Igloolik June 10^th 1968

The snow is melting fast. It’s 39̊ F out, & to reach our snow gauges out on the sea ice is very hazardous as there cracks along the shore with about 2 feet of slushy snow & water on top! The boys are waiting to go off hunting.

Igloolik village June 10th 1968

            Saturday saw another wild wedding feast in Igloolik & 2 Bombardier loads of people came up from Hall Beach, including the bride’s mother. The service was conducted by the Eskimo Anglican minister & bits of general interest were translated by the Justice of the Peace/ Hudsons Bay Manager. Nasuk, the vicar, doesn’t speak English but when he asked the groom in Eskimo if he took this woman etc – he raised his eyebrows significantly & hissed “I dooo” like a prompter at a school play. The hymn was God Save the Queen, & several Eskimos kept pushing past the bride, vicar etc to take pictures from the altar with noisy Polaroid cameras, then they’d peel off the instant pictures & show them to everyone.

Igloolik shore, boat and telegraph pole June 1968

            After the wedding we gathered once more at the scene of last week’s party and started up where we’d left of! This time there were lots of Eskimos there & they had us all spellbound dancing 8-some reels that the old Scottish whalers had taught them last century. I can’t really describe them, but just imagine 4 smiling couples ambling round like sailors on their sea legs, doing tremendously intricate figures & with their feet tapping away all the time. Each reel lasts about 15 minutes so when the record finishes they put it on again & continue until the dance is finished, & then they all start laughing & clapping.

The super interpreter got up & did a superb solo, skipping from one foot to the other, crossing the room backwards, with lots of whoops & shrieks. When he realized we were all watching & clapping he went terribly shy & stopped, but couldn’t stand still for long, so came up to Jim & challenged him to some sort of contest to see who could outdo the other with fancy steps. Fantastic.

The great thing about the North (although I’ve only been here 2 ½ weeks) is that everyone has the chance to be themselves. Everyone is independent with no superior peering over their shoulder.  I think teaching here would be a tremendous experience. The children are all very eager to learn & when they are given a day off they all groan, then hang round the school.

After the stag party given for the groom last week the school principal had such a bad head he couldn’t teach (he’d drunk some bad home-made beer) & the next day one class in the school wrote in their current affairs book “Mr W was drong last night, Mr R was also drong but he came to school today”

Child travelling on sled wearing caribou fur clothes

            There was a nice big article on us in the Montreal Star the week we left. I’ll send it to you as soon as I can get hold of some more stamps (the P.O. burnt down)

Frank was extremely impressed by [photo of my father’s moustache] as he has a small walrus one. He is now determined to let it grow into handlebars. I told him it’ll take 30 years!!

The children wrote in their current events book “there are 2 scientists, one has white hair, & the other has a mustache, but it isn’t a real one” The white haired one is Dr de Pena an [American] anthropologist. She is Frank’s boss, & the static between her & Foote is something fierce. How sick I am of little lectures on how tea drinking is a psychological thing with me & that coffee is just as thirst quenching. Frank’s cold is psychosomatic, she can put her own milk in her coffee etc.

A woman nutritionist has arrived & insists on poisoning my food by mixing in grated coconut even though I’ve said I can’t stand it. Today we had peaches mixed up with 3 week old raspberries from a smelly can, choked with coconut & when I removed my peaches & washed them she was quite narked. Now de Pena & Carol are having a set-to about who does the cooking.

Amarok skating

Travel out of Igloolik is very dodgy now as the ice is breaking up & they won’t take the Bombardiers out. The mail therefore came by plane which was fortunately dropping some supplies here for 2 geologists who have arrived unexpectedly [Hans Trettin, with his pilot Doug Hemby and radio operator Tom Pollen]. Suspiciously though, I only got your one² letter s & am expecting a lot more mail than that. The warehouse in Hall Beach caught fire this week after an Eskimo used a blow lamp on his skidoo inside. The head teacher is shipping out all his belongings & 3 crates of his stuff caught fire! He’s very depressed about it as they’re all his super records etc – but resigned.

