CHAPTER VII.

RAILWAY SURVEYS AND CONSTRUCTION.

THE NEW ROUTE OF TRAVEL.-After the opening of the Canadian Pacific Railway there was no necessity for following the old slow and toilsome route and mode of travel across the Rocky Mountain passes. Reference has been made to various expeditions, both east and west, prior to Confederation. Since that time but comparatively few have to be noticed. Amongst them, however, worthy of record were those in connection with the Geological Survey, extending from 1871 to 1879. The chief director, Dr. Selwyn, frequently, in making observations in British Columbia, crossed and recrossed the Rocky Mountains. In 1871, having reached Victoria, by way of Chicago and San Francisco, he left in July for the mainland. He followed the valley of the Fraser to Lytton; passed on to Kamloops, and by the North Thompson and Albreda travelled to Tête-Jaune-Cache. reached Yellow-head Pass on October 21st. Returning by the same route, he arrived at Victoria on November 29th, and at Montreal on December 26th.

He

GEOLOGICAL EXAMINATIONS. -For the four years, 1871 to 1874, Mr. Richardson was engaged in the geological examination of Vancouver Island. In 1875, Dr. Selwyn made an extended exploration of the northern part of the country. He followed the trail to Fort Fraser on Stuart Lake; thence he proceeded across to Fort McLeod, near the source of Peace River. On July 3rd he left Fort McLeod and descended Peace River. On July 11th, after passing the mouth of Finlay River, Dr. Selwyn ascended a mountain 4,590 feet above his camp, and 6,220 feet above sea level. He passed up Pine River, following the stream as far as his canoe would float. He returned to Fort St. John and descended Peace River to Dunvegan; proceeding down stream to the forks, he ascended and partially explored Smoky River. This was the limit of Dr. Selwyn's expedition. He returned by the route he had followed. Details were published in Geological Report of 1875-76. Professor Macoun, who accompanied Dr. Selwyn,

continued the exploration from the mouth of Smoky River to Lake Athabasca. The result of his botanical investigations is given in "Geological and Geographical Notes for the year 1875."

GOLD SEEKERS IN 1862.-Notwithstanding the great distance to be travelled and the difficulties of the journey, the desire to obtain gold, and the news of rich discoveries in the Cariboo district, induced a continuation of the rush to the "diggings." Large numbers went by Panama, others came overland. In 1862, a company collected in Ontario numbering 193 men. They hailed from Queenston and Huron in the west of Canada to Montreal and Huntington in the east; a few came from Ogdensburg. They left their homes in April, and congregated at St. Paul, Minnesota. From St. Paul they proceeded by stages to Red River, which they descended by steamer to Fort Garry, where they completed their organization for the journey.

NINETY RED RIVER CARTS.-Their number, says Mr. Sandford Fleming in describing the journey, was increased at Fort Garry to two hundred, by the addition of seven persons from the Red River Settlement, among whom were Mr. and Mrs. Schubert and three small children. The expedition left Fort Garry, June 2nd; it formed a train consisting of about ninety Red River carts, each drawn by an OX. There were also about fifty saddle-horses with the party. The journey across the plains was necessarily slow, and they came in sight of Fort Edmonton on July 21st, having accomplished some nine hundred miles of their journey from Fort Garry without any serious hardships having been encountered.

YELLOW-HEAD PASS.-At Fort Edmonton they exchanged the carts for pack saddles, and left for the mountains on July 29th. Their route was by the ordinary trail, imperfectly defined, through forest and swamp, to Jasper House, and thence up the valleys of the Athabasca and Myette to the Yellow-head Pass, where the River Fraser takes its rise; following which they reached Tête-Jaune-Cache on August 28th. Here those constituting the party were unable to decide as to the route they should follow. It was finally agreed to divide into two parties, each division to act independently of the other, and follow the direction it might select. Both of them left Tête-Jaune-Cache on the same day, September 2nd. The larger number made rafts by which they descended the Fraser, which at this point flows north-westerly. Those who trusted to the river had many mishaps and underwent suffering, but they arrived at the mouth of the Quesnelle on September 11th. They lost three men by drowning

-Robertson, Carpenter and Leader; another died, a young Englishman named Patterson, who succumbed to exposure and was buried at Fort George.

AN UNFORTUNATE TRIP.-The second division of the party, about sixty in number, endeavored to cross the mountains in a westerly direction to Cariboo, but they were deterred by the immense labor experienced in forcing a passage across the mountains and the difficulty of penetrating through the heavy timber in the valleys. They turned in a southerly direction and succeeded in reaching the North Thompson. They here constructed large rafts to descend the stream. They killed some of their horses and "jagged " the meat, cutting it in strips and drying it. The remainder of the horses, about forty or fifty, they abandoned, and putting all their effects on the rafts, they proceeded to descend the swift current of the river. As they approached what is called the Grand Rapid, at the head of the fifteen-mile canyon of the Thompson, the leading raft was engulfed in the torrent before those navigating it were aware of the danger, and two men were drawn into the rapids and drowned. The rafts which followed avoided the fate of that before them; by great effort those on board reached the shore in safety, and, with labor and difficulty, forced their way up the precipitous banks. They managed to clamber along the cliffs to the lower end of the canyon, where they formed a second set of rafts, and proceeded to shoot the lower rapids; they arrived eventually in great distress at Kamloops on October 11th. On the following morning Mrs. Schubert, who accompanied this branch of the expedition, gave birth to a daughter. The two men drowned in the Thompson were William Strachan, of London, Ontario, and Frank Penwarden, of St. Thomas.

