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■'§

TE BRITISH ASSOGIAM IN GlNiii.

fOBONTQ PUBLIC UBDARY

A PAPER READ BEFORE THE FBLIiOWB OF

%\t ^08^1 Colnnial Institute,

JANUARY 18, 1885,

ji tf

WITH THE DISCUSSION.

THE RIGHT HON. THE MARQUIS OF LORNE, K.T., G-CEG.,

IN THE CHAIR.

I

BY

GENERAL SIB J. HENRY LEFROY,

E.C.M.G., C B., P.R.S.

Reprinted, by permission, from the Proceedings of tite Imtittste.

UNWIN BROTHERS, PRINOJUBS, 71a, li^^Atl Jg^Ei, .

1886.

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THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION IN CANADA.

A PAPER BBAD BEFORE THE FELLOWS OF

%\t ^ngal Cnbnial Institute,

JANUAEY 18, 1885,

WITH THE DISOUSSIOM.

THE RIGHT HON. THE HARQUIS OF LORNE, K.T., G.C.I.6.,

IN THE CHAIR.

BY

GENERAL SIE J. HENRY LEFROY,

E C.M.a., C B., F.B.S.

Reprintedy by permission, from the Proceedings »x the Institute.

ITonbon:
UNWIN BROTHERS, PRINTERS, 71a, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.

1886.

l'-'

mm

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION IN CANADA.

The visit of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science to Montreal last antumn was mach more than a startling
innovation upon the habits of an organisation supposed to be
attached to these Islands by a law of its nature ; it was a surprising
testimony to the social and political change that has come over the
British Empire within the quarter of a century ; it is an evidence
of a facility of communication undreamed of but a fe\v^ears ago ;
and it bespeaks the existence of a culture, an opulen^ie, and a
friendly feeling toward the Mother Country which might have
been sought in vain beyond the Atlantic within a period whioti the
memory of most of us can span. It wao a menlbrable 'eV^ht in
British colonial history, however it may be overshadowed for the
moment by the more urgent questions of confederation and colonial
defence. The Council of this Institute, in its Annual Report of
June last, adverted to it with satisfaction, and some account of its
inception, execation, and results cannot, I think, but be interesting
to those members who, not being also members of the British Asso-
ciation, may never see the volume of its proceedings, which will, in
due time, appear, and, if residents in a Colony, may have had but
imperfect accounts of them in their local newspapers. 1 have not
been able to identify, even with the kind assistance of Mr.
O'Halloran who was present, the names of more than eleven or
twelve members of this Institute who personally participated in
the pleasure, the interest, and the instruction enjoyed by those
who availed themselves of Canadian hospitality ; there may have
been a few more, but a oursory comparison of lists is enough to
show, as, indeed, would be anticipated, that the Boyal Colonial

Piilippilp

ipipiilpp

mm!»mmf.

The British Association in Canada.

Institute and the British AssociaMon are so far dissimilar in their
constitution as to warrant an assumption that a narrative of the
proceedings of the one may have a character of novelty to a large
proportion of the members of the other.

It was at the meeting of the British Association at York, in
August, 1881, under the presidency of Sir John Lubbock, Bart,,
that Captain Bedford Pirn, B.N., first gave form and substance to
the novel idea of holding a meeting out of the United Kingdom,
by notice that at the next ensuing annual assembly of the
General Committee, he should move that the Association meet at
Montreal in 1886. Before this official year expired, however,
that is to say, in March, 1882, the Council received an invitation
addressed by the Marquis of Lome, then Governor-General, to
the late Mr. Spottiswoode, President of the Boyal Society, that
the British Association should hold its meeting for the year
1883 in Canada, and in reply expressed regret that arrange-
ments had already been made for the meeting of 1883, which
could not be altered, but that the question of meeting in Canada
on some future occasion should be brought before the General
Committee^ in the following August. Before this date arrived
the Council, having good reason to believe that the invitation
would be renewed, perhaps, with the substitution of 1884 for

1883, took the precaution of sounding the members of the General
Committee, who were about 700 in number, as to their views. They
received 230 replies, of which 156 were in the negative ; neverthe-
less, when the subject was again placed before that body, at South-
ampton, in August, 1882, a majority, led by Captain Bedford Pirn,
was found to be in favour of the measure, and, although a memo-
rial against the decision was presented to the Council in February,

1884, that body decided that, as the decision of the general meeting
at Southampton did not appear to be in contravention of the laws
of the Association, it was not competent to them to re-open the
question ; moreover, they had already taken steps to ascertain the
conditions of the proffered hospitality and the number of members
who might be disposed to take advantage of it. On November 28,
1882, a letter was addressed to Sir A. T. Gait, G.C.M.G., the High
Commissioner, putting a number of home questions on points upon
which it was essential that there should be no misunderstanding.

. To these questions Sir Alex Gait replied on March 8, 1883, after
oommunioation with the Chairman of the Montreal Invitation Com-
mittee, Professor T. Sterry Hunt, F.B.S. The reply was entirely

The British Association in Canada.

5

satisfactory, and on March 19, 1883, a circular was addressed to
every member of the Association, conveying all needful informa-
tion, and requesting a statement of intention to be present at
Montreal or otherwise.

By these cautious proceedings, the Council were enabled, in
their Beport for the year 1882-8, to make the following announce*
ment : —

"The Council have appointed a committee to co-operate
with them for the purpose of conuidering the arrangements for
the meeting at Montreal.

" In respect to this meeting the Council have to inform the
Association, that of those who were members at the time of the
meeting at Southampton (August, 1882) 446 have notified
their intention to be present at the meeting in Montreal, and
56 persons have either become members, or expressed their
wish to become members, with a view to taking part in this
meeting. Negotiations with respect to the arrangements for
the meeting on the basis of the letter from Sir A. T. Gait,
dated March 8, 1883, are still proceeding (September), and
for some little time it will not be possible for the Council to
communicate the precise details to tlie members of the
Association, but the following points may be regarded as
settled. There will be a reduction of fares on the part of
tlie steamship companies to all members of the Association,
and a further reduction in consequence of the Canadian
subsidy, at any rate, to all who were members of the meeting
of 1882 ; and there will be an excursion after the meeting —
free of cost to members as regards transit — one to the Bocky
Mountains, lasting from twelve to fourteen days ; another to
the Falls of Niagara, and Chicago, with probably one or two
shorter excursions."
The Council further reported their opinion, that as there was
likely to be so representative a gathering of British members at
Montreal, and as 164 members of the General Committee had
signified their intention of being present, little alteration would be
necessary in the custom, and no changes need be proposed in the
written law of the Association.

Of the enormous labour devolved upon the officers of the
Association; and more particularly upon the secretary. Professor T. G.
Bonney, F.B.S., by the multifarious new arrangements, and the
immense correspondence in which they had to embark, this,

T^UaLL

The British Association in Canada.

perhaps, is not the oooasion to enlarge ; but it must ever be
borne in mind that without organising ability of a high order, and
indefatigable exertions in London and Montreal, it would have
been impossible to bring this undertaking to a successful issue. It
seems invidious to name individuals where so many co-operated,
but it is impossible to omit acknowledgment of the obligations of
the Association to the practical ability, tact, and influence of Sir
W. Dawson, which pervaded and quietly guided everything ; and
I cannot forbear mentioning the invaluable services oi Mr. David
A. P. Watt, the secretary of the local executive committee, and of
Mr. Hugh McLennan, Chairman, and Mr. J. D. Crawford, general
secretary to the citizens' executive committee, as especially pro-
minent, and of Professors Bovey and MoLeod in otner capacities.

The Dominion Parliament voted $26,000 towards the expenses
of the meeting, to which sum large additions were made by the con-
tributions of citizens. $20,000 were assigned to the reduction of
ocean passages and travelling expenses ; the remainder went in aid
of the expenses of the Montreal Committee. Of the former sum
there is i surplus of about $2,000. Fifty persons, officers of
the Association, received vouchers for the sum of £28 2s. ($112),
which was the medium price of a return ticket by the Allan line,
and which was taken in part payment for passage by any of the
lines. Old members received vouchers entitUng the companies
presenting them to receive £8 for each passage, out of the subsidy
granted by the Dominion Government. The Allan Company made
besides an abatement of £3 8s. on their ordinary charge for the
return ticket. Nearly all the companies made a substantial
reduction, usually about 10 per cent. The benefit of these
arrangements was liberally extended to a number, not exceeding
three, of near relations of members who might, under ordinary
circumstances, share his holiday. These persons generally became
associates for the occasion, and paid the usual fee of £1 to the
funds.

The $6,000 allotted by the Government to th xpenses of the
Montreal Committee was supplemented by a grant of the like
amount from the City Council of Montreal, and by subscriptions
amounting to ,$10,000 from the citizens ; one-half of which, how-
ever, was regarded as a guarantee fund, of which no part will be
called for. A sum of $16,000, contributed in equal proportions by
the Government, the City Council, and by private persons, proved
amply sufficient for all the requirements of the Committee, including

ai:-:M.i^.Li..jJj£.^

The British Association in Canada. 7

the publication in book form of the Canadian papers, and will,
indeed, leave a balance to be applied to some other public purpose.
The provincial capitals — Quebec, Toronto, and the political capital,
Ottawa — met the expenses of their hospitalities from oivio funds and
private contributions, without Government aid.*

" There is nothing succeeds like success." The complete success
of the measure when fairly taken in hand is an ample justification
of the boldness of the proposal, and of the activity with which the
gallant officer I have already named exerted himself to secure the
vote of a majority of the General Committee. It was, as already
observed, a triumph of good organisation ; and to the cordial co-
operation of the High Commissioner, Sir Alexander Gait, after-
wards of Sir Charles Tupper, and of Mr. J. G. Colmer, must
be ascribed much of the credit.

I have been favoured by the various steamship companies with
the information from which the following table is compiled : —

Tablb I.

Number of Members and Associate Members of the British Association conveyed to
America by various lines of steamers upon the reduced terms arranged with the
Council, so far as traced, from June \b to August 16, 1884.

Out.

Betam.

Allan Line

Anchor Line

Beaver Line

450
20
60

100
71

20

4

32

100

67
12

GunardLine

Dominion Line

Gni'Hl F'in" ,

No account kept.

Inman Lino ,

National Line

At least, account imperfect.

White Star Line

We have thus accounted for 747 passengers, including the
families, and, in a few instances, domestic servants of members of
the Association, who availed themselves of the opportunity to visit
America, in the vast majority of oases for the first time.

On the other side active preparations were made for the reception
of the expected scientific visitors. Five local secretaries and a local

* The above paragraph has been somewhat extended since delivery upon
information kindly furnished by dir John A. Maodonald, through Mr. D. A. P.
Watt, wluoh had not arrived when the i>aper was read.

A

The British Aasociation in Canada.

treasurer were appointed, a strong local executive committee was
formed under the presidency of his Worship the Mayor of Montreal,
with Professor Bovey as secretary. Local officers were appointed
to each section as vice-presidents and secretaries to correspond with
the officers in En£;land, and a citizens' executive committee,
divided into many sub-committees, each with its chairman and
secretary, took charge of the arrangements for reception, hospitality,
hotels and lodging, conveyance, printing, finance, and economics.
Of the precise functions of the last section I am in doubt. There
was little evidence of economy in any part of the programme.