Another helicopter is missing now. There’s still hardly any water as it’s even impossible to get out onto the sea ice to get that now! (sea ice loses its salt after a few months & you just wander out onto the bay & cut your water supply & pop it onto a dog sled) As there are 8 of us here now things like baths & hair washing are out.

It’s embarrassing to be associated with Foote & de Pena. Funny how lecturers like them always talk as if facing 300 students & their voices drone on & on & on all day & night.

Anglican Church Igloolik

            There’s an old Bob Hope movie on in the hut opposite tonight. All the kids come round selling little trinkets for 25c – the admission fee, on movie night.

 

Thurs 11th

Raining steadily. 3.30 walked up to the ridge to take b/w photos of meltwater in rain. Beautiful & soul lifting up there. Wandered by the edge of this desolate lake, I heard the wind cry in the sedge... N wind 15-20 mph, temp 37. Saw eider male on lower NW ridge.

Walked to some big rocks to discover it was a boulder-field - felsenmeer! Large granite boulders concentrated on highest point of ridge. A dog howling in the village wafts down on the wind. Find what look like wolf spoor - contain lemming bones & skins - obviously a 1/2 starving wolf is lurking in the rocks. Decide they must be huge snowy owl pellets - ca. 4" long & 1 1/4" thick.

Amarok has emptied the kitchen garbage bin, the bathroom & my cupboard of all moveables & chewed them on the living room carpet. Also streaked the carpet with bacon fat! He looked vv guilty. Watched a woman run down onto the ice with a pail in the rain. Fill it with drinking water from a pool, then squat & pee, then run home.

Sea ice Turton Bay, Igloolik

The main “street” is now under a foot of water & slush. The children love it & are floating about on boxes & oil drums & paddling in it. The village has been invaded by gulls during the last week & they hop around on the roof sounding like thunder.

Igloolik village from the air, sea still frozen. Hudsons Bay buildings with red roofs, Catholic Mission buildings bottom left with Father Fournier's stone church behind it

Ottawa has shipped up about 200 mattresses for no apparent reason, & they can’t give them away. I wondered why so many sleds were de lux, mattress-padded models! Now the snow is melting all sorts of things are coming to light, including 50 telegraph poles Ottawa was convinced were needed in Igloolik! Actually we already have poles & a telephone system. Only about 25 houses have phones.

A woman mending a tent with a hand sewing machine, a toddler on her back

            An Eskimo man came round here to have a good look at us. Colin told us that when he lived in Hall Beach he appeared one day proudly driving a superb dog team down the road. Everyone knew he had no dogs of his own so they asked him where he’d got them. “Oh, I found them on the rubbish tip” he said. Everyone knows that things on the rubbish tip belong to no-one, so he assumed they’d been thrown away. Actually they belonged to a man who was sorting through the tip for valuable things that may have been discarded from the DEW line base. I looked through my notes & found that the man who did a survey here in 1965 mentions him as “the laziest bum around” Poor man, fancy being blacklisted in Ottawa!

Plan of Igloolik summer 1968

            Hiram filled Frank’s pipe with toilet tissue & tobacco & Frank smoked it all. We’ve just told him about & he says it tasted very good & he couldn’t understand why it drew so well & why people kept asking him how it tasted!

Our loo is the bucket variety & I’m sure I’ll never remember to flush the lavatory when I get back. We have a ventilation pipe which blasts cold air down into the bucket so you don’t sit there very long, despite the fact that we are all reading The Invisible Man which is in the bathroom. Should finish it by Sept.

            Our friendly hunters have just come round for coffee & Enoki has had all his beautiful long hair cut off into a crew cut. He’s getting ragged unmercifully & they’ve put a bobble hat on him now.



Dotted buildings are the shcool and government staff houses, the IBP house is the middle of three on the shore at the bottom

            Hope you like the stamps on this. The narwhal (pronounced whale) is found near Igloolik & its horn is the thing that started the legend of the unicorn. People brought them back & said they were from a one-horned beast etc. They only catch about 1 or 2 a year here, but I’d love to get hold of a horn!

