June 25, I860.] ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 253 



Hector, Blakiston, and Sullivan, not only as respects the great fertile prairies 

 watered by the Saskatchewan and its affluents, but also touching the practica- 

 bility of traversing the Rocky Mountains within our temtories by passes lower 

 than any which exist to the south of the boundary of the United States. 



At this stage of our inquiries it would be hazardous to speculate on 

 these passes being rendered available for railroads ; the more so, as the wild 

 region lying to the west of the Rocky Mountains — i. e. between them and 

 those parts of British Columbia which are gold-bearing, and are beginning to 

 be inhabited by civilized people — is as yet an unexplored woody region. We 

 may hope, however, that such routes of communication will be established as 

 will connect the Red River Settlements with the prairies of the Saskatchewan, 

 and these last with the rich auriferous tracts of British Columbia. And if the 

 most northern lines be found too difficult for railway commijinication, through 

 the severity of the climate and physical obstacles, let us hope that by giving 

 and taking ground in an amicable manner with our kinsmen of the United 

 States, we may be enabled by a more southern railroad to traverse the prairies 

 on either side of the neutral boundary, and then pass down the river Columbia 

 to Vancouver Island. By this operation the great Gulf of St. Lawrence and 

 Hudson Bay on the east may eventually be placed in communication with the 

 noble roadsteads of Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland on the Pacific. 

 At all events, Britain will doubtless not be slow in establishing communications 

 between the Atlantic and Pacific, first by the electric telegraph, next by 

 ordinary roads, and finally, it is to be hoped, in part at least by railroads. 



On these subjects we are to be favoured at this Meeting with a paper by 

 Captain Synge, in addition to the viva voce communications of Captain 

 Palliser and his associates. 



Having not as yet had access to many of the papers which are to be com- 

 municated to this Section, I can allude to a few more of them only. In a 

 Memoir on the Geographical Distribution of Plants in Asia Minor and Armenia 

 by my distinguished friend M. Pierre de Tchihatchef, you will find some 

 remarkable results as flowing from the long-continued researches of that ardent 

 and successful traveller. After accounting for the absence of some plants and 

 the profusion of others in given localities as dependent on climatal conditions 

 (an example of which is, that the grape there flourishes in one tract at the 

 great height of nearly 6000 feet above the sea), M. de Tchihatchef brings out 

 some striking statistical data, showing the vastly greater abundance and 

 variety of vegetation in Asia Minor, compared with that of any other country. 

 He points out that the pjlants of five mountains only amount in number to 

 double the entire quantity of British plants, and concludes with an eloquent 

 regret that these classical regions, so blessed by the hand of the Creator, and 

 which in the earlier history of mankind were replete with highly civilised 

 communities, should now, through misgovernment, be the scene of oppression 

 and barbarity. 



Another distinguished Russian geographer, M. N. Khanikof, who has 

 explored large portions of Persia and the adjoining countries, will bring before 

 us his maps and descriptions of the mountainous tracts of the countries of the 

 southern parts of Central Asia, where the lofty mountains of Ararat, Dema- 

 vend, and Savalan form the chief elevations of the region to which we look as 

 the cradle of our race. 



But, to revert to subjects connected with Britain, in no portion of the surface 

 of the globe have we made such great and rapid advances as in Australia. 

 Doubtless much of this progress in settlement and civilization, particularly in 

 Victoria, is due to the discovery of those enormous masses of gold which are 

 producing far and wide such powerful effects. But looking to the work of purely 

 geographical pioneers, I can declare that some of the most valuable and daring 

 researches, from the earliest days to the present time, have been completed 



