Dreamers they were, sailing out into the west in quest of they knew not what-puppets in the game of destiny. What splendid courage it must have needed to sail in their little cockle-shells of vessels over that untravelled sea, with its dangers all the more terrifying because unknown... -Lawrence J. Burpee, in the Introduction From the discovery of Hudson Bay and the search for the mythical Northwest Passage to the first overland journey to the Pacific, Canadian historian Lawrence Burpee makes the story of the exploration of northwestern North America come alive in this classic book, first published in 1908. Meet Samuel Hearne, who survived Indian massacres to discover the mouth of the Coppermine River in 1771 and proved the nonexistence of a water passage across the continent; the adventurous La V rendrye family of explorers; path-finding fur trader Peter Pond; astronomer and surveyor David Thompson; and others who contributed to the European settlement of North America. LAWRENCE J. BURPEE (1873-1947), a beloved popularizer of Canadian history, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In addition to authoring numerous books of North American exploration, including Pathfinders of the Great Plains and The Discovery of Canada, he was also the founding editor of Canadian Geographical Journal and among the founders of the Canadian Historical Association. He served on the board of the Boy Scouts of Canada and was a member of the Royal Society of Canada and the National Geographic Society.

Excerpt from The Search for the Western Sea: The Story of the Exploration of North-Western America The author is indebted to Mr. D. B. Dowling and Mr. Owen o'sullivan, of the Canadian Geological Survey, Mr. R. H. Hunter, of the Canadian Topogra phical Surveys, Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, Dr. A. G. Doughty, Dominion Archivist, Mr. Benjamin Sulte, the historian Of French Canada, Miss Agnes Laut, and Mr. T. G. Marquis for information and advice in the preparation of this book, but above all to Mr. James White, Geographer of the Department of the Interior at Ottawa, without whose generous assistance and kindly criticism the book would never have been written. The author is also glad to ayail himself of this opportunity of acknowledging the loan of an im portant manuscript by Mr. Phileas Gagnon, of Quebec; and of photographs for illustrations by Dr. A. P. Low, Director of the Geological Survey, Mr. E. B. Bates, of Ottawa, and Dr. Robert Bell, of the Geological Survey. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.