David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations in Western America Part 1 & 2

David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations in Western America Part 1 & 2 - David Thompson, Joseph Burr Tyrell

So clearly I didn't go with the "Clear up the shelf/Tidy the Apartment" motif and I dived straight into Thompson's Narrative.

Or, to be more precise, dived into the introduction, and then the itinerary, and now, some 100 or so pages in I'm into the narrative. 

Now I love this, it's a keeper, for in it much will be found that will benefit our intrepid prospector, an abundance of clues to be followed up upon, and already, recognizing all the historical routes he travelled and pioneered, the distances he covered, the tribes he met, his own reflections on such (he was 14 when he arrived in Hudson's Bay apprenticed to the Company, "sold" for want of better world from his orphanage in Westminster, and his descriptions of the wildlife, the abundant forts, factory's, houses and camps the fur traders stayed in, along the Red Deer, all environs Alberta and BC as far as the Arrow Lakes and Revelstoke, well, all these places now lost to the woods and can be reasonably pinpointed on a map (and gone to with a metal detector), there will be treasures to be found for sure. I need to make sure I have wheels and next summer free...

And recognizing, of course, the creeks and rivers that he passed over that later proved the site of major gold rushes, a shame he wasn't more of a geologist or taught to dip the pan, but - I'm early into it, there will be clues.

First person history, by North America's greatest geographer and far, far earlier than Lewis and Clark (and far better travelled).

My edition, a limited and numbered one from a limited run of 500, so probably hard to find your own, but you can read it all here online: https://archive.org/details/davidthompsonsna12thom/page/n9/mode/2up