LONE WHITE WOMAN

Hokitika Guardian, 13 August 1932, Page 3

LONE WHITE WOMAN

HAZARDOUS 'ARCTIC TRIP. PROPOSAL IN A SONG. . About 400 miles north' of the Arctic Circle,, in .Lapland in-'the dead of winter, with the temperature a,t 30 deg. below aero, a London woman''Mrs Olive Murray Chapman, lately had a thrilling experience in trying to reach a rest-hut hefqfe.the fury of the blizzard caught her. . k '?■ . t One of the very few Europeans who have ever penetrated Lapland in the winter’, Mrs Chapman, who is well ItnqWn. as an . explorer arid artist, undertook a hazardous 6CO miles trip in order, to study tli.e fife of the Laps under winter conditions. ' “At every wayside hut and settle- ’ nient on my way the Laps .turned' out and gazed at me in ■ a-mazemoat,” Mrs Cha.pman said on her return to London. “WHeri they disaovenad that I was an English woman apd travelling alone they, wene iewen more amazed. .. ” “The cold was intense, even when I was wearing my hieiavy ski-ing suit and cardiga-i, a fur coat and leggings, two pairs of . woollen stockings,' a pair of ski-ing socks, two pairs, of fur shoes, woollen .mittesni glloves inside fur dx-ivr ing gloves, and two knitted scarves. Blit it was a great trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.” Mrs Chapman, who is a littile. woman,, smiled happily at the recdflectioin. ...■ ;

At one point in the journey : Airs Chapman visited* some mountain Laps in a village near Karasjok, .and although she was unable to ts,]k their language made such an impression on one man that he proposed to her in song.

An interpreter explained to Mrs Chapman that, the sopg said the singer .was extremely rich and possessed a thousand reindeer, of which she would he the. part-owner if she would marry him-. “Through ..the interpreter I thanked him for his offer,” she mid, “but I Found'it very hard to keep a serious i face.” ■ •

“Among the Karasjok Laps,” added Mrs Chapman, “a woman is not considered beautiful unless sttie is fat.”