The Wild Northland : Being the Story of a Winter Journey, With Dogs, Across Northern North America

Hardcover with dust jacket, 360 pages, 4.75x7.25 in - 12x18.5 cm.

Jacket flaps taped to pastedowns, jacket reinforced along spine interior with tape. Jacket covers bear tidelines along spine, jacket back stained with closed tear at top. Jacket spine bumped at heel and torn at head. Top edge gilt, fore edge spotted. Free endpapers toned from contact with jacket. Front free endpaper, title page, and p.5 stamped by previous author. Pages age-tanned but clean. Small closed tear to fold-out map.

First published in the early 1870s, Sir William Francis Butler’s two accounts of winter journeys in the North-West became classic Canadian travel narratives. While his first trek was commissioned by Manitoba’s Lieutenant Governor, Butler’s second journey (the subject of this volume) was motivated by a desire for challenge and adventure. Departing Fort Garry, Manitoba in autumn 1872 and reaching Quesnelle, British Columbia in June 1873, Butler’s solo trek took him north to Lake Athabasca, then west with the Peace River through the Rocky Mountains. His account of the trip includes temperamental sled dogs, raging rivers, and snowbound camps. Throughout, Butler reflects on the nature and status of First Nations groups that he encounters, presenting ethnographic descriptions to support or condemn perspectives ranging from early Canadian politics to phrenology. Includes fold-out route map. See Peel(3) 657 for editions.