320 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS— AMERICA. [May 23, 1859. 



Whether one of the heights called Mounts Brown * and Hooker 

 by Mr. Douglas, in honour of our eminent botanical contemporaries, 

 be still higher than the Mount Murchison of Palliser and Hector, it 

 is certain that the chain diminishes rapidly in its trend from this 

 lofty cluster to the north. We know, indeed, that Mackenzie, the 

 first great explorer of those regions, passed through the range in 

 north latitude 66°, at a comparatively lower level. Again, we 

 further know that in proceeding northwards these mountains dwindle 

 into insignificance before they reach the Arctic Ocean. 



It will be recollected that seven years ago Captain M. H. Synge of 

 the Royal Engineers, who had been quartered in the Canadas and had 

 made excursions into the adjacent western territories, being deeply 

 imbued with the importance of the original observations of Macken- 

 zie, and attracted by his glowing description, made a warm appeal 

 in favour of the establishment of a line of communication between 

 the Atlantic and Pacific, by passing from Lake Athabasca and the 

 Peace Eiver, thence traversing the Rocky Mountains on the parallel 

 followed by Mackenzie. But that scheme must now, I apprehend, 

 give way before the shorter passages across the mountains in a more 

 southern parallel, and which will, it is hoped, bring a rich prairie 

 country on the east into intercourse with our newly-discovered gold 

 region on the west, as well as with Vancouver Island, the natural 

 resources of which were brought before us by Colonel W. C. Grant.f 



position of these passes was laid down many years ago upon a MS. map, at the instance of the 

 Hudson Bay Company, by Mr. David Thompson. I have further learnt from Mr. Arrow- 

 smith, with whom he corresponded, that Mr. Thompson explored the vast regions of the 

 Hudson Bay Company in all directions during twenty-eight years, and projected the con- 

 struction of a geneial map of the whole country between Hudson Bay and Lake Superior 

 on the east, and the Pacific on the west! It appears that the last six years of his labours 

 were spent on the west side of the Rocky Mountains ; it being important to note that his 

 MS. maps were all made from actual survey, corrected by numerous astronomical obser- 

 vations. The largest affluent of the Frazer River in British Columbia, " the Thompson," 

 justly bears the name of this great but little-known geographical explorer ; and I therefore 

 trust that there is no foundation for a report which has been spread, that it is proposed to 

 substitute some other appellation for the name of this meritorious man. Beginning his 

 astronomical observations in 1792, Mr. David Thompson was in 1817 appointed the Astro- 

 nomer of the North American Boundary Commission, and was upwards of eighty years of 

 age when he died in Canada. In the words of Mr. Arrowsmith, " he has left no one be- 

 hind him who is possessed of a tenth part of his acquaintance with the territories of the 

 Hudson Bay Company, whose directors were duly sensible of his great merits." What- 

 ever may be the fate of that remarkable corporation, we must all admit that it has not 

 only maintained British rights over wide tracts of North America, but has also, in 

 addition to Thompson, produced some of the best geographical explorers of snow-clad Arctic 

 counti-ies, including our medallist Rae ; whilst its dealings with the various fur-hunting 

 tribes of Indians have been so equitable as to have maintained the attachment of these 

 poor people, who under such influence have been preserved, instead of falling before the 

 white man as in other parts of America. 



* Mount Brown is said to be 16,000 feet high. 



f See Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xxvii. 



