On trail and rapid by dog-sled & canoe

"On trail and rapid by dog-sled & canoe" by H. A. Cody is a missionary biography for young readers written in the early 20th century. It recounts the adventurous life and ministry of Bishop William Carpenter Bompas in the Canadian North, following his travels by canoe and dog-sled among Indigenous peoples and the Inuit (then called Eskimo). Framed by tales of exploration and the fur trade, it emphasizes endurance, faith, and Arctic hardship. The opening of the book sets the stage with a brief preface to young readers, a contents list, and a tribute poem, then surveys the North’s “romance of exploration”—fur companies, river routes, and pathfinders like Hearne, Mackenzie, and Campbell—leading to early posts on the Mackenzie and Yukon. It then sketches Bompas’s quiet upbringing, deepening faith, shift from law to Anglican ministry, curacies in rough English parishes, and the moment he volunteers after a bishop’s appeal to relieve a Yukon missionary. Next comes his arduous transit across the Atlantic and the continent—brigade boats, late‑season canoeing through ice, and a final dash by snow-shoes and dog team—to reach Fort Simpson on Christmas morning. The narrative follows his first Arctic foray among Inuit communities: snow-blindness, nights in snow houses, efforts to teach despite language barriers, confrontations with shamans, and a near-fatal crisis averted by a friendly chief’s intervention. It closes this opening section with a compact ethnographic portrait of Inuit tools, food, clothing, boats, travel, and beliefs, and with Bompas beginning a hazardous trek out of the North after being asked to become a bishop.

Summary written by Project Gutenberg, by machine.