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ter) to the trading and missionary stations in Oregon and Idaho for a period of thirty years. Mention has been made in published references 12 of an attempt to anticipate the Pacific Fur Company (John Jacob Astor) in their settlement at the mouth of the Columbia river, but such was an erroneous con- clusion. No such attempt was made by the Northwesters, although unfortunate physical conditions in the fall of 1810 probably prevented David Thompson from proceeding down the Columbia then.
David Thompson was forty-two years of age when he re- turned to Fort William in 1812 and the following two years were devoted to recording the results of his surveys in Western Canada and the Rocky Mountain and Columbia River regions, and adding thereto surveys of other traders in districts he did not reach himself. The map he drew hung upon the wall of the directors room of the North West Company at Fort William for years and is still preserved in Toronto, Canada. It bears the legend : "Map of the North West Territory of the Province of Canada, 1792-1812, embracing region between Latitudes 45 and 56, and Longitudes 84 and 124. Made for the North West Company in 1813-1814." It was the only source of information about much of Western Canada for fifty years, and quite remarkably, still is as to certain parts. The surveys and observations of David Thompson in Canada and in Idaho are confirmed by those of the present day ; such was their accuracy.
In 1816 David Thompson was employed by the Dominion Government to take charge of surveying, in behalf of Great Britain, the international boundary line between the United States and Canada, work which required ten years to com- plete. He set the boundary marks from the St. Lawrence river as far west as the Lake of the Woods. For ten years longer he continued to do field work for the government and under private contract, but the later years of his life are not pleasant to refer to. His competence was quite ample for a
12 See Oregon Historical Quarterly Vol. XII, p. 195 et seq.; "David Thompson and the Columbia River," by T. C. Elliott, for such references, and other slight errors.