Quite beside all these arrangements, there was a great work
necessary to prepare McGill College to be the headquarters of the
Association during its stay, and the place of meeting of all the
sections but two. No leBS than twenty-nine rooms in the College,
or its p.ssociated institutions, the Presbyterian College, the
Wesleyan College, and the Congregational College, which form one
group with it, were, more or less, cleared of their usual furniture
and prepared for temporary uses. The labour and mconvenience
involved i^ this transformation can hardly be described by any but
those who carried it out.

To those who are not acquainted with Montreal it may be necessary
to say that McGill University — founded in ISll by the wealthy and
patriotic citizen of Montreal whose name it bears, but first chartered
in 1821, — occupies a commanding and beautiful situation on the
southern slope of the mountain, about 250 ft. above the St. Lawrence.
The grounds are over twenty acres in extent, much resorted to by the
citizens, and it added no httle pleasure to the daily routine of
the meeting to enter their cool shades &om the streets, and enjoy
the free and park-like retirement they afforded. Great additions
have been made to the university buildings by the erection of the
William Molson wing, with museum rooms, chemical laboratory,
and class rooms, in 1861, and the Peter Bedpath Museum in 1880,
both named after their munificent founders. It has received, chiefly
within thirty years, in the form of endowments for special purposes
(exolusivo of the Founder's bequest of £10,000), sums amounting to
no less than £70^000, and I find under the head of recent sub-
scriptions for special purposes, too numerous to mention, an amount
of about £12,500. These figures will suffice to convey x> the
members of this Institute a just impression as to the scale of the
college, and also evidence that private munificence in the endow-
ment of higher education, of which we have had such conspicuous

T^*9yW9jnr

aj!j(«wf«mn»a!SW.Minwi'^

The British Association in Canada.

G

examples in the United States and in Australia, has not bden
wanting in British America.

1 had the good fortune to secure passages, on August 16, in the
magnificent steamer of the Allan Line, the Parisian. This voyage
was an extra service, which under no circumstances would have
been thought of but for the desire of Messrs. Allan to provide
suitable conveyance for the members of the Association. It was a
saihng altogeUier beyond their mail contract, and I regret to add
that the receipts fell fietr short of the expenditure. It marks in a
conspicuous manner the generous enthusiasm with which the
business community of the Dominion, no less than the representa*
tives of science, threw themselves into the spirit of the occasion,
and contributed to its success. The Parisian was thought worthy
to oarry CsBsar and his fortunes, and any disaster to her would
have certainly altered the destinies of the meeting, for among her
passengers were the distinguished President of the meeting. Lord
Bayleigh, one of the General Secretaries, the Treasurer, the Presi-
dents of the Mechanical and Geographical Sections, and some suven
or eight of the vice-presidents and secretaries of sections, besides a
brilliant contingent of members, associates, and others, to the
number of 185.

It is needless to dwell on the incidents of the voyage, which
differed from others only in being more agreeable, and perhaps
in the unusual number of icebergs which welcomed us to the
Gulf of St. Lawrence. Point Levis was reached at 8 a.m. on the
morning of Monday, August 26, some hours' delay having occurred
at the bar. We were spared Custom House formaUties, and
joyfully bade adieu to the Parisian, but not before her passengers^
by the voice of Lord Bayleigh, had expressed to Captain Wylie
their grateful sense of his unremitting attention and of his pro-
fessional skill. The Polynesian and Oregon, which left a day or two
before us, had preceded us in arrival by about the same intervals.

I cannot pass over the two days which had still to intervene
before the opening of the meeting at Montreal, without a grateful
allusion to the genial hospitality I found prepared for myself and
family at the picturesque residence of the President of the
Geographical Society of Canada, Colonel Bhodes, of which we
gladly availed ourselves. If impatience to reach Monkeal led
most of the new arrivals to make but little stay in Quebec on this
occasion, it was from no want of kindly pressure to do so.

We had, on Sunday, at Rimouski, the first exemplification of

mammm

10

The British Association in Canada.

what was a remarkable feature in the Canadian reception, I mean
the liberality with which guido-books, maps, departmental doon-
ments, and the like, were presented to all who wished to have
them, contrasting strongly with the morbid dread of abuse and
ntJTOwness of economy, which in this country limits the useful-
ness of public documents. The secretary of the Citizens' Com-
mittee, who boarded us at Bimouski, brought with him a large
parcel of handbooks to the Dominion of Canada, an 8vo. volume
of 885 pages, expressly prepared for the meeting by Mr. S. E.
Dawson, one of the local secretaries, and these were freely given
away. A descriptive sketch of the Physical Geography and
Geology of the Dominion, by Dr. Selwyn and Mr. G. M. Dawson,
was with equal liberahty distributed to those interested. We
were permitted to send or receive local telegraphic and telephone
messages free of charge ; each member had the privilege of
sending and receiving two Transatlantic code messages free. Free
railroad passes were available under intelligible and simple
regulations for the protection of the companies, to every part
of Canada, and tickets at half price to all parts of the
Northern United States. Such is the large conception of inter-
national hospitality which pervades the American mind and
penetrates American bureaux.

The changes in Quebec since my first visit to that city in 1842
were striking enough, and not wholly for the better. Then it
was the seat of an immense timber trade, and resounded with the
din of wooden shipbuilding. The grey walls were alive with a
strong British garrison. The French population, while it dwelt
much apart, was upon friendly terms with their former conquerors.
Now its trade has left, or is leaving it, to a great degree as a natural
consequence of the completion of the ship channel to Quebec and
Montreal. This great work, which rivals in magnitude the improve-
ments of the Clyde, enables ships drawing 27 ft. of water to go on
to the latter city, and makes it the real head of the navigation.
The English population, by far the most energetic, is rather dimin-
ishing than increasing, and a spirit of national rivalry has been
engendered. The defences which, by a military fiction, somewhat
like that of the importance of Berwick-upon-Tweed, are still sup-
posed to constitute a first-class fortress, are in some places, at least,
much in the way of improvement, and the source of great, and I am
inclined to think unprofitable, expenditure in repairs. There are
nndoubtedly portions of the old works which can be of no

The. British Association in Canada.

11

possible future use, the military conditions of real defence having
entirely altered, and it seems time to review the situation.
As "the spider spins her web in the palaces of Afasiab," so
grass-grown parades,- deserted barracks, untenanted sentry-boxes,
bespeak a life departed, and impotent old smooth-bored guns
threaten where they cannot bite. I found the spot where forty-
two years before I had observed the magnetic dip and terrestrial
magnetic force, at an angle of the Lines, near McMahon-street,
unaltered, save only that silence brooded over the former Artillery
barracks, and a dynamo- machine, which would have played the
mischief with my needle, was within a few yards of the spot,
employed in the electric lighting of the St. Louis Hotel. On the
other hand, it is needless to say that there has been a vast
expansion of the city, especially conspicuous in the suburbs of
St. Charles and Point Levis. At the latter, great docks are in
construction, and the curious circumstance was related, that in
the course of their dredging operations, a nest of anchors and
chain cables were found, so hopelessly entangled, that it had to be
raised en masse, and proved to be composed of no less than 84
anchors, and 8,000 yards of chain cable. Quebec was the mark
of an excursion on August 8C, when the Association was enter-
flined by the Mayor and Corporation at lunch ; an afternoon
reception was held by the Lieutenant-Governor, at Spencer Wood,
and a great evening reception, marred, however, by heavy rain,
which quenched the intended illuminations, was held by their
Excellencies the Governor-General and Lady Lansdowne, at the
Citadel. It was a long and certainly fatiguing day, for which the
weather was unpropitious, but the general spirit of enjoyment and
the occasional glimpses afforded to the b ^auty of this historic city
and its surroundings, left no room for regret to any who took part
in the excursion. I cannot resist here paying a tribute of admira-
tion to the inexhaustible good-humour and courtesy of Professor
H. T. Bovey, who conducted it.

Quebec is not associated with pleasant recollections in the mind
of all who saw it for the first time last year. An accident which
might have been serious and was, in fact, very inconvenient,
occurred to the steamer Saguenay, by which some of the members
of the Association had taken passage to Tadousac, on September 26.
In some manner unexplained she toolc fire while lying at night
at the wharf at Murray Bay, and was set adrift before her
passengers had all been rescued. There was great alarm ; those

■dii^uAt^AA

12

The British Association in Canada.

iu the etem part of the vessel, being out off by the flames, wore
in imminent danger of being burnt or drowned, when they were
rescued by M. St. Onge, the purser (whose presence of mind was
warmly acknowledged), and escaped with the loss of their baggage.

The British Association welcomes support from every quarter ; the
actual cultivation of any brar.ch of science is not a condition of mem-
bership. It may naturally therefore be asked, and indeed has been
asked, what proportion of the 568 old members who followed its
standard across the Atlantic could be considered fairly to represent
the scientific life of the Mother Country. To this it may be replied
that among the officers alone there were the holders of six Boyal
medals and two Copley gold medals of the Boyal Society. There
were the presidents of the Geological Society, the London Mathe-
matical Society, and the Photographical Society. There were
many distinguished Professors from Cambridge, Oxford, Dublin,
Glasgow, Manchester, and other Universities. There were more
than twenty gentlemen who had contributed papers to the Philo-
sophical Transactions, and contributors innumerable to the Trans-
actions of other societies than the Boyal, and workers in every field
of scientific activity. Sir W. Dawson himself is the author of
numerous papers in the Transactions of learned Societies. They
were joined by a host, which I have counted up to seventy, of gen-
tlemen filling professorial chairs in Canada or the United States,
some of them Uke Professor S. Newcomb, F.B.S. (of Washington),
Professor Asa Gray, F.B.S., Professor Sterry Hunt, F.B.S., Sir
William Dawson, F.B.S., Dr. A. Selwyn, F.B.S., men of European
reputation, many of them honourably distinguished at English
Universities.

The meeting even from the British side was in fact a strong one,
and entirely refuted an apprehension that for a moment prevailed,
that a sufficient number of persons could not be found to face the
dreaded Atlantic voyage, and to give up two months of their time
to represent British science in an adequate manner. As reinforced
from the American continent, it will be distinguished iu the records
of the Association.

It would take a more lively pen than I can command to describe
the pleasant excitement and the friendly greetings of the reception
rooms at McGill College, the inexhaustible r^t ience and good-
humour of the officers appointed to answer inquiries and to direct
the visitors. About 140 residents of Montreal opened their houses to
guests, receiving from two to six each ; the rest dispersed them-

^^mm>mvmmjfm,., mmmmmmmmmm

The British Association in Canada.

