Those Earlier Hills: Reminiscences 1928 to 1961
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by R.M. Patterson
TouchWood Editions, Surrey, B.C., 2008
176 pp., illus., $24.95 hardcover
Naturalist R.M. Patterson is widely known among backwoods canoeists and dreamers of wilderness adventure, both for his travels and for his writings on the Nahanni River.
He was more than a paddler of northern rivers; for over thirty years he travelled extensively throughout the West and wrote fascinating chronicles of those experiences. Those Earlier Hills, a collection of stories representing Patterson’s contributions to The Beaver over several decades, will enthrall and entertain anyone interested in armchair exploration of the Canadian wilderness.
Patterson tells of his travels and of the few characters he met in what were then extremely remote parts of Canada. One of the old-timers headmired and wrote about, Albert Faille, on at least two occasions spent two years on the Nahanni without seeing a living soul. As someone who has followed some of the same routes as Patterson, I know that today you would be hard-pressed to find the solitude and untouched wilderness revealed in Those Earlier Hills.
— Ian McKelvie (Read bio)
Ian McKelvie was Marketing Director for Canada's National History Society at the time of this review.