THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION 41 
In the last five years the explorers, surveyors and geologists 
(often combining all three in one) of the Ottawa Survey, have 
done much hard work and given good results in filling up the 
gaps in our information concerning the northern forest land. 
The next part of the lecture dealt with the prairie lands. 
The prairie is the horse’s paradise, he said; but the earliest In- 
dians there had no horses and so were hampered in their move- 
ments. Horses had been there long before, but had disappeared. 
Those used by the Indians were of the stock brought by the ) 
Spaniards. The Indian’s love for his horse is partly owing to 
the fact that he can do so much towards taking care of himself 
on the prairie. They had their wheelless carriages constructed 
by lashing poles to the sides of the ponies and having one end 
trail on the ground. ‘The white man improved on this when he 
devised his Red River Cart of wood, whose groaning and wailing 
were so well described by the lecturer. Then came the prairie 
schooner, with its motive force of twenty horses or oxen, and 
finally the railroad, completing the conquest of the plains. 
Man’s struggle with the Rocky Mountain ranges was graphic- 
ally described—the pack-train, with its pony load of 250 pounds, 
and its famous diamond hitch. The roads of British Columbia 
are the most remarkable in the world, leading to almost inacces- 
sible places, and can be accounted for only by the fact that 
‘‘where gold is man will be, if he knows it.’’ 
He deseribed river navigation in flat-bottomed, sterr-wheel 
steamers and the famous dugout of the Chinook Indians and the 
remarkable dexterity with which they descend the mountajn 
torrents. 
A fine chart of the results of the geological survey of the 
Dominion was shown and explained, showing how small a part 
of our vast country (3,000,000 square miles) has yet been utilized. 
Professor Coleman in conclusion made patriotic reference to 
his faith in the growth of Canada and predicted that this cen- 
tury would be our century of advancement to greatness among 
the nations of the world. 