18

selves through the various hotels and lodging-houses. The Windsor
Hotel, which is the largest in Canada and one of the finest in
America, received the lion's share. The serious business began
with an eloquent welcome from Lord Lansdowne, and the delivery
of the President's address at the Queen's Hall on Wednesday
evening to an audience estimated at 2,000 persons. It included
the Governor-General, Lady Lansdowne, the Ladies Bayleigh, the
Earl of Bosse, and many other eminent persons, and was, of
course, composed not only of the members and associate-members,
but of as many as could find places of the residents and their
families. The President was supported by ten or eleven Vice-
Presidents, among whom were the Marquis of Lansdowne himself.
Sir John Macdonald, Sir Lyon Playfair, M.P., Chief Justice Sir A,
Dorion, the Hon. Dr. Chauvean, and other distinguished names.
The occasion was happily chosen by His Excellency to make
public announcement of the honour of knighthood recently con-
ferred by Her Majesty on Principal (not7 Sir William) Dawson.

I trust my audience will not be disappointed if I deal little in
superlatives of description, and decline the unequal task of trying
to rival the newspapers in their graphic descriptions of successive
scenes that left deep impressions upon those who witnessed or took
a part in them. Still less do I pretend to criticise the intellectual
or scientific outcome of the meeting. The brilliant discourse of
Lord Bayleigh and the addresses of the Presidents of sections were
republished in the Times and other papers ; many of them will be
found at large in Nature and other literary periodicals easily
consulted. It would be impossible to do them justice in such
extracts as the limits of this paper might permit. The papers read
have not as yet been published, except, perhaps, a few of them in
the Proceedings of Societies ; the newspaper extracts that appeared
were not in general very full. It is intended, I understand, to
print them at length in Canada, in a separate volume. All I shall
therefore attempt is to give an abstract showing the success of the
meeting in eliciting local contributions, which, after all, I presume
to be what the Boyal Colonial Institute will think of most. I desire,
however, to make a grateful acknowledgment of the services
rendered by the Montreal daily press, especially the Montreal
Gazette. The Montreal Star, a paper published at one cent,
actually gave its readers really excellent likenesses from photo-
graphs (by the photo-electrotype process) of the most prominent
members.

"■<i.;MPii>i>«Pii!Pft"u't'iwwii(*^%iJ!Pij|

14

The British Aaaociation in Canada,

There were read in the several sections the following numbers
of papers and reports, those which were oontribnted by old
members of the Association, or associates known to me as having
come out from England, being distinguished from those by local
scientists, in which number I include visitors from the United
States : —

Tablb II.

Local Memben.
Seetion. Old Memben. Ouiad.-AinerioMi

A Mathemattoal and Fhyaio*! Soienoe . . 48 4 2

B Ohemioal Soienoe 25 8 3

O Geology 24 16 10

D Biology 39 10 8

£ Geography 16 4 3

F Eoonomic Soienoe and Statistioa .... 21 16 1

G Meohanical Soienoe 24 6 6

H Anthropology 11 8 10

207 66 43

The names of the Preaidentii of Seotiona will be found on page 110.

Thus it appears that 81 per cent, of all the papers read, in which
total I include the addresses, were of local origin, a result which
must be deemed satisfactory. There were 6 contributed by
foreigners and 6 by gentlemen of whose nationality I am not
certain. These arp not counted. As might be expected, they pre-
dominated in the less abstruse or more practical subjects. It was
remarked that although nearly one-third of the people of the
Dominion are of French origin, there were very few papers which
emanated from a French- Canadian source ; this is probably to be
attributed to the rural character of the bulk of the French popula-
tion, but, in part, to the large share taken by ecclesiastics m the
higher education of the Boman Catholic Church, and a certain
misgiving, certainly not justified by facts, as to the relations of
science to the truths of revelation.

A week of hard work was diversified by public and private
hospitalities on a large scale, of which the conversazione at McGill
College, and a reception given by the citizens at the Victoria
Skating Bink, deserve especial mention for their brilliancy and
success. Besides the excursion to Quebec, to which I have already
alluded, and Lake Memphramagog, others were arranged to Ottawa,
to the Eastern townships, and to points of interest nearer the
capital.

The Astronomer Boyalof Ireland, Dr. B. S. Ball, F.B.S., delivered
a lecture, with his usual brilliancy and originality, to the towns-

The British Asaoeiation in Canada.

15

people of Montreal, at the Qneen'B Hall, on " Comets ;'"'' Professor
Oliver J. Lodge addressed to the Members of the Association an able
disoourse on '* Dnsl ;" and the Bev. D. W. H. Dallinger, F.B.S., a
lecture on " The Origin and Life Historyof the least and lowest Living
Things."! If I may venture for once to obtrude a personal opinion,
I would say that in the novelty of the subject to almost all present,
in the beauty and clearness of the illustrations, which were thrown
on a large screen by a magio-lantem, in the felicity and enthusiasm
of the lecturer, this e£fort has never been surpassed at any meeting
of the British Association. There was one other incident of the meet-
ing too interesting to be passed over in silence. I mean the first public
appearance of the Arctic hero, Lieut. Greely, U.S.A., whose suffer-
ings and recent almost miraculous rescue were then the theme of
every tongue. This gentleman, with Mrs. Greely, and his friend
and comrade Lieut. Bay, who like himself had conducted one of
the circumpolar observatories, was the guest of the Citizens' Com-
mittee. The warmest sympathy was felt for him, and the liveliest
desire to see him, which caused the Geographical Section to be
crowded to its utmost capacity, la introducing him to the meet-
ing, the President of the section dwelt upon an incident to which
notice has not been sufficiently called. To Lieut. Greely belongs
the honour of having made observations with the pendulum, to
determine the Polar compression and the figure of the earth, some
6^° nearer the Pole than any previous Arctic traveller in America,
and 1^° nearer than Sabine approached it at Spitzbergen. It is of
the utmost importance in this observation that the pendulum itself
be transported back again unaltered to the station of origin, as the
compression is inferred from the mean number of vibrations in one
revolution of the earth on its axis, in two or more localities. Aware
of this, Lieut. Greely, whatever he might lose, was determined to
save his pendulum, and this heavy instrument, weighing more than
lOOlbs., was actually dragged by starving men from Baird Inlet
to Gape Sabine, where he was found, and safaly returned to
Washington — ^an instance of devotion to science which may be
termed sublime.

The papers of Lieut. Greely and Lieut. Bay read before the
Geographical Section will be found in the proceedings of the Boyal
Geographical Society for November ; they read papers also before
the section of Anthropology, and I had Uie pleasure of filling the

• 2fatur0 fiol.

p. 464.

t Ibid. pp. 619, 645.

1

16

The British Astociation in Canada,

I ;;

ohatr at a complimentary entertainment, arranged under extra-
ordinary diffionltieB for want of time and pre-oooupation of place,
by Captain Bedford Pim, B.N., which was given in their honour at
the Windsor Hotel. An address of sympathy, bearing the signa-
tures of Lord Bayleigh and Sir William Thomson, the present and
the late President of the Association, and those of their hosts, was
presented on this occasion to Lieut. Qreely.

The meeting of the Association was brought to a close on Wed-
nesday, September 8, by the usual formal proceedings, which
included the announcement by the Treasurer, Admiral Sir Erasmus
Ommaney, of the following abstract of the attendance : —

OU Life ICemben 235

New „ 20

Old Anxmal 3f embers 318

New , 216

AMooiatea 825

Ladies 74

Foreign Memben 2S

Honorary Membera .. 60

Total 1,778

The appropriations of money in aid of scientific inquiries, several
of which were committed to Canadian scientists, amounted to
£1,61B.

Among the recommendations of tho Council were the follow-
ing:—

(1) To call the attention of the Dominion Government to
the absence ol trustworthy information oonoerning the tides of

. ihe Gulf of St. Lav^enoe and the adjoining Atla&tic coast, and
. io the dangers which thence ari^e to navigation.

(2) To urge upon the Dominion Government the importance
of obtaining accurate and systematic tidal observations, and of
tabulating and reducing the results by the scientific methods
elabomtvKl b * Committees of the British Association ; and

(8) To suggest the immediate establishment of a sufficient
series of observing stations on the coasts of the Dominion.
An excellent pi^per on the lighthouse system of Canada, rei^ in
the Mechanical Section by Mr. W. Smith, contributed nat a little to
theinitiation of these rebomm^ndatione. Coincident with the nieetii^g
ol the Association, though not connected witii it, was tbe desp«tc|^
of the steamer Neptune to establish seven marine observing stations
in Labrfbdor, Hudpon's Straits, and Hudson's Bi^. T^ese stations

T^TWJ^TB^

:

The British Asaoeiation in Canada.

17

are— Cape Ohidleigh, Labrador ; Resolution Island, North of Hud-
son's Strait ; North Bluff, North of Hudson's Strait ; Cape Hope,
Labrador ; Nottiughsm Island, Hudson's Strait ; Mansfield Island,
Hudson's Bay ; Fori. Ohurohill, Hudson's Bay. Among the grants
was one of £60 for an investigation, physical and otherwise, of the
north-western Indian tribes of Canada, which was subsidiary to
strong recommendations from the President of the section of Anthro-
pology and others, that the Dominion Government should take up
the subject of British American Ethnology before it be too late, by
founding a museum, and systematically preserving everything which
will hereafter throw light upon the origin, customs, languages, and
arts of the fast-disappearing red man.

The gratifying announcement was made on this occasion that a
sum of £560 had been raised by the Association for the purpose
of founding a gold medal to be given annually at MoOill Uni-
versity, in the Faculty of applied science, under conditions which
are left to the authorities of the University, in commemoration of
the first visit of the British Association to the Dominion of Canada.

A subject of great local interest was brought forward by Sir B,
Temple, seconded by Professor Boyd Dawkins and Sir W. Thomson,
namely, the foundation of a Pubho Free Library in Montreal,
towards which a munificent anonymous donation was announced.
There are difiSoulties of a social nature growing out of the muni-
cipal constitution of the city not likely to be soon overcome, but
the weighty advocacy of these distinguished persons cannot but have
strengthened the movement.

It is needless to dwell on the interchange of grateful acknowledg-
ment and cordial thanks for the unbounded hospitality extended to
the Association, and of graceful compliment and satisfaction ex-
pressed by the representatives of the Dominion. Nothing was
omitted which could confer eclat on the closing scene, and Principal
Sir W. Dawson who appeared in his Academic robes, crowned
the ceremony by conferring the Honorary Degree of LL.D. in
the name of McGill University upon the following gentlemen : —

The Bight Hon. Lord Bayleigh, F.B.S., President.

His Excellency the Bight Hon. the Marquis of Lansdowne.

The Right Hon. Sir John A. Maodonald, Bart, G.C.B., Y.P.

The Right Hon. Sir Lyon Playfair, F.RS., K.C.B., V.P.

Professor Edward Frankland, F.R.S., V.P.

Captain Douglas Galton, F.R.S., General Secretary.

18

The Bntish Astociation in Canada.

A. G. Vernon Haroourt, Esq., F.B.S., General Secretary.
Professor T. G. Bonney, F.B.S., Secretary.
Professor Sir W. Thomson, F.B.S., Pres. Section A.

f»

B.
0.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.

Professor Sir H. E. Boscoe, F.RS.

