A very scarce map relating to the search for a Northwest Passage. The Hudson Bay Company, whose monopoly meant they had undertaken most of the attempts, had so far failed in finding one. This map was commissioned by Arthur Dobbs who challenged their attempts. The map draws upon the cartography supposedly gathered by Joseph La France, a French Canadian Indian trapper. He had traversed the area between 1739 and 1742. The most obvious feature of this map is the west coast of North America. Although still being relatively unknown at this point the entire North West has effectively been lost, the ‘unknown’ coastline running from California almost directly north east to the northern tip of Hudson Bay. A complicated water network links Hudson Bay with Lahontan’s ‘Long River’. Kershaw (1993-98) 422; Verner & Stuart-Stubbs (1979) 21.