314 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. IV. 



NOTE ON A MEMORABLE EPOCH IN CANADIAN 



HISTORY. 



By Sandford FleminCx, LL.D., C.M.G., Etc. 



(Read iitJi February, iSgj.) 



On the 22nd of July, 1793, a traveller from Montreal reached the 

 shores of what is now the western province of Canada. This traveller 

 was the first civilized man who had traversed the continent between 

 the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in any latitude. In a (q\w months a 

 century will have elapsed since he first looked upon the waters of the- 

 Pacific. 



On the 20th of July, 1871, seventy-eight years after the consummation 

 of the first transcontinental journey, British Columbia, only a few years 

 emerged from the wilderness, was included in the Canadian Confederation. 

 On that day Canada attained magnificent geographical proportions ; 

 the Dominion extended across the entire width of the northern continent. 

 There are not many of our people who are capable of grasping the immens- 

 ity of this extent or who are impressed with the full value and importance 

 which this acquisition confers on our country. Even the best informed 

 amongst us who contemplate the vast breadth of our possessions can 

 form but imperfect theories of the immeasurable natural wealth it 

 contains, and there are few who would venture to assign a limit to the 

 national prosperity which in the future we may enjoy. 



No single division of the British Empire wherever situated, in the 

 Indian seas, in the south of Africa, or in the i\ustralian antipodes, can 

 compare with the Dominion in geographical extent. Of all countries 

 owing allegiance to Queen Victoria no single land can more truly claim 

 the appellation " Greater Britain." 



The eve of the completion of a century since the greatest triumph of 

 the famous traveller, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, suggests that we may 

 recall his life and labours, and consider the results which have sprung 

 from his remarkable discoveries or which have been influenced by them. 



In 1789 Sir Alexander Mackenzie, then about thirty years of age, 

 discovered the great -river which bears his name, and descended its waters 

 to the Arctic Ocean. He thus established the important truth that the 

 northern part of this continent extends unbroken to the Arctic circle. 

 Three years later he undertook his more famous expedition with the 



