"Based on previously unpublished reports and journals thought to be lost, Through An Unknown Country provides the reader with a harrowing and riveting account of a 19th century expedition through the northern mountain ranges of western Canada. In the winter of 1874-75, Edward Worrell Jarvis (1846 1894) and Charles Francis Hanington (1848-1930) took part in an expedition on behalf of the Canadian Pacific Survey from Quesnel, British Columbia, to Winnipeg, Manitoba. It led them over the northern Rocky Mountains through what would come to be known as Jarvis Pass (Kakwa Provincial Park, British Columbia) and eventually onto the Canadian plains. The trip took them 116 days and covered over 3000 kilometres, of which almost 1500 was travelled on snowshoes. Through An Unknown Country brings together the day-to-day reports of Jarvis and the more entertaining narrative of the epic journey by Hanington into a single volume for the first time. Recounting harrowing treks through deep mountains, densely forested valleys, open foothills and wide prairie, this highly readable adventure story can most certainly be read alongside the better-known journals of Alexander Mackenzie, Simon Fraser, David Thompson and Paul Kane."--
This book is an inquiry with God regarding some tough questions we humans have been reluctant to ask. It comes out of a background in which the author has had his job threatened and his integrity as a Christian doubted because of questions he has asked regarding what both religion and society have told him is true. The author believes that we still live in the dark ages of relationships because we have been afraid to ask those questions that, had we asked and found answers to them, could have delivered us from the kind of suspicion, distrust and hatred that permeates life around the world. The author calls into question the very purpose of some religions because they have often placed shackles on the best resource God has given us, which is none other than our magnificent brains. Some religious leaders claim to know everything humans will ever need to know, and, therefore, require their followers to accept without question what they tell them to believe. This claim is nothing other than an attempt to play God, for it is only God who knows all there is to know. By limiting ourselves to knowledge given in the past, we have no chance to discover truth that continues to evolve in many different areas of life. The intention of this book is to help us realize that it is okay to ask God some tough questions, and that it is through asking about things we do not yet understand that life will become more meaningful, not only for us, but for those with whom we live.
A personal account of WWI from the diaries of a Gisborne farm boy, shaped into a gripping narrative by the diarist’s grandson 100 years later. Follow Alick as he moves from his last night on the farm in early 1916, through enshipment and training, then off to the battle fields of France and Belgium, occupied Germany and back home. His treasured diaries covered the tedium, the mud, the fear and sorrow, the discomfort, the periods of leave and the letters from those back home. See the war unfold through Alick’s eyes and learn about his and his companions' attitudes to the army, to female company, to the enemy soldiers, to the hospitality provided by people under pressure, to the war itself. And after the drama and tragedy of war, comes the return home and the efforts required to make a living while remaining steadfastly silent about the traumas of those terrible years - an unseen fight that continued and affected generations to come.
Walking the Big Wild is the story of Karsten Heuer's extraordinary 18-month journey of hiking, skiing, and paddling across 2100 miles of mountains, forests, and rivers from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming to the Canadian Yukon. Accompanied by occasional human companions and a remarkable border collie named Webster, Heuer encountered immense challenges: storms, avalanches, floods, and grizzlies. At the end of the journey, Heuer proved that there is nearly continuous wilderness that can support wildlife along the length of the Rockies-and is salvageable if the right decisions are made now. Karsten Heuer has worked as a wildlife biologist and park warden in Banff National Park in the Rockies, in Inuvik in Canada's far north, and in the Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa.