Northcote reached the last river bend before Batoche at about 8:00 a.m. on May 9, 1885. The first enemy bullets punched throught the wooden planking minutes later. Anson Northup, the first steamboat on the Canadian prairies, arrived in Fort Garry in 1859. Belching hot sparks and growling in fury, it was called "fire canoe" by the local Cree. For 150 years, steamboats carried passengers and freight on the greatest-and most dangerous-Canadian rivers, leaving behind tales of flamboyance and daring that coloured the history of this country. Travel back in time aboard gold-rush paddle-steamers on the Yukon River, rugged sternwheelers on the Saskatchewan and Red Rivers and luxurious liners on the St.

Lawrence to the decades when steamboats sent the echoes of their shrill whistles across this vast land. Book jacket.