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Remembering the Don is a tribute to the things "that used to be." Of Mississauga Indians encamped along a sprawling river teeming with salmon, red-coated Militia regiments, and courageous pioneer men and women from widely differing backgrounds.

In later times the Don Valley and the river Don were to attract a host of outstanding naturalists, authors and artists. Through their combined talents and energy, word and evidence of the history and beauty of the Don Valley spread far beyond its physical environs.

With the publication of Remembering the Don, Charles Sauriol assumes his rightful role as one of the Don Valley's greatest champions.

Reptiles and Amphibians of Price Edward County, Ontario is a comprehensive look at the little-known residents of a well-known corner of rural Ontario. Complete with descriptions and illustrations, the book provides serious and amateur naturalists with a thorough compilation of recent and historic reports of the some thirty species of turtles, snakes, frogs, toads and salamanders that are – or once were – found in this unique part of the province. The text acquaints readers with the likelihood of encountering these fascinating creatures in the area while maps of all known records illustrate where these animals have been uncovered in the past. Discussions of changes in species abundance offer a sense of the shifts that have taken place in reptile and amphibian communities in the area over time.

Rescue From Grampa Woo is an exciting tale of fear and heroism on Lake Superior. It tells of the rescue of two American men from a propellerless cruise ship as it drifts out to sea in hurricane-force winds. Three ships, two Canadian, one American, fight to save it. How successful were they? What kind of people would take these risks for others? What is it about Lake Superior that inspires such awe?

Rescue From Grampa Woo is a mariner's story, a sea story, a gripping account of adventure, risk and dedication. It culminated in the awarding of three Governor General's Medals of Bravery.

"I know when not to push the lake."
- Captain Gerry Dawson

Frances Stewart arrived in Upper Canada from Ireland in 1822 with her husband, three children, and two servants. The family settled in Douro Township on the bank of the Otonabee River in 1823. Spanning three-quarters of a century, her letters represent the immigrant experience of one of the first pioneer women in the Peterborough, Ontario, area. Included are transcripts of the extant collection. They chronicle the three stages of Francess life: the years of her childhood in Ireland to her departure for North America; her voyage across the Atlantic and her life in Upper Canada to the time of her husbands death in 1847; and the period of widowhood until her death in 1872. The chapter summaries, annotations, and key passages extracted from letters written by others further the story of Francess nineteenth-century immigrant life. Advance Praise for Revisiting Our Forest Home Presenting the perspective of a cultivated immigrant who refrained from publication, Frances Stewarts articulate letters to her family and friends nicely complement the narratives of her Peterborough neighbours, Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill. Jodi Aokis intelligent approach to the editorial complexities of the Stewart archive has given us a reliable and welcome volume that makes an important contribution to our understanding of womens lives on the Upper-Canadian frontier. Carole Gerson, University Professor, English Department, Simon Fraser University Revisiting Our Forest Home is a welcome addition to the scholarly record of nineteenth-century writing and letters by immigrant gentlewomen to Upper Canada. To have this well-edited and thoughtful record of Stewarts struggles available is a boon to scholars, old and new. With precision and tenderness, Jodi Aoki brings forward these important and culturally revealing letters. In her hands, the original Our Forest Home, initially a project meant only for family members, becomes a valuable and much fuller record of social and family life in early Ontario. Michael Peterman, Professor Emeritus, Trent University, FRSC

During World War II, thousands of Canadians left our country to fight for our Allies. Where they went and what they did has always been a question for some. Perhaps this book will give some answers. It deals with the experiences of an ordinary airman, a radio telephone operator, one of the many "ordinary people" who served their country in time of war. Ernest Monnon was a keen amateur photographer, who used to exchange his cigarettes for film and developing, and many of the pictures in the book are his.

One hundred and twenty-five years of steamboating in Muskoka come alive with the anniversary celebration of the RMS Segwun.

The Royal Mail Ship Segwun is the oldest operating steamship in North America, a Muskoka icon, and one of Ontario’s best-known tourist attractions. Built as a paddlewheeler in 1887, the RMS Segwun saw her initial career suspended in the 1950s when the ship ceased operations. Fortunately, she began a new chapter in 1974 when she was lovingly restored and magnificent sightseeing cruises were offered. Those who board the vessel step back in time to a romantic era in cottage country’s history when steamboats were vital to settlement, tourism, and economic development.

The history of this celebrated Canadian ship and her sister vessels that made up the Muskoka Navigation Company fleet is thoughtfully explored, as is the long and significant past of steamboating on the Muskoka lakes. Historical and contemporary photographs complement the story of this "Queen of Muskoka" in recognition of her 125th anniversary.

This is the story of the Highland Scots who sailed to Pictou, Nova Scotia, in 1773 aboard the brig Hector. These intrepid emigrants came for many reasons: the famine of the previous spring, pressures of population growth, intolerable rent increases, trouble with the law, the hunger of landless men to own land of their own. Upon arrival at Pictou, after an appalling storm-tossed crossing, they found they had been deceived.

The promised prime farming land turned out to be virgin forest. Only the kindness of the Mi'kmaq and the few New Englanders already settled there enabled them to survive until they learned how to exploit the forests and clear land. But survive they did, and their prosperity encouraged shiploads of emigrants, many fellow clansmen, to join them, making northeastern Nova Scotia a true New Scotland.

Bustling station platforms, with quaint steamers nearby, often appear on early Sparrow Lake postcards. It was at the station that rail passengers were met and taken by boat to one of the over 20 hotels that once flourished in this holiday area. Such a trip could take about three hours on this roughly three-mile lake, bordering the southern Muskoka arm of the Canadian Shield. Upon arrival, the outdoors beckoned to one and all.

Vintage postcards illustrate the stories of an earlier time in "cottage country." Bruce McCraw's lifetime familiarity with the lake has been augmented by contributions from local residents and guests of Sparrow Lake resorts.

In the barren lands of Canada far north of the Arctic circle, summers are quick and cool, mere short interruptions in the true business of the polar regions, winter. Winters there can be dangerous with temperatures that plunge to awesome depths during the long, lonely hours of Arctic darkness. Powerful blizzards shriek across the land for days at a time, causing all animal life to seek shelter from the cutting blast, essentially putting a temporary end to normal activities of life, such as travelling and eating. It is an unforgiving land that does not easily suffer fools.

Over 100 years ago, in June 1898, Captain Otto Sverdrup and 15 crewmen put out to sea aboard the schooner Fram from the Norwegian city today known as Oslo. When they returned to Norway four years later, they came back with a record of geographic and scientific discovery, the richness of which is unparalleled in the annals of Arctic exploration. The first section of this book is the story of those four heroic years spent in the High Arctic and their impact on Canada’s subsequent efforts to ensure Canadian sovereignty in the area of the Norwegian discoveries.

The second section of the book deals with the Canadian Arctic expeditions between 1903 and 1948, led by intrepid men such as A.P. Low, Joseph E. Bernier, Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Henry Larsen.

