Some Personal Recollections of Victoria. 327 



was made possible, and, in consequence, the dangerous rise of the 

 Kootenay river, where it flows in great serpentines through the 

 vast stretches of meadowland I proposed to reclaim, would have 

 been prevented. Upon the feasibility of this project English and 

 American engineers had expressed favourable opinions, and I had 

 already spent several thousand pounds in beginning this extensive 

 though perfectly easy work, when I finally decided that to continue 

 my single-handed legal fights with the Government of the province 

 and with the London company who were bent upon ousting me 

 from the control, was beyond my power. Hard as it was to retire 

 from an enterprise which I had created and to which I had sacrificed 

 some years of hard work, I cut myself loose from the undertaking. 

 The company who stepped into my shoes were, however, not pre- 

 destined to succeed. Influenced by technical advice suggested by 

 the Government of the province, they abandoned my project and 

 decided to reclaim the overflowed land by dyking it, an engineering 

 feat upon which they worked some five years and spent about a 

 quarter of a million of dollars. It has proved entirely abortive, for 

 the overflow has continued in spite of the high dykes many miles 

 in length. To-day the company is in liquidation, and sums which, 

 I am convinced, would have completed the radical remedy I had 

 commenced, have been utterly wasted. The application I recently 

 received from the liquidator of this ill-advised company, to assist 

 him in saving as much as possible from the wreck, needs no further 

 comment on my part, more particularly so as the man who brought 

 about this unfortunate ending is no longer alive. 



There was one other little experience I was to undergo before 

 I could cut myself loose from my enterprise. It occurred on my 

 last journey from England to Victoria, some months after the 

 Ottawa Dead Letter Office and my absconding lawyer had done 

 their worst. 



In all my journeys in various parts of the world I had never 

 been in a wreck or in a serious train accident, and I was beginning 

 to think that averages were not made for me, for according to 

 statistics I should have been drowned or smashed up long ago. 



