Canada North of Sixty

Nora T. Corley is a writer and librarian in Ottawa.

This very handsome and well written large-format book describes
Canada’s Northwest and Yukon territories. There are 19 essays, each by
a different author, covering such diverse subjects as a general
description of the Northwest Territories; memories of growing up in
Iqaluit (then Frobisher Bay) and the changes that took place over the
years as its inhabitants adjusted to new ways and morals; the
Qitdlarssuaq Expedition of 1987, which retraced the last large Inuit
migration from Baffin Island to Greenland; Inuit storytelling; fauna;
Native art and craft; the Northwest Passage; northern vegetation; the
Dene and Métis; northern aviation and bush pilots; wilderness travel;
history of the Inuvialuit (the people who live along the mainland Arctic
coast between Herschel Island and Cape Bathurst); hunting and fishing;
and a general description of the Yukon Territory, the Yukon gold fields,
and Yukon Indians, ending with the Yukon Native story of the creation.
Interspersed throughout the text are six superb photographic essays:
Eastern Arctic, High Arctic, Central Arctic, Northern Frontier, Western
Arctic, and Yukon. Though many photographers are represented, the
majority of pictures are by Wolfgang R. Weber. Short biographies are
given for the authors of the text and the principal photographers. The
potential reader should not be put off by this book’s coffee-table
size or by its price. The high quality of the text and photographs make
this a most welcome addition to any Arctic library, whether personal or
institutional.