A easy and interesting biography of David Thompson, likely one of the greatest geographers and mapmakers who ever lived. He surveyed and sketched more than 1.2 million square miles of Canadian Wilderness. Based on his book, it is safe to say he was completely comfortable living in the wilderness and learned much of his wilderness skills from first nations inhabitants. I was awestruck by his accomplishments and the distances he traveled. Those who paddle, enjoy the wilderness, fur trading, voyageurs and Canadian history will soak up this detailed account of life on the 17th century frontier. Thompson was also surveyor with the group commissioned by the British to determine the boundary between the US and Canada and paddled a number of times through Lake of the Woods to Grand Portage, through what's now the BWCA.

Included in the book are pictures with parts of his maps and drawings. I wish that the author would have included a modern day map with graphics showing the routes he took because he covered so much area. I locating one elsewhere on the internet.

Ironically, I am currently in the middle of another book about David Thompson. Sources of the river ~ by Jack Nisbet.

Nisbet visits the well known haunts of Thompson while writing about him. Also there are many excerpts from Thompsons' journals. One of my favorites so far is, "The Scene around us has nothing of the agreeable in it, All Nature seems to frown, the Mountains are dreary, rude, & wild, beyond the power of the Pencil."
Very interesting read.

I am sure both books are very compareable.