p. ??, Peter Fidler at Norway House in 1800: But he provided himself very well with the means to spend profitably any time he could take off from fur trading or hunting buffalo, for he undoubtedly took to Chesterfield House the instruments, nautical almanacs and books which had been sent to him by the ship of 1799 and on which he had spent no less than £30 out of his salary of £60 for season 1798-99. [Footnote 6: The books sent to Fidler in 1799 were Poets & Novels; Hennes Eng.; Goldsmith’s Grecian History and his Roman History; Charles Hutton’s Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary; his Compendious Measurer; Diarian Miscellany; John Gay’s Fables; Guide to old age; Charles Vyse’s Arithmetic; an abridged Buffon’s Natural History; Samuel Hearne’s Journey to the Northern Ocean; Monthly Reviews; Annual Register; John Imison’s School of Art; Samuel Vince’s Practical Astronomy; John Wilson’s Trigonometry; and Leadbeater’s Drawing. p. lxxxv-lxxxvi]
p. xciii: … and for leisure reading he [Fidler] must have had the books which had been bought on his account and sent out from London by the ship of 1800. [Footnote 3: costing nearly £8 they included: one on surgery, one on wounds, one on geography, one
on ancient and modern geography and history, one on astronomy, some solar and lunar tables, the Annual Register for 1799, a History of Jews (sixty parts to be bound in one volume) and a History of the Bible (also in sixty parts….]
p. xcviii: The choice [of things to be sent to York Factory] made by such men as David Thompson, Peter Fidler and Malchom [sic] Ross included many surveying instruments to add to those provided by the Company, nautical Almanacs, necessary text books, and reading matter for pleasure. Mention has already been made of the books Fidler is thought to have taken with him to Chesterfield House; his earlier purchases included the Mysteries of Adolphus (sic) and Harrison’s British Classics. James Bird acquired a violin about 1795 and some three years later added an Ancient Universal History in twenty-one volumes as well as Pleasures of the Imagination by Ackinside (Akenside) to his personal library. Again, in 1799, the supply-ship brought him ‘Tasso Jarusalem 2 volumes …; Popes Select Poems 1 vol….; Rowes [trans.] Lucans Pharsalia 2 vol. …; Lewis’s [trans.] Thebaid of Statius 2 vol. …; [Roger’s] Pleasures of Memory 1 vol. …’ costing £2 9s 0d. For lighter moments David Thompson’s many purchases included Milton’s Paradise Lost, several volumes of Dr Johnson’s Rambler, Blair’s Belles Lettres and Hooper’s Recreations.[Footnote 6—Ann Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho was sent to Fidler by ship of 1795.]