Books by or about Lowertowners – Paddling the Boreal Forest: Rediscovering A.P. Low

By Nancy Miller-Chenier

Max Finkelstein and James Stone, Paddling the Boreal Forest: Rediscovering A.P Low, Dundurn Press, 2004.

This book has two Lowertown connections – Jim Stone, a co-author and current resident of Lowertown and Albert Peter (A.P.) Low, former employee of the Geological Survey of Canada located from 1881 to 1911 at 541 Sussex Street.

Low (1861-1942) was a trailblazing explorer who contributed to our knowledge of Canada’s geology and geography as well as cartography, toponomy, climatology, and other sciences.

With guidance from local Indigenous Peoples – Cree, Innu, and Inuit – Low spent more than ten years surveying locations that included James Bay, Hudson Bay, Lake Mistassini, Lake Naococane, Lake Nichicun, Eastmain River, Marten River, Natastan River, Grande River, and others. In documenting and mapping vast northern territories in the late nineteenth century, Low affirmed Canadian federal sovereignty over the area of Hudson Bay and the eastern Arctic Islands. 

Co-authors Finkelstein and Stone are passionate canoeists who argue that “a canoe trip is a pilgrimage in being Canadian.” Readers do not have to paddle and portage to feel a connection to Canada’s northern wilderness.

The attempt by Jim Stone and Max Finkelstein to replicate a section of Low’s remarkable explorations – James Bay/Ungava/Labrador territory – provides an extraordinary and very readable tale of modern-day adventurers. Their travels in the Québec-Labrador boreal forest area covered almost 1000 kilometres and over 87 portages.

Both sets of adventurers experienced the negatives of blackflies, mosquitoes, wet feet, and strenuous portages but also the wild natural beauty of the boreal forest, its rocks, and waterways. Both gave detailed descriptions of plant and animal life as well as geographic features. In their challenging canoe voyage on some of the same rivers and portages travelled by Low, the book’s authors, with their twentieth century equipment, were “humbled by the accuracy of Low’s maps and the pace of his travel.”

The background on Low and his multiple trips for the Geological Survey intertwined with the details of the co-author’s adventures and misadventures results in a book that will capture the interest of a wide range of readers.