The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Walrus Hunters, by R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: The Walrus Hunters
A Romance of the Realms of Ice

Author: R.M. Ballantyne

Release Date: June 6, 2007 [EBook #21709]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WALRUS HUNTERS ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

"The Walrus Hunters", by R.M. Ballantyne (1825-1894), 1893.

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This book is full of action. It deals with both a tribe of Red Indians,
of the Dogrib nation, and a tribe of Eskimos. Normally a certain
animosity existed between these two, but this tale relates how under
certain circumstances, members of these tribes could not only become
close friends, and work together towards a common goal, but also
intermarry.

There is no doubt but that the reader will have a greater knowledge of
the ways and thoughts of the Indian and the Eskimo, and kindly feelings
towards both, after reading this book--an easy task, for it is a good
and absorbing read.

In this little preface we have deliberately used the old-fashioned terms
for the two races, fully aware that they are both inexact, and that
today we would, for instance, use the term Inuit instead of Eskimo.
However, this book was written in 1893, and things were different then.

It has been written of Ballantyne that, in the last years before his
death in 1894, the quality of his work was failing and indeed
repetitive. Anyone reading this book can see that this is untrue, for
it is one of his very best. Indeed it is a strange thing that his
earlier books, which were well-promoted upon their publication, should
still be so much more read than his later ones. While working upon this
edition of "The Walrus Hunters" we found ourselves several times
reflecting upon this strange state of affairs.

Robert Michael Ballantyne was born in 1825 and died in 1894. He was
educated at the Edinburgh Academy, and in 1841 he became a clerk with
the Hudson Bay Company, working at the Red River Settlement in Northern
Canada until 1847, arriving back in Edinburgh in 1848. The letters he
ha