The Elusive Mr. Pond: The Soldier, Fur Trader and Explorer Who Opened the Northwest, Gough, Barry. Published by Douglas & McIntyre, Madeira Park, BC, 2015. First Edition. 8vo up to 9½” tall., 272pp. with mapped endpapers, black and white illustrations and maps. Volume is in fine, unread condition and housed in a fine jacket with the lightest of shelf wear. and unclipped jacket are in fine, collectible condition.
Peter Pond (1739-1807) was a soldier, fur trader and explorer; he mentored Alexander Mackenzie and mapped much of northwestern Canada before him. Much of Pond’s life is shadowed in mystery. Historian Barry Gough uses Pond’s surviving memoirs, explorers’ journals, letters written by acquaintances of Pond, publications in London magazines and many other sources to track and reconstruct the life of one of the last of the tough, old-style explorers who ventured into the wilderness with little more than a strong instinct for survival and helped shape the modern world.
