20 TRANSACTIONS. 1906-7. 



Kamloops and with Kamloops for an objective point explorers 

 in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company examined every 

 available route from the coast. After some hesitation it was 

 decided to leave the Fraser at Hope, ascend a branch of the 

 Coquihalla, cross to the Skagit and from the head of that stream 

 to the Tulameen, whence there was an easy route to Kamloops. 

 This route was explored and mapped by Mr. A. C. Anderson, 

 who was in charge of Fort Alexandria on the Fraser River. 

 Anderson had made several attempts to locate more direct routes, 

 but all were rejected as too dangerous or difficult, and many were 

 the difficulties to be overcome before the route selected by him 

 was made safe for loaded animals. It was not until the need 

 of good pack-trails to the Boundary was made necessary in 1860 

 that this trail was put into good condition. 



No account of southern British Columbia by a naturalist 

 should omit mention of David Douglas, the botanist, who added 

 over 1,000 species to the known flora of America. His exploita- 

 tions from California to the upper Columbia covered a period of 

 ten years — from 1824 to 1834, and for the greater part of the time 

 he travelled alone. A white man alone was never safe from 

 Indians at that time, and many are the stories told of Douglas' 

 ways of making them fear and respect him. It was he who first 

 showed these Indians that a bird on the wing might be brought 

 down by a shot-gun. A little effervescing powder thrown into 

 water proved to them that he could drink boiling water with 

 impunity and by lighting his pipe with a lens he showed that he 

 could call down fire from heaven. They were not less astonished 

 at his shooting cones from tall trees than that he should want 

 such things. He had the man of science scorn for the ways of 

 the money-getter, and though under great obligations to the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, he lost no opportunity of telling the 

 servants of the company what he thought of them and their 

 business. 



Though only indirectly bearing on the subject of my address, 

 some account of the gold excitement that led to the development 

 of the interior of British Columbia will not be out of place. It 

 was at its height in 1858-59. Gold had been discovered in paying 

 quantities the previous year. The knowledge of the occurrence of 

 gold in British Columbia soon spread, and it was everywhere be- 

 lieved that a new California had been discovered. Thousands of 

 miners and adventurers flocked to Victoria, and according to the 



