From Publishers Weekly
Before renowned Norwegian explorer Ingstad discovered the site of Leif Erickson's North American landfall, he spent the years from 1926 to 1930 living the adventurer's life, trapping fur in the Canadian tundra. This wondrous book, long out of print, transports readers to that time and place. The rhythms that govern life in the North resonate in the reader: the challenge to survive day after day blizzards and weather that never rises above -40, the aches resulting from breaking trails in the tundra, the rejoicing when a migrating herd of caribou--the area's main food source--is finally spotted by a ravenous hunting party and the marvels of nature's variety, from a wolf-howl symphony to the landscape's majesty. If there is any flaw here it is the stereotypes about Indians and Eskimos prevalent at the time. Yet Ingstad's narrative mitigates even these unfortunate characterizations, making them seem naive rather than evil, and adds to the sense that we have lost a pk northland utopia that tested every man fairly and equally and where the only real question was whether the caribou would come.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Ingstad is a good witness ... His writing is lively and he shoes great skill in keeping his reader with him ... This book is an adventure/travel story that is also a first-hand account of the last days of the fur trappers' society and as such is a valuable document ... a first Canadian edition is appropriate and timely." Dorothy Harley Eber, author of When The Whalers Were Up North.
