An old-fashioned, rip-snorting Arctic yarn

The Ice Master A Novel of the Arctic. By James Houston (McClelland& Stewart, $29.99).James Houston, a Canadian-born novelist, artist, documentaryfilmmaker and master designer for Steuben Glass, takes us to theArctic in The Ice Master, a novel about an encounter between a Yankeewhaler, a young Canadian sea captain, and some Eskimos on a smallisland in the Cumberland Sound off Baffin Island in 1876.

This is a rip-roaring, old-fashioned adventure story, packedwith information about whaling and Eskimo life a century ago, andbeautifully illustrated with the author's sketches.

Caleb Dunston is an overbearing, temperamental whaler who isforced by his employers to sail …