DAVID THOMPSON: A TRAIL BY STARS

XYZ Publishing, Lantzville, BC, 2006, 1^st paperback pr.  ISBN 1-894852-18-4 / 978-1-894852-18-0.  Trade soft cover, 170 pages including Chronology, Acknowledgments, Sources and Index.  Unread copy; black & white frontis, maps, illustrations and photos.  David Thompson arrived from London at Churchill Factory in 1784, having studied mathematics, astronomy, and navigation.  He clerked at the Hudson’s Bay Company and learned the skills of the fur trade.  While recuperating from a broken leg he trained as a surveyor.  He later joined the North West Company as a surveyor and mapmaker.  ‘Thompson surveyed and mapped the unknown north-western part of North America and succeeded in his task of finding a passable overland route from the St. Lawrence to the Pacific.  When he finally retired east in 1812 ... he had travelled some 80,000 kilometres by canoe, on foot, or on horseback.  David Thompson charted a continental area so vast it remains a mapping achievement unparalleled in human history.’  (from rear wrap)