"For anyone interested in the recent history of the Canadian North - and why we even call it the Canadian North - Ships of Wood and Men of Iron is a must read. Kenney persuasively nominates a shortlist of new national heroes for a country badly in need of them."
- Randy Boswell, CanWest News Service

"In my view, this book will be an important document about Canada-Norway relations in the North, especially considering the increased international emphasis now on circumpolar relations in the North."
- Shirley Wolff Serafini, Canadian Ambassador to Norway

"This book is a well deserved recognition of one of Norway’s most famous polar explorers and his invaluable contributions to the exploration and development of science in the Canadian Arctic. Gerard Kenney's book also sheds an interesting new light on the history of the final settlement of Norway’s territorial claim of the Sverdrup Islands."
- Ingvard Havnen, former Norwegian Ambassador to Canada

Shooting Paddlers: Photographic Adventures With Canoeists, Kayakers and Rafters is the first book published anywhere designed to help all paddlers strengthen their ability to see, recognize and record meaningful images. It presents an original approach to the study of photography, concentrating on specific possibilities and problems unique to the paddling environment. Most of the 238 black-and-white and colour photographs are discussed through the presentation of one or several pictures on a page, each accompanied by an analysis that includes explanations, tips, recommendations and other useful background information. Shooting Paddlers provides a wealth of specialized knowledge, difficult, if not impossible, to find elsewhere.

The republication of the memoirs of Colonel John McDonell of Scottas (1728-1810) will be welcomed by Highlanders the world over. Neither romantic novel nor learned history can conjure up for us so vividly as this unashamedly prejudiced eyewitness account of the atmosphere of the aftermath of "the ’45," the fierce loyalties and bitter hatreds, the high principles and barefaced villainy. We meet the ineffectual Stuart King, the saintly Duke of York, the unspeakable Captain Fergusson and many a minor character, each playing his part in the long drawn out British War of Succession and the death throes of Celtic society.

The monograph traces John McDonell’s story from his adventurous journey from Scotland to Rome at the age of 12 to his emigration to North America thirty-three years later.

In this collection of poems, noted naturalist-writer Robert W. Nero offers insightful reflections on a variety of birds from peregrine falcons, great grey owls and common ravens to purple martins and orioles. We are also offered surprising glimpses of such diverse wildlife as frogs, chipmunks, shrews, ants, dragonflies and spiders. It is nature in all its seasons that holds Dr. Nero's attention as he develops intriguing views of ordinary scenes and events. But the poems in this collection also speak of love, passion and introspection, thus revealing a deeper and increasingly personal side of one of Canada's most respected naturalists.

A combination of scientific training and experience, along with ecological awareness and writer's craft, is brought to bear in this fine assortment of poems. As in his two previous poetry books, we are privileged to share some fairly intimate aspects of the relationship between Bob Nero and his wife, Ruth. This surprising writer enriches our awareness of the diversity of nature while exposing some of his deepest and most tender thoughts and feelings.

From drawing rooms of Victorian Britain to Ontario kitchens, rituals of afternoon tea have always delighted. Devotees to this splendid ceremony attest to the fact that tasty treats and fresh brewed tea really do have a way of seducing and calming even the most frazzled of souls. And so, it is no accident that this deliciously elegant occasion continues to entice.

Capture the essence of this splendid institution through the eyes of one who learned to sup the golden brew on her Granny's lap. Enjoy recipes from Ontario's finest Tea Rooms, in addition to those from a Lancashire family long steeped in the tea-time tradition.

By looking at the ceremony of tea drinking and the history of "taking tea" in Ontario, one comes to understand why this great institution is still very much alive and flourishing.

Superior Illusions is an epic portrayal of life as experienced on the Voyageur Route from Lachine to the great summer meeting-place at Grand Portage. Drawing on his extensive research, Richard Pope presents a typical young Scot, employed as a clerk by the North West Company. A recent arrival from Scotland, the responsible yet inexperienced Dugald Macleod embarks on his first trip "up country." Neil Broadfoot's original artwork realistically captures both the beauty and the perils of those turbulent times.

"... a good story, unconventionally told ... it gives the reader a good sense of fur trade life in the period ... filled with accurate, often gripping details ..."
- Ramsay Cook, Professor Emeritus, York University

"Richard Pope's narrative and Neil Broadfoot's illustrations offer a deeper look at both the adventures and the hardships of the lives of those on whom the success of the great fur trading enterprise ultimately depended ... nothing else has so succeeded in giving me a sense of the life of a voyageur as this book."
— Kirk Wipper, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto; Founder and Special Advisor, Canadian Canoe Museum

"... an absolute delight to read ... a gripping tale ... there's real suspense throughout the book ... the story is not one that romanticizes the voyageur experience [but rather] an attempt to recreate 1790s voyageur life as it really was."
- Justine Allan, Associate Editor, Voyageur Magazine

Jean Morrison has written a fascinating and important book, full of drama and colourful historical figures. Rare paintings, drawings, maps and archival photographs complement her impeccable research and lively text. Superior Rendezvous-Place encompasses the French predecessors of Fort William, Native Peoples of the time and the evolution of the fur trade, with an emphasis on the North West Company era.

This most important work concludes with details of the reconstruction of the fort and the development of Old Fort William, one of Ontario's "must see" attractions.

"Jean Morrison is a natural story teller, and hers is an essential historical document in the compelling history of Fort William, once the centre of the North American commercial universe."
- Peter C. Newman, author of Caesars of the Wilderness

"This book is wonderful reading. Jean Morrison's prose is beautiful."
- Carolyn Podruchny, fur trade historian, Newberry Library, Chicago

"I remember them as though they had happened yesterday."

So writes author-naturalist Charles Sauriol in reference to his many memorable experiences within Toronto's Don River Valley. From Scout outings in 1920 to pioneer cottaging, train excursions, maple syrup making, beekeeping and countless other activities, the author's long association with the Don makes for fascinating reading in this sequel to his earlier book, Remembering the Don.

Tales of the Don provides for Toronto residents and visitors alike a picture window through which they may see the valley as it was years ago. A vital part of a great city's heritage has been preserved thanks to Charles Sauriol's foresight, tenacity and unshakeable love of subject. Once again "The King of the Don Valley," in his quaint and refreshing way, has written a book that will delight his sizeable following and undoubtedly gain for him many new readers.

Discover the main features of Emancipation Day celebrations, learn about the people of African ancestry’s struggle for freedom, and the victories achieved in the push for equality into the 21st century.

On August 1, 1834, 800,000 enslaved Africans in the British colonies, including Canada, were declared free. The story of Emancipation Day, a little-known part of Canadian history, has never been accessible to the teen reader through either the school curriculum or classroom resources, despite its significance in the story of Canada. Talking About Freedom closes this gap by exploring both the background to August 1 commemorations across Canada and the importance of these long-established annual celebrations.

