This is the story of the hard life of a trapper in Canada in the early 1800s. Charlie Kennedy lives in the Canadian arctic colony known as the Red River Settlement with Indians, Scotsmen, and French-Canadian settlers. His father, an old fur trader, hopes to convince his son to become a clerk by recounting the dangers of the trapper’s life, but the stories only inspire the boy more to explore the vast Canadian wilderness. Through a variety of circumstances, Charlie finds himself trapping in the vast forests, on a journey with voyageurs down perilous rivers, and surviving all sorts of scrapes and adventures with a new acquaintance, Jacques Caradoc, and an Indian named “Red Feather.” Many of Charlie’s exploits are taken from the real-life experiences of R.M. Ballantyne’s own time with the Hudson Bay Company in Canada. Just as Ballantyne had done, Charlie learns to shoot mercury from his rifle through a two inch board in 39 degree below zero temperatures! Discover the strenuous and vigorous life of a trapper through the eyes of Charlie and his intrepid friends.
Author
R. M. Ballantyne was a Scottish writer of juvenile fiction. Born Robert Michael Ballantyne in Edinburgh, he was part of a famous family of printers and publishers. At the age of 16 he went to Canada and where he served for six years with the Hudson's Bay Company. He returned to Scotland in 1847, and published his first book the following year, Hudson's Bay: or Life in the Wilds of North America. For some time he was employed by Messrs Constable, the publishers, but in 1856 he gave up business for literature, and began the series of adventure stories for the young with which his name is popularly associated.
