'To be in the middle of The Barrens with the knowledge that the easiest way out was 500 miles down the river, and the hardest way out was 300 miles back up the river, we were left with no illusions as to how vast and lonely a tract of country it is.'
The Barren lands extend across mainland Canada from the Hudson Bay almost to the MacKenzie. For most of the year it is held in the terrible desolation of winter. No rivers in the whole of the North American Continent traverse more remote, wild or potentially dangerous country.
George Spenceley tells how he and Tom Price set out to canoe across the Barrens, following the route taken 50 years earlier by three British travellers of unusual interest, who perished there.
Readers FRED BRYANT PETER WICKHAM and MANNING WILSON
Producer JOHN KNIGHT