Well [the ‘lazy bum’] came round with his squeeze box & we’ve just had a little musical session with him & Enoki & Kamanerk. Enoki taught 4 of us to do a jig & we were bounding round the room doing a 5-some reel! As [the man] played. He’s very quick & picked up a French Canadian tune Mike plays on the mouth organ. We’ve been recording the concert which is very successful & causes much merriment. Mike has just asked him if he can play any Eskimo songs. After a lot of thought he said yes & started to play Scotland the Brave!! When he left he said that usually white man pay him a dollar for recording his playing!

Mike cutting up a seal behind our house with an audience sitting on the WWII landing craft 'the barge'on the beach,         June 1968

I’ve been up at Kamanerk’s house watching his wife scrape a seal. Also round for coffee with the geologists. The leader is a very civilized & pleasant German, Hans Trettin, & it was so pleasant talking to him. He laughed at my jokes – which no-one’s done for 3 weeks. 

So here’s wishing you all my love & kisses. Jenny xx

Box of letters from Igloolik found in the garage

Hall Beach May 1968

Tues 28th

Ate seal liver for lunch which was delicious - better than calf liver. Also ate caribou stew for supper. Eating is a full time occupation as it is always light & always feels like feeding time. Also the air is so pure & healthy.

            This evening at 6.00 I went to the Brownies at the school to help Mrs Wynne the school mistress & Brown Owl. It was tremendous fun. They were a bit shy & reserved, but I joined in the games & songs & played Grand old Duke of York etc & all ended in great giggles & laughter. I tested some of them on their motto & oath etc & next week 10 of them are going to be enrolled & given berets & scarves. They're so excited about the uniforms & obviously enjoying the games. They also learn little things like laying a table.

            While everyone sits here moaning that they haven't met any Eskimos except our 2 hunters I was out meeting the children.

            This evening the Catholic priest Father van der Velde visited us & told us about his 26 years in Pelly Bay - a very isolated settlement. To get supplies in they needed 2 teams of 20 dogs & he had to hunt to get enough food for them. He told us that when choosing caribou pick the young in autumn as they have just weaned & taste like veal. In spring though the yearlings are lean as they don't know how to feed properly in winter. The best then is a 'doe that for some reason is not pregnant' !

Thea and Terry leaving Hall Beach for the sea ice and Igloolik with the RCMP snowmobile and sled. We travelled in the yellow Bombardier tracked vehicle.

JV holding an unsuspecting lemming

Wed 29th

Ho ho! Rumour has it that the mail will leave this afternoon so will finish this screed. The plane goes to Hall Beach, & we get it by snow mobile.

            I've just been visiting Thea. I'm going to the wedding in my corduroy trous as none of her things fit me. Her RCMP husband to be is super. The wedding is on Fri. They've got a super husky bitch & some pups which live in a sort of igloo-kennel outside. I'd like one of them, but how rotten to keep it in Montreal. Also they eat more than I do & you can't hunt seals round McGill.

            The lads have finally gone off a-hunting thank heavens with Enoki Kunnuk and Naitani Kamanerk. Lovely and quiet. I've had a surreptitious bath & used all the water. Our new water supply is on the door step waiting for the ice man to come & break it up for our tank. The sun shines on all & I've just done the met. observation. Temps 28° - quite tropical. Love to all. Quinn xxx

Thurs 30

6 AM weather

Bought red wool & braid from Hudson Bay Store for skirt. Used Mrs Bartell's sewing machine. She is the telephone operator, husband Heinz is mechanic. Daughter Nina, 11, in Brownies, son Mark. She is Peruvian, he German.

Boys back from hunting at about 10 PM - red faces, puffy eyes. Successful hunt as now great buddies with hunters.

Fri 31 May

6 AM weather. Noon Enoki & Kamanik round for coffee. Much giggling & joking. P.M. finished red skirt. Visited Thea & borrowed suspenders & petticoat.

