From Streeter: This is the classic account of Mackenzie's journey from Fort Chipeway on Lake Athabasca, here called Lake of the Hills, down the river which bears his name to the sea and back in 1789. Even more important is the journal of the journey from the "New Establishment" on the Peace River to the Pacific Ocean (actually to "Mackenzie's Rock" on Dean Channel), and the return to Fort Chipeway. This journey marked the first crossing of the continent by white men.

Many Canadians with a Scottish background still feel the pull of their Gaelic origins. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scots dominated Montreal and, by extension, the rest of the country. Their habits and attitudes influenced business, education, science and medicine, the military, and even the way Canadians imagined themselves.

This detailed account of the physical features, vegetation, drainage, soils, minerals and climate of the Canadian West and the Northwest Territories was compiled in order to encourage settlement and exploitation of these areas.