe matron echoed him.We heard that on all sides and we longed to stay on and see the winter through.One afternoon Dr Burke took us through the forest by well-worn trails to theold HB Company's burial-ground. We stood beside each grave as he told usstories of the men below. We went into the church and saw Indian bead-work onthe altar and he told us how an Indian chief had wanted to "put up a fence" as amemorial to his wife, and there it was, the fence, inside the church, a $100 altarrail of oak. The doctor lingered by the grave of Archdeacon Hudson Stuck and