7 P.M.Thea & Terry’s wedding at R.C. church. As he is the RCMP he & the best man were in their Mounty’s finery, complete with red jackets, striped pants & silver spurs that jingle jingle jangled (but no horses) The ceremony was held in the R.C. church with all the Eskimo men on the right side & the women & children on the left. There was a huge background noise of children, & every so often a mother would go outside with a child for it to relieve itself. They sit in their mothers’ parka hoods with just a vest & jumper on, & little bare bums keep peeping out when they stand up.

During the hymns the men sing the first verse quite softly then the women belt out the 2^nd one, very nasally, for all they’re worth, converting ordinary hymn tunes into weird Eskimo scales. They alternate verses with the men, then all sing the last one in unison. I was really left with my mouth gaping it was so impressive.

Father Van der Velde married them, with Father Fournier in the background.

After the ceremony we all rushed out & Thea hurled handfuls of toffees which the little kids went wild over. I helped a little lad get one out from under the slatted floor & that caused a great stir & lots of grins & giggles. The skirt I made for the wedding out of the thin wool duffle they use for parkas & socks, decorated in the Eskimo way with coloured braid was a great talking point afterwards. (It is bright red)

Afterwards went to the school for reception. Danced with Frank, then Bill 'the Bay', then Jim Deyell from the Hall Beach Bay, then Bill, etc. Great. They kept asking me to dance & as soon as I sat down after each dance the other would leap up & ask me. Jim did much wild Hebridean Shetland dancing. Danced a couple of Dashing White Sergeants. Bill from St John's Nfld. Jim from Hebrides Shetlands?

June 2 Sun Diary

Work from 11AM - 4PM, then set off with Frank towards Cape Matthew Smith at 6. Refusing the emergency bannock being pressed upon us we set off to reach the mountains, but they're just an illusion so turned back. The Conservative candidate for the area arrived by skidoo & we went to the little hall to hear him talk. Itani translated. Van Norden very sincere but didn't come across very well. Pearson - a bearded bod from Wallasey was there too & v good, but I wouldn't vote for him. Pearson a tremendous character & amusing.

1.30 back home where Foote is hoisting the telephone bells now converted into a mobile - very annoying. The meeting was great, with women at the back & men in front & us in front on the floor. Woman feeding ½ naked boy at her breast just behind Van Norden during his talk.

Mon 3^rd Diary

Boys off hunting - walrus? Work like the clappers all day. Foote finds the whites here very objectionable. He seems set to alienate as many people as possible.

About to order mukluks via Jim Haining. Jim Deyell is interesting - like a charging bull in a china shop, but dances a wild Hebridean backstep with elegance. The place is crawling with Scotsmen.

Tues 4^th Diary

Boys back early afternoon. They went to Ooglit Islands, but saw no walrus. Brought back a small ringed seal. Stag party for Jim Haining. Colin Wynne drank 12 pints of green beer.

Mike and Hiram help Enoki unload his qamutiq after the hunt. Boys watch and the dogs, seeing Enoki has dropped his whip, head for the village cold store.

Wed 5^th Diary

Colin Wynne missed school! In the current events lesson the entry in the book was "Mr Wynne was drong last night. Mr Remus was also drong but he came to school today”

Heard news of Bobby Kennedy's being shot in the head.

 Enoki came round this morning. Most impressed by a cherry pie, & asked what it was. Visited Theresa Remus to borrow a dress & shoes for Sat. Mary will make an outer parka for me. God this house is bloody noisy - mostly the 2 lecturers droning on.

Hiram Beaubier, Jenny Vestey, Mike Bradley and Carol Engel marvel at Don Foote's Alaskan mukluks for a photoshoot at McGiil before leaving.

June 7^th Letter

The mail is going out so will finish this. Life here is certainly not trivial. Last week the E.M.R. helicopter that my friend from Ottawa was to use, called in at Igloolik for fuel. It took the wrong grade & that night, during a “white out” with no visibility it disappeared & lost radio contact. Planes couldn’t search for it because of the weather. It was found about 2 days later on an island near here, out of action because of the bad fuel! 2 people aboard apparently O.K.

