Tundra: Selections from the Great Accounts of Arctic Land Voyages (Top of the World Trilogy, Vol 3)

Rating:
Summary: Third and final volume in excellent history of the Arctic
Review: The final volume in the "Top of the World" series, "Tundra" is a land-based, rather than sea- and ice-based version of the earlier books. Canadian author Farley Mowat completes a marvellous history of the Arctic by looking at some of the first recorded overland journeys into Canada's far north. This is country that Mowat came to know well. After the war he spent several seasons in the Arctic travelling the Barren lands with members of a branch of the Inuits, the Ihalmiuts, soon afterwards to be completely wiped out, mainly by contact with Europeans. Mowat tells the story of their demise in "People of the Deer" and a companion volume, "The Desperate People." "Tundra," on the other hand, is not Mowat's story, but is taken from primary sources, mainly diaries of those who did the travelling, and is a vivid and intense recounting of the up-river journeying of some of history's most adventurous travellers. Farley Mowat has done a great job of making this material accessible. If you have any interest in the Arctic, or Canadian history, or to some extent, the native peoples of Canada (Mowat has been criticised, probably unfairly, for his treatment of native people in his books), or if you just want a good plain adventure story, I highly recommend the three books in this series.