Voices in Stone is a personal journey of discovery, a portrait and a history of the human presence in the far northern regions of Canada. Archaeological investigations have provided us with a window into the world of the Palaeo- and Neo- eskimos who occupied the High Arctic intermittently for more than 4000 years. The book tells the story of the search for evidence of ancient human settlements on the central east coast of Ellesmere Island and the exciting discovery of Norse artifacts in thirteenth-century Neoeskimo winter houses. In 1818, Sir John Ross made the first recorded Western contact with descendants of the Neoeskimos, the Polar Eskimos or Inughuit of North Greenland. His entry into Baffin Bay led the way for Western whalers, explorers, and North Pole seekers, whose presence turned out to have dramatic consequences for the Inughuit. Voices in Stone is not only an account of the discovery of archaeological materials in the High Arctic, but a story of life in remote, isolated research camps occasionally threatened by sudden, violent storms or curious polar bears.
Voices in Stone; A Personal Journey into the Arctic Past.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America; Effected by the Officers of the Hudson’s Bay Company during the Years 1836-39.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
From the introductory memoir of Simpson by his brother Alexander (p. xviii), following the death of Simpson at the hands of a few Métis: if, indeed, it pleased Providence to darken the spirit which had passed undaunted through so many we can but acknowledge that the decrees of God are inscrutable to mortals, and join in these beautiful lines of Cowper:
David Thompson’s Narrative of His Explorations in Western America 1784-1812.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
David Thompson (1770-1857), after early education at a London charity school where he studied mathematics and navigation, signed on as an apprentice with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1784, and worked as surveyor for both the HBC and the North West Company.
David Thompson’s Narrative 1784-1812.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
The second edition of 1962 has a new Introduction, followed by Tyrrell’s original “David Thompson’s Itinerary in North-Western Americana, 1785-1812.” From the outset of this new Introduction, Glover is critical of the critics of the HBC, for example Hearne, Thompson, and Umfreville, as well as of the hagiographers of those traders and authors, e.g. even Tryrell could sink to writing that Thompson bore continuously “the white flower of the blameless life”, and lesser men wrote still worse stuff” (p. xii). Grover is a stylish and provocative writer, and few escape his ascerbic pen.
Peter Fidler, Trader and Surveyor, 1769 to 1822.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
p. 127: Fidler himself was a hard worker, but was of an irascible disposition with comparatively little consideration for the weaknesses and failings of others. He was a diligent student and fond of reading. In the Library at York is a manuscript book of mathematical problems worked out by him, and a large number of printed books in the Library are inscribed with his name and have evidently been contributed to the Library by him. Most of these are on mathematical subjects of some kind, many of them being such books as “The Nautical Almanac,” “The Diary Companion, being a supplement to the Ladies’ Diary,” “The Gentleman’s Diary, or the Mathematical Repository.” Others are on Biblical chronology. In addition to which there is the “Monthly Magazine for a number of years.
The Substance of a Journal during a Residence at the Red River Colony British North America: and Frequent Excursions among the North West American Indians….
- 1820-23 British Chaplain Residence at Red River Colony.
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
West was “Late Chaplain to the Hon. The Hudson’s Bay Company” visiting various Forts of the HBC, but mainly serving as chaplain and missionary to the natives at the Red River Colony..
John West and His Red River Mission
- 1820-23 British Chaplain Residence at Red River Colony.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
A rather simple description of John West, an Anglican clergyman, who as chaplain to the HBC established a Mission School at Red River in 1821.
Lt. Aemilius Simpson’s Survey from York Factory to Fort Vancouver, 1826.
- 1826 British Overland Survey from Hudson Bay to Fort Vancouver.
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Transcript of Simpson’s “Journal of a Voyage across the Continent of North America in 1826.”Although the journal gives no instances of specific reading there are references to Fraanklin’s Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea(London, 1823) sufficient to infer that he had a copy with him on the journey.
Peace River. A Canoe Voyage from Hudson’s Bay to the Pacific.
- 1828 HBC Voyage of George Simpson from Hudson’s Bay to the Pacific.
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
p. iv, Preface, dated May, 1872, and signed M.M.: The Widow and legal representatives of my lamented friend the late Chief Factor A. McDonald have, with a public spirit which commends itself, allowed me the use of his “Notes,” as he calls them—They are now given as called for—That they are so crudely given is my fault; and I have but to trust to the generosity of those who may honor the little work with a reading, pleading as my excuse…that it has only been at snatched moments from engrossing business duties, and at odd hours in the night, that I have been able thus, with running pen, to throw off these hurried pages, to meet what seemed a pressing call and inquiry.
In Search of the Magnetic North: A Soldier-Surveyor’s Letters from the North-West, 1843-1844.
- 1843-44 British Surveying Expedition for Magnetic North.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
p. xi, re an English soldier-scientist and surveyer assigned to Toronto: …with an English gentlemen’s sincere belief in the inevitable superiority of things English….. He loved his Church; and his interest in missionary work never diminished throughout a career which lasted seventy-eight years.
This Distant and Unsurveyed Country: A Woman’s Winter at Baffin Island, 1857-1858.
- 1857-58 Whaling Voyage to Baffin Island (commanded by George Parker).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
The diaries of Margaret Penny, a captain’s wife, on a whaling voyage to Baffin Island. The diaries cover whaling near Baffin Island as well as its social life and customs.
Eighteen Months on a Greenland Whaler.
- 1865-66 US Whaling Journey to Greenland (aboard Perseverance).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Rather charming and humorous writer who was a compositor, Civil War soldier, printer, etc., and nearly blind, before shipping to Greenland in May 1865-66.
In the Days of the Red River Rebellion.
- 1868-73 Red River Rebellion in Saskatchewan.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
McDougall was a rather devout Protestant missionary who (p. 111-113) engaged the Indians in an anti-alcohol petition, a miner episode in the Red River Colony’s rebellion against the Canadian government which had transferred Hudson’s Bay Company land to the new country to the detriment of Métis interests in their land and culture.
Across the Sub-Arctics [sic] of Canada. A Journey of 3,200 Miles by Canoe and Snowshoe through the Hudson Bay Region.
- 1893 Canadian Overland Expedition through Hudson Bay Region (James W. Tyrell).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Tyrrell was accompanied by his brother, J. B. Tyrrell, on this 1893 excursion. He was responsible for most of the photographs, and this book is dedicated to him. Not very much on reading during this short expedition.
On Snow-Shoes to the Barren Grounds,
- 1894-95 US Overland Journey of Casper Whitney in the Barren Lands.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
p. 360, on the Chipewyans on Athabaska Lake: It is headquarters of one of the four districts into which this vast fur-bearing land of one million square miles is divided by the Hudson Bay Company; the chief forwarding point for the merchandise which the company sends in for trade, and the fur the Indians send out as pay; a general distributing post-office of the four yearly mails which reach this land, where man is but a mere track upon the snow, and not above one hundred of the roughly approximated ten thousand read English writing. It is the most important North-land mission of the Roman Catholic Oblates Fathers, and it is practically the northern boundary of the Cree and the southern boundary of the Montagnaise Indian family, which in its various branches spreads toward the Arctic Ocean.