What is the connection between the Caribana festivities in Toronto and emancipation? Why are some communities restoring Emancipation Day to their roster of annual events? Talking About Freedom introduces a range of personalities and happenings through historical facts, memorable personal recollections, vivid images, and detailed narratives. Included are connections to the ongoing struggles of people of African ancestry as they seek to achieve equality, with insightful links woven across the past, present, and future.

One hundred years ago, a young doctor from Cleveland by the name of Robert Newcomb, travelled north to a place called Temagami. It was as far north as one could travel by any modern means. Beautiful beyond any simple expletive, the Temagami wilderness was a land rich in timber, clear-water lakes, fast flowing rivers, mystery and adventure. Newcomb befriended the local Aboriginals — the Deep Water People — and quickly discovered the best way to explore was by canoe. Bewitched by the spirit of an interior river named after the elusive brook trout, Majamagosibi, Newcomb had a remote cabin built overlooking one of her precipitous cataracts.

The cabin remained unused for decades, save for a few passing canoeists; it changed ownership twice and slowly began to show its age. The author discovered the cabin while on a canoe trip in 1970. Like Newcomb, Hap Wilson was lured to Temagami in pursuit of adventure and personal sanctuary. That search for sanctuary took the author incredible distances by canoe and snowshoe, through near death experiences and Herculean challenges. Secretly building cabins, homesteading and working as a park ranger, Wilson finally became owner of The Cabin in 2000.

Artist, author and adventurer, Hap Wilson is perhaps best known for his ecotourism/travel guidebooks. He has led over 300 wilderness expeditions in Canada, and served as actor Pierce Brosnan's personal outdoor trainer for the feature film Grey Owl. "This is a complex and fascinating story, beautifully told. At first, it draws us in because the author appears to be living the life we all dream of-a simpler life, close to nature, free from the stress and strain of our consumer culture. But the reality, with its myriad challenges, is what holds our attention and gives the book its substance."
— Judith Ruan, Muskoka Magazine

The Canada Company was responsible for the opening and settling of over two million acres of land in Upper Canada. Author Robert C. Lee focuses his attention on the extensive parcel of land on the shores of Lake Huron that became known as the Huron Tract. His comprehensive research explores the underlying forces leading to the formation of the Company, the intriguing mix of people charged with responsibilities for the Company and the overall impact of its operations, leading to its present-day legacy. The politics of the day, coupled with diverse and colourful personalities -- such as John Galt, Tiger Dunlop, William Allan, Thomas Mercer Jones, Frederick Widder, Sir Peregrine Maitland, Bishop Macdonnell and Bishop Strachan -- introduce an interesting blend of vision, intrigue, mischief and day-to-day survival strategies that make for compelling reading. Add to this the shareholders’ perspective of the Company versus the settlers’ perspective and you have a fascinating glimpse of pioneer conditions.

Included are descriptions of early towns such as Guelph and Goderich, as well as background on the Huron Tract township names.

"Robert Lee's outstanding book brings to life the unusual assemblage of characters who were instrumental in the development of Upper Canada's largest private settlement scheme -- the Huron Tract. Their relationships with each other, and especially with the Canada Company for which many of them worked, make a great story."

- Lutzen Riedstra, Stratford-Perth Archivist

"Robert Lee has vividly recreated the personalities and the political intrigues that were part of the Canada Company's operation -- the largest one of its type in Ontario's history. The most comprehensive work to date on this fascinating era, this book is eminently readable and a must-have for history lovers.

- Ron Brown, author of Ghost Towns of Ontario

The Marks Brothers may well have been the most remarkable theatrical family in Canadian history. A phenomenon on the vaudeville circuit, the seven brothers left the farm and took to the boards and the footlights throughout the latter part of the 19th century and into the 1920s. The brothers from Christie Lake, near Perth in Eastern Ontario, played to an estimated eight million Canadians, as well as to sizeable audiences in the United States. Their road shows, largely melodramas and comedy, kept audiences crying, booing, laughing and cheering until movies sounded the death knell for touring repertory companies.

The publication of The Canadian Kings of Repertoire brings back for one more curtain call the seven Marks boys, top hats, diamond rings and all. Joining them in a farewell performance are their glamorous leading ladies and a superb cast of supporting players. So clear the aisles and up with the curtain. It's showtime once more.

The canoe is a symbol unique to Canada. One of the greatest gifts of First Peoples to all those who came after, the canoe is Canada’s most powerful icon. Within this Canexus II publication are a collection of essays by paddling enthusiasts and experts. Contributing authors include: Eugene Arima, Shanna Balazs, David Finch, Ralph Frese, Toni Harting, Bob Henderson, Bruce W. Hodgins, Bert Horwood, Gwyneth Hoyle, John Jennings, Timothy Kent, Peter Labor, Adrian Lee, Kenneth R. Lister, Becky Mason, James Raffan, Alister Thomas and Kirk Wipper.

The Chinese have become a vibrant part of Toronto’s multiculturalism, with no less than seven Chinatowns created since 1984.

Short-listed for the 2013 Speaker’s Book Award and for the 2012 Heritage Toronto Award

The modest beginnings of the Chinese in Toronto and the development of Chinatown is largely due to the completion of the CPR in 1885. No longer requiring the services of the Chinese labourers, a hostile British Columbia sent them eastward in search of employment and a more welcoming place.

In 1894 Toronto’s Chinese population numbered fifty. Today, no less than seven Chinatowns serve what has become the second-largest visible minority in the city, with a population of half a million. In these pages, you will find their stories told through historical accounts, archival and present-day photographs, newspaper clippings, and narratives from old-timers and newcomers. With achievements spanning all walks of life, the Chinese in Toronto are no longer looking in from outside society’s circle. Their lives are a vibrant part of the diverse mosaic that makes Toronto one of the most multicultural cities in the world.

Samuel Edward Weir Q.C. (1898-1981), a man both loved and reviled with scorn, was born in London, Ontario. Descended from pioneer stock, with roots in both Ireland and Germany, Samuel Weir possessed incisive wit, exceptional intelligence and a passionate zest for any subject that caught his eye. Over a period of sixty years he built an extraordinary collection of approximately one thousand works of outstanding art and sculpture.

This extensively researched biography of a talented yet quixotic lawyer who contributed much to Canada's heritage begins in the early 19th century and covers well over a hundred years of our nation's growth, until his death at his home, River Brink, in Queenston, Ontario.

Today, River Brink is the gallery in which The Weir Collection is exhibited and housed.

Samuel Edward Weir Q.C. (1898-1981), a man both loved and reviled with scorn, was born in London, Ontario. Descended from pioneer stock, with roots in both Ireland and Germany, Samuel Weir possessed incisive wit, exceptional intelligence and a passionate zest for any subject that caught his eye. Over a period of sixty years he built an extraordinary collection of approximately one thousand works of outstanding art and sculpture.

This extensively researched biography of a talented yet quixotic lawyer who contributed much to Canada's heritage begins in the early 19th century and covers well over a hundred years of our nation's growth, until his death at his home, River Brink, in Queenston, Ontario.

