David Thompson, the explorer

by Charles Norris Cochrane

Thompson was therefore instructed to proceed to Lake la Biche or Red Deer lake, whose waters fall into the Athabaska river about fifty miles below Athabaska Landing. On the 14th of July, he set forth from Grand Portage with the Churchill river brigade. By the middle of August they had reached Cumberland House, and a week later they had crossed over Frog Portage to the main stream of the Churchill.

From this point west the route lay through a region as yet new to Thompson. As he ascended the river to Isle à la Crosse, he found that the country was still composed of the denuded rock with which he was familiar on the lower stretches of the river. Ridges of this rock, crossing the valley of the stream from point to point, gave it the character of an irregular chain of lakes with many portages and falls. Like the rest of the stony country, it was somewhat poor in game and fur-bearing animals, although many of the lakes teemed with fish.

From Isle à la Crosse to the valley of the Athabaska there were two possible routes. To the north there was Turnor's old course by way of Methy Portage and Clearwater river. To the south, the Beaver river led through a district of plain and forest to its headwaters at Beaver lake, from which there was an easy portage over the height of land to Lake la Biche. Thompson followed the Beaver river, and arrived at Lake la Biche in time to build a post before the beginning of winter.

He was now at the southern end of that vast stretch of country which he calls the Great Western Forest, and almost in the same latitude as that of Reed lake in the Muskrat country where he had spent the winter of 1794-5. He was thus in a position to compare the climate and soil of this region with that of his old home on the eastern or "Siberian" side of North America. Throughout the long winter months, he kept as usual a careful record of the temperatures registered from day to day by his thermometer. At Reed lake, the temperature for December had varied from 31° to -45° with a mean of -10° F. For January it had varied from 11° to -47° with a mean of -21.3°, and for February from 39° to -31° with a mean of 6°. At Lake la Biche he found that although in each of the three winter months, the mercury sank as low as 48° below zero, it rose at times as high as 43° above, and that the mean for December, the coldest month, was not lower than -6.5°. Then, too, while Reed lake was hardly above the level of Hudson Bay, the country about Lake la Biche was high and dry, and the snow did not lie so thick on the ground at the end of winter. Accordingly, the rays of the sun had a chance to exert their power on the face of the land much earlier in the year, and spring burst at Lake la Biche long before winter had loosened his iron grip on the region about Reed lake.

The forests with their wild life responded generously to the less rigorous climate. In the Muskrat region, the wretched traders and Indians were forced to scour the country for fish and game in quantities sufficient to keep them alive. At Lake la Biche the waters yielded an abundant supply of fish; and during the five months that he spent at the post, Thompson saw no less than forty-nine moose and several buffalo brought in, all of which had been shot within twenty miles of the house. There also all the animals, including the precious beaver, attained their full size and development.

Thompson wished to get an idea of the extent and general character of this western forest land, and the quickest way to do so was to survey the Athabaskan waters from their sources. Accordingly, when spring opened, he rode across country southwest to Fort Augustus and from thence westward to the headwaters of the Pembina, which at this point was divided from the valley of the Saskatchewan by a narrow neck of land. Embarking on the Pembina, he followed it down till it merged with the main stream of the Athabaska river. A short excursion up the Slave Lake river enabled him to explore the shore line of Lesser Slave lake. Returning to the Athabaska, he continued along its broad stream past Athabaska Landing to the mouth of the Clearwater river, and from thence he made his way along the well-known track by Methy Portage and the Churchill to Grand Portage. Throughout the region embraced in his survey, he found little exposed rock and therefore few lakes, but what was better for the beaver many small brooks and streams which they could dam for their ponds. The country thus promised a steady yield of furs from year to year, and this, with the generous supply of game which the forest offered to trader and trapper, was enough to justify the name which it bore, "The fur-traders' paradise."

In the mad competition for pelts, the different companies could not rest content with the trade of regions already within their grasp. Each of them sought always to push further afield; for he, who could anticipate his rivals in opening new country, might plant his trading houses on the most advantageous sites and bind the Indians to himself with ties which later comers could not break. In 1790, Peter Pangman for the North-Westers had pressed along the course of the North Saskatchewan to a point five miles above its junction with the Clearwater. There from a hill top he had gazed along the line of snow-capped Rockies, and his eyes had travelled up the winding course of the river to the gap through which it issued from the mountains. From that time the partners had never ceased to dream of the wealth that lay beyond the Great Divide. In a decade the line of their trading posts had been extended to a point but three miles short of "Pangman's Pine." There, in a wide plain not far from the forks of the river, rose the walls and blockhouses of Rocky Mountain House, destined to serve as a point of departure for the invasion of the last great area as yet unknown.

But much tedious work remained to be done before it would be possible to hazard the passage of the Rocky Mountains. Besides the North Saskatchewan, there were two main branches of the South river, the Red Deer and the Bow rivers, and these had to be surveyed to their sources in the foothills in order to determine the best routes for trade. The Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan Indians, whose encampments lay along the courses of these streams, were suspicious and hostile. They held these regions by right of conquest from the Kootenays and Snakes whom they had driven to the mountains; and these needed only to procure the muskets and ammunition which the white men could supply in order to sweep down through the rugged passes and revenge themselves for the defeats of many years. The Indians therefore steadily opposed any movement of the traders toward the Rockies, and even the stoutly fortified trading posts were hardly secure against a sudden assault.

In these circumstances, the partners at Grand Portage could think of no one better qualified than David Thompson to accomplish the objects of the company. They remembered the early connections which he had made among the Piegans during his service with the English, and they had complete confidence in his skill and daring. Thompson was accordingly taken away from his work in the Athabaska country, almost before it was well begun, and despatched up the Saskatchewan to Fort George, in order that he might draw the maps of his recent surveys and complete his preparations for the work that was now in hand.

In the spring he took horse and rode overland to Fort Augustus, and thence south along the Edmonton-Calgary line to a point just short of the present town of Lacombe. Turning west, he struck the Clearwater near its mouth and found himself at Rocky Mountain House. While he himself descended the North Saskatchewan to the elbow, making a survey as he went, he sent four French Canadians south to the Red Deer river, with orders to follow it to its junction with the main stream of the South Saskatchewan. A short distance below Rocky Mountain House, he found a party of Hudson's Bay men encamped for building. The English, as well as the Canadians, were bent on crossing the Great Divide; and it would be a serious blow if they were allowed to anticipate the North-Westers in so doing.