James R. Gibson is a historical geographer at York University. He is the author of the award-winning Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast 1785-1841 (1992), as well as of Imperial Russia in Frontier America: The Changing Geography of Supply of Russian America 1784-1867 (1978), and Farming the Frontier: The Agricultural Opening of the Oregon Country 1786-1846 (1984).