THE ENGLISH RIVER BOOK: A NORTH WEST COMPANY JOURNAL AND ACCOUNT BOOK OF 1786 Edited and with an introduction by Harry W. Duckworth Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1989. 256pp, cloth, $32.95 ISBN 0-7735-0714-0. CIP Grades 10 and up/Ages 15 and up Reviewed by Jack Brown. Volume 18 Number 2 1990 March A parchment-bound manuscript of seventy-three foolscap pages survives from 1785 and details the activities of the North West Company post on the Churchill River, then known as the English River. This journal provides a day-to-day record of the company's operations under the direction of Peter Pond. The account book describes post business and gives an inventory of trade goods. Since it was written at the Athabasca post itself, the journal's vivid details enrich our understanding of life in the region. The journal throws us immedi­ately into the middle of the spring trade and describes the Cree who sold moose and caribou. Activities include packing furs, making pemmican, building canoes and responding to spring flooding. There is a list of 118 clerks, voyageurs and Indians as well as a brief Cree vocabulary. Duckworth has provided a fine introduction, extensive notes and addi­tional biographical information from other sources. An excellent bibliogra­phy, index and end-paper map make the book easy to use. An authority on western Canada has endorsed the book as "painstaking, detailed, scholarly - a labour of love, entirely commendable," and it is. However, there are no photo­graphs or illustrations and the text is heavy going, so the book will be of interest chiefly to readers who are really serious about fur trade history. Jack Brown, Kingston C.V.I., Kingston, Ont.