Cold Comfort, Second Edition

Book excerpt: In 1936 Graham Rowley went to the still-unexplored west coast of Baffin Island as the archaeologist for a small British expedition - the last in the Canadian North that depended on traditional techniques. Cold Comfort, his acclaimed memoir of this period, captures the way of life in the North before World War II, including the experience of travelling by dogsled over unexplored land. This new edition includes the beginning of Rowley's planned sequel covering his post-war experiences in the Arctic. The additional three chapters describe Operation Musk-Ox, the first military exercise to show that it was feasible to manoeuvre in the Arctic even in winter, and Rowley's work for the Canadian Defense Research Board. An afterword by Susan Rowley and John Bennett expands on Rowley's ongoing involvement in the rapid change that took place from the Cold War to the establishment of Nunavut.