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The Shoe And Canoe
Or Pictures Of Travel In The Canadas.
Illustrative Of Their Scenery And Of Colonial Life; With Facts And Opinions Of Emigration, State Policy, And Other Points Of Public Interest.
By John J. Bigsby, M.D.
London: Chapman and Hall; 1850 (1st edition)
2 Volumes
A British army surgeon and geologist, Bigsby was posted to Lower Canada in 1818. Shortly after his arrival, he was assigned to treat a typhus epidemic among Irish immigrants at Hawkesbury on the Ottawa River. The following year, he toured the Canadas to investigate geological resources, and that winter was appointed medical officer and secretary to the British Boundary Commission. In this capacity, he was involved in the determination of the boundary in the Lake St. Clair-Lake Erie area, and the surveying of northern Lake Huron and the vast region between Fort William and Lake of the Woods, 1819-22. This travel account of Bigsby's experiences in Canada is highly readable and full of local color, with much attention paid to landscape, natural history, native tribes and emigration. The plates, engraved after sketches by the author, include some interesting early views of northern Ontario: Black Falls on Lake Superior, Drummond Island, Confiance Harbour, Lake Entredeux, Lake Boisblanc, Fluor Island, Nipigon Bay, Thunder Mountains, Lake Lacroix and The Rat Portage, Lake of the Woods, etc.
2 volumes. 8" x 5". 352 + 346 pages. Original blind-stamped blue cloth boards with gilt spine titles. Yellow endpapers. Contains 4 engraved maps (2 folding) & 21 engraved plates (including 1 plan).
Very rare, original, 2 volume set of historic Canadiana!
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