BRITISH COLUMBIA 



942 



BRITISH COLUMBIA 



Victoria is the oldest city in the province, 

 dating back to 1846, when a trading post known 

 as Camosun was established on its site. 



A provincial prohibition law was passed in 

 1917. 



With the exception of the Colorado, all the 

 great rivers which empty into the Pacific take 

 their rise in this province. The largest of them 

 are the Yukon, Columbia, Eraser and Skeena. 



The province seems to be, in popular par- 

 lance, "mineralized all over," for there is 

 scarcely a region which has not its share of 

 underground wealth. 



Sockeye salmon appear in unusually great 

 numbers every fourth year, and fishermen and 

 canning factories make special preparation to 

 catch them. 



One of the northern districts of the province 

 is the Cariboo a great unexplored, unde- 

 veloped region, into which leads the Cariboo 

 Trail, a government post road three hundred 

 miles long. It was built in the early "sixties," 

 when there was a "gold rush" to these northern 

 parts, and is still used by the British Columbia 

 Express Company, which operates stage lines 

 the entire distance. 



Strange as it may seem, tobacco, usually 

 looked upon as a southland crop, is grown 

 with profit in British Columbia. 



Near Victoria is an observatory with a sev- 

 enty-two inch reflector. This region offers 

 peculiar advantages to observers because of 

 the small daily range in temperature and cer- 

 tain atmospheric peculiarities. 



The Indians call Mount Robson, which is 

 one of the most picturesque peaks in the 

 Dominion, Yuh-hai-has-kun "the road wind- 

 ing upward"; for to their eyes the hard rock 

 left standing when the softer rock was eroded 

 has the appearance of an ascending spiral road. 



Consult Fairford's British Columbia; Thorn- 

 hill's British Columbia in the Making. These 

 books may be purchased by sending to book- 

 stores in the cities of the province. 



Related Subjects. A more detailed knowl- 

 edge of British Columbia may be gained from 

 the following articles : 



ISLANDS 



Vancouver Queen Charlotte 



LEADING PRODUCTS 



Coal Lumber 



Copper Oats 



Gold Salmon 



Halibut Silver 



MOUNTAINS 



Assiniboine, Mount Rocky Mountains 



Cascade Range Saint Elias Mountains 



Robson, Mount Selkirk Mountains 



RIVERS 

 Peace 

 Skeena 



Columbia 



Fraser 



Kootenay 



UNCLASSIFIED 



Hudson's Bay Company Queen Charlotte Sound 

 Juan de Fuca, Strait of 



BRITISH COLUMBIA, UNIVERSITY OF, at 

 Vancouver, B. C., a non-denominational, co- 

 educational institution for higher education, 

 an integral part of the public educational sys- 

 tem of the province. The university under- 

 takes to "furnish instruction in the various 

 branches of a liberal education, and in the 

 technical branches that have a bearing upon 

 the life and industries of the province." The 

 act creating the university reserves for it the 

 sole right to confer degrees, except in theology, 

 in the entire province. The institution opened 

 on September 29, 1915, and during its first 

 year had an enrollment of 435 students, of 

 whom about fifty were in active service with 

 'the Canadian troops in the War of the Na- 

 tions. In May, 1916, the first class, compris- 

 ing forty students, was graduated. 



History. The need of a university in British 

 Columbia was first publicly emphasized in 

 1877. Not until 1890, however, was a serious 

 attempt made to found one, which in that 

 year failed for lack of interest. Finally, in 

 1907, the provincial legislature passed a Uni- 

 versity Endowment Act which authorized the 

 government to set aside 2,000,000 acres of land 

 as an endowment. In 1908 an act was passed 

 establishing and incorporating the University 

 of British Columbia. The work of organiza- 

 tion proceeded slowly, and a site was not defi- 

 nitely selected until three years later. The loca- 

 tion chosen is a tract of 250 acres on Point 

 Grey, a short distance west of Vancouver. 



The plans for the first group of four build- 

 ings were drawn by a Vancouver firm of archi- 

 tects, whose designs were chosen in competi- 

 tion. Construction was begun on the science 

 building in 1914, and at the same time the 

 legislature voted $500,000 for further construe- 



