The Fur Empires of the North
George Woodcock describes the industry, expeditions, and characters that opened the American North West to European development.
The casual visitor to one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s larger stores in British Columbia is often interested in a mural painting over the main doorway. A large birch-bark canoe sweeps over boiling rapids between the almost cubistic crags of the Fraser Canyon; the swarthy voyageurs are paddling feverishly to keep the craft from disaster. And, impassive in the midst of these bituminous shadows and dangers, sits an austere Scottish gentleman, decked out in a beaver hat of the best quality, a black frock coat, a white collar to his ears.
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