W. T. Blandford, Esq., F.B.S.

Professor H. N. Moseley, F.B.S.

General Sir H. Lefroy, F.B.8., E.O.M.G.

Sir B. Temple, Bart., G.O.S.I.

Sir J. F. Bramwall, F.B.S.

Edward B. Tylor, Esq., F.B.S.

Professor Asa Gray, F.B.S., Harvard University.

Professor J. Hall, Albany.

Professor Daniel Wilson, F.B.S.E., Toronto.

The Association meeting broke up immediately. A large contin-
gent of members (about 800) started the same evening for Phila-
delphia, where the American Association was arranged to meet on
the Monday following. Not having been one of the number I have
nothing to say about it, but the subuiined extract from Science of
September 19, a publication which corresponds in the United States
to Nature in England, is at once so gratifying to a British reader
and so creditable to the writer's impartiality and breadth of view,
that the Institute will pardon its length. The writer says : —

« To us on this side of the Atlantic, the opportunity to profit
by the contrast of the two Association meetings just closed
ought not to be lost ; and the desire to take advantage of it
may justify a somewhat extended comparison of the two
Associations.

« Concerning what may be called the ' physical features ' of
the two meetings, their relation to each other may be readily
seen by an inspection of the following statistics : At the
Montreal meeting, the total registered attendance was 1,778,
of which nearly half crossed the ocean, and about six hundred
were classed as ' old ' members. The total number registered
was somewhat below the average of the past ten years, which
was 1,889, not including last year's meeting. The largest
meeting ever held by the British Association was at Man-
chester, in 1861, when the registry was 8,944 ; the smallest,
in recent years, at Swansea, in 1880, the number being 899.
The number of registered members at Philadelphia was 1,261,
the greatest number ever on the rolls of the American Associa-

>>.

M^Ai^^^MX.

^^iJ&akXir^±.-:«^- .,J»iMiim.i.i

The British Astociation in Canada.

xr

tioQ at one meeting. It is not unlikely that the excess of
mora than five hundred in the membership of the British
Assooiation over that of the American is to be partially attri-
buted to the rule of the British Association, which confines the
privileges of attendance to members of one class or another ;
while the policy of the American Association has been to
invite and to welcome all who are interested in the proceed-
ings, regardless of membership.

"At the Montreal meeting, the total number of papers
read was 827. At Philadelphia, 804 papers were read. The
number of papers on mathematical and physical science was
ten greater in the American than in the British Association.
In the latter, however, the number of ph/n!cal papers was
greatly in excess, as those concerning pure mathematics were
disposed of by a sub-section in a single day.

" In addition to the regular papers, there were, in the various
seotions of the British Assooiation, more than fifty reports
presented, coming from Committees appointed at previous
meetings for the consideration of special subjects. 0. similar
reports in the American Association, it can hardly be said that
there were any, such as were offered being mostly confined
to a few words declaring ' progress,' asking for continuation,
and promising something in the future ; and even this much
was only obtained after much labour on the part of the pre-
siding officer.

<' As to the general character of the meetings, it may be said
that both were above the average. Sir William Thomson
declared, at the closing session of the British Association, that
it was one of the most satisfactory ever held ; and both he and
Lord Bayleigh declared that the meetings of Section A were
far above the average.

"It co^n be affirmed without boasting, that Americans
(oitizenti of the United States) contributed in no small degree
to insure this success. At least forty, or about one-eighth,
of the entire number of papers read, came from them.
They joined in several of the important discussions, and
generally with credit; and some of them — Newcomb, Bow-
land, and possibly others — presided over sections at various
times. It is well worthy of note that, of the five papers
recommended to be published in extenso, one was from Pro-
fessor Gray and another f^om Professor Thurston.

ii*>ip>|l|IUM-U<

The Britiih A$sociation in Canada.

" The Philadelphia meeting of the Amerioan Aiaooiation was
doubtiess, all things considered, the moat saocoasful yet held.
The work done in sections was, in general, of a higher order
than usual; and we are, in turn, indebted to the visiting
members of the British Association for valuable assistance in
' bringing up the average.' Many of them presented papers,
and took part in the discussions which now and then arose
in various sections.

" The greatly inferior quantity, if not quahty, of th* work
done by our special committees, is unquestionably due, to a
great extent, to a fact already referred to in these pages. The
committees of the British Association are aided by grants of
money, as much as $7,600 being allowed at the Montreal
meeting. Gould the committees of our Association obtain such
grants, their work would undoubtedly be vastly more satisfac-
tory. Besides, being thus reUeved from the purely mechanical
drudgery of the work, the feeling of responsibility would be
much greater, and each committe would recognise the neces-
sity of justifying its existence, and of showing that the money
given as aid had been well invested.

" On the whole, it will be admitted that the British Associa-
tion does its work upon a higher plane than that occupied by
the American. Its sectional work shows more that is really
new and of lasting value, and less that is trifling ; although
there has been a steady and healthful improvement in the
character of the American Association during several years
past. It may be well to remark here, that there are at least
a few of the ablest and best men in American science who
have continued to exhibit no inwrest in the American Assoaia-
tion ; and that if the Association is not precisely wh'At they
believe it ought to be, the fault lies at their own doora No
others should or could be so influential in shaping its course
and moulding its character.

" It may be w«U, however, to turn from the consideration
of these graver diflerenoes between the two associations, and
notice briefly some of those distinctions which are more
personal in their nature, between the members themselves.

" Our English cousins certainly possess an enviable capacity
for recognising the amusing side of affairs. At Montreal one
came to expect pleasant little outputs of the mildest humour
in the midst of the profonndest scientific disswtattons. Your

Tht Britiah Auocialion in Canada.

21

was
leld.
rder
ting

formula might be torn to shreds by severe criticism, ont yonr
fun was welcomed without examination.

" In the matter of paying compliments, and moving thanks
in easy and graceful manner, our English cousins have the
advantage of us. It is the almost universal custom for the
chairman of the section to thank the reader of a paper, and
often in elaborate terms. This consumes a good deal of time,
and it is a question whether such wholesale compliment is
desirable. It was observed, however, that the distinguished
and genial presiding officer of one of the sections made use
of two quite different formulfe for expressing his appreciation
of the merits of the papers ; in one case hoping ' that the

section would join him in thanking Professor for his

interesting and important communications upon this subject ; '
and in another, ' that the section would join him in thanking

Professor for his communication upon this interesting

and important subject' The importance of the proper
arrangement of words was never shown to better advan-
tage.

" The undemonstrative character of the American as oom-
piured with the Englishman was exhibited in the public
meetings of the two Associations. The American Association
has seldom had so feUcitous an address from a retiring presi-
dent as that of Professor Young, and the probability that it
was not generally heard thronghont the vast Academy of Music
was the only excuse for the fact that its many good points
failed of that recognition which they so richly deserved. This
failnre was commented upon by an Englishman in a remark
to the writer, that such an address would have been much
more frequently applauded in England. * We constantly
interrupt a speaker to applaud him,' he said, ' if for no other
reason than to afford him a breathing-spell.' "
The great excursion promised to members of the Association, to
the Booky Mountains, started from Montreal on Thursday morning,
September 4, one day being se' aside for a public reception at
Toronto. Although I followed the excursionists, after the interval
of a day or two, as far as Winnipeg, I did not myself go further
west than that place, and owe the information I possess to com-
munications with which several of the party have favoured me,
and to the excellent journal kept by Mr. Richardson, a reporter
who accompanied them. It would be very ungrateful to pass over

22

The British Association in Canada.

11

;1

Hi

in silence the preparations made by the munioipality and citizens
of Toronto to give a befitting welcome to the Association on the
arrival of the excursion train on September 5. Those who were
unable to get enrolled in the Rooky Mountains party, those (and
they were many) who shrunk from a journey of some 6,720 miles,
found arrangements made for smuUer excursions — to the Experi-
mental Farm and Agricultural College at Guelph, to Niagara Falls,
and to Fort Gockburn, at the northern end of Lake Joseph,
Mnskoka, all of which had numerous visitors. The excessive
fatigue of the week in Montrsal deprived the citizens of Toronto of
the pleasure of welcoming Lord Bayleigh ; he was represented by
Sir Bichard Tomple, Sir H. Bosooe, and the writer. The honours
uf the city WAre, nowever, done to a very large nuuilor of members,
and a reception was given by the Lieut.-Govemor and Mrs. Beverley
Bobinson, which will not be soon forgotten by any who enjoyed
their hospitality, or moved in the gay and festive throng, which, to
the surprise of many, included uniforms of nearly every branch of
the servioe, from the militia of Ontario.

It was much regretted that the attractions of Western Canada
deprived the maritime provinces of a fair share of visitors, not-
withstanding their proffered hospitality. Funds were raised,
committees appointed, but very few of the expected guests appeared,
A few geologists found in the wondrous carboniferous deposits of
the South Joggins and the scenery in the vicinity an ample reward
for leaving the throng. I have heard of only two adventurous
members — one of whom was your secretary, Mr, O'Halloran — who
reached Prince Edward Island.

This is the place, perhaps, to refer to one of the many collateral
inquiries wliioh engaged the attention of individual members. Mr.
W. Lant Carpenter was entrusted with a commission from the
New England Company of London, a corpwation dating from the
time of Charled II., to visit the Six Nation Indians at Brantford,
Ontario, in whom that society has an hereditary interest. Tese
Indiajn" about 8,200 in number, occupy a territory of about as
mai.. square miles in extent, on the Grand Biver, and are not
diminishing. They preserve their several dialects, but are taught
English at the school 3, of which there are several. Mr. Carpenter
was especially pleased with the Mohawk Institution, which is main-
tained by the Company, and gives superior education to forty-five
Indian 'boys and as many girls from all parts of Canada, many of
'whom become teachers in Indian and even in white schools. To

J'Tv-/T'''^*»"""?V>"

The Britiah Aisociation in Canada.

izens
the
were
(and
tiles»
^peri-
'alls,
leph,
isive
[to of
dby
ours

this slender remnant is reduced the groat oonfedoraoy which, even
within tho present century, could send its warriors into the field
by thousands, and has filled so many pages of history with horror
and romance.

Th^t. the Canadian Pacific Railway, structurally considered,
attracted the keen and critical observation of many of its passengers
is needless to state. An excellent paper upon it was read by Mr.
Vernon Smith. I believe I am borne out in saying that the
general feeling of professional men was one of satisfaction, save
only that some of the trestle-bridges were thought too slight, and
some of the present gradients west of the Bocky Mountains too
steep. The miraculous ei^cape of Dr. Selwyn and one of his
assistants from being killed by a fall of rock from the west end
of a tunnel in Kicking Horse Pass, was the most thrilling incident
of their memorable excursion. I have not seen any further
discussion of a discovery, announced by Dr. Maooun, of the
Geological Survey,* which, if it could be confirmed, would be of
extreme interest, namely, that in a cutting of the Canadian Pacific
Bailroad, at the Pic Eiver, Lake Superior, a large copper chisel
had been recently found under 26 ft. of alluvial clay and gravel,
but 90 ft. above the present level of the lake. The natural
inference is that the lake at the period of its loss stood 90 ft. at
least higher than it does now, and there were signs that it must
have reached a level 180 ft. higher still, indicating either immense
geological changes within a few centuries, or much higher
antiquity for the Indian race than has hitherto been attributed
to it. One of the incidents of this excursion was the discovery cf
a stratum full of fossils, in the Kicking Horee Pass, by Prof. Boyd
Dawkins and Bev. H. H. Winwood, in rocks previously considered
nnfossihferons. They fix the age of the lower strata of the Bocky
Mountains in that place as Cambrian.