This week the village has had a huge & horrid blow of fate. The Eskimos run a Co-Op. which is completely independent & sells carvings, clothes etc & tries to make money by doing contract work for the Government. The week before we arrived their building burnt to the ground. About 6-8 weeks ago about a mile off Igloolik Island a man fell through the sea ice and drowned. The others walked in to the island to a camp & from there they came by dog team to the village. They went to Jim Haining’s house first & when he woke up at 4 AM to find his bed surrounded by Eskimos he knew what had happened. They hardly dared tell the R.C. priest Father Fournier as he was already shattered by the Co-Op burning. He was the one who got the Co-Op on its feet.    

There was a requiem mass last night in the R.C. church which I attended. It was very different from the wedding & terribly sad. There were still funny things like babies hurling bottles across the aisle & running in & out of the door, little angelic choir boys in huge wellington boots etc but very very moving. The man’s father sat in front of me in caribou skin trousers. He uses crutches. Father Fournier looked really shattered. Much incense. ½ the ceremony in Latin & ½ in Eskimo. I followed the Eskimo by comparing it to the Latin printed opposite in the prayer books & translating that from memories from school.

            The body is still in the sea & as Mike dives under the ice he has been asked to try to recover it. His equipment is coming up on the next plane. I think that is too risky as the currents there are notoriously swift & he’s only used to lake diving.

            Terry Waterhouse, the R.C.M.P. man has just heard that a baby died in May in an outlying camp, so he will have to go out & visit it to sign the death cert. What a job! Poor Thea has plunged straight into it all.

            Yesterday I visited an Eskimo woman who is going to sew an outer cover for my parka. She has a week old baby boy. He’s minute & very very sweet. She is 27 & has had 6  babies, lost 4 & had one adopted, so she’s really nervous about this one. In her house she has a table, 2 chairs, a stove, a water tank, 2 beds, a cot and a tape-recorder & that’s all.  

Well, we have our 1^st sealskin scraped & stretched & put on the roof to dry. We look like a genuine Eskimo house now. All the village kids congregate round the back of out house to watch these crazy white men cutting up seals.

            Eating well – caribou stew yesterday. All my love & thinking of you a lot Jenny x

Fri 7th June Diary

4PM Mary brought round the finished parka. - really beautiful. Gave her $10 which was more than she expected.

JV with newly covered parka, holding the husky pup Snoopy.

Letter May 25^th1968 Igloolik NWT

Dear Mum & Dad

The mail goes out about once a week, until travel gets more difficult at the end of June - so I'll try to send off a letter form as often as I can. Meanwhile I'll write all the bulky news on this paper & send out a less regular news letter. - Always assuming I get the chance to sit & write it.



Northern Quebec from the air




Unloading at Iqaluit/Frobisher Bay

May 25 It is actually 12.15 midnight & Sunday 26th, but as it's light here we're still up & awake. I left Montreal as planned at 11PM on Fri in a small Douglas DC4. As we were carrying a helicopter from the Dept of Energy Mines& Resources one side of the cabin was curtained off & stacked with bits of rotor blades, engine & all our stuff which was packed in barrels. Just before we took off a mechanic came to the door & said to the steward 'tell the Captain to rev. her up real good or she won't take off with all that load.' Then as soon as we had taken off in a cloud of brown smoke & sparks a man started to wrench the door handle as if he wanted to open it & get out - I think he was stopping a draught. The stewardess served coffee next and spilled a whole cup of scalding brew down the front of one of the passengers. Of course it was the only man on the whole plane wearing a suit, everyone else in work clothes! So he sat there all night with a bare, throbbing chest covered in butter, looking like the great Maharishi himself.

As we flew north a red glow appeared on the horizon & about 2.30 AM we were in 24 hour light & it looked like a normal dawn. Flew over Fort Chimo & Hudson Straight & saw the frozen sea. At 6.30 AM we landed at Frobisher Bay& leapt off the plane into a lovely 8°F temps. Went for a walk round the area & woke up a bit in the fresh air (not really possible to sleep on the plane as it vibrates so much) 7.40 AM took off again & landed at Hall Beach at 10.30 AM. Here we stepped out into dazzling white light & low cloud cover & light snow.

