First account of an ocean to ocean crossing of the North American continent, with much on the fur trade and aboriginal inhabitants. 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 "...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. This copy without original three engraved maps (which were often issued in a separate volume of their own), but in their stead are 19 painstakingly hand drawn ink maps showing the details of the route, many of them folding. They are of uncertain vintage. (Field 967;) Howes M113; (Streeter Sale 3653); Wagner-Camp 1:2.