TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA By Patrick Campbell
For thirty years the publications of the Champlain Society of Toronto on Canadian history and travel have done credit to Canadian scholars and Edin- burgh printers. The long connexion between the Dominion and Scotland is recalled by the Society's new volume, issued only to members, in which Mr. H. H. Langton reprints and annotates the narrative of a young Scotsman's tour in New Brunswick and Quebec in 1791-2. Campbell, who published his book at Edinburgh in 1793, intended it as a guide for his fellow Highlanders who thought of emigrating to Eastern Canada, as many of them had already done. Thus he was careful to note the farming prospects, the possible markets, the salmon fisheries and other practical matters rather than scenery and the trivial incidents of travel. To an Eng- lish reader Campbell's account of the Indians and half-breeds is of special interest, and the life-story of David Ramsay, an old fur trapper from Fife who served as his guide, recalls the tales of Fenimore Cooper. Mr. Langton is a learned editor, but he is puzzled by some of the common Scots words like " throng " that Campbell naturally used.
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