Turner, Philip

   Entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company about 1779, and carried out important surveys for the Company. Stationed at Cumberland House in 1789, and while there gave David Thompson instruction in practical astronomy. Between 1790 and 1792 made a survey of Lake Athabaska, and of the canoe route from Cumberland House to Great Slave Lake. Dr. J. G. Kohl says that his manuscript journal of a Journey from Cumberland-house towards the Athapiscow Country and back to York Factory, 1790-1792, is preserved in the archives of the Hudson's Bay Company at London. His map of this region, the original of which is also in the Hudson's Bay Archives, is reproduced in Burpee's Search for the Western Sea. His careful survey of Lake Athabaska was important in that it corrected Peter Pond's crude map, which placed the western end of the lake as far west as 131°, and so gave rise to the impression that the lake was within easy reach of the Pacific Ocean.

   Index: MS Sent west to explore by Hudson's Bay Company, 57; meets Alexander Mackenzie, 57; winters at Chipewyan, 57; determines its position, 57.

   Bib.: Burpee, Search for the Western Sea; Bryce, Hudson's Bay Company.