CXXXII THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



On Major Hill Park our Association has succeeded in marking 

 the site of the house occupied by Lieut. Col. John By, R.E., builder 

 of the Rideau Canal, 1826-32, and founder of Bytown, Ottawa, 

 our Federal Capital. The two historic stones, one bearing the coat 

 of arms of the Royal British Engineers, the other "Lieut. Colonel 

 J. By, Comm. Royal Eng.," that were removed from the arch of the 

 Old Sappers and Miners Bridge, when it was demolished on construc- 

 tion of the present "Connaught Place," have been placed on the site, 

 and a bronze tablet inserted. 



An interesting monument, up the Ottawa river at Portage du 

 Fort, has been preserved, which bears the following inscription: — 

 "To commemorate the visit of Lady Head, who made the tour of the 

 Upper Ottawa in a bark canoe, in 1856." (first white woman). 



Following the Ottawa and French rivers to Champlain's "Mer 

 Douce," and crossing Lake Superior we come to the Twin Cities of 

 Port Arthur and Fort William in the latter, the gateway to the North- 

 West, the Thunder Bay Historical Society is erecting a national 

 monument of polished red granite: — "To Commemorate the Locality 

 made famous by the Pioneer Fur Traders of the Great North-West," 

 and giving a concise history of the Companies (some 2,000 letters) 

 from 1612 to 1889. Mr. Peter McKellar, President of the Thunder 

 Bay Historical society writes: — "We claim that the Kaministigwia 

 was the gateway through which the vast North- West was discovered. 

 Therefore Fort William, (Fort Caministigoyan built 1648) on the 

 Kaministigwia is the most suitable place for the monument to the 

 great fur traders." 



Manitoba. 



Among correspondents from Winnipeg (old Fort Garry) we num- 

 ber a grandson of the first Governor and builder of the Upper and 

 Lower Forts. The brass memorial tablet on Fort Garry gate, 

 presented by the Canadian Club of Winnipeg, bears an interesting 

 historical record, from erection in 1806 of first fort, Gibraltar — second 

 in 1822, re-named Fort Garry; re-built 1835 — demolished in 1882, 

 except the gateway which in 1897, with the park, was presented by 

 the Hudson's Bay Company to the city of Winnipeg. To the heroic 

 Hudson, from whom the Company derived its name — Isaac Cowie 

 writes: — "the united West should erect her first monument in bronze 

 or sculptured stone." Might this not be fitly commemorated when 

 our Hudson's Bay railway — "opens the Bay," that, "where he went 

 a thousand ships can go." 



