THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 91 



be solved. In alluding to this subject here, I trust I have not 

 overstepped the limits, within which, in this place, I ought to confine 

 my remarks, but it is of such paramount importance that scarcely 

 any effort to attract attention to it can be condemned as either ill- 

 timed or misplaced. 



But it is time that I bring these desultory observations to a close. 

 More than thirty-six years have passed since I first knew Western 

 Canada. An eye-witness of most of the leading events that have 

 happened in her history during that period, an actor in some of 

 them — I cannot compare what is, with what was, without feelings of 

 mixed wonder and rejoicing. The wilderness has given place to 

 fields of standing corn ; towns have sprung up where the first blows 

 of the settler's axe had not yet awakened the echoes of the forest ; 

 the locomotive dashes on with fiery speed where the early pioneer 

 explored his dubious way by the Indian path ; the vessel launched 

 on the waters of Lake Michigan finds her moorings in the River 

 Mersey ! I might compare the Province as it was then, to the bark 

 canoe floating on the waters of a river — as it is now, to a gallant 

 ship entering upon the billows of the broad ocean. At first : 



" Through pleasant banks the quiet stream 

 "Went winding pleasantly ; 

 By fragrant fir groves now it past, 

 And now thro' alder shores ; 

 Through green and fertile meadows now, 

 It silently ran by ! 



The flag flower blossomed on its side, 

 The willow tresses waved, 

 The flowing current furrowed round 

 The wafar-lily's floating leaf, 

 The fly of green and gauzy wing 

 Fell sporting down its course. 

 And grateful to the voyager 

 The freshness that it breathed, 

 And soothing to his ear 

 It's murmur round the prow !" 

 ***** 



" But many a silent spring meanwhile, 

 And many a rivulet and rill, 

 Had swollen the growing stream. 

 And when the southern sun began 

 To wind the downward way of Heaven, 

 It ran, a river deep and wide, 

 A broader and a broader stream. 