Today, River Brink is the gallery in which The Weir Collection is exhibited and housed.

The Frances Smith was not only the first steamboat to be built in Owen Sound, but also the largest vessel on Georgian Bay at that time. By far the most luxurious vessel to sail the Upper Great Lakes from a Canadian port, she was known as a "palace steamer." In the mid-to-late-19th century, the Frances Smith set the standard for speed, spacious accommodation and quality service on Georgian Bay and Lake Superior.

The story of the Frances Smith, full of adventure and courageous actions, and even including disreputable behaviour, is a genuine story of life on the Great Lakes in the latter part of the 1800s. Meticulously researched and documented by Scott L. Cameron, this book is an exploration of a special part of our past that will be of great interest to history buffs in general, and maritime historians in particular.

Memories of farming in the 1940s conjure up images of horse-drawn farm machinery, grain stooks in fields, hay meadows, free-range chickens and cords of wood strategically placed for fuelling the kitchen range -- all before farming became the highly technical, big-time operation it is now.

Author Victor Carl Friesen was born and raised on a quarter section farm in Saskatchewan and still owns the "home place." It is there he still goes to renew his inner being. His poems, grouped into seasonal activities or observations, celebrate the rural world. Written in traditional blank verse, his poetry includes activities of yesteryear, his personal connections to rural life and his reverence for nature. Nature, as Henry David Thoreau said, is "one and continuous."

Victor Carl Friesen lives and writes in Rosthern, Saskatchewan, but photographs nature anywhere. The first recipient of the Alberta Book Award, he is the author of five books including The Year Is a Circle.

"To thousands of young people, emigration has been the golden bridge by which they have passed from an apparently hopeless childhood to lives of useful service and assured comfort, in this new land."

- Mr. G. Bogue Smart, Inspector of British Immigrant Children and Receiving Homes, 1915

Many thousands of Canadians are descended from young immigrants transported to Canada from 1833 to 1939. Author Marjorie Kohli has meticulously documented the incredible story of the removal of thousands of "waifs and strays" and young men and women, primarily from the UK and Ireland. They braved the perilous voyage to an unknown future in Canada, ultimately being placed throughout the Maritimes, Ontario, Quebec and westward as far as British Columbia.

The most comprehensive resource of its kind, The Golden Bridge promises to be an indispensable tool for family researchers with a "home child" ancestor, and of interest to those unfamiliar with this aspect of Canadian history. This extensively researched book incorporates background detail on agencies and key organizers such as Maria Rye, Annie Macpherson, Thomas Barnardo and William Quarrier, along with lesser knowns including Ellinor Close and Charles Young.

Marjorie Kohli is well known for her years of active involvement with juvenile and child migration issues. Supported by charts, passenger lists and archival visuals, The Golden Bridge is a must-read for genealogists and history buffs alike.

Explore the connection between people and places on the rugged shore of Lake Superior, the world’s largest freshwater lake.

Conor Mihell offers a compelling image of Lake Superior’s Canadian shore through colourful personality sketches, adventure stories, and environmental accounts. Admire the kitschy decor of lighthouse cottager Maureen Robertson, a 76-year-old who spends six months of the year alone on a remote island; enter the debate over a controversial aggregate quarry in Wawa, Ontario; and learn how the author’s love affair with the world’s largest freshwater lake began on quests for a near-mystical, glacier-dropped monolith.

Mihell’s stories build on Lake Superior’s rich and varied history and support its critical place in Canadian culture. Since the beginning, Lake Superior has been revered for its God-like qualities of power, unpredictability, and a seemingly endless expanse of life-sustaining freshwater. The lake’s rugged yet fragile nature and hardscrabble characters and outpost communities define rural northwestern Canada. Experience it for yourself in this first collection of stories by one of the region’s most acclaimed journalists.

"Beneath the deadly dull history of Ontario lies a myriad of fascinating, but little-known stories. Did you know:

• Sir John A. Macdonald was born in an Ontario town, not in Scotland?
• Karl Marx was once a visitor to Toronto?
• The famous poet W.B. Yeats graced the town of Captainstone, Ontario, with a visit in 1933?
• There was an active volcano in Ontario in 1886?

"The book is accompanied by an important caveat: All of these stories are fictitious.

"'The book is rather hard to characterize,' said MacGillivary, a professor at the University of Waterloo. 'It doesn't fit into any particular genre. It is best described as a "myth imitation." What I am doing here is inventing myths about the history of Ontario, where the facts are almost entirely false but the emotions are real.'

"The book, a humorous romp through the history of Ontario, distills the character of Ontario out of the approximately 120 short vignettes taken, supposedly, from local histories and reminiscences, all of which are fictitious."
- Anne Marie Goetz, Whig-Standard Staff Writer

The most ancient and least disturbed forest ecosystem in eastern North America clings to the vertical cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment. Prior to 1988 it had escaped detection even though the entire forest was in plain view and was being visited by thousands upon thousands of people every year. The reason no one had discovered the forest was that the trees were relatively small and lived on the vertical cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment. The Last Stand reveals the complete account of the discovery of this ancient forest, of the miraculous properties of the trees forming this forest (eastern white cedar), and of what is was like for researchers to live, work and study within this forest. The unique story is told with text, with stunning colour photographs and through vivid first-hand accounts. This book will stand the test of time as a testament to science, imagination and discovery.

At the time of his death in 1907, John Waldie, founder of the Victoria Harbour Lumber Company, was identified as "the second largest lumber operator in Canada." A young Scottish immigrant who came to Wellington Square (now Burlington, Ontario) in 1842, he rose to prominence as a wealthy merchant and ship owner. In 1885 he entered the lumber business. Active in local and federal politics, and a friend of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, he invested capital in mills, people and forests.

Local history and genealogical connections are part of the Waldie story, headquartered at Victoria Harbour in Simcoe County. Documentation of the forest that the company logged, their nature, amount and sizes of logs harvested with the descriptions of the forests as they are now, throws new light and shatters some of the current myths.

This little-known story provides insights into days of rampant entrepreneurialism, the world of the lumber barons and the overall impact on our Ontario forests.

A charming account of the author's special relationship with the birds and wild creatures who shared her northern homesite at Pimisi Bay, near Mattawa, Ontario.

The Loghouse Nest is another Natural Heritage classic by Canada's internationally acclaimed nature writer, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence.

Delightfully illustrated throughout by no less than Thoreau MacDonald, with endpaper drawings by the author.

The 19th century spawned a unique breed of men who took pride in their woodsmen skills and rough codes of conduct. They called themselves lumberers, shantymen, timber beasts, les bucherron – and, more recently, lumberjacks, working in the vast forests of eastern Canada and British Columbia.

Across the country, farm boys would go to the woods, lumbering being the only winter work available. Immigrants – Swedes and Finns more often than not – resumed the trades they had learned so well in the forests of northern Europe. They broke the cold, hard monotony of camp life with songs, tall tales and card games.

