The Explorer's Guide to Algonquin Park. Rev. ed.

John Abbott is a professor of history at Laurentian University’s Algoma University College. He is the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste Marie and The History of Fort St. Joseph.

Algonquin’s great expanse, its storied past, and, above all, its propinquity to Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe and the Ottawa conurbation have ensured its popularity as an all-season resort for tourists, campers, hikers, paddlers, naturalists, and artists of every kind and degree. Its charms have inspired its friends and administrators to create a substantial bibliography of books, pamphlets, guides, and maps revealing its secrets and proclaiming its glories. Many of these are listed in Appendix 2 of this third, revised, expanded edition of Runtz’s guide, first published in 1993. What does this volume offer the purchaser?

Those who require an introduction to the park’s visual characteristics and charms could not do better: the photographs are expertly composed, superbly reproduced, and illustrative of the park’s varied environments. The author has served 14 seasons as a park naturalist, as well as a host of other functions that took him by land and water into every nook and cranny of the domain. He is particularly strong (and eloquent) on habitat and the observation of various creatures in their particular environments, especially moose, wolves, bears, beavers, and loons. His advice on ways of coping with the succession of sucking and biting insects will receive a mixed reception. Everyone will recognize the value of light-coloured clothing; some will agree that unwashed human flesh offers a certain repellant advantage, even where insects are concerned; others (reflecting on the recent arrival of the West Nile virus) will spray exposed parts with repellants containing DEET (though they should respect his warning about the effect of insect spray on plastics and camera components).

Unfortunately, Runtz has not found a means of relating the information found on the multiple road maps to the many map references in the book informing readers where to find plants and animals in the various habitats. One is forever skimming backward and forward, looking for individual maps and kilometre markings, some of which are not even listed on the maps. A detailed park map inserted into a pocket inside the cover would solve this problem.