66 



NA TURE 



[November i8, 1897 



flows south, and swings northward to their union, the Selkirks 

 and associated mountain ranges being thus completely encircled. 

 Among our party were those who have struggled bravely with 

 such problems, and to their investigations we shall look for 

 further enlightenment. 



From Revelstoke the C.P.R. Company has a line of com- 

 munication by rail and steamboat into the celebrated West 

 Kootenay mining district, by way of that beautiful expansion 

 of the Columbia River known as the Arrow Lakes. Through 

 the liberality of the British Columbian Government, side-excur- 

 sions were organised into this region, and on our return from 

 Vancouver the majority of our party took advantage of the 

 opportunity to visit the brand-new mining town of Rossland, 

 around which are grouped the chief mines of the district. Here, 

 as everywhere else in the province, every facility was afforded us 

 to see all that was best worth seeing. We visited such well- 

 known mines as the Le Roi, War Eagle, Centre Star, &c., 

 where large deposits of auriferous chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite 

 occur, chiefly in veins near the margin of a mass of gabbro in- 

 trusive into Palaeozoic rocks. The large smelter at Trail, on the 

 Columbia Railway, a few miles distant, was also visited ; and 

 those of us who could spare the time went afterwards into the 

 Slocan country, where the richest mines of silver-lead occur. 

 Space forbids a detailed account of these and other branch 

 excursions in the Province ; but if it was intended that we 

 should come away impressed with the mineral wealth of the 

 region, that end was assuredly attained. 



It was but a twenty hours' journey from Revelstoke to the 

 coast at Vancouver. After rising out of the Columbia depres- 

 sion the railway finds an easy passage through the Gold Range 

 by the Eagle Pass, apparently a valley of erosion now abandoned ; 

 though the suggestion had been made that it was providentially 

 supplied to compensate the engineers for their difficulties in the 

 Selkirks and the Rockies. 



A chain of small lakes fills the summit of this Pass, to the 

 westward of which lie many fine moraines. In Eagle River, on 

 its western slope, we were fortunate in witnessing a good example 

 of a salmon run, shoals of great fish crowding the shallows of 

 the stream in every part, and lying dead on every bar. 



Shuswap and Kamloops Lakes, and the dry interior plateau 

 of British Columbia with its Tertiary volcanic rocks, were passed 

 in the night, and at daybreak of September 5 we were running 

 down the picturesque caiion of the Thompson River, near its 

 junction with the Eraser. In the Eraser Valley itself there is 

 in this neighbourhood a sharp infold of Cretaceous strata ; but 

 lower down we saw only ancient-looking slates, supposed to be 

 Cambrian, along with masses of igneous rocks, both of acid and 

 basic types. Near North Bend, where we breakfasted, a dredger 

 was at work raising the auriferous gravel from the river bed. 

 Below this the valley narrows, and the Eraser races southward 

 for miles through a magnificent caiion, down which the railway 

 also passes. Then, at Yale, the river bursts out of the mountains 

 and swings round westward into a broader and apparently much 

 older valley, which it follows from Hope to the Pacific. Fol- 

 lowing the river, our track went now amid the dense forest of 

 gigantic trees with which the valley is filled, cleared spaces 

 being as yet quite scanty. Of the Laramie or newer rocks 

 which underlie the Eraser delta, we saw nothing, as on the low 

 ground there is everywhere drift and alluvium. Reaching Pacific 

 tide- water at the head of Burrard's Inlet about noon, we drew 

 up at Vancouver half an hour later. 



Our long delightful railway journey was completed, and with 

 it our transverse section of the continent. Starting within the 

 Appalachian rim, we had seen, to the east of the prairies, the 

 old Archrean floor on which the Palaeozoic strata rested almost 

 undisturbed ; then the prairies themselves, with their vast 

 expanses of horizontal, unfaulted Mesozoic rocks ; then the foot- 

 hills, with the same rocks thrown into wavelike swells ; then 

 the outer mountains, with dislocated and overthrust masses of 

 various ages, driven eastward from the centre of disturbance ; 

 then the inner ranges, with crumpled and altered strata whose 

 age was no longer determinable, and with the central core of 

 metamorphic and plutonic rocks ; and then again, to the west- 

 ward, infolded and crumpled sediments with many igneous 

 interruptions. 



All this had, of course, been described for us already by the 

 Canadian geologists in their admirable official and other publi- 

 cations. But what literature could hope to convey an adequate 

 impression of such a region to one unacquainted with it ? 



