Magnetic North. A Trek Across Canada from the Pacific to the Atlantic by Foot, Dogsled and Canoe by David Halsey (review)

166 WesternAmerican Literature knowledge of your presence allows it to melt quietly away without being per­ ceived.” What does Perkins learn by trip’s end? Among other things: “I hear nu­ ances I hardly dreamed existed. I see more of what has always been there. I see with mywhole body, with a far less frantic eye.”What we learn is that his backers’ faith and money were well-placed. PAUL LEHMBERG Northern Michigan University Magnetic North: A Trek Across Canadafrom thePacific to theAtlantic byFoot, Dogsled and Canoe. By David Halsey, with Diana Landau. (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1991. 252 pages, $12.00.) Wilderness travel in the Far North has long tested the mettle of adventur­ ers. Those who survive (William Scoresby,Jack London, Knud Ramussen) often return to “civilization” to write about the physical and mental hardships en­ dured on the journey. In this respect, David Halsey’s Magnetic North is a typical wilderness travel narrative, recounting a 4/700 mile expedition through some of the most rugged mountains, swollen rivers, and frozen terrain North America has to offer. On August 17, 1979, Halsey and partner Peter Souchuk finish two years of hikes, paddles, portages, and mushes in Canada’s subarctic wilderness, having survived minus-50 degree temperatures, hunger, frostbite, hypothermia, nearfatal accidents, and incessantly wet sleeping bags. To offset these hardships, the “tenderfoot”Americans often had little more than their own hobnail determi­ nation to reach their goal, somewhere up ahead. In its mythic pattern of hero’s departure, initiation, and return, Halsey’s gritty Magnetic North is, again, consistent with the genre: starting out, Halsey forgets his compass; at midpoint, the pair discards its high-tech gear for dogsled and moosehide moccasins; and atjourney’send, the adventurers are welcomed like lost sons by the little town ofTadoussac, Quebec. Yet, the reader’svicarious participation in the adventurers’ achievement is tempered by the foreknowl­ edge that Halsey, who held on to life so doggedly in the wilds, is unable to do so upon return to the workaday world. As editor Diana Landau’s prologue reveals, in 1983 while working on the manuscript for Magnetic North and making plans to homestead in the Saskatchewan backcountry, Halsey, age 26, killed himself. Landau writes that those familiar with manic-depression “may recognize symptoms of the disease in aspects of Dave’s behavior during the journey—although it seems that the wilderness environment had a stabilizing and healing effect on him." Reviews 167 Unavoidably, this somber news casts a pall over Halsey’s story. The reader cannot help but armchair-analyze Halsey’s moments of feeling “superhuman with a strength derived from the elements” as symptoms of mania; and his frequent periods “haunted by self-doubt,”that of depression. Furthermore, the reader is left to question whether this gruellingjourney was, in fact, “stabilizing and healing” for Halsey, or whether it aggravated his illness. Either way, David Halsey’s story, both of hisjourney and his life, is one not easily resolved. JOHN A. KINCH Michigan State University The TaosIndians and theBattleforBlueLake. By R. C. Gordon-McCutchan. (Santa Fe, New Mexico: Red Crane Books, 1991. 236 pages, $25.95.) The Taos Indians fought a crucial and unprecedented battle for Blue Lake and its surrounding watershed because it had been their spiritual home and center of their religion for seven centuries. This pivotal argument was central to their resistance to settle for anything less than complete control over the region. The pueblo had long disputed the Blue Lake boundaries and had fought grazing and timber interests, fishermen, tourists, and litter on sites they considered sacred. Their primary opposition, the Forest Service and New Mexico’s senator Clinton P. Anderson, who accused the pueblo of wanting to exploit the watershed’s natural resources, resolutely campaigned against the Blue Lake bill (H.R. 471) until it finally passed December 2, 1970. R. C. Gordon-McCutchan sets out to tell the story of this convoluted, 60year legal struggle in a book which focuses on the positive. GordonMcCutchan ’s story, however, emphasizes the Taos Indians’non-native enemies and advocates. The pueblo councilman, Seferino Martinez, for example, whose story is embedded in a chapter the author titles “The LaFarge Era...