I pass now to the subject which, beyond all others, whether
social or scientific, had attractions for the greater number of
travellers. I mean, of course, emigration. Many members of
the Association were personally concerned in some one or
more of the plans for its promotion. Minds not easily deceived
by appearances, or led astray by sensational reports, were turned
in a spirit of anxious inqmry to this investigation, not a few,
probably, with views of their own as to the application of the

* Montreal Oazette, September 1, 1884.

iii^^lS£i^iitmSm.^s:

^^S^jrWW^

TvV'/af '■'-^■■':^>';;': - ,-' '■■ ^ ;-';■■ ^-t,«i." >?^ .yr <■■ .} »■ v" ■

24

TAtf Brituh Association in Canada.

knowledge they hoped to acquire. Personally, I took every oppor-
tunity of informing myself of the working oi the official agencies
for conducting it, and of the very numerous private schemes* of
benevolent origin for bettering the condition of tha working classes.
I have been favoured by several gentlemen with the results of their
own independent inquiries. In fact, the material available in
forming a judgment is so abundant, that my difficulty has been to
nake a selection concise enough for the Umits of this paper ; but it
seems so important to establish the truth at the mouth of n^any
witnesses that I may be pardoned for devoting the remainder of it
principally to this topic. I include, however, the opinions expressed
by numerous high agricultural authorities who visited the North-
West, on its capabilities. Not as if evidence on that subject were
wanting, but because the question here is the impression it pro-
duced upon the guests of the Canadian Pacific Bailway Company,
who were so royally franked through its wide extent. I was not
aware when I drew up this paper, that Professor Tanner, Director
of Education under the Institute of Agriculture, had visited the
North- West with an object identical to what I had proposed to
myseli^ viz., to collect evidence from sources above suspicion, and
was about to publish it in the two excellent Reports he has just
issued (Macmillan & Co.).

Let me observe that immigration is, of course, of vital impor-
tance to the Dominion of Canada ; it was freely admitted by the
Government of Sir John A. Macdonald in the debates which
preceded a final decision as to the Canadian Pacific Bailway (1881)
that its success would require about a million of souls to be intro-
duced into the North- West in the course of the succeeding ten years ;
and gigantic efforts have been made to bring this result to pass.
The actual population of Manitoba and the North- West, by the
Census of 3881, was but 118,384, and the returns of immigration
for 1882-8 do not warrant the supposition that it is much
beyond the quarter of a mUlion yet. We, however, are more
concerned with our own population. Every statesman, every philan-
thropist has nearer at heart, even thim the aggrandisement of
the Empire, the relief of that ohronio destitution and misery, with
its aeoompaniment of ignorance, drunkenness, and vice, which seems
the lot of many millions of our own countrymen and country-
women. Alittost all thoughtful persons admit emigration to be
the most promising remedy. A certain reluctance on the part of
employers of labour, an uneasy jealousy on the part of certain
political leaders, weigh but little against the strong current of

'

•Tffff^lWm^r

'y^i-.-^l^-y^^.^ l,r .

The Britith Association in Canada.

25

ippor-
ncies
ep of
sses.
their

He in

en to

utit

any

of it
ssed

orth-

were

pro-

)any,
not

eotor
ithe
»d to

and

JQst

opinion in that direction, whioh is oharacteristio of the times we
live in. If I make no allnsion here to other fields than those the
Dominion of Oanada presents, it is from no want of appreciation
of their attractions, but simply because Canada only is the subject
before us.

I need not occupy the time of the meeting with very full statistics
of emigration, which will be found in the annual reports of the
xtfinister of Agriculture for the Dominion of Canada, bnt the
following figures from the last report (1888) will furnish a basis
of fact : —

Table III.

1882. 1883.

Then landed at Quebec.

Enfflish 20,881 21,897

Irish 8,196 12,096

Scotch 4,617 3,980

Ovrmans 1,024 1,434

ScianduiaTianB 8,279 4,763

Erenoh and Belgians. . 60 306

loelanden 129 1,413

BuBsians 270 66

RiuaianJews .1,376 —

Anstriana 30 —

Swiss — 22

Totals 44,860 46,966

1882.

1853.

Haut

AX.

6,697

6,436

999

1,178

fil4

237

39

64

1,666

243

6

4

1,324

8,723 8,476

Of these numbers only 18,086 passed through the emigration
agency at Toronto in 1888, including those who came from the
United States, and only 8,863 reported themselves as on their
way to Manitoba ; 14,283 remained in the Province of Ontario ;
2,970, chiefly Germans and Scandinavians, passed through on their
way to the Western States. Many of these are eventually attracted
to the Canadian North-West by the facilities of obtaining
land.

But the gr^at movement of population into that region in 1883
was from the Eastern Provinces of the Dominion and the United
States, by way of the frontier town of Emerson, on the borders of
Dakota, and it is necessary to discriminate between those who
directly swell the ranks of labour, and are indeed what is commonly
understood as the emigrant, and settlers of various ranks and call-
ings ; tlie former alone pass through the emigrant offices.

The Government immigration sheds at Winnipeg accommodated
in 1888 the following numbers : —

t!M0iiS0s^.

■'W'BfJ'FT"''"'

26

The British Attoeiation in Canada,

EnffliHh ..,,....••..

Tablk IV.

Hen. Women.

1,236 329

209 184

380 184

697 290

90 46

68 38
118 44
276 297

66 14

Children.
693
224
262
413

98

47

88
888

86

Total.

2,169
667
716

1,300

IriA

Sootoh

United States

Oermana and Dntoh . .

SoandinaTiaaa

loelandio

Ftenoh and Italian ..

283
138
246
911
V .

2,979 1,820 2,084 6,386

But there entered the Province of TIanitoba, at Emerson, a
vastly larger number of persons, who were not emigrants in the
usual sense, namely —

Tabu V.

1883.

From Ontario 38,327

Qnebeo 2,196

NovaSootia 1,997

KewBnuuwiok 1,486

Prince Edward Island 376

UnitedStates 13,326

English 6,962

Iridi 1,043

Sootoh 2,369

Oeimana 319

Swedes 107

Norweniana —

loelanoers 60

<188S.

17,361

2,024

1,297

844

370

13,998

6,160

1,339

632

247

20

30

11

68,666 44,223

Many of these, of course, made no permanent stay, and there is
no possibility of keeping any exact debtor and creditor account.
We have enough to show that although the arrivals are, as yet,
very fax short of 100,000 a year, the number of immigrants is
rapidly and steadily populating the country.

Let us now turn to the agencies of public and private benevolence
which are contributing to this result

Tablb VI.

1883.

The Fond administered by Mr. Take 1,323

The liiah Uniona 2,460

Cardinal "M'a.wniiig
Miss TSij9 (female ohildren)
Miss Mitopherson ,,
Miss Bilbonragh „

Mrs. Birt

Mr. Middlomore

BiST. Dr. Sterenson . .

Dr. Bamazdo (boys)

The Shaf tesbniy Boys' Home

62
169
197
189
108
126

42
173

36

4,873

■ ©

U; k;:

The British Association in Canada.

27

F» a
the

us

nt.

et,

is

oe

A paper on Irish Emigration, by Mr. Tnke, was read in Section F,
in w! ich the total namber of persons aL^ady assisted to emigrate
by that gentleman was given as 9,482.

But there are various other benevolent agencies which, if sus-
pended in 1888, were active in previous years. I subjoin, there-
fore a more complete list, showing the total results for five years,
1879-1888.

Tablb VII.

Number of immiffrantt, chujiy ehUdrtn, brought to Canada under th» ampieu of
vorioKi eharitaiU iooietie$ and indtviduaii during tht past Jive yeart {R»p. o/Min.
Agrie.t 1883, p. 24) :•—

1870-83.

BaUyaluumoii Union 14

Dr. Bamsrdo 229

Misa Bilboroagh 488

Mn.Birt 503

Mn. Oadle, Kent 18

Cardinal Manninfr 273

Carriokahannon Union 8

Catholic ProteoUon Society, Liverpool . . .. .. ISO

Children's Home, London 39

Bojb' Farm Sohod, Birmingham 2

Lord A. Donglas 40

Dublin Union, 3auth 147

Friends' Mission, Dublin 6

Ladj Hobart (East London Family Emigration Fond) 39

Miss Kennedy, Dublin 9

Kingswood Reformatory 11

Miss Maopherson 728

Mr. Meredith, London 12

Mr. Middlemore 346

MohillUnion, Ldtrim " 10

Mulliffan Union 39

Bev. bSx. Nugent, Liverpool 79

Old Castle Union 16

Preston Board of Guardians . . . . . . . . 28

Mr. Quarxier, Glasgow 134

Miss Rye (girls) 624

Earl of Shaftesbonr 36

Sisters of Mercy, Longhrea 10

Rev. Mr. Stevenson 136

„ „ Children's Home, Hamilton .. .41

Tralee Convent 13

Mrs. Vatoher, St. Phillips', Stepney (girls), number unknown

Rev. Mr. Wood, London 11

4,118

This list is probably pretty complete as regards child-rescue,
although I do not identify 800 sent out by London Boards in 1888 ;
but it gives no adequate idea of the scale upon which private
benevolence has been instrumental in the removal of individuals and
families, with or without State aid, to new homes and new fortunes.

I had the pleasure of visiting Miss Bye's headquarters near

» J-.X.-«r t

?88 The Britiah Association in Canada,

Nisgara, of freely examining her books, and of seeing the happy
faoes of the girls then in the house. To say that no disappoint-
ments oocnr would be to attribate to her Uttle waifs of humanity a
unifimn goodness found in no other class, and to their mistresses a
perfection of temper and judgment which is, to say the least, rare
in higher ranks. They form, however, a very small proportion of
the cases. There is the material of many a romance in the fortunes
of these children, who are often adopted by childless couples, who
take them off her hands, and, in not a few oases, they have succeeded
to modest fortunes. A letter with which I have been favoured by
Dr. Bamardo is so interesting that I must quote it nearly in full : —
" I have established at Feterboro', Ont., a Home capable of
sheltering 150 children of either sex, and to that place we send
out each year three, four, or five parties, as the case may
b& These are in number from 80 to 121, which was the
largest munber we have ever sent out at one time.

" I have been doing emigration work in a kind of way for four-
teen years, that is to say, for the first eleven years I have used
the instrumentality of others to place children ont, and have
not sent out very largt> parties during that time. But during
the last throe years I have actively begun to work on our own
behalf, organised our own parties and sent them out under
the care of our own staff. Altogether I have eioigrated a little
over 600 boys.

