THE

NORTHERN COASTS OF AMERICA,

AND

THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORIES.

By Patrick Fraser Cytler, Esq.

WITH CONTINUATION, BY R. M, BALLANTYNE,

AUTHOR OF "HUDSON'S BAY; OR, EVERY-DAY LIFE IN THE WILDS OF
NORTH AMERICA."

London:

T NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW;

AND EDINBURGH.

MDCCCLIV.

1103197-291

PREFACE.

THE progress of Discovery has ever been regarded with
the deepest interest by mankind. Whether viewed with
reference to its bearing upon the commercial interests of
nations, its valuable additions to the acquisitions of science,
or regarded as bringing to light many of the hidden
wonders with which the Great and Good Creator has so
plentifully stored our world, it is fraught with interest and
instruction. Among the various Expeditions of Discovery
by land and sea, none have claimed our attention or
enlisted our sympathies more powerfully than those into
the Arctic Regions. Nowhere has the navigator to con-
tend with difficulties so formidable; nowhere is nature
presented more vividly under so terrific and beautiful an
aspect-now howling in the fury of elemental strife, and
anon reposing in all the fairy-like brilliancy peculiar to
the icy oceans of the north; and nowhere has been more
strikingly exemplified at once the power and the impotency
of man.
In the volume of this series entitled POLAR SEAS
AND REGIONS, full and interesting details are given of the

various expeditions by sea to these frozen regions. But before we could be said to have obtained a complete view of the efforts made to explore the extreme north by the nations of Europe, there remained to be completed another branch of adventure, equally arduous, and more varied in character. We allude to the expeditions undertaken, partly by land and partly by lake and river navigation, to trace the Northern Coasts of America. This desideratum the present volume will supply, and in combination with the work alluded to, will be found to give a complete account of the whole series of Northern Discoveries by land and water, from the earliest period down to the present time.

The beautiful and romantic scenery through which the successive adventurers passed, the wild uncultivated natives with whom they came into contact, the manifold dangers they encountered among the lakes and foaming cataracts, and the stirring rencontres they frequently had with the ferocious animals that inhabit the North American wilderness, form a large portion of the following pages.