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

Notes to Pages 25-2g, 202 247cut bank, and a tangle of willow. With Mabel on one arm, Ipicked up the wife on the other, and carried them aboutfifty yards across the shallows, where we were able to walkagain till camping time. Flapjacks and dessicated [sic] potatoesfor supper."The boys are doing wonderfully, having often to patchthe boat, which means unloading everything, and overturningit on shore. This afternoon, as we approached along hairpin bend in the river, the boys advised that I takethe passengers across a short portage, while they took theboat around. We started, with veils over our faces, for themosquitees [sic] are bad. Soon we came to a bog, with thickwillows. I carried Mabel over, set her down on a mossy bed,then went back and carried the mother over. Then weclimbed a hill, through clouds of mosquitoes, made our waythrough a rocky gully to the river bed again, and preparedto make a fire, only to find my matches were wet anduseless. I had been in the river to my armpits, guiding theboat. We had to fight the enemy for about two hours,before the boat came up. They had ascended nineteenrapids rounding the bend. Then we made camp."My good Wellington boots have fallen to pieces, fromwater and stones. Some of the boys are wearing out twopairs of moccasins a day."Through many bad rapids to-day, but the stream isnarrowing. After dinner we passed the last rapid, haVingreached the level plateau of the Divide. Now our travel isslower, having to pole or row the boat. The banks are verybad, snags many, and mendings frequent. Sometimes thereis hardly room to take the boat round the bend, the rivuletbeing so crooked, though the water is deep. We arehemmed in by willows and alder on the banks."The stream winds interminably. We made a portageacross a grassy plain to a lake, then to another-Bell Lake,crossing which we camped for dinner. Here I paid off threeof the boys, with orders on the fort, and sent them home.Eight and a half days is good time."Sunday. We are very high, with mountains on threesides of us, and a mist all around. We take a well-earnedrest, for there are more heavy days ahead. Usual services.One walk I saw mountain sheep high up among the rocks."Had to carry the boat, and luggage about a third of amile, as the narrow stream running westward is so cloggedwith willows we cannot get through it. The two boys at oneend, and I at the other, found the boat a stiff burden!"("Sunrise" 66-8)(Vyvyan's misspelling-'Whitaker"-has been correctedthroughout the book and field notes.)we have to tie up to the river bank beside a pile of logs, inorder to replenish fuelAccording to Harold Innis, steam-powered vessels consumedalmost one cord of wood per hour (348), but Sherwood Plattcites a different rate. He and his three companions, includingAlfred E. "Jake" Driscoll (who went on to become governor ofthe state of NewJersey from 1947 to 1954), worked on the Slaveand Mackenzie rivers aboard the SS Distributor in return for freepassage from Fort Smith to the Rat River on the steamer'ssecond trip of 1926. The work included hauling wood from theriverside piles to the ship's furnace, which, according to him,consumed it at a rate of "five cords an hour" (12).Field Note for Thursd,!)! 3june3 or4 RCeSThe Royal Canadian Corps of Signals operated the northernwireless stations. See the note, t'As for cOIlullunications,"under Chpt II.CHAPTER 6: DAYS ASHORE (6-13 JUNE)In this chapter, both the accounts of the late-night visit to thewife of the factor (Leggo) at Fort Fitzgerald and the women'shabit of breakfasting with coat thrown over nightgown areembellished, to emphasize Dorrien Smith's superior sense ofpropriety, which is allayed by Judge Dubuc's example. Also inthe book but not in the field notes, Vyvyan compares themonotony of visiting women of the North with the monotonyof visits paid to women in the Australian bush (36), which shedescribed in more detail in her autobiography, Roots and Stars(154-56). There is no precedent in the field notes for thepenultimate salutations and last paragraph of the chapter.Fort ChipewyanThe oldest continuously occupied white settlement in Alberta,Fort Chipewyan was established in 1788 on the south shore ofLake Athabasca at Old Fort Point by NWC partner Roderick