" During my recent visit to Canada I saw, roughly speak-
ing, 260 of these. I cannot give you the exact numbers, for
it would take too long now to refer to my note-books, all of
which are not here.

"The boys were, on the whole, well placed; in a few
instances they had to be changed and put in other situations,
but such instances were, as I say, the exception rather than the
rule. !Che great majority were admirably circumstanced in
good, healthy surroundings, had been kindly treated, well fed,
were well lodged and clothed ; where young enough were under
instruction still, going to school in the winter, and all of them,
with one or two exceptions, attended Sunday-school and
church, and were known to the clergy or ministers of the
neighbourhood.
■A *' I never was more {leased with the moral influences exer-
deed over boys I have sent out into life than with the whole
atmosphere, social and general, investing these boys and^rls
in Canada.

£f^:f:,,:^:

The BritUh Attoeiatian in Canada.

29

" So £•» as we have had to do with it, the Goremment
Agency has been good, and for the inost part sacoessfol. The'
worst di£Qonlty lies, however, in the clashing between the
Dominion agents and the Provincial agents. Yon nnderataad
the Dominion Government have their own agents at Qoebee,
so also has the Provincial Government of Ontario, and unless
one uses great skill and prudence, difficulties are thrown in
the way of transit which, theoretically, are supposed not to
exist. At the same time, I have generally managed to snr>
mount all these, and if there be prudent and experienced
people at the head of the parties sent out, no very serious delay
can occur from the cause I have mentioned.

" All the foregoing refers only to boys and girls placed out
in the Province of Ontario. But during my recent visit I
went as far as the Bocky Mountains, carefully inspecting the
whole line fron. lYinnipeg to British Columbia, with the view of
discovering a suitable location, and have succeeded in finding
a place where I hope to establish an industrial ficurm. I am
now in communication with the Dominion Government on this
subject, and expect that success will after a while crown the
efifort, I have not therefore had any experience as yet of
placing boys out further west than Winnipeg, but I made
careful inquiries of young lads and young men who had gone
out there by themselves, or were placed out by other agents,
and the impression conveyed to my mind all along the line
was, that there is an immense opening for boy -labour of the
right sort, and that the results will repay any properly
organised scheme."
As to adults, the Woman's Emigration Society, of which H.B.H.
the Princess Ionise, Marchioness of Lome, is president, has sent
out 122 persons to Canada since 188 L. It had advanced to its
emigrants by way of loan altogether £851, of which £786 has been
already repaid. This includes sums advanced to other than the
122 persons here mentioned. This society is strict in requiring an
unblemished character as a condition of assistance, and rigorous in
its investigation.

The United Englishwoman's Emigration Society, with which I
may particularly connect the name of the Hon. Mrs. Joyce, has sent
out many, but I have not the figures before me.

The Girls' Friendly Society has promoted the emigration of
many young women of the ckss of domestic servants, for whom
there is almost an unlimited demand.

80

Th^ Britith Aatociation in Canada.

The Female Middle-Olass Emigration Society >•■ is chiefly con-
cerned -with Anstralasia, hut has aided the emigration of 18 ladies
to Canada since 1882. This Society takes security for the repay-
ment oi its advances within two years and four months. Its
honorary secretary remarks : *' From all our emigrants we get
good reports. They are happy and contented, and not one remains
without a situation longer than a fortnight after landing. Many go
to relatives, and those who leave relatives behind thorn here
frequently indnoe them to follow them, by the cheering accounts
they send home."

The Colonial Emigration Society,! [under Viscountess Strangford,
is also chiefly concerned with Australasia.

The Britidi Ladies' Female Emigration Society^ has been long
established, and devotes itself much to the due protection of
female emigrants. No less than 92,950 single women have gone
out since the formation of this society in 1848, under the charge of
permanent matrons selected by the Committee. I do not doubt
that there are other benevolent agencies at work of which I am
ignorant.

To all who are engaged in this wide field I would commend the
following judicious remarks of Captain W. C. B. Grahame, the
Government Immigration Agent at Winnipeg : —

" Of the female help that arrived in this country during the
past season (1888) I would say that I had little or no difficulty
in finding good places for all worthy applicants ; I would,
however, remind the good people who are interested in female
emigration societies in the Mother Country, that they cannot
exercise too much care in the selection of young women for
servants for the Colonies.

*' The idea has unfortunately gained ground that young girls
can find ready employment, at high wages, in this country, no
matter what their qualifications may be. The day for employ-
ing untrained domestics is passed. It is true that a clever,
good girl who is willing to be taught, will find plenty of
mistresses who will tf-ach her and pay her accordingly. This,
however, is not always satisfactory. The difficulty heretofore
has been that all new-comers place too high a value upon
their services, refusing to take situations at less than $16 to
' $20 a month, and many cf these, 1 am sorry to say, know very
little if anything of the duties of a domestic servant.

* 19, Sutherland-gardens, Harrow-road,
f 13, Dorset-street. t ^^t Fitzroy-square.

:j.fel,-fe..j^^'^i£aCaa^tgTr«^' .': i^^-.-^-'t j:-.. ■■v:^'-...!

'jewyBllj;^'!'*

The Britiih Auociation in Canada.

81

ti'

am

'I wonld also respeotfally nrge that the morals of the yonng
women sent oat to this country should be of such a nature
that the agent would have no hesitation in recommending them
to respectable families. There has, unfortunately, been some
exception to this rule daring the past season."
A single parish clergyman from the South of Ireland, the Bey.
G. B. Wynne, of Eillarney, has sent out three or four hundred
labourers and their families, and made a journey to the North-
West to inquire after their welfare, in September, 1888.

Through the active agency of the Bev. A. Styleman Herring,
Vicar of St. Paul's, Glerkenwell, more than four thousand persons
have been assisted to emigrate.

I have shown 1,872 Bussian Jews as landing at Quebec In 1882.
They are only a detachment of about 20,000 Bussian Jews sent
to America at the expense of the Mansion House Fund for the
relief of that persecnted race, and who were visited last year (1884)
by one of the benevolent founders of the fund, Mr. Samuel
Montagu. They are chiefly at Painted Woods, in Dakota, some
at Yineland, New Jersey, but many are settled on land at
Moosomin, and promise to make excellent agricultural settlers ;
many are in Winnipeg.

There is the East London Colonisation Society, under the
patronage of Lady Burdett-Goutts, an experiment so remarkable,
that I must dwell upon it.

This movement originated with the Bev. Hugh Huleatt, for-
merly an army chaplain, now Vicar of St. John's, Bethnal-green.
The families were carefully selected, and sent out in charge of a
Scriptnre-reader, Mr. Young, who had been accustomed to farm
life in his early days, and thus not only exercised a strong moral
influence for their good, but also aided their inexperience. He
has since been duly licensed as a lay-reader by Bishop Anson.
A free grant of 160 acres of land was procured for each family,
and a sum of £100 was advanced on account of each, on the
secnrity of their separate homesteads, to be repaid by them, with
interest, within ten years. Of this sum, £80 per family was
appropriated to their transplantation, and £70 placed in the hands
of an agent, to be laid out xu establishing them. It is said that
£100 has hardly proved su£Bcient; £126, at least, is required,
prices having risen above the first schedule, but it is all that can
be legally secured on the land. There has not yet been time to
test their ability and readiness to repay the advance.
The colony consists at present of nineteen families, chiefly frorn^

"^mm

wpiinijinir.ji ii;

82

The BritUh Auociation in Canada.

B«thnal«green. Many of them bad never been out of London in
their livei ; few ur rone had the least acquaintance of roral labour
or experience with i;':<«b!indry. Yet it makes the heart glad to
read the reports of those who visited them in their homes and
beheld their well-being. To what are we to attribute this result ?
It is, first, to the dormant energies called into activity by content-
ment and hope ; the broken chain of pauperism leaves a freeman,

•oditis —

" Freedom nutkeB man to have liUny ;"
" He lives at eaee who freely Uvea ;"

next, to the liberality and the wise philanthropy that guided the first
eteps', and determined on colonisation rather than mere emigration.
These people were visited by the Bev. H. Huleatt himself, by the
Bev. Canon Harry Jones, by Professor Tanner, by Mrs. Joyce, and
others, with one favourable opinion, scarcely qualified by any
misgivings. Bishop Anson, on October 6 last, remarks : " Two
or three have, as might have been expected, turned out badly,
and returned." Canon Harry Jones, noticing some of their com-
plaints and disappointments, which are quite inevitable, expresses
the opinion that some few possibly may fail altogether, and return
speaking evil of the land. Some mcy have a very hard pinch in
the coming winter, but he believes that they will eventually win,
and that if their condition now should be compared with what it
was in London, it must be regarded as much improved.

I may here observe that their munificent patroness, Baroness
Burdett-Coutts, sent out a supply of warm clothing for the winter,
in September, and that Messrs. Shoolbred presented each family
with a pair of warm blankets.

And now, who were these people ?

1. A plasterer and small builder, wife, and four ohildren.

2. A oab-drirer, wife, and daughter.

3. A wine cooper, large family.

4. ▲ aarpenter, wife, no family with him.

6. A retired polieeman, mother, brother, and large family.

6. A milkman, wife, and one child.

7. A working engineer, wife, and four ohildren.

8. A oabinet-maker and cats' -meat man, wife, and four children.

9. An ex-prirate of Marines, wife, and flye children.

10. A Idkoemaker, wife, and seven or eight ohildren.

11. A blacksmith, with dsk wife and weakly family.

12. A carman, wife, and family.

13. A Westminster man, trade unknown, wife, and large family.

14. Also a Weatminsfer man, wife, and three ohDdz«n. These two men,
previons entire strangers, have contracted a touching degree of mutual friend-
ship, and work in partnnahip.

^p^i

■■p

TTu Britink Atiociation in Canada.

15. A painter, fladii he oan do better at hla irade thaa on hia land.

16. A milkman, with a atirring notebU wile, who haa already a large
atock of ponltrj.

Of the other three families, I have not the same particulars ; one

of them is that of Mr. Young, the lay-reader, and scarcely in

point The foregoing embarked from London on April 27, 1884.

They reached their locations on May 14, and potatoes of their raising

were selling at Moosomin on September 10. Evidently " the business

end of a wheelbarrow," as it has been quaintly called, unfamiliar

as it may have been to them, was not beyond their capacity of

learning. They are bound to break up fifteen acres within three

years, and had actually broken up, on the average, over eight

acres the first summer.

Now, I did not myself get further west than Winnipeg. Having
visited that settlement when it was knovvn as the Bed Biver,
in 1848, I had a strong desire to see it again, and had it
not been very well described by Mr. Alexander Begg to this
Institute last April, I should be tempted to say something on
the marvels to me of its present aspect, and how I identified with-
out much difficulty one of my stations of magnetic observation,
then the centre of Fort Garry, at a point in the centre of the
main street of Winnipeg. Mr. Begg was there many years later
(1867), but it had undergone little change. I should say that
Winnipeg in 1848 was much what it was in 1867, " only more so."
It had, I think, no Directory, and the startling announcement I
observed in the Directory of to-day was not required : " There
being no regular method of spelling names, if the name wanted is
not found under your way of spelling it, try some other way, and
you will find it." It has reference, probably, to the numerous
foreign names. But if mine did not, many scientific eyes beheld
the vast plains which lie between Winnipeg and the Foot Hills,
and their reports convey that independent testimony to which I
alluded at the beginning of this paper.

