This book originated as a series of articles for 'Harper's Magazine' designed to bring the frontier experience to the Eastern townsfolk of the US. It records a number of adventures - over a three year period - and brings us a glimpse of backwoods life before it was changed forever by the advance of 'civilization'.
The author, Julian Ralph, records his experience of the people he encounters, both those of European and of First Nations origins, as well as that of their life and surroundings. While the adventures are ostensibly about huntin', shootin' and fishin' trips the real value of the writing is in the author's impressions and reactions to what he encounters along the way. He describes the lives of the Indian's and their social organization as much as he does that of the woodsmen hunters and trappers, the voyageurs, the coureur du bois, the Hudson's Bay factors (agents) and, in the fledgling British Columbia, the 'gang' workers on the railroads and those who followed the call of the gold strike.
The value of this book is greatly enhanced by the numerous (70) engraved illustrations supporting the narrative.
