554 Proceedings. 



The work of the expedition occupied three years, and the results 

 appeared in 1860, when, for the first time, the outside world had the 

 opportunity of forming an idea of the wealth and value of the territory 

 locked up by the Hudson Bay Company. Nothing, however, was done 

 for five years, when this territory and British Columbia were annexed by 

 Canada. Agitation to open up the region, however, was fruitless, until, 

 after a stormy debate in the Canadian Parliament, permission was given 

 to a syndicate to carry a railway through to Vancouver, concessions of 

 land being given, and the line to be completed in ten years. The syndi- 

 cate had money and " grit " ; it bought out the rights of the Hudson Bay 

 Company for £300,000 cash and one-twentieth of the produce of the land- 

 sales and set to work. Within a few days of five years, half the stipu- 

 lated time, the last rail was laid, and trains ran across the continent. 

 The company made no elaborate surveys. It showed the purchasers of 

 land their two pegs facing the railway-line, and gave them the measure- 

 ments and bearings of their boundaries. He contrasted the condition of 

 the country he explored forty years ago with its present state, and said 

 he knew of no parallel in the world to its progress. Perhaps a huudred 

 and fifty Europeans might then be found in the whole region — now its 

 population was reckoned by hundreds of thousands, and along its railway- 

 line were great cities with every appliance of civilisation. 



During the five months and a half in the year in which the lakes were 

 open to navigation they conveyed from this territory 30,000,000 tons of 

 goods, which he contrasted with the 9,000,000 annually conveyed through 

 the Suez Canal. In other respects the changes had been enormous. 

 The populous Indian tribes had almost vanished, those that remained 

 having taken to the woods. Of the countless herds of buffalo, he believed 

 about thirteen individual specimens survived. Many of the species of 

 native birds had wholly or partly disappeared. He spoke of the bar- 

 barous and wanton destruction of the native fauna. The last great 

 buffalo hunt was in 1890, when thirty thousand head were killed, and 

 the race practically exterminated. 



Mr. W. T. L. Travers, in moving a vote of thanks to Sir James 

 Hector for his address — which was rendered the more interesting because 

 of the production of his original large-scale map — said the eminent 

 services of Sir James Hector in connection with pioneer work in Canada 

 had never been properly recognised in New Zealand, but his name would 

 always be associated with the discovery of the only practicable pass (the 

 Hector Pass) through the Canadian portion of the Rocky Mountains. 

 Mr. Travers also gave an interesting description of the rapid settlement 

 of the country referred to by Sir James Hector in his paper. 



A very remarkable plant was exhibited by Sir -Tames 

 Hector. 



By the last English mail Sir James received a peculiar root from Sir 

 Walter Buller, who is at present travelling abroad, and which had been 

 picked up in a cave at Mexico. The accompanying instruction was to 

 "place it in water." Sir James did so, and within twenty-four hours a 

 plant of the genus Lycopodium came to life and developed in an astonish- 

 ing manner, (mooting out leaves and giving every indication of a thriving 

 existence. The plant was thrown back a little by being placed in the 

 sun, but looked quite healthy when placed on exhibition. Sir James said 

 that some held that it vsas probable that life had lain dormant in this 

 plant for a hundred and eighty years until suddenly revivified by con- 

 tact with water in the manner stated. 



Mr. Kruger's signature and two Transvaal coins bearing 



the ex-President's head were exhibited. 



They were sent from South Africa by Trooper Gillespie, a member of 

 one of the New Zealand contingents, to his brother in Wellington. 