Dr. Gilbert, F.B.S., of the Experimental Farm, Bothampstead,
who visited Manitoba in 1881, and also joined the excursion of
1884, wrote after the former visit : —

'* My personal inspection assured me that undoubtedly there
is a most extraordinary promise of success for agricultu:.*iats
in Manitoba. The soil is exceedingly fertile throughout wide
stretches of the country, where for ages the natural vegetation
has continued in its present unbroken conditi<Hi. If a man
has capital and education, he may realise a fortune in a few

0

84

The British Aitoeiation in Canada,

years. If he has neither one nor the other, he can make a
fur better living than he could ever hope to do in England, and
obtain a competency for hia old age ; whilst his children will
receive a sound education, almost, if not entirely, at the cost
of the Government. But there is one necessary reservation
to this statement. It is perfectly useless for any person to
emigrate unless he is prepared for hard work. Without
industry there is no prospect. The idle and shiftless will find
no fortune ready made to their hands ; whilst, if disposed to
be unsteady and intemperate at home, the probability is, the
mere ohauge of scene and surroundings will not make them
any better." *

I have here — it is. unfortunately, too long to read — the joint
report of Sir J. B. Lawes and Dr. Gilbert, ''On some points in the
composition of soils, with results illustrating the sources of the
fertility of Manitoba prairie soils,*' a paper read before the British
Association, of v^hich an abstrMt appeared in the Montreal Qazett*
of September 8, aa^ the latter has favoured me with a communica-
tion on the results of his second visit, of which I will read some
portions : —

" Th^re can be no question that there are very great stores
of accuui ilated fertility from past vegetation in the vast areas
of piairLe land of the North- West. This fact is satisfactorily
established, not only by the experience of settlers, and by the
appearance of the crops, but chemical investigation of the
soils leaves no doubt on the point.

" In the joint paper by Sir J. B. Lawes and myself, which I
gave at the Montreal meeting, the results of a laborious experi-
mental inquiry on the subject were given.

" To conclude on this pointy no difiBculty or question can
arise as to the vast extent of very fertile prairie lands, and of
their suitability for immigration, so far as fertility is con-
eemed.

'< The difficulties, such at they are, are connected, not with
the soil, but with the climate, the scarcity of wood in many
districts, and also, more or less, with the water supply.
Meteorological statistics are very meagre, but certainly the
winters are long and severe, though, as a rule, not unhealthy,
and the summears short. Still, wheat, and, to a less extent,

* Beport 'iika. of Agrioaltare, 1883, p. 192.

Th$ BritUh A»$oeiation in Canada,

other prodaoti have be«n grown with laooMs at varionf points
ov«r a large area of prairie region ; and that mixed agriculture,
with the growtli of various crops and stock-feeding, has not
hitherto been more general is due to the scarcity of population
and of labour, and to the fact that under such circumstances
wheat is the most immediately marketable produce for the
new settler rather than to difficulties in connection with the
•limate.

" As illustrations of settlement, it may be stated that in
1888 Lady Gathcart sent out 10 families of crofters from Soot-
land, in all 49 souls, who were mostly settled by the aid of Mr.
Bennett, the Oovernment immigration agent at Brandon.
They were settled on Pipestone Greek, south of Wapella
Station, 286 miles west of Winnipeg. They chiefly took
quarter sections (160 acres) ; they had plenty of wood and
water on their homesteads, out their own wood, built their
own houses, and commenced with, say, a pair of oxen, a farm
waggon, a plough, a harrow, and one or more cows, involving
a capital of about £100, some of which was lent by Lady
Gathcart on the security of the homesteads, at a moderate rate
of interest. In 1884, 46 more families, comprising 289 souls,
came out. In 1884 the first 10 families raised about 2,000
bushels of wheat, besides barley, oats, and potatoes ; they will
have a considerable surplus produce for sale, and are said to
be very content. For the 160 acres, $10 are paid to the
Government, the conditions being that the settler shall reside
on the property six months a year for three years, and bring
at least 80 acres under cultivation in the three years.

*' As to the feeding character of the prairie grasses to which
you refer, they grow on very rich soil, but owing tothe meteor-
ological conditions the growth is restricted, the result being a
sparse but well-matured herbage, upon which cattle thrive
welL It is true that in the cattle ranches the area per head is
enormous ; but so large is the area suitable for cattle ranching
that the gross yield of meat must, I imagine, in time be very
great."

Professor Sheldon, of the College of Agriculture, Downton,
writes :—

" Colonists as a rule are contented, because they have hope
of improving their condition. Yet there are some who having
gone out ill-fortified in mind to meet the toil and isolation

Hif

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R: :;

which f&ll to the lot of most colonists, find fault with every-
thing. Colonists must be prepared to toil long and steadfastly,
to be steady and frugal, and to deny themselves many of the
little embellishments of Ufe which are within the reach of
almost everybody in England. Given these things, thq
oolonisis in Canada can hardly fail to get on. In view of thei
present conditions of wheat growing, I hardly think the North-
West will require vory large numbers of purely working farm
hands for s >me little time, and it seems to me that such men
would be better located in New Brunswick or Nova ^cotia,
where the employment is more evenly distributed over the whole
year. At present the surplus farm hands of the North-West
have to find work in the United States in winter in the lum-
bering line, and such migrations of labour are accompanied by
a wage rate which is too high for wheat -growing farmers to
pay. The Bell Farm (Indian Head) is a striking instance of
the capacity of the North- West for wheat growing on a large
scale and on commercial princip?)s. W<) shall see, how-
ever, how the present and prospective low price of wheat
will affect farming on so large a scale.* Major Bell informed
me that at present rates of freight he could place wheat in
Liverpool at £1 per quarter, after paying 8 per cent on his
capital. I express no opinion on this point with regard to the
Bell Farm, but I believe ordinary farmers in the North- West
cannot afford to do any such thing.

" Some portions of the North- West territory aie tolerably well
adapted for dairy farming and stock raising, even in the
prairie country. Shelter, however, is scarce, and the coantry
needs to have belts of trees planted for this purpose. In the
Foot Hills of the Rocky Mountains and in the prairies adjacent
thereto, the laud is well adapted to the pursuits I have named,
for shelter and water are tolerably plentiful, and the herbage is
of superior quality.

" The difficulty in respect to winter employment of farm
hands presents a problem whose gravity is increasing and must
increase, and which can hardly be solved until the fanning of
the country is of a mixed character, which admits of stock
raising, and its attendant duties in winter. So long as wheat
growing is by far the most important feature in the North-

* The estate oontains 10 square miles, or some 64,000 aorts, ex roads ; 6,000
acres were under wheat in 1884, 2,000 under oats.

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The British Association in Canada.

87

West, the problem of winter employment for men will remain
as it is."
Professor Fream, of the same College, writes : —

" settlers with whom I conversed expressed themselves as
satisfied with their prospects, and I believe that in the great
majority of cases, the outlook — ^provided the settler is prepared
to ' rough it ' at first, will work hard, and does not undertake the
onltivatiop of more land than he can reasonably expect to
m&nHge — is encouraging.

. " 2. I think the better and more intelligent class of agri-
cultural labourer is likely to do well ' out West,' especially if
he is thrifty, and far-sighted enough to save money in summer
to help carry him through winter. Men of this type ought in
a few years to be taking up quarter sections (160 acres) for
themselves.

" 8. Agricultural and dairy value of the country west of
Winnipeg. I saw much land which I should regard as
excellently adapted far agricultural purposes, and I consider
the results obtained this year at the ten experimental farms of
the Canadian Pacific Bail way are both encouraging and re-
assuring. But I fear that there is too great a tendency among
settlers to deteriorate the soil, both by exhaustive cropping
and by slovenly tillage, and that this fair heritage is in danger
of being spoiled unless more regard is had to the necessities of
the future. A settler is ill-advised who attempts to farm more
land than he has capital and labour requisite for, and he would
obtain results more satisfactory to himself and better for the
new country were he to content himself with farming a small
holding well rather than attempt to work a larger area than he
can efficiently control.

" No prairie farmer should, in my opinion, confine his
operations exclusively to wheat-growing ; he should, on the
other hand, endeavour to make himself au independent as
possible of fluctuations in the price of com, which in some
years might militate very seriously against him. I would,
therefore, advocate mixed farming, and the cultivation of at
least enough potatoes to supply the farmer's own house.
Potatoes, I believe, will grow excellent -crops. A few cows for
milk and butter (and possibly cheese"^ ''hould be maintained on
every farm, and on such soils and in buch localities as cattle are
found in this way to thrive, their numbers should be increased,
and the style of farming modified in the direction of thatdistin-

■I

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The BritUh Association in Canada.

i

gnished as 'dairy farming.' The onltivation of ' roots ' should
reoeive a fair trial on every farm, as, if stored for winter use,
they would form a valuable adjunct to prairie-hay for cattle
feeding. Each £Eurm, again, should maintain a greater or less
number of pigs, and these would be largely fed on materials
which might otherwise be lost. The exigencies of prairie life
are, and must long continue to be, such that those farmers will
probably succeed best who can supply their tables almost
entirely from their own farms, with potatoes and vegetables,
milk, butter, and bacon, for example ; and who will thus find
themselves less dependent on the actual moix "alue of Axeiv
cereal produce. As to sheep-farming, I t»m ab present doubt-
ful whether this would be found generally practicable, the
necessity for winter shelter placing difficulties in the way of the
maintenance of flocks on mixed or arable farms.

'* 6. Probable north limit of ranching : somewhere about
the latitude of Calgary. Banohes north of Calgary h8:ve been
transferred south."
Major P. G. Craigie, of the Central Chamber of Agriculture, has
published his impressions in the " Farmer's and Country Gentle-
man's Almanack " for this year. He writes : —

« My inquiries were more directed to the general agricultural
position and the prospects of a' competition in wheat or meat
from Canada, which our fEirmers here might have ^ <h-eud,
than to the success of different classes of emigrants, ^! ' > i^^h
I had occasionally opportunities of interviewing some le vO .
settlers. The two chief complaints I met with were the mi\.e •
munerative price at which the good wheat crop of this season
was likely to sell, and the impolicy of the Canadian prutective
duty upon agricultural implements, which limited the choice
of the settler& The necessity of the smaller men buying their
implements on credit also greatly raised the price. The great
want of a large class of settlers was the very old one, lack of
capital ; and in some, perhaps a good many oabt>s, where
failure had resulted, the men were probably little &jc \stomed
to rough agricultural life, or of a restless, impatient, non-
persevering disposition."
Upon the question of capital I would refer to the evidence of
seventeen bond fide settlers, given by the Welsh delegates last year
in their report to the Minister of Agriculture (No. 46, 1888). They
almost all consider that a working-man should have £200 to start
with.