Within these pages, author Donald MacKay allows us a glimpse into that moment in our heritage when men entered the virgin forest to carve out an industry from the seemingly endless array of pine, spruce, maple and balsam fir found there.

"[Donald] MacKay's book has many virtues. His prose is clean. He lets the surviving pioneers talk for themselves when they have something to say, but never allows them to get too windy. He separates legends and half-truths from facts ..."
– The Montreal Star

"... a superb marriage of text and pictures, a nostalgic but not sentimental discussion of one of Canada's primary industries, logging."
– The Globe and Mail

"It's marvellous material of a type often ignored by historians ... Such books may do more to help us understand ourselves than all the academic tomes together."
– Atlantic Insight

The Lure of Faraway Places is the publication canoeist Herb Pohl (1930-2006) did not live to see published. But Pohl's words and images provide a unique portrait of Canada by one who was happiest when travelling our northern waterways alone. Austrian-born Herb Pohl died at the mouth of the Michipcoten River on July 17, 2006. He is remembered as "Canada's most remarkable solo traveller."

While mourning their loss, Herb Pohl's friends found, to their surprise and delight, a manuscript of wilderness writings on his desk in his lakeside apartment in Burlington, Ontario. He had hoped one day to publish his work as a book. With help and commentary from best-selling canoe author and editor James Raffan, Natural Heritage is proud to present that book, Herb's book, The Lure of Faraway Places. "There's nothing like it in canoeing literature," says Raffan. "It's part journal, part memoir, part wilderness philosophy and part tips and tricks of the most pragmatic kind written about parts of the country most of us will never see by the most committed and ambitious solo canoeist in Canadian history."

The Mazinaw, a place of striking natural beauty, is famous for Bon Echo Rock, a massive sheer cliff, dropping into one of Ontario's deepest lakes. The Mazinaw Experience traces the presence of human habitation on the shores of the Mazinaw from its earliest beginnings to the present, from the nomadic Aboriginal people who believed the cliff top to be a sacred place and the rugged lumbermen whose entrepreneurial zeal cleared out the mighty pine, to the settlers who struggled to create new lives for their families. Mini-profiles of personalities such as Johnny Bey and Billa Flint, along with stories involving colonization roads, the settlement towns, the mining and the coming of the railway, provide insights into the Mazinaw area of today. The memory of Bon Echo Inn lives on in Bon Echo Park, as does the legacy of Flora MacDonald and her son Merrill Denison.

Today, the Mazinaw area continues to grow in popularity.

Ornithologist, ecologist, naturalist and poet Dr. Robert W. Nero of Winnipeg is the acknowledged North American authority on the Great Gray Owl.

"Like his earlier book, Woman By the Shore, it is rather like an album of snapshots to leaf through ... here is Bob walking the dog, here in the garden with Ruth, here pensively watching from his window. Each poem is carefully crafted to reveal the essence of one event and his appreciation of it."
- From the introduction by Ardythe McMaster

Gavin Hamilton Green was well-known to Goderich visitors as the "racy, entertaining and genial proprietor" of Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe. His writings describe the colourful, sometimes wily ways of pioneer history in Colborne Township and Huron County.

Green supplies a large repertoire of witty anecdotes, which together with several illustrations of old-timers and old places, give his book the true atmosphere of the times to which they relate.

The reader is carried from chuckles to tears as events unfold in his witty saga in which he alternates from participant to observer. His "odd expressions and pawky whimsies" are an absolute delight.

A number of years ago, R.D. Lawrence acquired a patch of Ontario wilderness, soon known as "The Place." Here Lawrence and his wife built a cabin and became immersed in studying the ways of the wild. "The Place" was home to a variety of wildlife, from black bears, wolves, beavers and raccoons through to hawks, snapping turtles and singing mice.

Lawrence's desire to learn, fuelled by his keen observation, led to his writing about and photographing life within his small corner of the forest -- the result being a warm, witty account of change and survival in the natural world.

The Black pioneers (1839-1865) who cleared the land and established the Queen's Bush settlement in that section of unsurveyed land where present-day Waterloo and Wellington counties meet, near Hawkesville, are the focus of this extensively researched book. Linda Brown-Kubisch's attention to detail and commitment to these long-neglected settlers re-establishes their place in Ontario history. Set in the context of the early migration of Blacks into Upper Canada, this work is a must for historians and for genealogists involved in tracing family connections with these pioneer inhabitants of the Queen's Bush.

"In the 19th century one of the most important areas of settlement for fugitive American slaves was the Queen's Bush, then an isolated region in the backwoods of Ontario. Despite much recent attention to African-Canadian history, the Queen's Bush remains a remote territory for historical scholarship. Linda Brown-Kubisch offers a pioneering entry into that gap. With a jeweller's eye for the biological subject, Brown-Kubisch introduces the courageous Black adventurers and the hardships they faced in Canada." - James Walker, Professor of History, University of Waterloo, and author of The Black Loyalists (1976, 1992) and "Race," Rights and the Law (1997).

The story of Winnie, the real Canadian bear that captured the heart of Christopher, son of A.A. Milne, and became immortalized in the Winnie the Pooh stories, is told against the backdrop of the First World War. In August 1914, a Canadian soldier and veterinarian named Lieutenant Harry Colebourn, en route to a training camp in Quebec, purchased a black bear cub in White River, Ontario, which he named Winnipeg.

First a regimental mascot for Canadians training for wartime service, Winnie then became a star attraction at the London Zoo, and ultimately inspired one of the best-loved characters in children's literature. For those many generations of readers who adored Winnie the Pooh, and for those intrigued by the unique stories embedded in Canadian history, this book is a feast of information about a one-of-a-kind bear set during a poignant period of world history.

Today Winnie "lives on" at the London Zoo, in White River and in Winnipeg. Her remarkable legacy is celebrated in many ways – from statues and plaques to festivals and museum galleries.

The Rouge River Valley, eleven thousand acres of urban wilderness, is a unique, yet very fragile and transient natural phenomenon existing within the confines of a major North American city, Toronto. Fed by the Oak Ridges Moraine, the Rouge river system has, over generations of time, cut its identity into the land, shaping the habitat for a multitude of lifeforms, many of which are now either threatened or gone.

Author James E. Garratt, a seasoned environmentalist, shares two decades of personal observation and ecological study to reveal the richness and flow of seasonal changes in this exceptional urban park. This "portrait" of a year in the Rouge Valley explores not only the diversity of life in its natural habitat but also the impact of urban sprawl and the inevitable conflict with development.

Is it possible to be a true naturalist "grounded" in a modern city? The words of Ian McHarg, an urban planner, hold true: "We need nature as much in the city as in the country."

Occasionally there occurs one of those rare collaborations between Poet and Artist that results in a remarkable achievement, demanding attention.

The Salamander's Laughter presents the combined artistry of two highly creative individuals, poet Anne Corkett and illustrator Sylvia Hahn. The fusion of their talents has resulted in this splendid volume.

