156 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



to an inch, from the observations and surveys that he liad made during 

 the previous twenty years. This map, which is in possession of the 

 Crown Lands Department of the Province of Ontario is entitled " Map 

 of the North West Territory of the Province of Canada, 1792-1812, 

 embracing region between Latitudes 4.'")'^ and 56^, and Longitudes 84*' 

 and 121=" :" " Map made for the North West Company in 1813-1814." 



A.nd now our notice must be drawn to a close as quickly as possible, 

 as the object of this paper is to trace Mr. Thompson in his travels 

 through the North-west rather than to write a sketch of his life, 

 though such a sketch would undoubtedly be of absorbing interest. 



From 1816 to 1826 he was engaged in surveying and defining the 

 Boundary Line, on the part of Great BriLian, between Canada and 

 the United States, l)eing employed in 1817 in the St. Lawrence, and 

 having proceeded westward around the shores of the great lakes, he 

 reached the Lake of the Woods in 1825. In 1834 he surveyed Lake 

 Francis. In 1837 he made a survey of the canoe route from Lake 

 Huron to the Ottawa River and a few years later he made a survey 

 of Lake St. Peter. 



His last years wei-e spent either in Glengarry County, Ontario, or 

 in Longueil, opposite Montreal, where he died on the 10th of Feb- 

 ruary, 1857, at the ripe old age of neai-ly 87 years. His wife survived 

 him by only about three months, dying on the 7th of May of the same 

 year, and they are both buried in the Mount Royal Cemetery in 

 Montreal. 



He died in extreme poverty, and it was due to the kindness of 

 some of his old friends that he received a Christian burial. 



H. H. Bancroft, who has collected very many intei-esting details 

 about the old travelers and traders in the west, but to whom the lab- 

 ors of this remarkable man have, up to the present, remained almost 

 entirely a mystery, gives the following account of his personal appear- 

 ance ; " David Thompson was an entirely different order of man from 

 the orthodox fur-ti-ader. Tall and fine looking, of sandy complexion, 

 with large features, deep-set, studious eyes, high forehead and broad 



