North of the Canadian mainland lies a vast archipelago of islands, surrounded by a drifting, ever-changing mass of pack ice. Wind and tide so change the extent and location of this shifting ice, that any ship venturing into these regions can be trapped, held and sometimes crushed and sunk in a matter of hours. And yet, through this archipelago lay the way to Asia—the Northwest Passage….

How did the first explorers fare in this huge, dreary labyrinth of bare land and ever-moving ice as they sought the way west by sea? Farley Mowat, in ["Ordeal by Ice"], lets them speak for themselves. He has rescued from obscurity many fine accounts of early Arctic exploration, and, by careful selection and editing, draws a vivid picture of man's struggle against ice and weather in the Arctic…. A running commentary by Mr. Mowat links the excerpts….

The prose in all...