Notes of a Twenty-Five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory. Volume II.

"Notes of a Twenty-Five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory. Volume II." by John M'Lean is a historical account written in the mid-19th century. The book chronicles the author's experiences and observations during his service with the Hudson's Bay Company in the harsh and remote territory of the Hudson Bay region. The narrative provides insights into the landscape, the indigenous peoples, and the challenges of life in an area marked by extreme weather and scarce resources. The opening of the volume begins with M'Lean's journey to Norway House, detailing the difficulties faced by the party as they navigate snow-covered terrain. The text describes the changing seasons and the landscape's beauty despite its adversities, such as snowstorms and the scarcity of game. M'Lean's reflections on the social customs of local Indian tribes are intertwined with descriptions of travel hardships, establishing a setting that highlights both the natural environment and human resilience amidst isolation and hardship. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

John McLean was a Scotsman who emigrated to British North America, where he became a fur-trapper, trader, explorer, grocer, banker, newspaperman, clerk, and author. He travelled by foot and canoe from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back, becoming one of the chief traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. He is remembered as the first person of European descent to discover Churchill Falls on Canada's Churchill River and sometimes mistakenly credited as the first to cross the Labrador Peninsula. Long overlooked, his first-person accounts of early 19th-century fur trading in Canada are now valued by historians. Under the pen name Viator, his letters to newspapers around Canada also helped shift public opinion away from yielding the western territories to the United States during the Alabama Claims dispute over damages for British involvement in the American Civil War.