This essential volume of the highly esteemed Wisconsin Historical Collections is divided into four separate parts relating to the early fur trade in the Great Lakes region. The fur-trader's journal was written by Francois Victor Malhoit. Malhoit was a clerk assigned to a post at Lac Du Flambeau, among the wild Chippewa. In clear, vigorous language, he narrates the events of his daily like; drunken bouts among the savages, transportation of goods over a difficult portage, constant isolation and loneliness. The last two sections contain letters of the early leaders in the fur trade such as Alexander Henry and John Jacob Astor.