so [PROCEEDINC4S OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Mackenzie, indulges in prophecy. He writes: " As I stood upon the summit of 

 the bluff looking down upon the glittering lake 300 feet below, and across the 

 boundless plains, no living thing in view, no sound of life anywhere, I thought of 

 the time to come when will be seen passing swiftly along the horizon the white 

 cloud of the locomotive on its way fi-om the Atlantic to the Pacific, and when the 

 valley will resound with the many voices of those who have come from the busy 

 city on the banks of, the Eed River to see the beautiful lakes of the Qu'Appelle." 

 How natural it all sounds now, but doubtless it fell in 1869 upon as deaf ears as 

 similar forecasts made at the present time by members of our geological survey, or 

 as the fervid words of Mackenzie a hundred years ago. 



I have not examined the various British blue books from 1832 to 1876, nearly 

 forty in number, relating to the settlement of the boundary between the United 

 States and Canada, but in addition to the work by Bigsby and Bouchette this is the 

 time to mention two scientific results arising from marking the forty-ninth parallel. 

 John Keast Lord who acted as Naturalist to the British North American Boundary 

 Commission when marking the boundary line from the Pacific coast to the eastern 

 slope of the Rocky Mountains, published two illustrated volumes in 1866 on the 

 natural history of British Columbia.* And in 1874 and 1875, Dr. George M. 

 Dawson, not yet connected with the Geological Survey of Canada, made his reports 

 on the geology and resources of the ' ' region in the vicinity of the forty-ninth 

 parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, "-j- 



I have thus far indicated, not with precise accuracy, but perhaps sufficiently, the 

 extent of the exploratory work done in the country now included in Canada, under 

 the auspices of the trading companies and the early governments, and not by 

 established geologicnl and natural history surveys. If we consider the publications 

 by their number they stand as an evidence of the inability or unwillingness of- 

 •Canadians in the past to grasp the future of their country, and judged by the 

 quantity of matter of a purely scientific nature, they betray an indifference to higher 

 considerations not creditable to their intelligence. We certainly owe a debt of 

 gratitude to the few ardent men who braved the terrors of our unknown lands and 

 gave us this scanty literature. 



Before referring to the regular geological survey established in Canada in 1843, 

 I should like to compare the exploratory work done in the United States before the 

 establishment of a regular geological survey, by the Federal Government. It must 

 be borne in mind that during nearly half a century before the Federal Government 

 established a regular survey most of the States had established surveys on their own 

 account just as we shall have occasion to remind you that our survey was originally 

 a Provincial and not a Dominion survey. Not referring, then, to the work done by 

 the various States, but merely to the exploratory work of a similarly irregular 

 character to that done in Canada in early days, I shall read a list of expeditions 

 ordered by the United States Government. It does not pretend to be accurate 

 either as to the number or as to the details given of the various expeditions. It was 

 compiled merely in order to indicate how much more earnestly the people of the 

 United States craved for information about their unsettled areas. The majority of 

 the reports are quartos illustrated with expensive plates and often running into 

 several volumes. The Pacific Railroad reports alone exceed in matter all that we 

 have done. The dates given in the following list sometimes indicate the date 

 of the expedition, sometimes of the publication of the reports : — 



1804-6. Captains Lewis and Clark. From the mouth of the Missou.ri River 

 through to Pacific Ocean. 



1805-7. — Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike. Through western territories of North 

 America. To head Avaters of Mississippi River, through Louisiana Territory and in 

 l^ew Spain. 



1819-20. — Major Stephen H, Long, Pittsburg to the Rocky Mountains. 

 1820 — Henry R. Schoolcraft. From Detroit through Great Lakes to source of 

 Mississippi River. 



* "The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British Columbia." J. K. Lord, 2 vols., Bentley, London, 

 1868. 



t "'Report on the Tertiary Lignite Formation," etc. B. N, Boundary Commission, G. M. Dawson, 1874. 

 ■" Report of Geology and Resources," etc. B.N. B.C., G. M. Dawson, 1875. 