This is a long-awaited history of one of Metro Toronto’s most historic churches, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Scarborough, founded in 1818. This publication records the many memorable individuals to fill its pulpits and pews as well as stories of its associations, buildings and community anecdotes.

The story of St. Andrew’s is also very much a history of Scarborough and of the pioneer families who settled the area. The church has figured prominently in the development of Scarborough since David Thompson made available a generous gift of land for a "Scotch Kirk." Today the remains of many of the original builders of Scarborough rest in graves marked by ancient monuments in the well-maintained "Kirkyard."

Glengarry, Upper Canada's first major Scottish settlement, was established in 1784 by Highlanders from Inverness-shire. Worsening economic conditions in Scotland, coupled with a growing awareness of Upper Canada’s opportunities, led to a growing tide of emigration that eventually engulfed all of Scotland and gave the province its many Scottish settlements. Pride in their culture gave Scots a strong sense of identity and self-worth. These factors contributed to their success and left Upper Canada with firmly rooted Scottish traditions.

Individual settlements have been well observed, but the overall picture has never been pieced together. Why did Upper Canada have such appeal to Scots? What was their impact on the province? Why did they choose their different settlement locations? Drawing on new and wide-ranging sources author Lucille H. Campey charts the progress of Scottish settlement throughout Upper Canada. This book contains much descriptive information, including all known passenger lists. It gives details of the 550 ships, which made over 900 crossings and carried almost 100,000 emigrant Scots. The book describes the enterprise and independence shown by the pioneers who were helped on their way by some remarkable characters such as Thomas Talbot, Lord Selkirk, John Galt, Archibald McNab and William Dickson. Providing a fascinating overview of the emigration process, it is essential reading for both historians and genealogists.

Scots were some of the provinces earliest pioneers and they were always at the cutting edge of each new frontier. They were a founding people who had an enormous influence on the province’s early development.

"I am happy to commend Lucille Campey’s latest book on Scottish settlement patterns in Canada. The product of meticulous research, The Scottish Pioneers of Upper Canada has much to offer both genealogists and general readers, as it weaves together statistical information, institutional histories and personal accounts to produce a fascinating picture of the multi-dimensional networks that underpinned the transatlantic movement and brought 100,000 Scots to Upper Canada during the seven decades reviewed. Persistent myths of helpless exile are challenged, as the preconditions and processes of emigration are analyzed, along with the cultural traditions imported by the 'trail blazers and border guards' who laid the foundations of Canada’s most populous province." - Marjory Harper, Reader in History, University of Aberdeen

"With a real feel for the sacrifice and the emotional turmoil of the pioneers, Lucille H. Campey has one again got her audience to face the raw heritage common to every Scots-Canadian. This is an excellent read, full of fascinating detail dug from much archival research. This book is another splendid addition to a series of much interest to both historians and genealogists." - Professor Graeme Morton, Scottish Studies Foundation Chair, University of Guelph

Belfast, Prince Edward Island, founded in August 1803, owes its existence to Lord Selkirk. Its bicentennial is a timely reminder of Selkirk's work in Canada, which extended beyond Belfast to Baldoon (later Wallaceburg) in Ontario, as well as to Red River, the precursor to Winnipeg. Aptly named "The Silver Chief" by the five Indian chiefs with whom he negotiated a land treaty at Red River, the fifth Earl of Selkirk spent an immense fortune in helping Scottish Highlanders relocate themselves in Canada.

Selkirk has been well observed through the eyes of the rich and powerful, but his settlers have been neglected. Why did they leave Scotland? Which districts did they come from? Why did they settle in Canada? Why did Selkirk help them? How successful were their settlements? What impact did they have on Canada’s early development? Did Selkirk realize his ambitions for Canada?

In answering these questions, Lucille H. Campey presents a new and powerful case for re-assessing the achievements of Selkirk and his settlers. Using a wealth of documentary sources, she reconstructs the sequence of emigration from Scotland to the three areas of Canada where settlements were founded. She shows that emigration took place in a carefully planned and controlled way. She reveals the self-reliance, adaptability and steely determination of the Selkirk settlers in overcoming their many problems and obstacles. They brought their rich traditions of Scottish culture to Canada and, in doing so, helped to secure its distinctively Canadian future. Together, Selkirk and his settlers succeeded against overwhelming odds and altered the course of history.

Poetry or potsherds? That's the surprising dilemma one of Canada's well-known nature writers confronts in The Site: A Personal Odyssey, a highly personalized account of a lifetime's involvement as an avocational archaeologist. With deft descriptive powers, Robert Nero leads us gently into this new facet of his amazing spectrum of interests. Not unexpectedly, there even is poetry in his approach to studying prehistoric remains!

From childhood through adolescence, to wartime service with the U.S. Army in the Southwest Pacific, from exploring the vast sand dunes of Lake Athabasca to excavating a 3,000-year-old site he discovered west of Winnipeg, Nero allows us to share his enthusiasm and excitement in outdoor adventures. There is always a wonderful immediacy in his narrative, the mark of a gifted writer, whether expressed in prose or poetry.

The women pilots profiled in this book have flown from British Columbia to Newfoundland and in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Right from the beginning of her interviews and research, the author found herself constantly amazed by the achievements of the women involved. Within the book are the stories of early Canadian women bush pilots from the late 1940s onwards. Their stories are exciting, occasionally funny, and always absorbing. Ranging from aerial surveys, water bombing of fires, flying fish, canoes and northern dogs, to the operation of a float-plane flying school, these women have left little undone. One pilot, Judy Cameron, was the first Canadian woman to be hired by an airline. Flying north of Superior, Elizabeth Wieben recalls the time that she flew naked. In pilot Suzanne Pettigrew's own words, "We sure have come a long way and the ride was an awful lot of fun."

My feet are practising their steps, gauging the slipperiness of wet lichen on rock and sounding each landing. As my stride shifts to a swing I realize I have a sharper sense of my place in the woods now. I am as taut and limber as a bow-string. I sense bears in the woods, weigh their threat and move on, glorying in the mosses beneath my feet ... We in the woods share fear. By grace of my fear, I am closer to predators and prey.

The View From Foley Mountain is a celebration of the joy of living in harmony with the natural world. The seasonal selections lead you through the fields, woods, rock outcroppings and shores of the conservation area which is the author's home.

You will savour the fragrance of maple syrup boiling, share in a summer heron census, snowshoe to a beaver lodge, watch a snapping turtle laying eggs, witness the death of a starving deer, and see turkey vultures soar.

Whether she is rejoicing in old barns, canoeing the Snake River, harvesting dye plants or stalking moths at night, Peri Phillips McQuay's deep love and lyrical vision stimulate you to share her sense of wonder in her surroundings.

