The Whisper on the Night Wind - The True History of a Wilderness Legend

Informationen zum Autor ADAM SHOALTS has been called one of Canada’s greatest living explorers and in 2018 was named an Explorer-in-Residence of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He is also a historian, archaeologist, and geographer, and his book Alone Against the North was a #1 national bestseller. His books, A History of Canada in Ten Maps and The Whisper on the Night Wind , were also national bestsellers. Shoalts’ adventurous career has included discovering waterfalls, mapping rivers, numerous archaeological digs, tracking down elusive flora and fauna, and in 2017 completing a nearly 4,000 km solo journey across Canada’s Arctic. His expeditions have been featured in media around the world, including the BBC, CNN, MSN, CTV, CBC, TVO, Global, Nature , and The Guardian. In 2020, Canadian Geographic included him on their list of the most influential explorers in Canada’s history. Klappentext "Spine-tingling adventure that is stranger than fiction, from Canada's most beloved modern-day explorer. Traverspine is not a place you will find on most maps. A century ago, it stood near the foothills of the remote Mealy Mountains in central Labrador. Today it is an abandoned ghost town, almost all trace of it swallowed up by dark spruce woods that cloak millions of acres. In the 1910s, this isolated little settlement was the scene of an extraordinary haunting by large creatures none could identify. Strange tracks were found in the woods. Unearthly cries were heard in the night. Sled dogs went missing. Children reported being stalked by a terrifying grinning animal. Families slept with cabin doors barred and axes and guns at their bedsides. Tales of things that "go bump in the night" are part of the folklore of the wilderness, told and retold around countless campfires down through the ages. Most seldom seem very tangible. Sasquatch, windigos, and other legends are easily dismissed by skeptics. But what happened at Traverspine a hundred years ago was different. The eye-witness accounts were detailed, and those who reported them included no less than three medical doctors and a wildlife biologist. Something terrifying really did emerge from the wilderness to haunt the little settlement of Traverspine. Adam Shoalts, decorated modern day explorer and an expert on wilderness folklore, picks up the trail from a century ago and sets off into the Labrador wild to investigate the tale. It is a spine-tingling adventure stranger than fiction, straight from a land steeped in legends and lore, where Vikings wandered a thousand years ago and wolves and bears still roam free. In delving into the dark corners of Canada's wild, The Whisper on the Night Wind combines folklore, history, and adventure into a fascinating saga of exploration."-- Leseprobe PREFACE   Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us; Let us journey to a lonely land I know. There’s a whisper on the night-wind, there’s a star agleam to guide us, And the Wild is calling, calling . . . let us go. —Robert Service, “The Call of the Wild,” 1907     The pale glow of the moon, half hidden in clouds, illuminated the ghostly shapes of the crooked black spruces. They were ancient trees, their bark coarse and scaly, their branches draped as if in cobwebs with hanging mosses. We’d camped in the shadows of the mountains, near a nameless stream that tumbled over rocks already half a billion years old before the first dinosaur ever walked the earth. The place had the feel of ancientness about it—as if it had lain undisturbed for centuries.   I lay outstretched in my tent, utterly exhausted from a bru-tally hard day, almost delirious from dehydration and hundreds of blackfly bites. Obtaining water had proved difficult, as the raging mountain stream, with its crisp, cool waters, lay at the bottom of steep cliffs that were difficult to scale down. Instead we’d foun...

Product details

• Authors: Adam Shoalts
• Publisher: Penguin Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 10.05.2022
• EAN: 9780735241060
• ISBN: 978-0-7352-4106-0
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 200 mm x 15 mm
• Subject: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Biographies, autobiographies