He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, and in 1841 he became a clerkwith the Hudson Bay Company, working at the Red River Settlement inNorthen Canada until 1847, arriving back in Edinburgh in 1848. Theletters he had written home were very amusing in their description ofbackwoods life, and his family publishing connections suggested that heshould construct a book based on these letters. Three of his mostenduring books were written over the next decade, "The Young FurTraders", "Ungava", "The Hudson Bay Company", and were based on hisexperiences with the H.B.C. In this period he also wrote "The Coralisland" and "Martin Rattler", both of these taking place in places nevervisited by Ballantyne. Having been chided for small mistakes he made inthese books, he resolved always to visit the places he wrote about.With these books he became known as a great master of literatureintended for teenagers. He researched the Cornish Mines, the LondonFire Brigade, the Postal Service, the Railways, the laying down ofsubmarine telegraph cables, the construction of light-houses, thelight-ship service, the life-boat service, South Africa, Norway, theNorth Sea fishing fleet, ballooning, deep-sea diving, Algiers, and manymore, experiencing the lives of the men and women in these settings byliving with them for weeks and months at a time, and he lived as theylived.