The memoirs of John T. MacKenzie reveal a truly remarkable man: a highly respected authority on highland piping with a commitment to tradition and excellence in performance.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, John T. was a student of piping at age nine. Enlisted in the Scots Guards, he saw active service in the war zones of North Africa, participated in the Liberation of Norway and was later posted to active duty in the Malaysian jungle. John T. MacKenzie bears personal witness to the horrors and valour of warfare. Throughout, his devotion to highland piping remained, and remains, in the forefront of his life.

Appointed personal piper to the Royal Household in 1946, John T. MacKenzie has piped at numerous ceremonial events in Europe and North America. His recruitment as a Pipe Major to the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1952 brought him to Canada, and ultimately to Glengarry County, where his contributions to piping are legendary.

Peter Jailall, teacher, storyteller and poet, expresses great passion for the English language and for the quality of life of all Canadians. With this, his first published volume of poetry, he takes a much-deserved place alongside Canada's most significant writers of colour.

"Peter's poems told me stories or rather pulled me into scenes where I became the actor seeing Toronto and her people in a way new to me. Peter's empathy for people and his clear view of what deserves anger don't contradict each other but sharpen the stories."
- Joan Vinall Cox teaches reading at Sheridan College.

"Peter has shared his poems with me privately and I have been in audiences of teachers as he read his poems out loud. In both situations he strikes an emotional impact with his words and messages."
- Larry Swartz, Educator.

"Lawrence was quite possibly the most remarkable woman in Canada. Certainly she was a remarkable nature writer."

- Pat Barclay, Books in Canada

"She was a premier speciman of a vital breed: the amateur naturalist. Her 7 books, 17 scientific papers, scores of magazine articles and over 500 reviews have all been based on her close and tireless observation of bird and animal behaviour."

- Merilyn Mohr, Harrowsmith

In 1842 at York Factory, the English-born missionary James Evans built a lightweight tin canoe that glittered and shone in the sunlight. Wherever he went, Native peoples called the canoe his "Shining Island" or "His Island of Light."

Travels in the Shining Island chronicles important events in the life of the extraordinary Methodist missionary, James Evans (1801-1846). It was Evans who created a written alphabet in native languages that remains in use to the present time. Truly the first printer/publisher in the Canadian Northwest, his story is one of incredible courage, perseverance and unwavering faith.

"Using clay, lead and hand-carved wood to make characters, and soot, oil and animal blood for ink, he created a unique literary tradition that has become a central part of Northern Aboriginal culture."

- Queen’s Quarterly

Short-listed for the 2012 Speaker’s Book Award

Edmund Zavitz (1875–1968) rescued Ontario from the ravages of increasingly more powerful floods, erosion, and deadly fires. Wastelands were talking over many hectares of once-flourishing farmlands and towns. Sites like the Oak Ridges Moraine were well on their way to becoming a dust bowl and all because of extensive deforestation.

Zavitz held the positions of chief forester of Ontario, deputy minister of forests, and director of reforestation. His first pilot reforestation project was in 1905, and since then Zavitz has educated the public and politicians about the need to protect Ontario forests. By the mid-1940s, conservation authorities, provincial nurseries, forestry stations, and bylaws protecting trees were in place. Land was being restored.

Just a month before his death, the one billionth tree was planted by Premier John Robarts. Some two billion more would follow. As a result of Zavitz’s work, the Niagara Escarpment, once a wasteland, is now a UNESCO World Biosphere. Recognition of the ongoing need to plant trees to protect our future continues as the legacy of Edmund Zavitz.

Once home to over 60 flourishing villages, Middlesex County, in the heart of southwestern Ontario, has a rich history just waiting to be discovered. Anthropologist and local history enthusiast Jennifer Grainger has, through extensive research and much personal exploration, produced a valuable document chronicling the "rise and fall" of these pioneering settlements, truly the foundation of all that exist in the area today.

Nostalgia buffs, armchair adventurers, genealogists and curious daytrippers alike will welcome the arrival of this timely publication with its many fascinating stories and countless visual reminders of the past.

A woman from Northern Ontario is buried; her earthly papers reveal a mystery. Veteran Canadian journalist Jim Poling took on the most important assignment of his career: Just who was his mother? Why did she take a lifelong secret to her grave?

In his search for clues throughout his childhood years in Northern Ontario, the author goes to Chapleau, the railway town where the people he believed were his ancestors played out their roles in building the railway. It ends in the Prairie village of Innisfree, Alberta, home to Joe LaRose, convicted horse thief and father of a girl destined for trouble.

A search that began in anger at his mother's secrecy concludes with an understanding of her actions. In the process, he explores the place of families within Canadian society and reveals the shameful ongoing discrimination against Native Peoples and the abusive treatment of illegitimacy. Throughout, glimpses of working life in newsrooms add insider perspectives on the "handling" of our daily news.

A former Indian Affairs reporter, Poling shares insights into the ongoing plight of Canada's First Nations people. He observes that Canada will never realize its true potential until positive steps are taken to resolve longstanding issues.

Home child Mary Janeway runs away from her farm placement, grows into adulthood, and ultimately comes to terms with life in Hamilton, Ontario.

Sixteen-year-old Mary Janeway, a home child, is desperate to escape from her rural home child placement and flees to London, Ontario, to find a domestic position. When conditions become unbearable, she moves on, vowing never to relinquish her freedom again.

After she arrives in Hamilton as a young bride, she quickly adapts to the urban conveniences and the marvels of new inventions that include electric sewing machines, sulphur matches, street stoplights, a one-horsepower Brunswick refrigerator, the advent of the zipper, and the beginning of radio. But even the latest technology can’t stop the ravages of disease and other family tragedies.

Mary lives through two world wars, the Spanish Influenza, and the Great Depression. In spite of many hardships, she remains a strong, resilient woman well into her senior years and makes many contributions to Hamilton, the city she calls home.

Peter Jailall continues his search for the place called home in his third volume of poetry, exploring the "open, dangerous" landscape of a post-September 11th world. In this climate of globalization, none are untouched by the threats of terrorism or the spoils of modernization and its effect on our environment. As poet, teacher and storyteller, Peter's unique gift for the blending of language – from Caribbean-accented English to Hindi – allows him to paint beautiful dichotomies between the Guyana of his birth, and the Canada that is his current home.

"To those of us in the worldwide Guyanese diaspora, Peter's poetry is cultural regeneration and joy. It generates the anchorage of identity and self respect in a sea of uncertainty and adjustment. To our host communities it provides insights into who we are as persons. It encourages the realization that hopes, fears, and aspirations are common across cultures and all are worthy of understanding and respect. To all who read Peter's work come challenges to thought and imagination, glowing pride, and prolonged pleasure."
– Judaman Seecoomar, PhD, Author

"Peter Jailall speaks poignantly to problems of identity and the painful feelings associated with movement and change in this fine new collection. He examines past and present and points to our need to find out and accept who we really are before cultural identity can be recognized."
– Bob Barton, Storyteller, writer, educator (OISE, University of Toronto)

When We Both Got to Heaven places James Atkey (1805-1868) on the shores of Georgian Bay at the time of treaty negotiations between the First Nations people of the Saugeen, Nawash and Colpoy's Bay areas, and the Colonial government. A Methodist lay preacher, Atkey leaves the Isle of Wight and arrives at Colpoy's Bay with his family in 1855. There he takes up the position of teacher for the Anishnaube children of the area.

