n the late spring of 1903, Leonidas Hubbard, a young writer and his friend Dillon Wallace, a 40-year-old New York attorney, set off with George Elson, a Scots-Cree guide with no firsthand knowledge of their destination, to explore the incompletely mapped Lake Michikamau region of interior Labrador. Beset by delays, the men paddle past their intended route, the Naskaupi River, and head up the horrible Susan River instead. When in early September they finally glimpse the vast waters of Michikamau from the top of an unknown mountain, Labrador's cold winds had begun. With scant scraps of food remaining, the three begin a desperate struggle against starvation and the rapidly approaching and unforgiving winter as they race home for their lives.  (CND369, $18.99)