We sat outside for 2 1/2 hours watching them trying to unload the helicopter. It took about 30 men & 2 fork lift trucks to get various bits off. Everyone came to watch, including some US army people from the DEW line station & lots of Eskimos. Saw a couple of women in traditional parkas with babies tucked inside the hoods.

At MontrealI met a girl Thea from Fredericton n Brunswick, who was going to Igloolik to marry the RCMP constable. All very romantic. I travelled with her, & at HallBeach she rushed off the plane into the arms of this splendid 6'+ Mountie in his super uniform& Eskimo parka. He decked her out with sealskin boots & gauntlets, wind trousers & a superb parka trimmed with white fox & they zoomed off into the snow on a skidoo hauling a sled, covered in caribou skins. I felt like singing a rousing chorus of 'Rosemarie'

We loaded our stuff onto a caterpillar snow mobile [sketch] with skis on the front.

Igloolik May 26^th1968

Saw a lemming! Just like a grey hamster. Some Eskimo children were watching it eat moss & it took absolutely no notice of us.

The school master's wife also teaches, & she takes the Brownies on Tuesdays (It is a strange mixture of traditional Eskimo & Western things here) I've said I'd go & help her - with a view to meeting more village people. Being in the Government house rather cuts us off. That's why we still plan to live in tents later - not yet though as it's cold, windy & there's about 18" snow on the ground.

We have taken our first few meteorological readings & set up a met. station. We also have to run down onto the sea ice to measure the depth of snow. It went down to 4°F last night!

The people here dress in beautiful traditional clothes. Their sealskin boots are so gorgeous I think I'll get a pair made. The women wear white parkas with huge hoods for the babies & long flaps at the back to sit on.

The children & men wear parkas like mine, but with waterproof outer covers. Both types decorated with braid & ribbon round the hems.

May 27^th Up at 7.45 because men going hunting. All prepared but offshore wind - no good for hunting. Visited Jim Haining to look at his village map. Ours are useless.

Jim Haining says he was 'brain washed' for a year in Ottawa. Ottawamaps are all completely out of date & incomplete for any date. All plans for relocating village buildings must go via Ottawa. Frank has sealskin boots + duffel inners for $30 from Co-Op.

My freckles are rampant, as is appetite. Most women wear amautiks. Babies have bare bums when they stand up.

6PM

2 hunters came in while we were eating lunch & joined us for a cup of tea. They are taking the 3 men hunting tomorrow on 2 dog teams & qamutiqs - long toboggans. [sketch] They couldn't speak English& a young boy translated. They were very interested in us, especially the girls, but apparently they were afraid we want to go too & have been asking the RCMP & the store-keeper if the women are going hunting too - they hope not. Kunnuk, one of the hunters, was on a 160 mile round trip to hunt caribou this weekend & we bought some rump steak & a roast & stewing steak off him. Had caribou steak for lunch today - it is delicious. A dark, lean meat, with a slightly stronger flavour than steak. Ate 1" thick steaks. It's called tuktu.



Qamutiq and lone woof

I went to the Hudson's Bay store. It was packed full of people. When they saw us they dived at the 50 lb flour sacks& the tea thinking we would probably buy the lot. They're v good natured& all say 'hi' or smile. The kids are especially curious & very eager to show off their English. The adults don't speak English though.

A dog team & qamutiq have just hurtled down the street with the driver in hot pursuit - on foot. It is so clean & bright here & the people all seem happy& busy. I was afraid there might be an atmosphere of depression or boredom, but there isn't.

We have a super radio that picks up the BBC World Service. They've just said goodnight to the Far East, & started beaming out 'Brain of Britain' to us.

‘23 is young and the world waits’

I have unearthed a crate of my letters sent from Canada to my parents. 

Mum hoarded them all in the garage! They are a blow by blow account of my adventures. I was a prolific letter writer it seems. I have letters, field diaries, photographs, pocket diaries and copies of fieldwork in Igloolik for 1968 and 1969.

