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Mackenzie's classic account of his voyages, the first of which led him to the Arctic Ocean, and on the second he became the first white man to cross the North American continent north of Mexico "Mackenzie's narrative is of consumate importance in the literature of transcontinental travel. It is the first account of an ocean to ocean crossing of the North American continent. Mackenzie's account of the fur trade is of almost equal interest" - Graff. Streeter remarks that "this journey marked the first crossing of the continent by white men," and Wagner-Camp calls to mind the "sympathetic descriptions of the Knisteneaux (Cree), the Algonquin, and the Chipewyan Indians, with vocabularies of their languagues." A.S.W. Rosenbach notes that "no writer upon the subject of Indian customs and peculiarities has given us a more minute, careful and interesting relation of them." Hill calls this "the first and finest edition of one of the most imporant of Canadian books." Mackenzie's voyage was undertaken on behalf of the North West Fur Company, which was attempting to break the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company. One of the most important books in the annals of North American exploration, rivalling the accounts of Lewis and Clark, and Pike. In this copy there are a few instances of contemporary ink corrections to the text. Field 967; Graff 2630; Hill pp. 187-8; Howes M113; Peel 25; Streeter Sale 3653; Wagner-Camp 1.