Love of country springs from many roots; but perhaps the deepest patriotism is that which comes from an intimate knowledge of the face of the land itself. Thompson loved the great North West with the love of a man who knew it in all its moods; for he had journeyed through it and studied it carefully over a long period of years. He foresaw the day when the rolling prairies would be covered with smiling farms, and the Columbia valley would be the seat of a rich and vigorous civilization. In one respect, his vision of the future fell short of reality. Living in an age prior to the development of railways, he failed to see that these regions were destined to be linked by steel bands with the Canadas in a Dominion stretching from sea to sea. He thought of them rather as isolated communities, the middle west looking mainly for its outlet to Hudson Bay, the Pacific coast joined to civilization by the paths of ocean. Characters such as David Thompson are all too rare in the annals of a nation. So long as honour is due to great men, his memory deserves to be enshrined in the hearts of his countrymen; and his high qualities should be a model to those who inherit the Dominion which he did so much to make. 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.