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Most of this book consists of narratives by four Canadian fur traders who visited the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians in the 1790s and early 1800s. The accounts by Macdonell, Thompson, Larocque, and Mackenzie have been published before, but the current editors were not satisfied with previous editing. The annotated narratives are preceded by the editors' 74-page historical summary and description of the fur trade with the Mandan and Hidatsa until the withdrawal of Canadian interests, about 1818. This long introduction is based on both secondary sources and extensive use of the Hudson Bay Company's Brandon House Post Journals. An appendix includes several useful tables, including a record of documented trips to the Mandan and Hidatsa villages by Canadian traders, a list of goods traded, and an inventory of trade goods at Brandon House. The editors are both anthropologists; Wood has written extensively on exploration and the fur trade in the northern plains of the US. General and academic readership, upper-division undergraduate level and above.-P.T. Sherrill, University of Arkansas at Little Rock