The great-great-great-grandson of James Atkey, author Mel Atkey engaged in extensive research of both primary and secondary sources. His efforts provide considerable insight into both the influence of Wesleyan Methodism of the time and the background context of the treaty negotiations that ultimately led to the surrender of much of the Saugeen Peninsula for pioneer settlement. People with leadership roles of the past, such as Chief Kegedonce, Kahkewaquonaby (Rev. Peter Jones), Laurence Oliphant and Sir Francis Bond Head, as well as many others, are part of Atkey's story.

Reverend Maggie McLeod of the Cape Croker United Church provides a thoughtful Foreword. This quite remarkable book is a compelling read for those interested in Ontario history, First Nations history, genealogy and the role of religion at the time of European settlement.

The celebrated nature writer R.D. Lawrence tells the story of animals who inhabit the lakeside near his home in the backwoods of Canada. From the smallest water creature to wolves, deer and many, many birds, all are known to him. His sensitivity, enthusiasm and empathy for wildlife, coupled with his detailed understanding of their habits have created an engrossing publication. A sequel to The Place In the Forest, this authoritatively written book conjures up the sounds, smells and the very feel of lakeside life over every season.

The northern community known as Peawanuck (Cree for Flint) is located approximately 32 kilometres up river from the former village of Winisk on the shore of Hudson Bay. There, prior to a devastating flood on May 16, 1986, the First Nations residents of Winisk had carried on with a traditional lifestyle built largely around hunting and trapping seasons.

The late Mildred Young Hubbert of Markdale, Ontario, first visited Winisk in the 1960s as a classroom consultant with the then Department of Indian Affairs. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine the scenario some three years later that found her experiencing an odd sort of honeymoon at Winisk and ultimately her first three years of marriage to the wonderful and highly unorthodox teacher, George Hubbert, all six foot six of him. Together the two teachers came to be a vital part of the village during the mid-1970s, a story lovingly and engagingly told by Millie Hubbert in a manuscript completed just prior to her passing.

Winisk: On the Shore of Hudson Bay is charmingly told in the same anecdotal writing style that delighted readers of several previous books by the same author. This is vintage Millie Hubbert!

New Brunswick’s enormous timber trade attracted the first wave of Scots in the late 18th century. As economic conditions in Scotland worsened, the flow of emigrants increased, creating distinctive Scottish communities along the province’s major timber bays and river frontages. While Scots relied on the timber trade for economic sustenance, their religion offered another form of support. It sustained them in a spiritual and cultural sense. These two themes, the axe and the bible, underpin their story. Using wide-ranging documentary sources, including passengers lists and newspaper shipping reports, the book traces the progress of Scottish colonization and its ramification for the province’s early development. The book is the first fully documented account of Scottish emigration to New Brunswick ever to be written.

Most Scots came in small groups but there were also great contingents such as the Arran emigrants who settled in Restigouche and the Kincardine emigrants who settled in the Upper St. John Valley. Lowlanders were dispersed fairly widely while Highlanders became concentrated in particular areas like Miramichi Bay. What factors caused them to select their various locations? What problems did they face? Were they successful pioneers? Why was the Scottish Church so important to them? In tracing the process of emigration, author Lucille H. Campey offers new insights on where Scots settled, their overall impact and the cultural legacy which they left behind. With axe and bible Scots overcame great hardship and peril and through their efforts created many of the province’s most enduring pioneer settlements.

In 1990 Louise de Kiriline Lawrence celebrated her ninety-sixth birthday. The richness of her detailed nature observations and her exceptional use of the English language have attracted an international following.

Dr. Robert Nero, a noted ornithologist, demonstrates his admiration and affection for this remarkable woman through his environmentally sensitive and insightful poetry.

"Robert Nero etches with a loving hand -- spider webs, fallen feathers, insect wings -- significant encounters with the beauty of 'ordinary' life. He teaches us to see."
- Candace Savage, The Northwest Territories

In the 1880s the provincial government sent out teams of land surveyors to explore the northern Ontario hinterland. By rail, canoe and on foot they and their crews cut through the forests and across streams, establishing the boundaries for townships in preparation for settlement.

Alexander Herkes Telfer was a member of the party led by the Haliburton surveyor Alexander Niven, who was responsible for running the lines for seven townships around the head of Lake Temiskaming. The child of Scottish immigrants who settled in Scarborough, Ontario, A.H. Telfer logged his experiences in a personal diary, revealing a love of new frontiers and adventure that the hardships of life could not diminish. His vivid account provides interesting details of early surveying methods and of the lives of some intrepid early settlers in this wild but beautiful land.

An introduction and annotations by the editor and early photographs of the upper Ottawa/Lake Temiskaming area complement the diary and create a historical context.

"I personally have long been interested in the surveyor Alexander Niven from Haliburton. I grew up on Niven Street in New Liskeard, and as a child wondered about the man the street was named for. The story of Niven and the other surveyors who mapped the Townships of the Little Clay Belt in the District of Temiskaming in the 1880s is long overdue.

"A.H. Telfer's personal diaries, which tell of the day-to-day hardships and accomplishments of these surveyors, are a fascinating account of the country before the great land rush of the 1890s and the Cobalt mining boom of 1903, which changed the landscape dramatically. This personal account by one of the members of the actual survey party of 1886 is interesting from a historical perspective, as it bridges the gap between the fur trading and logging eras, and the settlement of Temiskaming. Of equal interest is the mention in the diary of pioneers in the area, such as C.C. Farr, the founder of the town of Haileybury; Edouard Piche, one of the earliest settlers on Lake Temiskaming; and the Heard brothers from Haliburton, who were among the first homesteaders.

"For anyone interested in the history of northern Ontario, this is a 'must read.'"
- Bruce W. Taylor, genealogist, historian and author, his most recent book being New Liskeard: The Pioneer Years (2003).

"Peter’s poetry brings together the old world of his ancestors and heritage, and the new world to which he has emigrated. In each country he is comfortable in his body and in his language. Peter is realistically aware, and honours the yin and yang of both his ’homes.’"

- Beryl Baigent, poet, freelance writer and teacher

"Teachers have a gift for giving. As with all great teachers, Peter Jailall’s poetry gives its readers life’s lessons of tolerance and justice, sadness and laughter, pride and passion. Peter’s poetry has something important to say and to be learned. Its gift is that it is told with clarity and inventiveness."

- Jim Giles, teacher, Peel Board of Education

"There are but few poets capable of touching us socially, politically and economically. However, Peter Jailall is one of these limited few; his work compels us to take note of our daily lives as we communicate with each other."

- Kofi Casisi, teacher, poet