Travelling the Dempster

Travel Canada's fabulous Dempster Highway with nature recordist John Neville, the Birdsong Man. Experience the natural history of this tundra wilderness in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, the land of the midnight sun. Enjoy bird encounters from a nature recordist's point of view. Meet some of the historical characters in Goldrush Dawson. Explore with Mackenzie and Franklin in this area above the Arctic Circle. Feel the heartache experienced b the Lost Patrol and the determination of the Mounties tracking the Mad Trapper of Rat River. Learn about Aurora Borealis, the Porcupine Herd of the Barren Ground Caribou, Willow Ptarmigan and much more.Review by Bill Hill, webpage Dempster Highway, http: //www3.sympatico.ca/billh56/I read the book with interest and I must say that Margo was pleased to see her mother included. On page 40 of your book you mention the silence of the north and that it actually seems to hum when you listen to it. I find this most interesting for it is this very hum that I find most informative and strangely the most important item I took south with me when I returned to southern Ontario. When the world becomes too much I sit in a quiet place and listen to the hum and it brings me the sense of a common thread between all of mankind and nature, once you have learned to listen you can find such peace and contentment, I so wish everyone could spend a little time in the north to learn and listen with all their senses and inadvertently learn what it is in life that is truly important. Money, war, and day to day strife are such a waste when you look at the big picture Page 59 mentions the world's most northerly frogs. Wood frogs are found throughout the Mackenzie Delta, not common but they are there. My wife Margo has an affinity with frogs for some reason and would often search them out. I can't recall if I've mentioned her most famous frog experience or not so will tell it briefly.Since moving down south she has had a ongoing battle with innocent harmless snakes, much to my aggravation but I let her be, saving snakes and removing them from our property when I get to them first. She came across a snake with a frog half swallowed, killing the snake she extracted the frog and what I find hard to believe is that when Margo went out to the garden to weed or whatever this, we assume, very same frog would come over to her and sit patiently by her while she did whatever it was she was up to. This went on for a few years but eventually the frog came no more, I have no idea their life span but again I assume it's not that long. Strange behavior for a frog can't have memory, or can it. I would think something this small on the evolutionary scale could hardly be thankful or grateful. To this day she still goes out of her way for frogs, just yesterday she took a frog into some protective cover were it could burrow for we have had a few killer frosts and they should be going to sleep for the winter now.The book was nice John, thank you, for anything that furthers the north and helps others find their way is doing the right thing.BH