Wellington Philosophical Society. 553 



ice still remained, aDd the explorer for the first time " camped out " on a 

 small island off the British shore. Owing to the ioe, it had been neces- 

 sary to charter a steamer; but from here they conveyed their bark canoes 

 by water and "portage " across the intermediate country to Lake Win- 

 nipeg. These canoes, weighing 2Jcwt., could only be set down ou the 

 water, and the burden on the two boatmen who conveyed these awkward 

 articles on their shoulders, sometimes four miles at a time over steep 

 ridges and rough country, was heavy. Dr. Hector's own pack — " quite an 

 insignificant one" — was 801b. His recollections of the country are still 

 vivid — its innumerable cataracts and grand waterfalls, the vast natural 

 rice-fields of Lake Winnipeg, the enormous flocks of geese and ducks of 

 many species, pelicans, and other wild birds, feeding on the rice and the 

 fish of the lake. Then he described the fertile prairies, with their herds 

 of buffalo, extending a thousand miles from the lake to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains ; of the excellent French botanist, whose taste for " le sport " some- 

 times led him, in defiance of strict orders, to diverge from the direct 

 track, whereby the odometer attached to his vehiole, from which the 

 "log" of distance traversed was taken, would sometimes register more 

 than was warranted. The Grand Plateau was described — the " Thunder- 

 breeding Hills," where a stratum of moist air continually flowing over a 

 dry layer below charged with electricity of the opposite kind caused 

 terrific displays of thunder and lightning almost daily. Sitting one day 

 in his tent, he sketched a small approaching cloud of curious form, the 

 nature of which he did not suspect, when a sudden discharge of lightning 

 stunned him for several minutes. Recovering, he saw a thin column of 

 smoke ascending from an Indian wigwam some 3 or 4 chains away. 

 Hastening to the spot, he found the central support splintered, and the 

 native inmates — four men and two women — all dead. Wintering at Fort 

 Carlton, he made solitary journeys on snow-shoes in various directions, 

 and concluded a treaty with the Blackfoot Indians, whose chiefs affixed 

 their signatures by impressing their thumbs in soft sealing-wax. The 

 treaty obligations, he added, were duly observed, and the signatures 

 were treated almost reverentially by the natives. 



Much of the energy of the expedition was devoted to the task of find- 

 ing a pass through the Rocky Mountains. Here they were hampered by 

 two conditions insisted on by the Home Government— they must take 

 the horses through, and the pass must be above the 49th parallel. Un- 

 fortunately, this geographical boundary just cut off an excellent pass, 

 through which there ran an ancient Indian trail. However, the best 

 pass in the range (the Kicking-horse Pass) was discovered, and through 

 this, since renamed the " Hector Pass," the railway-line now runs. The 

 adventure which gave the pass its name was nearly a tragic one. Dr. 

 Hector was kicked so severely in the chest that when he recovered con- 

 sciousness he found that his mates had dug his grave, and it was only by 

 winking his eyelids — the sole signal he was able to give — that he escaped 

 premature interment. On the further side of the Rockies lies the 

 wonderful valley of the Columbia River, up which salmon come to spawn 

 twelve hundred miles from the sea. Here the native goats are woolly, 

 and the large sheep, being covered with hair, are like deer. He told 

 how, stooping to drink from the Saskatchewan Lake one night, he saw 

 a wondrous light in the water — the reflection, as he soon found, of a 

 comet — the great comet of 1858. 



The explorer at times suffered severe privations. He narrated vividly 

 how, when half-famished in the snow, his native comrade tracked a 

 moose, and how anxiously he sat awaiting the preconcerted signal — a 

 third shot — announcing that the game was slain ; and how, in the ex- 

 tremity of hunger, they were driven to take their first meal without 

 cooking the flesh. Subsequent surveys have made no important change 

 in the map of the vast district then explored. 



