No doubt all outsiders are guilty of trespass, especially those who violate the domains of specialists, but as far the Northwest Passage and my own experiences are concerned, here I will claim - to some extent at least - to know whereof I speak. It was in fact my lot to spend almost two decades in the Canadian Arctic, firstly on the east and west coasts of Hudson Bay, on James Bay, and then at a variety of locations largely along the lower reaches of the Northwest Passage itself. During these years I lived on the east and west coasts of Baffin Island; on the coasts of Melville and Boothia Peninsulas, on Jenny Lind Island, on the southern coast of