It has had its forts within the Arctic Circle; it
has successfully exploited a country larger than the United States. The
Red River Valley, the Saskatchewan Valley, and British Columbia, are now
belted by a great railway, and given to the plough; but in the far north
life is much the same as it was a hundred years ago. There the trapper,
clerk, trader, and factor are cast in the mould of another century,
though possessing the acuter energies of this. The 'voyageur' and
'courier de bois' still exist, though, generally, under less picturesque
names.
The bare story of the hardy and wonderful career of the adventurers
trading in Hudson's Bay,--of whom Prince Rupert was once chiefest,--and
the life of the prairies, may be found in histories and books of travel;
but their romances, the near narratives of individual lives, have waited
the telling. In this book I have tried to feel my way towards the heart
of that life--worthy of being loved by all British men, for it has given
honest graves to gallant fellows of our breeding. Imperfectly, of
course, I have done it; but there is much more to be told.
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