The Remarkable History of the Hudson’s Bay Company Including that of the French Traders of North-Western Canada and of the North-West, XY, and Astor Fur Companies.

Bryce, George. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1900.
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A general history of the Company from the seventeenth century until the end of the Reil Rebellion until after 1870 and the Company’s “great prospect” at the beginning of the twentieth century. He tries to recount with fairness the problems of the Company, its dubious Charter, the feud with Dobbs over Hudson Bay as the route to the NW Passage, problems with both Catholics and the metis, but he is too pro-British and anti-Catholic to be totally convincing. But he does show the urbane education and wide reading of many of the traders.

From Barrow to Boothia: The Arctic Journal of Chief Factor Peter Warren Dease, 1836-1839.

Dease, Peter Warren. Edited and Annotated by William Barr. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2002.
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Interesting for the accomplishments in surveying the Arctic coastline and for the interactions between Dease and Thomas Simpson, the co-leaders of this HBC expedition. Dease is modest, competent and, in his journal at least, dull. Simpson is the better educated, more egocentric (a la Peary), volatile, and in the end gets himself shot (or shoots himself). Simpson, the cousin of Governor George Simpson, is contemptuous of both Dease and George Back (who is also exploring at the same time), but can also be fawning and almost sanctimonious to his superiors.

Lands Forlorn: A Story of an Expedition to Hearne’s Coppermine River.

Douglas, George M. By George M. Douglas With an Introduction by James Douglas. (New York, G. P. Putnam’s, 1914). [Reprinted Tucson, AZ: Zancudo Press, 2008].
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p. 45-46, on finding two dead bodies, a dirty note-book, and some carbolic acid: The stench was insufferable, worse than any other form of decomposing animal matter, and blended with it was the peculiarly acrid smell of old smoke from spruce fires. One could remain in that loath some atmosphere only a few minutes at a time; the bodies were in a state of decomposition so advance that it was necessary to break the bunks down and carry them out as they lay. Close to the house on that pleasant point we buried them both in one grave, dug as deep as the frozen ground permitted.

Sleeping Island: The Story of One Man’s Travels in the Great Barren Lands of the Canadian North.

Downes, Prentice Gilbert. New York: Coward-McCann, 1943.
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A delightful book of Chipawyan and Cree folklore by a regular American summer visitor in the 1930s and early 40s, a Harvard man (AB ’33) and high school teacher at Belmont Hill School. He loved exploring the Barren Lands during his summer breaks between 1937 and 1947. Shows signs of his fairly wide reading on the history of the region, but none of his own reading on this particular voyage. Since he never overwintered his opportunities for reading were limited.

A Journal of Voyages & Travels in the Interior of North America, Between the 47th and 58th Degrees of Latitude…

Harmon, Daniel William. Andover, MA: Flagg and Gould, 1820. [See also a later edition called Sixteen Years in the Indian Country,ed. William Kaye Lamb (Toronto: Macmillan, 1957).].
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A very long sojourn (1803-1818 or so), by a Christian fundamentalist troubled by sin but trusting in God. Had a common law native wife who is not discussed very much until he finally marries and in reference to children. Tells harrowing tales of native drinking and its consequences, despite the fact that he provided liquor to them. On the death of his son, see p. 238-39.

Journals of Samuel Hearne and Philip Turnor.

Hearne, Samuel; Turnor, Philip. Edited with Introduction and Notes by J. B. Tyrrell. Toronto: The Chaplain Society, 1934.
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This volume is chiefly about the surveyors recruited to the HBC to chart the immense territory of Prince Rupert’s Land in the latter18th century. The Introduction tells of recruiting them through the good offices of mathematician William Wales of Christ’s Hospital London, who recommended Philip Turnor for one of the surveyor posts.