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P R E F A C E
of the expedition it records, its publication having been
unavoidably delayed. It is now given to the p u b l i c w i t h the
assurance that, whilst he does not c l a im freedom f r om error,
which would be absurd, he took pains w i t h i t on the spot, and
can vouch, at all events, for its general accuracy.
The writer, and doubtless some of his readers, can recall
the time when to go to " Peace R i v e r " seemed almost l i ke
going to another sphere, where, it was conjectured, l i f e was
l i v e d very differently from that of c i v i l i z e d man. And,
t r u l y , it was to enter into an u n f a m i l i a r state of t h i n g s ; a
region i n which a p r i m i t i v e people, not without faults or
depravities, lived on Nature's food, and throve on her u n f a i l i
n g harvest of fur. A region i n which they often left their
beaver, silver fox or marten packs— the envy of F a s h i o n—
l y i n g by the dog- trail, or hanging to some sheltering tree,
because no one stole, and took their fellow's word without
question, because no one lied. A very simple folk indeed, in
whose language profanity was unknown, and who had no
desire to leave their congenital solitudes for any other spot on
earth: solitudes which so charmed the educated minds who
brought the white man's religion, or traffic, to their doors,
that, like the Lotus- eaters, they, too, felt l i t t l e craving to
depart. Yet they were not regions of sloth or idleness, but of
necessary t o i l ; of the laborious chase and the endless activities
of aboriginal l i f e : the region of a people f a m i l i a r with its
fauna and flora— of skilled but unconscious naturalists, who
knew no science.
Such was the state of society i n that remote land i n its
golden age; before the enterprising " free- trader " brought
w i t h him the first- fruits of the Tree of Knowledge; long
before the half- crazed gold- hunters rushed upon the scene,
the " Klondikers " from the saloons and music- halls o f N ew
Y o r k and Chicago, to whom the incredible honesty of the
natives, the absence of money, and the strange barter i n skins
( the wyan or aghti of the Indian) seemed like a phantasmagoria—
an existence utterly removed from " real " l i fe
Object Description
Description
| Title | Page 8 |
| OCR | P R E F A C E of the expedition it records, its publication having been unavoidably delayed. It is now given to the p u b l i c w i t h the assurance that, whilst he does not c l a im freedom f r om error, which would be absurd, he took pains w i t h i t on the spot, and can vouch, at all events, for its general accuracy. The writer, and doubtless some of his readers, can recall the time when to go to " Peace R i v e r " seemed almost l i ke going to another sphere, where, it was conjectured, l i f e was l i v e d very differently from that of c i v i l i z e d man. And, t r u l y , it was to enter into an u n f a m i l i a r state of t h i n g s ; a region i n which a p r i m i t i v e people, not without faults or depravities, lived on Nature's food, and throve on her u n f a i l i n g harvest of fur. A region i n which they often left their beaver, silver fox or marten packs— the envy of F a s h i o n— l y i n g by the dog- trail, or hanging to some sheltering tree, because no one stole, and took their fellow's word without question, because no one lied. A very simple folk indeed, in whose language profanity was unknown, and who had no desire to leave their congenital solitudes for any other spot on earth: solitudes which so charmed the educated minds who brought the white man's religion, or traffic, to their doors, that, like the Lotus- eaters, they, too, felt l i t t l e craving to depart. Yet they were not regions of sloth or idleness, but of necessary t o i l ; of the laborious chase and the endless activities of aboriginal l i f e : the region of a people f a m i l i a r with its fauna and flora— of skilled but unconscious naturalists, who knew no science. Such was the state of society i n that remote land i n its golden age; before the enterprising " free- trader " brought w i t h him the first- fruits of the Tree of Knowledge; long before the half- crazed gold- hunters rushed upon the scene, the " Klondikers " from the saloons and music- halls o f N ew Y o r k and Chicago, to whom the incredible honesty of the natives, the absence of money, and the strange barter i n skins ( the wyan or aghti of the Indian) seemed like a phantasmagoria— an existence utterly removed from " real " l i fe |
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