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

IntroductIOnXLIIIthe most powerful writing in Arctic Adventure, one of her last books, remains thecharacter sketches of the "old-timers" who inhabit her arctic frontier. The firsthalf of the book narrates the long journey from England to Aklavik, focusingattention where people have congregated or been encountered. Indeed, Vyvyantends to develop character types to represent entire communities in northernsettlements. Once in the wilderness-that is, once the party begins to ascend theRat-Vyvyan's admiring portrait of Sittichinli comes to dominate her account.A notable example ofVyvyan's technique is her sketch of Captain McIntyre, '''arough old sea-dog'" whose name, perhaps to protect him in case he was still alivein 1961, was altered to Captain Cameron. Captain Aklavik, he might have beencalled, for the way in which Vyvyan makes her chapters about that mixed-racesettlement constellate around him. "I can see the old man now," writes theseventy-five-year-old Vyvyan in I961; indeed, the full colour of his personality,combined with his censure of racial intermarriage, makes for strong moments inthe narrative, but they merely exemplify and enhance the words-" a hardened oldsinner with a most pictorial tongue "-in Vyvyan's field note for 26June (below,210). It is partly in this sense that Vyvyan found her arctic tour an adventure. Apassage in Chapter 8 clarifies her point of view:Talk with any new acquaintance had become a real adventure. Among the30-odd passengers with whom we travelled on our three weeks cruise, we didnot meet one ordinary person, nor experience one dull moment; all the timewe were onlookers at an exciting drama. There would be an anecdote or storythat left us breathless and wondering; a halt at some settlement or woodpileand a visit ashore; an unknown flower; a new bend of the river; mile after mileof enclosing forest walls; a strange bird, some duck upon the water or woodpeckeramong the trees, or a bell would summon us to a meal and, sittingopposite the judge, we would listen to the table-talk with renewed astonishment.(42-3)The field notes do not offer a precise analogue to this passage from early in thetrip, but it is interesting to find something similar towards the end. In a fieldnote for 28 July, two days after their arrival at Fort Yukon, Vyvyan wrote that she"[s] topped + chatted in house of a swede Burgland woman + 6 kids. They trap.She is happy as a Queen in her I room cabin + says life in the N is all sport +adventure meals so easy no social ties +c. One of her children at least born when