The Pioneers A Tale of the Western Wilderness & Fast in the Ice; R.M. Ballantyne Series

San Antonio, TX: The Vision Forum, Inc, 2008. Revised. Hardcover_cloth. Collectible - Near Fine. 5.25"x8.25". 408 pgs.pgs. No DJ. Third Printing. Each color of cloth boards in this series represents which geographic region the story is located in. This title the cloth boards are Forest Green which represents N. America. Title, with gilt line above and beneath, and a Scotch Thistle emblem in gilt on front. All this is mirrored on spine. Frontispiece "A Wild Goose Chase." May have other B&W illustrations. Spine straight, binding tight, pages clean and bright. Not x-library & unmarked. Pg. 91 dog ear crease. The Pioneers: Adventures and discoveries of Sir Alexander Mackenzie

Fast in the Ice: This little book describes a visit up to the Arctic regions, that was supposed to have taken place long before the book was written, in other words in the early part of the nineteenth century. The purpose of the journey was to get near to the North Pole, which was considered to be surrounded by a large area of ice-free water. The vessel in which they sailed became beset by ice, and could not be moved. They met with Esquimaux, and saw how they survived, how they killed walrus, how they caught birds, and how they lived in their ice-houses, or igloos. They also had several encounters with polar bears, and musk-ox.
Eventually they have been in the ice for a couple of years, and some of the men are suffering from scurvy. Europeans get scurvy from lack of fruit and vegetables, but this condition doesn't seem to affect the Esquimaux, whose meat and fat diet does not cause them to have heart disorders, either.
The crew eventually abandon the vessel, which has been crushed suddenly and totally by a stream of ice-floes, and are obliged to walk out of where they had spent so much time. Luckily, when at their last gasp, they find an Esquimaux village, where they learn that there is a Danish settlement not too far away, and that from it they can take ship for Europe, and eventually make their way back to Britain.