MacLennan, Hugh, 1907-1990.

Rivers of Canada / Hugh MacLennan ; with the camera of John De Visser.

Toronto : Macmillan of Canada, [1974]

270 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (on lining papers) ; 31 cm

"This beautiful and thought-provoking book, years in the making, brings a new perspective to the Canadian saga it also brings a new standard of excellence to those rare and wonderful books that succeed in pleasing both the eye and the mind. Through the pen of our most distinguished novelist, the story of the rivers of Canada, coast to coast, is told with a freshness t and perception that will catch the imagination of everyone who seeks answers to the questions "What is Canada really like?" and "How did the country develop this way?" Through the lens of our most distinguished photographer, the special look, manner, and mood of the rivers are recorded in pictures that speak eloquently for themselves. The importance of rivers in Canada-in times both past and present will come as an intriguing surprise to the reader who has simply taken them for granted. The opening lines of our recorded history, to be found in the smudged pages of the journals of the discoverers, describe how the first probing journeys into the unknown forest were made on the clear, cold streams that issued from the vastness of trees and rocks. These waterways carried the indomitable fur trader into the wilderness, and then the pioneer with axe and I plough. In time, almost st all of t the major cities of Canada arose at a river's mouth, at a river crossing, or at the point where rivers joined. Today. from the St. L Lawrence to the Fraser, the river still plays a vital role in transportation, energy, irrigation, and leisure. Canada's rivers are the veins through which the lifeblood of the nation flows. This is, of course, a book about rivers about the most important and interesting of our rivers. But is much more than that. It is, at times, the intimate journal of Hugh MacLennan, who subtly interweaves his thoughts, even his dreams, into the fabric of fact. On foot, by automobile, and by helicopter, he came to personal terms with all of the rivers he describes at length. As he writes, as he "thinks like a river", the scene shifts between the generations, famous names make a bow and vanish, and religion, folklore, politics, humour, and philosophy... all have their hour on the stage which his imagination builds beside the river. We are taken back beyond history, too, to the ancestors of our rivers, the rivulets of meltwater from the glaciers that once ruled the land. As the author stands by foaming rapid or gentle oxbow. his thoughts turn to aspects of our history-like the voyageurs, the men who adopted the birch-bark canoe and then paddled and portaged on great journeys beyond the imagining of the Indian. Threading the skein of waterways west from Montreal, they penetrated to the Arctic Ocean, then through the awesome barrier of the Rockies to the Pacific, making a unity of Canada, "from sea to shining sea, a century before the railways tied the knot in iron. Today, swiftly expanding cities and mushrooming industry threaten to destroy our river heritage; dramatically, the author decries the folly of this mind- less process, and enlists his reader's sympathies in the fight against it. Always, though, we are aware that the novelist's eye is on the people of the river, those who live on or near its banks, or are dependent upon it. He sees them as a special breed, their lives in harmony with the flow of water, at flood and ebb, secure in the certainty of an existence perpetually renewed. These are the rivers of Canada. This is their book."--Publisher.

0770511724
9780770511722

Rivers Canada.
Cours d'eau Canada.
Rivers
Travel
Canada Description and travel.
Canada Discription and travel 1950-
Canada Descriptions et voyages.
Canada

Dust jackets Specimens Canada 1974.
Illustrated works

Location: Library main canada 291549
Call No.: FC75 .M255 1974
Status: Available