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

272 Notes to Pages 95-99strapped in 1925, it had to cease its transportation business atthe close of the 1926 season, so Vyvyan was witnessing thecompany vessel's last trip to Aklavik as a freighter. Thecompany avoided the HBC's takeover by acquiring backingfrom Winnipeg'sJewish traders. Under the name of NorthernTraders, it survived from 1926 to I930 before being crippledby the Depression (Ray I43, I6I-63).Gregorian chants, sung to celebrate the mother superior'sfeast dayThe entry for 5 July 1926 in the Grey Nuns' "AkalvikChroniques" reads, "Chant ala messe, fete toute lajournee,puisse Ste Zoe patronne de Bonne Mere Provinciale no us lagarder longtemps a notre affection." The reference is toMother Superior Zoe Chartier Girouard.I baked slabs of bannockIn the notes following the last dated entry in her field notes,Vyvyan listed the ingredients required for bannock and doughnuts(226).the reverend father and the two lay brothersThe identity of the lay brothers is uncertain but not that of thefather, from 1926 to 1931, PereJoseph Trocellier omipresided at the Immaculate Conception Residential Schooland the Roman Catholic mission at Aklavik, both of which wereestablished in 1924. He would become bishop of Mackenzie­Fort Smith later in his career.The pemmican was to prove a standby ... eating a lump nolarger than a greengageA greengage is a variety of sweet plum, having green skin andflesh.Surely our puffing engine was the first mechanical soundthat had ever broken the age-long silence of the riverSurely Vyvyan may be excused for expressing a view that overcomesmost northern trippers, however much knowledge of aroute's history they bring with them. Her quotation of EnglishRomantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, Rime of theAncient Mariner (I. 105), at the point when the voyage enters thePacific Ocean. testifies to the ubiquity of the sensation,however illusory.Destruction City ... We looked about us in surprise. Therewas no sign that any human being had ever passed that wayAlden Hayes found more remains twelve years later thanVyvyan saw in 1926; either that or her book exaggerates the lackof evidence for effect (the field note for 7 July mentions "fewremains"). Although Hayes called it a "ghost camp," heidentified "the poles offour old lean-tos, two tipi frames. a fewmeat-drying racks. and axe marks on stumps where trees hadbeen felled." (Perhaps some of these had been made between1926 and I938.) Unlike Vyvyan. Hayes does not exaggerate theloss of human life that occurred at Destruction City; meanwhile,he correctly explains why more signs of the winter campwere not evident, "The Klondikers ... stopped here at thebeginning of the rapids, broke up their scows (hence the nameof the camp). and used the lumber to make huts to winter in.In the spring they destroyed the huts and rebuilt the boats tocontinue the journey" (88-9).As discussed in the Introduction. Emily Craig spent thewinter of 1898-99 at Destruction City. before driving a dogteam up the Rat River in April (Romig 93). Her first-handaccount was not available until 1948. Born in Denmark in I871and orphaned (126.75). she lived until 1957 (Mayer 235) andpublished her narrative under the name of Emily Craig Romig.having married again. Hers had been a prolonged adventure.beginning in Chicago in August 1897 (Romig 19) andconcluding with her arrival in Dawson in August 1899 (107).too late to join in the gold rush. Those twenty-four monthsalso included having to chop her way out of the icy embrace ofher frozen sleeping bag (36); learning the culinary anddomestic practices of native women (23. 45); adopting a morepractical mode of dress-"Yesterday I started to wear Mr.Craig's overalls. because I could not be on the tracking line.and jump from one large rock to another. with skirts on. Theyall thought I made a very good boy" (70); meeting Bishop andMrs Stringer (73), Emma, the wife of Archdeacon Whittaker(88), and BuffaloJones (77); helping a "lady" (74) namedBraund to travel and give birth to a child (88); bemoaning herand her husband's fate. "living like tramps. and moving fromplace to place" (79); watching as other men at DestructionCity. following the example of American whalers at HerschelIsland (Nagy 36), purchased Inuit women for their domesticcomfort (73.80); nursing scurvy-ridden Klondikers (85);sliding down a mountainside with Mrs Hoffman at the summitof McDougall Pass (95); baking and cooking at Fort Yukon and