{"product_id":"2940013484214","title":"The Young Voyageurs","description":"CHAPTER ONE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE FUR COUNTRIES.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBoy reader, you have heard of the Hudson's Bay Company?  Ten to one, you\u003cbr\u003ehave worn a piece of fur, which it has provided for you; if not, your\u003cbr\u003epretty little sister has--in her muff, or her boa, or as a trimming for\u003cbr\u003eher winter dress.  Would you like to know something of the country\u003cbr\u003ewhence come these furs?--of the animals whose backs have been stripped\u003cbr\u003eto obtain them?  As I feel certain that you and I are old friends, I\u003cbr\u003emake bold to answer for you--yes.  Come, then! let us journey together\u003cbr\u003eto the \"Fur Countries;\" let us cross them from south to north.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA vast journey it will be.  It will cost us many thousand miles of\u003cbr\u003etravel.  We shall find neither railway-train, nor steamboat, nor\u003cbr\u003estage-coach, to carry us on our way.  We shall not even have the help of\u003cbr\u003ea horse.  For us no hotel shall spread its luxurious board; no road-side\u003cbr\u003einn shall hang out its inviting sign and \"clean beds;\" no roof of any\u003cbr\u003ekind shall offer us its hospitable shelter.  Our table shall be a rock,\u003cbr\u003ea log, or the earth itself; our lodging a tent; and our bed the skin of\u003cbr\u003ea wild beast.  Such are the best accommodations we can expect upon our\u003cbr\u003ejourney.  Are you still ready to undertake it?  Does the prospect not\u003cbr\u003edeter you?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo--I hear you exclaim.  I shall be satisfied with the table--what care\u003cbr\u003eI for mahogany?  With the lodging--I can tent like an Arab.  With the\u003cbr\u003ebed--fling feathers to the wind!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEnough, brave boy! you shall go with me to the wild regions of the\u003cbr\u003e\"North-west,\" to the far \"fur countries\" of America.  But, first--a word\u003cbr\u003eabout the land through which we are going to travel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTake down your Atlas.  Bend your eye upon the map of North America.\u003cbr\u003eNote two large islands--one upon the right side, Newfoundland; another\u003cbr\u003eupon the left, Vancouver.  Draw a line from one to the other; it will\u003cbr\u003enearly bisect the continent.  North of that line you behold a vast\u003cbr\u003eterritory.  How vast!  You may take your scissors, and clip fifty\u003cbr\u003eEnglands out of it!  There are lakes there in which you might _drown_\u003cbr\u003eEngland, or make an island of it!  Now, you may form some idea of the\u003cbr\u003evastness of that region known as the \"fur countries.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWill you believe me, when I tell you that all this immense tract is a\u003cbr\u003ewilderness--a howling wilderness, if you like a poetical name?  It is\u003cbr\u003eeven so.  From north to south, from ocean to ocean,--throughout all that\u003cbr\u003evast domain, there is neither town nor village--hardly anything that can\u003cbr\u003ebe dignified with the name of \"settlement.\"  The only signs of\u003cbr\u003ecivilisation to be seen are the \"forts,\" or trading posts, of the\u003cbr\u003eHudson's Bay Company; and these \"signs\" are few and far--hundreds of\u003cbr\u003emiles--between.  For inhabitants, the country has less than ten thousand\u003cbr\u003ewhite men, the _employes_ of the Company; and its native people are\u003cbr\u003eIndians of many tribes, living far apart, few in numbers, subsisting by\u003cbr\u003ethe chase, and half starving for at least a third part of every year!\u003cbr\u003eIn truth, the territory can hardly be called \"inhabited.\"","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145649766640,"sku":"2940013484214","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013484214_p0.jpg?v=1763581500","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013484214","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}