Perhaps the best scholarly treatment of the advance of the Canadian frontier, along with a substantial bibliography, is to be found in Morris Zaslow, The Opening of the Canadian North, 1870-1914, (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1971); another more general work is Robert Arthur John Phillips, Canada's North (Toronto: Macmillan, 1967). The question of Arctic sovereignty is well handled in Ronald St. John Macdonald, ed., The Arctic Frontier (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966), in a paper by G.W. Smith entitled "Sovereignty in the North: The Canadian Aspect of an International Problem", pp. 194-255. Missionaries and Eskimos have been dealt with in an excellent and critical study by Diamond Jenness, Eskimo Administration: II, Canada (Montreal; Arctic Institute of North America, 1964, Arctic Institute of North America Technical Paper 14). The Jenness book also examines the role of the police in the North as well as the effects of white civilization on the native population. One should also look at the works of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, especially My Life With the Eskimo (New York: Macmillan, 1913), and his autobiography, Discovery (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964). William Laird McKinlay has written an intriguing account of the Stefansson polar expeditions entitled Karluk (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1976). The author, who is the only crew member of this ship alive today, endeavours to relate the true conditions of the Karluk expedition in the Arctic. Some surprising facts about Stefansson, the man and the explorer, and interesting details of this expedition are revealed. Donald Walter Thomson's Men and Meridians: the history of surveying and mapping in Canada, Vol. II, 1867-1917 (Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1967) deals with Canadian expansion in the form of government scientific activities. Vol. I of the same edition deals with the period prior to 1867 and Vol. III, 1917-1947, is useful if students wish to pursue further the subject of mapping. Two invaluable R.C.M.P. histories are Samuel B. Steele's Forty Years in Canada (London: Jenkins, 1915), and Harwood Steele's Policing the Arctic (London: Jarolds, 1936). Pierre Berton's Klondike, the last great gold rush, 1896-1899 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1972, rev. ed.) is probably the best general treatment of the gold rush and the men who lived it.
The National Film Board of Canada, in its Arctic Circle Series, provides an intriguing interview with Vilhjalmur Stefansson, one of the last great explorers of the "old school", filmed shortly before his death in 1962.
Two books which deal with the people of the North are Victor F. Valentine and Frank G. Vallee, Eskimo of the Canadian Arctic (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1968, Carleton Library, no. 41); Keith Crowe, The History of the Original Peoples of Northern Canada, Technical Report of Man in the North Project, Arctic Institute of America (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1974). The former is a collection of archeological studies and the latter is a text book designed for secondary school students. David Damas in The Eskimo (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1971, Odyssey Series, no. 2) presents an interesting review of the Inuit and their culture.
There have been a number of reprints of exploration journals. Coles Canadiana Collection lists Milton and W. Cheadle, The North-West Passage by Land (originally published 1865); Captain Thomas, The Dangerous Voyage of Captain Thomas James (originally published 1740); G. Lyon, An Attempt to Reach Repulse Bay (originally published 1825); J. Tyrell, Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada (originally published 1898). All available in cloth or paperback. To the Arctic by Canoe 1819-1821: The Journal and Paintings of Robert Hood, Midshipman with Franklin, C. Stuart Houston ed. (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1974) is a less formal and more lively account than Franklin's official journal describing many things in vivid detail - birds, animals, people, natural phenomena, flowers - which were unknown in the early nineteenth century.
The following selections from Hurtig Publishing Company's Canadiana Reprint series should prove interesting to the student recreating those early years of northern adventure.
Discovery of the North West Passage by H.M.S. "Investigator", (London, 1856) by Captain R. McClure. New introduction by W.C. Wonders.
Journey from Prince of Wales' Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean, (London, 1795) by Samuel Hearne. New introduction by L.H. Neatby.
Life with the Esquimaux; a narrative of Arctic experience in search of survivors of Sir John Franklin's expedition, (London, 1865), by Charles Frances Hall. New introduction by George Swinton.
Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1825,1826 and 1827, (London, 1828) by John Franklin. New introduction by L.H. Neatby.
Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition to the Mouth of the Great Fish River and the Shores of the Arctic Ocean in the Years 1833, 1834, 1835, (London, 1836), by George Back. New introduction by W.C. Wonders.
Peace River; a canoe voyage from Hudson's Bay to Pacific, (Montreal, 1872), by Archibald McDonald. New introduction by Bruce Peel.
Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains; a diary and narrative of travel, sport and adventure during a journey through the Hudson's Bay Company's Territories, (Edinburgh, 1875) by the Earl of Southesk. New introduction by L.G. Thomas.
The Voyage of the "Fox" in the Arctic Seas, a narrative of the discovery of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his companions, (London, 1859), by Francis Leopold M'Clintock. New introduction by W.C. Wonders.
Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Lawrence, through the continent of North America to the frozen and Pacific Oceans, (London, 1801), by Alexander Mackenzie. New introduction by J.G. MacGregor.
The Wild North Land: being the story of a winter journey with dogs across northern North America, (London, 1873), by William Francis Butler. New introduction by Edward McCourt.