Here are extracts from my 1968 visit to Igloolik as part of the International Biological Programme researching for my Geography Masters Degree at McGill. I'm going to blog the 1968 letters to match the 2014 dates as the summer unfolds. Here is everything from accepting the post to 24th May 1968...

‘23 is young and the world waits’

Ottawa, September 1966 - Roof of my apartment 

 Draft letter, Ottawa Feb 12^th 1968

Dear Dr Foote

            Thank you for your letter of Feb 10th mentioning the possibility of work in Igloolik for this summer. I am very interested in this, but would like to know about the work in greater detail. I imagine the best course is for me to visit you in Montreal to discuss it.

I hope to be in Montreal this weekend, in which case I could visit the Dept. on Monday, if that would be convenient for you.

            I will be seeing Dr. Peter Grant this weekend. It would be easiest for you to contact him if you can to let me know when I can see you on this Mon.

Yours sincerely  etc.

Ottawa April 23^rd 1968 10 PM

Dear Parents

            I have 2 main items of news. 1/ is that I have been accepted for the job in Igloolik! I'll be chief investigator of social & cultural-economic studies. It will be rather good I think as this year is purely reconnaissance & we will mostly just get to know people & get a good idea of how they live + any side issues we can think of to study. There are 2 boys & 2 girls. I'm 2nd in command & Peter's student is camp leader. The girl is my assistant & camp cook. We have 2 sleeping tents & a large living tent with table, chairs, book shelves etc & cooker. We will live in a house until camp is set up. Don Foote will come up for a week to get us going. The party leaves on May 24 & returns Aug 31. We're getting fishing permits & hope to spend a lot of time lazing around with a rod.

Love from Jenny x

Montreal Sat May 10.

Man what an exhilarating day! Dear Mum & Dad today I drove to Montreal & had a meeting with the field party from 11 AM to 7.30 P.M.! It is so exciting & everything is falling into place. Don Foote is in charge & he's so full of enthusiasm it's really catching. Richard Bradley is to be camp leader after Don leaves after 2 weeks. Then Carol is cook & assistant & Hiram Beaubier is in charge of technological surveys. Richard is Peter's student & is studying seals & hunting. I'm looking after social & economic things & hope to specialize in the diffusion of innovation - i.e. who buys modern rifles, boat engines etc - are they the most influential families etc.

There is to be a Press Conference this week & we'll get a full page spread in the Montreal Star. Also the C.B.C. are doing a documentary on us - in the office at the airport & at the camp! All very exciting. If we get enough good data we'll issue separate reports this autumn & maybe get them published.

In Ottawa we played office squash in our empty office on Fri. I refereed while Russ & Gordon played, using hands as racquets & a ping pong ball & masking tape as a net! Well, have just given a brief autobiography for the Press ho ho "Kentish Maid Goes North" all my love Jenny x

Ottawa May 17th

            I have already earnt my salary for the summer this week. I’ve been running between 3 buildings. At the Dept. of Northern Development I’ve met a large number of cynical bastards who really tried to take the wind out of my sails. I was so upset by one man I had to visit I didn’t dare to go back to see him but ran back to hide behind Russ & telephone him from my own office. He must have realized he’d upset me as he was v nice & when I did go & see him again he spent an hour explaining the Welfare system in Igloolik & then apologized for his original reception.

I met Don Foote’s arch enemy with trembling fear. He gave me a lot of super information including notes on all Igloolik families eg “X is the biggest bum around” or “ he is a useless bugger” neatly written on each man’s individual record. One man has “not a good Eskimo, he got lost with X between Hall Beach & Igloolik (about 20 miles!) & is a smart Alick” Well, Miss Vestey won’t have him as a guide that’s for sure. Hope you are O.K. without Mum. All my love & Jimpy. Jenny xxx

May 23, 8.30

Dear Mum, as I write this I am sitting in a train, dying to pee, but waiting for said train to leave the station! Haven’t got a pen so excuse pencil/ Well guess what, the train started, & as soon as I got in the w.c. it stopped in another part of the station & I had to sit there till it went.

