The March of the White Guard

A Hudson's Bay Company factor receives a pleading letter urging a search for a missing surveyor in the Coppermine and Barren Grounds; the sub-factor Jaspar Hume organizes and leads a perilous relief expedition across ice and storm, locating two buried companions and rescuing other members of a fragmented group. The narrative follows the grueling march home with an injured man cared for on sleds, chronicling delirium, small acts of devotion, and the practical tasks that sustain survival. Recurrent themes include endurance in extreme landscapes, comradeship among frontiersmen and voyageurs, and the discrete rituals and resourcefulness that allow a disparate party to reunite and return.