At Vancouver most of us took boat at once across the Straits 



NO. 1464, VOL. 57] 



of Georgia, a few on whom time pressed crossing to Nanaimo, 

 and the majority going first to Victoria, whence a special 

 excursion was afterwards made to Nanaimo. It was a glorious 

 afternoon for' the passage — the mountains around Howe's Sound 

 half hidden under storm-clouds and half revealed, and a fore- 

 ground of high gloomy shores, with the deep recesses of the 

 Qords within gleaming with mysterious light. 



On Vancouver Island the heartiest hospitality again awaited 

 us, but of our doings there is small space left to tell. In 

 Victoria we found many of our friends of the two earlier 

 parties, and we of the " Chaudiere " held a banquet to do 

 honour to our leaders Dr. Dawson and Prof. Coleman. On 

 Monday we were taken in carriages to the points of chiet 

 interest in the vicinity of the city ; on Tuesday there was a 

 special train to take us to Nanaimo, where coal of excellent 

 quality is extensively mined from rocks of Cretaceous age ; and 

 on Wednesday a number of those who intended to visit the 

 Kootenay started for the mainland. Safe to say that we all left 

 the city of Victoria with reluctance, as most do who visit it. 



And now the unity of our party was lost, and its fortunes 

 need be no further followed. Eor all of us this had been a 

 memorable journey, and we started homeward with a lively 

 sense of gratitude to the Local Committee at Toronto, to the 

 Provincial Governments of Ontario and British Columbia, to the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway Company, and, above all, to our 

 leaders Dr. G. M. Dawson and Prof. A. P. Coleman, by whose 

 exertions the complete success of the excursion was secured. 



PROFESSOR VIRCHOW'S JUBILEE. 



'pj'IETY years ago Prof. Virchow delivered his first lecture as a 

 ■^ university teacher, and preparations for celebrating the event 

 of the jubilee at Berlin last week had been made, but unfortunately 

 had to be abandoned in consequence of a sudden attack of illness 

 which befell Prof. Virchow whilst lecturing two days before the 

 anniversary. Naturally some alarm was felt, but the attack was 

 not serious and passed ofi" quickly. However, at Virchow's 

 request, the festive arrangements were countermanded, and the 

 day was only marked officially by a congratulatory deputation 

 from the University. According to the Berlin correspondent of 

 the British Medical Journal the deputation consisted of the 

 deans of the four Faculties, and nearly all the medical professors. 

 Prof. Schmoller, the University Rector, spoke first, and in a 

 warm and able address praised Virchow as the benefactor of 

 mUlions, and as the great instructor whose methods had 

 gradually permeated almost all schools of thought. Then 

 followed Prof. Heubner, the Dean of the Medical Faculty. He 

 spoke of Virchow's strong personality, and described the com- 

 manding impression caused by his teachings which had revolu- 

 tionised medical thought. It was true that what might be called 

 Virchow's greatest lifework was the introduction of ' ' method- 

 ology " into medicine, but this alone did not explain his immense 

 influence. He had pre-eminently the genius of research, and 

 had traded with his talent as a faithful steward. At an age 

 when others had not finished their studies he had attacked 

 scientific problems with his bold and strong intellect, had gone 

 on from problem to problem, until after ten years his work was 

 crowned by the completion and publication of his " Cellular 

 Pathology." Since then he had become the prceceptor nnincli 

 in medicine. Prof. Virchow, in reply, modestly disclaimed 

 what he called excessive honours. He said he felt like a plant 

 from which the withered leaves had been removed to give it a 

 better appearance. He could not deny that his work had 

 always been full of zeal, and supported by the endeavours to 

 keep in view universal principles ; and it was true, also, that 

 a certain soberness of judgment had helped him over great 

 difficulties. If he had succeeded earlier than others in forming 

 a school, he owed this to his recognition of the fact that it was 

 impossible to do everything oneself, and to his success in creating 

 a sort of phalanx for his ideas, which had been of sufficient force 

 to overcome resistance, and to prepare a broad basis for later 

 developments. And thus, he was happy to say, he now felt 

 himself no longer indispensable as representing his school, since 

 there were a sufficient number of men sharing his views. He 

 hoped that his little attack of the day before would have no 

 further consequences, and that he had yet some time for work 

 before him ; still he could not hide from himself that it was now 

 time to make a stop, to a certain extent ; and therefore he was 



