John Bell (1796-1868)

John Bell, discoverer of the Yukon River and associate of Drs. John Richardson and John Rae in the Franklin search expedition of 1847-1849, represented the classic blend of fur trader and explorer. His contributions to the expansion of the Company's trade in the far northwest and to the cause of arctic exploration have gone largely unnoticed, due in some measure to his unassuming and modest character. ... His northern career began in 1824 when, as an officer of the reorganized Hudson's Bay Company, he was transferred to the Mackenzie District. In 1837, Thomas Simpson and Peter Warren Dease had discovered the Colville River on the arctic coast. Anxious to exploit this find, Governor Simpson ordered that John Bell, by now an experienced northern trader, attempt to locate an overland route joining the Mackenzie and the Colville. In 1839, Bell travelled along the lower reaches of the Peel River, looking for a breach in the mountains that would take him west. Though he did not immediately succeed, his reports of the excellent prospects for trade encouraged the Company to establish a trading post. Bell opened Peel's River Post, later renamed Fort McPherson, in 1840. On Governor Simpson's directions, he also continued his explorations of the lands west of the Mackenzie. ... The Hudson's Bay Company took an active part in the attempt to locate the lost Franklin expedition. In 1847, Governor Simpson assigned John Bell to assist with an expedition, led by Drs. John Richardson and John Rae, that searched the coast between the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers. Bell's primary responsibility was to provide logistic support for the venture; during 1848, for example, Bell built Fort Confidence on Great Bear Lake as a wintering station for the expedition. At the completion of Richardson and Rae's journey, Bell returned to his fur trade duties and was assigned to Fort Liard. ... Many northern explorers rushed descriptions of their travels into print, anxious to share news of their discoveries and to bask in the fame due a northern explorer. Bell did not, offering lengthy accounts in his letters to HBC officers, but making little effort to spread his story further. He tackled these duties without the enthusiasm and sense of destiny that inspired other HBC explorers. He was, in fact, a fur trader rather than an explorer, both in talent and temperament. Throughout his northern career, he placed primary importance on the organization and management of the trading posts he commanded, and although he accepted the exploration assignments with few complaints, he preferred the life of a fur trader. ..

Father J.M. Mouchet

"Motivation!" That single word, spoken with a strong French accent and remarkable conviction, resonates in the ears of hundreds of northern Canadian cross-country skiers, past and present. The speaker, Father J.M. Mouchet, O.M.E., played an instrumental role in introducing the sport to the North in the 1960s. His remarkable dedication and enthusiasm for cross-country skiing - for the North, and for the Native people - has left a mark on the entire region. ... Always an active sportsman, Mouchet was very impressed with the Natives' physical fitness, which he attributed to their active lifestyle and adaptation to their environment. He further believed that the Natives faced tremendous social and economic changes as a result of th expansion of non-Native society in the North. Physical achievement through cross-country skiing, he believed, offered Native children the self-esteem and the physical and mental toughness to deal with rapidly changing times. Mouchet put these ideas into action. He organized cross-country skiing teams in Old Crow and, with the assistance of others who shared his vision, in Inuvik. The Native participants in the Territorial Experimental Ski Training (TEST) Programme proved the correctness of his vision. A number of the skiers that he brought into the sport became members of Canada's national ski team; the Firth sisters, Sharon and Shirley, are examples. Native skiers dominated skiing competitions throughout the North for a number of years. ... Mouchet moved his training scheme to Whitehorse, where it was introduced into the elementary school system. From modest beginnings - with seven pairs of skis at Takhini Elementary - the cross-country ski training program became one of the most popular participation sports in the territory. ... Father Mouchet now resides in Whitehorse. He continues to be active in cross-country skiing, showing the same dedication and encouragement that he first brought to the Canadian North over forty years ago. ..

Special Topic: Raven Management

This is the call for papers for the special issue on raven management

Lagrangian Floer superpotentials and crepant resolutions for toric orbifolds

We investigate the relationship between the Lagrangian Floer superpotentials for a toric orbifold and its toric crepant resolutions. More specifically, we study an open string version of the crepant resolution conjecture (CRC) which states that the Lagrangian Floer superpotential of a Gorenstein toric orbifold $\mathcal{X}$ and that of its toric crepant resolution $Y$ coincide after analytic continuation of quantum parameters and a change of variables. Relating this conjecture with the closed CRC, we find that the change of variable formula which appears in closed CRC can be explained by relations between open (orbifold) Gromov-Witten invariants. We also discover a geometric explanation (in terms of virtual counting of stable orbi-discs) for the specialization of quantum parameters to roots of unity which appears in Y. Ruan's original CRC ["The cohomology ring of crepant resolutions of orbifolds", Gromov-Witten theory of spin curves and orbifolds, 117-126, Contemp. Math., 403, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2006]. We prove the open CRC for the weighted projective spaces $\mathcal{X}=\mathbb{P}(1,\ldots,1,n)$ using an equality between open and closed orbifold Gromov-Witten invariants. Along the way, we also prove an open mirror theorem for these toric orbifolds.Comment: 48 pages, 1 figure; v2: references added and updated, final version, to appear in CM

Identifying perinatal anxiety in women

Timely and comprehensive, this is the first book to offer synthesis and analysis of the current state of research and practice in early identification of perinatal mental health difficulties while also sketching out future screening ..