REVIEW
David Thompson, the Explorer. By Charles Norris Cochrane, Toronto. The Macmillan Company, 1924. Pp. 173. $1.00.
Mr. J. B. Tyrrell rescued the name and fame of David Thompson from Oblivion. In the Proceedings of the Canadian Institute, 1887-88, he gave the first connected account of this wonderful man and his work. Mr. T . C. Elliott has published with illuminating introductions and explanatory notes many extracts from his journals covering short journeys here and there in the region west of the Rockies. And Thompson's own Narrative with notes by Mr. Tyrrell, Mr. Elliott, and others has been issued by The Champlain Society. But all of these have been for the lover of history, for the person already well versed in the story of the West.
Now appears this little book which makes a very broad appeal to the student; to him who wishes to learn something of the romantic past of the North West; and to him who merely desires to read an attractive, but true tale of adventure.
Professor Cochrane has succeeded in producing a book Which finely combines accuracy with attractiveness. The story ripples along; at the same time a true picture is drawn; and Thompson stands out, a real and living person. The incidents are interestingly told and leave upon the reader's mind a distinct view of the salient features of Thompson's character. There is no pretense to any independent research. The author has, as the preface indicates, merely taken Thompson's Narrative with its full explanatory notes, condensed it discriminatingly, and told the story in terms of modern geography.
Page 106 is, however, a very unfortunate page. It is doubtful whether, in 1806, John Jacob Astor was "exerting all his strength to build up a fur trading empire on the Pacific slope;" nor is it at all clear that, in 1806, the Hudson's Bay Company "for some years had been
