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

240 Notes to Pages 6-7district 1908-20, during which period posts on the Arcticcoast were established. On his first trip north as manager, hetravelled with Agnes Deans Cameron, who mentioned him inher book (26; rev. ed. 20). In 1920 he became Fur TradeCommissioner ("Brabant"). Following the advice of seniortraders, Brabant led the HBC on an aggressive campaignagainst its competition, Lamson and Hubbard, which endedwith that company's ceasing operation in March 1923 and theHBC's acquisition of its assets in 1924, including a three-yearoldsubsidiary, AATC (Ray 159). Thereafter, it "was operatedas a part of the HBC's Mackenzie River Transport. Its legalexistence as a separate company continued until 1941"(Morton). Brabant retired in January 1927 and died atVancouver 8 November 1928 ("Brabant").Mrs Laura FrazeurLaura Frazeur (1871-1933) was born Ann Laura Renshaw; shemarried Jesse Frazeur in 1890. She studied classics at theUniversity of Chicago, completed her M.A. in 1908, andbegan work on a Ph.D. in 1910. She earned her teachingcertificate at the Illinois State Normal University in 1890, andtaught at various schools in the Chicago area and at CraneCollege until her death in 1933. She was a member of both theAmerican Alpine Club and the Cordon Club of Chicago; shewas a Mountaineer of Seattle, and she served as secretary of theGeographical Society of Chicago (Rayfield). She was an "ardentmountain climber," and had climbed in Greece and in theCanadian Rockies ("Mrs. Frazeur"). Although the book doesnot identify the Laura Frazeur of Romanet' s letter as thewoman who failed to treat her guides with respect and "had toreturn and take another route with another party" when theyrefused to guide her farther, the field note for 27 May clarifiesthat they are the same person. If Frazeur wrote an account ofher own northern journey, it has not yet corne to light.L. RomanetLouis Auguste Romanet (1880-1964) was born in France and,at age twenty-three, resigned a commission in the Frenchinfantry to join the French fur-trading company RevillonFreres. He served in Ungava 1903-16, then jOined the HBC atMoose Factory as general inspector. He served in the Frencharmy during the First World War, then returned to the HBC.From 1923 until he left the HBC, he was district manager ofthe Mackenzie and Athabasca districts, and general manager ofthe AATC (Romanet). In 1927, he oversaw a loss of $40, 000;his employment with the HBC ceased in 1930 (Bonnycastle,Gmtleman 15, 134). After leaving the HBC, he was employed asMackenzie River agent for several oil companies (Romanet).The story of his Ungava years was written by Lowell Thomasand published under the title Kabluk of the Eskimo in 1932.The memorandum by Mr WarnerCopies of two different memoranda by Harry Warner remainin the Vyvyan Papers, one, "From the Mackenzie to theYukon," is fifteen single-spaced, typewritten pages; the other,"Re. Mackenzie River -Yukon Trip," is seven Single-spaced,typewritten pages. It bears a thematic resemblance to "ASummer Trip to the Arctic," a tourism promotion by RobertWatson, editor of The Beaver from 1923 to 1933, which hadappeared in the magazine's issue for June 1925. The MarchandJune 1926 issues contained the first page-length advertisementsby the AA TC. The second of these quotes verse by"R.W." (probably Watson) in the manner of Robert Service,which enjoins its reader to "forget awhile the city's noise andseethe" and to spend thirty-five days seeking "the freedom ofGod's Northern open spaces" ('To the Arctic"). Written in asimilar vein to encourage tourist traffic, the longer of Warner'stwo articles deviates from factual into purple prose, such as thefollowing,any person in moderate health who can afford a twomonths' summer vacation and a thousand dollars, mayexperience the thrill of travel and adventure well beyond theedge of things. Can stand on arctic shores, rub noses witheskimos, barter with the Indians and, by slight deviationsfrom the beaten track, can pitch his tent in solitudes whereno white man has ever before been. Fur traders andmissionaries, trappers and whalemen, prospectors, sourdoughsand squaws; colour that is strictly local and notimported and where a traveller is a man and a friend andnot a mere tourist. And all this is without leaving theAmerican continent and without being more than twomonths out of touch with the outside world, office or business. ...It is the journey across the arctic mountains between theMacKenzie and the Yukon that constitutes the piece deresistance of the trip from the adventurer's point of view ...[It] is not particularly arduous to anyone at all experienced