PROCEEDINGS FOR 1916 XI 
He had studied surveying in Scotland, and the first years of his 
life in Canada were devoted to the same profession. In 1851 he joined 
the staff of the Northern Railway, of which a few years later he became 
chief engineer. In 1863 he was appointed chief engineer of the 
Intercolonial Railway surveys. It had been the intention to appoint 
a board of engineers, one representing Canada, one the Maritime 
Provinces, and one the Imperial Government, but the various govern- 
ments paid Mr. Fleming the very high compliment of selecting him as 
their joint engineer. He remained in charge of the work on the 
Intercolonial throughout the surveys and the period of construction, 
until the completion of the road in 1876. Meanwhile he had, in 1871, 
been appointed by the Dominion Government engineer-in-chief of the 
surveys for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and remained in charge until 
1880, when the work was handed over to a private syndicate. For 
four years, therefore, Mr. Fleming carried on simultaneously the con- 
struction of the Intercolonial, and the surveys for Canada’s first 
transcontinental railway, a gigantic task for one man; and as if this 
were not enough, he directed during a portion of this time the surveys 
for the Newfoundland Railway. 
It is a well known fact that only very busy professional men can 
find time for the development of other interests. One is not surprised, 
therefore, to find Mr. Fleming, in spite of his manifold duties as a 
railway engineer, devoting a great deal of time and thought to ques- 
tions of public importance. As early as 1863 he had taken up the 
cause of the Red River settlers, urging upon both the Canadian and 
Imperial Governments the importance of furnishing adequate trans- 
portation facilities between the Eastern Provinces and Red River. It 
was also largely due to his enthusiasm and Scottish tenacity that the 
Canadian Institute was established and granted a royal charter in 
1851. In later years he never found himself too engrossed with 
other affairs to take a lively interest in anything that affected the 
welfare of the Canadian Institute, and in the published transactions 
of the society will be found many valuable contributions from his pen. 
While engaged in solving the problems of the intercolonial, he 
had been impressed with the importance of establishing a fast Atlantic 
steamship service, and repeatedly urged the advantages to Canada of 
such a project. Possibly his thoughts went back to the circumstances 
of his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1845. Another matter which 
he had even more deeply at heart was the organization of a system of 
state-owned cables connecting all the scattered dominions of the Em- 
pire with the Motherland. For years he fought stubbornly for the 
realization of this great idea, against the powerful opposition of the 
cable companies, who rightly feared that the establishment of state- 