            I drove to Ottawa this A.M., visited everyone & did some vital errands for the expedition. Then I took my car to 1359 where I was greeted by all 3 boys & made to stay for a meal & to watch Star Trek (the equivalent of Dr Who) then Jim took me to the station & waved goodbye with both arms, standing on the dash-board shouting merry things. Really living there was the best thing that has happened to me for a long time! Jim is a fantastic character.

            Now the boy in the seat in front is playing guitar, composing the original Railroad Blues, I think.

            Well tomorrow is the day. Everything is pretty well under control now. I’m going to sleep tomorrow morning. We take off at 11P.M. & arrive at 9.30 AM after a stop at Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island.

            Had dinner with the field party yesterday & all senses of humour passed my inspection. They seem a good bunch, though all look so young (me too)

            Have bought some sexy red pyjamas (boys) all warm, with elasticated cuffs.

Looking forward to eating caribou stroganoff & seal risotto flambé.

Really quite tired, so will have a nap.

            Friday The boy in the seat in front with a guitar turned out to be a Separatist & was saying very unpleasant things about the English to his friend, so I tried to look as French as I could.

            Well, I slept in till 10.30 when Rosemary called. (they are at St. Hilaire) It is a perfect day – sunny & about 65̊. A group of men I know are stuck in Frobisher so I may see them there at 5AM tomorrow! As I’ve said before I know more people who are in the Arctic than in the south. Ho ho, the phone had just rung & I’m called to a T.V. press conference at 2 P.M. which rather means all is chaos, so will say bye bye All my love Jenny xxxxxxx           

May 24 1968

Dearest Mum,

Here I am up at the airport about to leap aboard my little ‘plane to Hall Beach. Have met a girl who is going there to marry the local Mounty so we’re going to the wedding! Feeling so smart in my winter clothes as it’s v. warm here. We were on the T.V. tonight! after our press conference. Love Jenny xxx

May 24  Field Diary

Dep. Montreal. 11.PM. Nordair

Hiram in nosewarmer and bobble hat. Met Thea Brown, who is going to Igloolik from Frederickton New Brunswick to marry RCMP Constable Waterhouse. Took off in a cloud of red smoke & vibrated off the ground. One passenger appeared to be opening the door just after take-off. Mechanic overheard whispering to stewardess - "tell the Captain to rev. her up real good or she'll never leave the ground." (we're carrying Doug Hodson's Energy Mines & Resources Geological Survey helicopter) 1/2 the cabin is full of baggage behind a curtain. Stewardess spilled hot coffee over the only man wearing a suit, so he travelled with a bare chest smothered in burn ointment.

            Rattled north into the dawn. Light by 2.30 AM. Flew over Chimo, Hudson St.

6.30 landed at Frobisher Bay and looked around. 8? Pictures of Otter 'plane and hydro survey ship, and airport area. Ravens.

7.40 took off for Hall Beach.

10.30 Arr. Hall Beach. Thick, low cloud cover, snowing. Waited outside and watched E.M.R. helicopter unloaded from our 'plane. Involved 2 forklift trucks & everybody in the area came to watch, including pale Yanks from DEW line, obviously spend all their time indoors.

Sat out till about 12 noon (local time now) when loaded personal gear onto Bombardier snow mobile [pic]. Met Jim Haining. Took us to eat in H.B. settlement in Esk. house. Thea & fiancée set off on skidoo with full regalia of parka, wind pants, sealskin boots, gloves etc. - sped off into the snow. We followed w. Eskimo driver and mate after meal. Very bone-shaking and later no oxygen in cabin because of fags and gas fumes. Got stuck twice on sea ice & had to shovel out of deep snow. Saw Igloolik as a cold mirage over the sea ice. Arrived Igloolik at 4.50 (left 1.05) & all the kids came to watch. Nice looking village - clean & neat. Our house is unpleasantly luxurious & dead suburban.

          Dr Depener in residence & command + photographer Frank Wagner. V. formal meal cooked by Carol & me despite lack of sleep since Thurs?

Met Wynne, school head.

Bed at 1.20 AM. Light.