BIBLIOGRAPHY
The most important source of information regarding the life and work of David Thompson is to be found in the Publications of the Champlain Society, Vol. XII. (Toronto, 1915). This volume contains the Narrative of Thompson's explorations, edited by Mr. J. B. Tyrrell with a full general introduction, an itinerary or catalogue of Thompson's journeys year by year, and notes on the text. The manuscript journals of Alexander Henry and David Thompson have been published, under the title of New Light on the Early History of the Great North West, by Elliott Coues (2 vols., New York, 1897). In this work, Henry's journal has been published as a continuous narrative, and extracts have been made from Thompson's journal to throw additional light on specific points. Thompson's original note books are in the Crown Lands Department, Parliament Buildings, Toronto. They are too bulky, and too much encumbered with mathematical data, to be of interest to the general reader, and so have never been published as they stand. An article by Mr. L. J. Burpee in the Canadian Historical Review, vol. IV., 1923, p. 105 ff., contains the prospectus of Thompson's map, and the series of five letters which he addressed to English statesmen on the subject of boundary disputes in 1840.
Washington Irving's Astoria presents a graphic picture of the occupation of the mouth of the Columbia by the agents of John Jacob Astor. The narrative contains an interesting account of the appearance of David Thompson at the newly erected fort, and of the impression which his arrival made upon the Astorians.
There are short chapters on Thompson in G. Bryce, History of the Hudson's Bay Company, Agnes Laut, Conquest of the Great North West, and W. S. Wallace, By Star and Compass.