Every year without fail, caribou from the Yukon and Alaska set off in early April to a small corner of the Arctic circle to birth to their young. This work presents an account of the arduous journey of the Arctic caribou.

Every year without fail, caribou from the Yukon and Alaska set off in early April to a small corner of the Arctic Circle to give birth to their young.The journey of 3000 miles is the longest migration of any land animal on earth. Despite the formidable obstacles, the females find their way to the calving grounds on the coast of the Beaufort Sea, deliver their calves in June, and then begin their long journey home. This is their story, told by an author who travels to the Arctic on his sixtieth birthday, partly to "witness a few moments of this endless turning circle of birth and rebirth," partly to fulfill a promise he made to a visionary ecologist, and partly to answer the question,"What is the true nature of the North?" Personal and profound, chock-full of adventure, literary references, natural history, and ecological concerns, Mr. Reid has written a memoir that is moving and poignant, evocative and cautionary.