THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY
“Captivating! A tale of charm, high drama and some revelations of the love existing between man and beast.”
The New York Times
“An incredible book! A beautiful story so moving that it stays in the mind constantly. It is a gem to be treasured!”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“I have read THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY with much enjoyment. Obviously the author has a great knowledge of animals and a great love for them.”
Joy Adamson,
author of BORN FREE
ALSO AVAILABLE IN LAUREL-LEAF BOOKS:
SNOW BOUND,
DEATHWATCH,
DOWNRIVER,
THE ISLAND,
THE CROSSING,
THE NIGHT THE WHITE DEER DIED,
NIGHTJOHN,
DEADLY DECEPTION,
THE HOUSE ACROSS THE COVE,
AK,
Published by
Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers a division of
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
1540 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
Copyright © 1960, 1961 by Sheila Burnford
Copyright renewed © 1988 by Jonquil Graves, Juliet Pin, and Peronelle Robbins
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.
The trademark Laurel-Leaf Library® is registered in the U. S.
Patent and Trademark Office.
The trademark Dell® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
eISBN: 978-0-307-77834-5
RL: 6.0
Published by arrangement with the author’s estate
v3.1
TO MY PARENTS
I. P. AND W. G. C. EVERY
AND TO THEIR GRANDCHILDREN
PERONELLE, JONQUIL AND JULIET
WHO GREW UP UNDER THE DESPOTIC WHITE PAW OF DEAR BILL
Contents
The Beasts
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
THE BEASTS
—WALT WHITMAN,
1
THIS JOURNEY took place in a part of Canada which lies in the northwestern part of the great sprawling province of Ontario. It is a vast area of deeply wooded wilderness—of endless chains of lonely lakes and rushing rivers. Thousands of miles of country roads, rough timber lanes, overgrown tracks leading to abandoned mines, and unmapped trails snake across its length and breadth. It is a country of far-flung, lonely farms and a few widely scattered small towns and villages, of lonely trappers’ shacks and logging camps. Most of its industry comes from the great pulp and paper companies who work their timber concessions deep in the very heart of the forests; and from the mines, for it is rich in minerals. Prospectors work through it; there are trappers and Indians; and sometimes hunters who fly into the virgin lakes in small amphibious aircraft; there are pioneers with visions beyond their own life span; and there are those who have left the bustle of civilization forever, to sink their identity in an unquestioning acceptance of the wilderness. But all these human beings together are as a handful of sand upon the ocean shores, and for the most part there is silence and solitude and an uninterrupted way of life for the wild animals that abound there: moose and deer, brown and black bears; lynx and fox; beaver, muskrat and otter; fishers, mink and marten. The wild duck rests there and the Canada goose, for this is a fringe of the central migratory flyway. The clear tree-fringed lakes and rivers are filled with speckled trout and steelheads, pike and pickerel and whitefish.