THE SURVIVORS.-Of the two hundred who left Fort Garry in 1862, the survivors now resident in British Columbia (1889), as far as known, are J. A. Mara, Mr. and Mrs. Schubert, A. McNaughton, John Bowron, W. Fletcher, D. Simpson, Robert Heron, R. B. McMicking, W. H. Thompson, W. McKenzie, W. Halpenny, George C. Turnstall, D. McQuarrie, R. H. Alexander, Captain Redgrave, Alex. L. Fortune, Henry Geyden, A. McConnell, J. B. McQueen, W. Fortune, and T. Fannin, curator of the Provincial Museum at Victoria. The four last named, with Mr. and Mrs. Schubert, came down by the Thompson.

THE PUBLIC MUSEUM.-Mr. Fannin remains in charge of the museum, which contains a large and most interesting collection of

birds, minerals, fossils and Indian curios and totems. The natural history branch comprises the musk ox, the white goat, the mountain sheep, the reindeer, wapiti, the grizzly bear, etc. A large collection of relics and curios, collected by Captain N. H. Chittenden, and exhibited by him at London, Antwerp, Chicago, and lately at San Francisco, has been presented by the captain to the museum. It represents the labor of many years spent in explorations along the Pacific coast, from Alaska to Mexico.

CAPTAIN PALLISER'S REPORT ADVERSE.-Under instructions from the Imperial Government, Captain Palliser, between the years 1857 and 1860, made extensive explorations across the continent from Lake Superior to the Okanagan Lakes. In 1859, he made a journey from Edmonton by the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains to the Kootenay Pass, to Kootenay River, following that route to Fort Shepherd and Fort Colville. The captain was accompanied by several scientific men, among whom may be named Dr. Hunter and Lieutenant Blakiston, Mr. John W. Sullivan and Mr. Bourgeau. His report to the Imperial Government was adverse to the construction of a railway across the continent, "as there would be no immediate advantage commensurate with the required sacrifice of capital," and stated that the knowledge of the country which he possessed, would never lead him to advocate a line of communication from Canada across the continent to the Pacific exclusively through British territory. The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway has proved that a line through British territory could be built.

Dr. G. M. Dawson commenced his labors in British Columbia in 1875, by making examinations east of the lower portion of Fraser River. (See portrait, page 133.) The following year he made explorations in the basin of the Black water, Salmon, Nechaco Rivers and Francois Lake. The same year Mr. Richardson continued the examination of the Nanaimo and Comox coal fields. In 1877, Dr. Dawson devoted his attention to an extended geological survey of southern British Columbia, and the following season to an examination of Queen Charlotte Island. In 1879, he accompanied Messrs. Cambie, McLeod and Gordon from Port Simpson, on the Pacific coast, through northern British Columbia, and the Peace River country to Edmonton, thence to Ottawa. The reports of the geological staff, published annually, set forth the results of the various explorations. They contain a vast amount of information and interesting details.

THE GEOLOGICAL REPORTS referring to British Columbia, by Dr. Dawson are most valuable. He has in them thrown a flood of light on the geology and the mineral wealth of the Province, and also by admirable papers read before the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Colonial Institute, London. One of those is published in the proceedings of the former society, as read 29th May, 1890, under the title, "The later Physiographical Geology of the Rocky Mountain region in Canada, with special reference to changes in elevation, and to the history of the glacial period, by George M. Dawson, D.Sc., A.R.S.M., F.G.S., Assistant Director Geological Survey of Canada"; and one in the latter society's proceedings on "The Mineral Wealth of British Columbia," as having been read 14th March, 1893.

CHAPTER VIII.

TRAVEL AND TRADE FACILITIES.

VICTORIA CITY, being directly in the way of the north and south Pacific coast lines, both rail and water, as well as of the lines from the Orient and Australia; and being the first and last port touched by deep sea vessels coming and going from all parts of the world, reckoning from the extremes of east and west, north of San Francisco, is consequently a trade centre, and must of necessity continue so. At present six principal lines touch at Victoria, or make it one of their termini, viz.:

CAPTAIN IRVING, M.P.P.

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC NAVIGATION COMPANY. This line may be said to be a continuation of the steamers which coasted and traded in the colonial days from Victoria. It assumed its present name in 1883, with Captain John Irvine as manager, commencing business with the steamers Princess Louise, Enterprise, Otter, R. P. Rithet, William Irving and Reliance. During the year the steamers Western Slope,