370 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. [Suss, LXXxI1. 
Mountains, where he was the discoverer of five mountain 
passes, in one of which, Kicking Horse Pass, he was severely 
kicked in the chest by his horse, and had a narrow escape 
with his life. This incident is commemorated in the name 
he gave to the pass. In this expedition his particular de- 
partment was that of geology, the botany and flora being in 
the hands of Monsieur Bourgeau, who gathered an immense 
collection of alpine plants, and whose reports were sent to 
Sir William Hooker. But in all Hector’s geological reports 
there are most interesting and valuable references to the 
meteorology and the flora and fauna of the districts explored. 
His versatility and eminent qualifications for pioneering work 
are acknowledged by the commander of the expedition, 
Captain John Palliser, who says in his report to Lord 
Stanley, M.P., Secretary of State for the Colonies, in October 
1858 :— 
“Tn addition to being an accomplished naturalist, Dr. 
Hector is the most accurate mapper of original country I 
have ever seen, and is now an experienced traveller. By 
long and severe journeys with dogs and snowshoes last 
winter, and in connection with his hard trip this autumn, he 
has laid down the whole north branch of the Saskatchewan, 
and the south branch from where we met it to the glaciers of 
its source; and there is no department of the expedition in 
which he is not competent and willing to assist.” 
In 1860 he became a non-resident Fellow of the Botanical 
Society of Edinburgh. He appears to have been attracted to 
that geologically most interesting land, New Zealand, and in 
1863 we tind him, in the capacity of geologist to the province 
of Otago, undertaking an expedition to the then little-known 
Western Coast of Otago, where he discovered an important 
low pass through the mountains from the coast at Martin’s 
Bay to Lake Wakatipu. The report of this expedition, 
published in the “ Otago Provincial Government Gazette,” and 
in abstract in the “Journal of the Royal Geographical 
Society,” vol. xxxiv. p. 96, at once drew attention to his 
eminent fitness to be of service in the development of the 
colony. Like all his reports, this one is interspersed with 
valuable and thoroughly scientific observations on the flora 
and fauna of the regions traversed. In 1865 he was 
appointed by the Government Director of the Geological 
