THE NORTHERN COASTS OF AMERICA, AND THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORIES. A NARRATIVE OF DISCOVERY AND ADVENTURE. London: T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW; AND EDINBURGH MDCCCLIII. 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 contend 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. |