^•.iXi

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The British Asaociation in Canada,

89

I have cited the foregoing opinions at length as of independent
and highly competent observers, who took time for their inquiries.
The impressions of gentlemen hurried through the country by
special train, in the finest weather, receiving addresses of welcome
at eve. / halt, and replying in the terms of enthusiasm which such
holiday conditions naturally inspire, may be equally flattering and
equally sincere, but do not rest on so solid a foundation. What,
however, their eyes could not be deceived about was the tacit testi-
mony of steam ploughs, of Deering's self-binding reapers, of mowing
machines, horse-rakes, and labour-saving machinery of the most
advanced description, which met them at every considerable
station ; or in the quality, far in advance of the ordinary prize
standard at home, of the agricultural products brought together
for a provincial show at Winnipeg.

They learned from a paper on the Geology of the Line of the
Canadian Pe<cifio Railroad, especially circulated for their information
by Principal Sir W. Dawson, that Nature has stored an abundance
of coal iii Assiniboia, if not in Manitoba, and they probably learned,
for it is the fact, that a corresponding abundance of iron ore has
been recently discovered on Big Island, Lake Winnipeg. Above
all, the vastness of the territory was brought home to their con-
sciousness by eight days of rapid travel, not through illimitable
forests, repelling and almost defying the husbandman, but through
boundless meadows that seem to woo the plough. The eloquent
spokesman of the party. Sir Richard Temple, wound up their
experiences by saying to the people of Winnipeg : —

" We came here with high anticipations, and those anticipa-
tions have been more than fulfilled; we were struck with
admiration of all we saw and heard, and I am quite sure our
evidence will be satisfactory to the well-wishers of the Nordi*
West in the highest degree."
I could quote to the same effect Professor Boyd Dawkins, Dr.
Gheadle, and other scientific authorities, but time does not permit
me ; neither is it possible to reUeve this paper by verbal pictures of
the magnificent mountain scenery that rewarded their fatigues
when the Kicking Horse Pass (5,800 feet) was actually reached on
September 12, and when the excursion crossed the boundary into
British Columbia. But this scenery will be no slight factor in the
future popularity of the Canadian Pacific Railway, being, on the
testimony of one who has seen them all, far more beautiful than
that on any other trans-continental line.

But the subject expands far beyond the limits of a single address.

'E.^' v^ iii^^i^ialk'ra^

"^ '■*. ''^ ^--*'J-fi'^ *

40

The Britiah Association in Canada.

I will close this paper with one observation : that if from excess of
party spirit, from want of wisdom in statesmen, or of patriotism in
people, from ignorance of our Imperial resources, or want of
courage to use them, we allow our present opportunities of colonisa-
tion to slip, the future historian of the decline and fall of Britain,
whatever he may omit, will not fail to record, to our shame, that
she had in her hands the endowment of half a continent, but lacked
the vigour to go up and possess the land.

Discussion.

The Bight Hon. Sir Lyon Platfair, E.O.B., M.P. : Ton must
have all been pleased with the exhaustive manner in which Sir
Henry Lefroy has treated this subject in describing to you the
actual success of the British Association and its sectional work,
which was much above the average. He also has drawn your
attention to consequences, and to the opinions which such a well-
qualified man as himself was able lo draw from what he actually
saw. For myself, I thought always that this meeting was one of
great importance, not only to the British Association, but also as a
real marking-point in the advance of civilisation. Only think what
it was. The science of England, the science of the United King-
dom, does not belong to Great Britain. It belongs to th« whole
Empire. Our great men are the great men of every part of the
Empire, distributed all over the world. They claim our great men
as being their great men. Our Shakespeares, Walter Scotts, our
Bums, belong to them as well as to ourselves. Our Newtons, our
Faradays, our Daltons, are their philosophers as much as they are
our philosophers. And, therefore, whilst all of us, I am sure, here,
and whilst the public generally are taking f!0 much interest in the
Federation of our Colonies, there was one step which could be at
once taken, before politicians had time to remove the difficulties
with regard to the greater scheme, and that was that the science
of the Empire should be federated. The rules of the Association
luckily have been drawn so broadly that the British Association
was founded for the advance of science in the Empire of Her
Majesty, and it was quite right that Canada should be the first to
try the experiment and bring her men in contact with our scientific
men. Canada had done a very great work. There are many
instances of Federation, but in almost all the instances of the
Federation of different States that Federation has been brought
about by pressure of war. I might mention the Netherlands, the
United States, Austria, and Germany — all States which have

'■^ iMJ 4 -Ji. t

The British Association in Canada.

41

federated themselves in time of war, but Canada federated itself in
a time of profound peace, and has shown a power — a political
power— of bringing together races of different kinds, with sharp
differences of reUgion, and federating them into one common
State, which is of great extent and of great strength now, and of
enormous promise for the future. It was just that a country
which had done so much for Federation in that direction should be
the first to try the federation of science. It may be said, of course,
that what Canada wants above all things is not pure science but
applied science ; that she wants to bind a vast continent by rail-
roads—territories as large almost, if yon take one State out, as the
United States. But she knows that applied science does not come
unless pure science precedes it — that the applications of science
only come from the overflowing of the fulness of science itself ; and
Canadians asked the promoters of science for its own sake to go
amongst them and tell them how they must advance that science
which had led to so many applications, and in that Canada showed
great wisdom. I did not know I had to speak at all, and I am
afraid I have spoken too long. ("No.") I was much struck, in
travelling in different parts of Canada, with the quality of a good
many Colonists I met. In speaking of that to my noble friend (the
Marquis of Lome) at dinner to-niglit, I told him an anecdote of a
Colonist whom I met, and who had the real sterling stuff that a
Colonist ought to possess, and he made me promise to tell you the
story. I was travelling in rather a wild part of Ottawa, wheie
there are some mines, and, going along one bank of the river, I
saw a mine on the other side. I got a boat and went across to it.
I found nobody on the ground ; it was dinner time, and the workers,
in their primitive way, had gone away altogether, so there was no
one left. With my geological hammer I began to appropriate
some of tl e best specimens. Presently a very tall man, with large
leathern gaiters, and walking as if he had on seven-league boots,
came down the hill and warned me off from the mine. He said, in
broad Scotch, " Have you got a * permit * from the directors ? " I
said, " I am only interested in the geology round here, and I have
not got a 'permit' from the directors." " Then you must gang
off the ground," he said. I said, " Man, ye come from Glasgow."
He said, "Ay, I come from Glasgow; but if ye have no get a
• permit ' from the directors ye must go." " Don't you think you
are talking to a mining adventurer ? " I said. " Ay, that is just
what ye are." I said, " No, I am a Scotch professor." '* WeU,"
he said, " what name ? " " Playfair." " Do ye mean Lyon Play-

42

Tfie BritUh Association in Canada,

fair ? " " Yeg, I am Lyon Playfair," I said, looking very much
astonished ; " but how do you happen to know my name ? " He
said, « Your name has travelled ^rther than your wee legs will
ever carry yon." I, of course, got interested in the man ; and,
after he found I was not a mining adventurer, nothing was too
good for me. He took me down the mine, and sent his little
daughter to get dinner for me, telling me he had some good mutton
and a drop of real good Scotch whisky. We became great friends.
He told me he was educated at the Mechanics' Institute, Glasgow,
and afterwards attended the evening classes at the Andersonian
University. I found my friend a good mineralogist and a fair
chemist. He had a few bottles with which he tested the minerals.
I asked him if there were many of his compatriots in Canada with
an education like his own, and he said he knew many, and they
always got on. That class of men, men of practical education, if
they "^o not get on in their own country, could not do better than
try Canada, where, I believe, they would soon rise above the
position of labourers, and are certain to succeed.

Sir Chables Tuppeb, E.C.M.G., C.B. (High Commissioner for
Canada) : I regret very much that I was unable to attend, as I
should very much like to have done, the interesting meeting of the
British Association recently held at Montreal, but I am glad to
have had the opportunity of listening to so interesting an account
of the meeting, and to learn as we have done, both from the
gallant General who has read the paper and the right hon.
gentleman who followed him, that the meeting was in every sense
of the word an unqualified success. At the meeting of the British
Association at Southport I ventured to say that the members of
the Association, and such members of their families as were able to
accompany them, would meet with a warm and hearty reception at
the hands of the people of Canada. I am glad to know that what
I held out as an inducement to go has been fully realised, my
Canadian fellow-countrymen being only too happy to have the
opportunity of extending the courtesies of the country to so
eminent a body of scientists as the members of the British Associa-
tion ; and I am also glad to learn that the fears entertained by
those members who at the outset were of opinion that it was
foreign to the objects of the Association to engage in what they
called a somewhat extended picnic, and that the meeting would not
be fraught with advantage to the objects of the Association, have
been thoroughly disappointed. It is now admitted on all sides
that, even from the special point of view of the Association — the

^Jmji ywSi^Mji A. -)i '

The British Aaaociation in Canada.

43

promotion of soienoe — the meeting was one of the most successful
that has been held. While the meeting was not a profitless one
to the distinguished members of the Association, I believe that the
holding of the gathering in Canada will have a lasting and bene-
ficial effect in stimulating among all classes of the people an
increased veneration for soienoe, and an increased desire to promote
its cultivation in that important part of her Majesty's dominions.
In following the interesting paper contributed by the gallant General,
I was a little struck with that part relating to the defence of the
country, and I was somewhat surprised that the only allusion he
made to that question was that in which he threw some little
ridicule upon the maintenance of the great fortress of Quebec as a
means of defending the country. In relation to that subject,
all I can say is that the people of Canada have not been un-
mindful of ihe important duty they owe to themselves and to
the country in endeavouring to contribute to the defence of the
Dominion. The Government ^aA Parliament of Canada have
provided annually a very large sum — especially since the con-
federation of the Provinces — for the purpose of training and
maintaining a body of some 40,000 volunteers and militia-
men ; in addition, military schools have been organised, and
means have been taken for promoting the defence of the country
in a still more important way even than direct expenditure for
such a purpose could secure. It will, I am sure, be admitted that
the strength of the country consists in bringing into the country
and promoting the settlement of able-bodied men, and of that duty
Canada has not been unmindful. A large pubho expenditure is
annually incurred in bringing into the country men who, in that
northern clime, will, I believe, be found ready to cope with a
similar number of men in any part of the world. Apart from tlis,
there is no one thing that, perhaps, so contributes to the strength of
a country as providing means for the transport of armed bodies of
men and munitions of war from one plaoe to another. At the time
of the Trent affair, in 1862, I remember the great difficulty
experienced in throwing a body of troops from Halifax to Montreal ;
but I am able to state that, as one result of the expenditure of some-
thing like £20,000,000 sterling in the past seventeen years by the
people of Canada in the construction of the Intercolonial and
Canadian Pacific Railways, a force could be transported from the
city of Halifax to the shores of the Pacific Ocean at the end of the
coming season with infinitely greater ease and less trouble than
yi^n encountered in sending a similar body of men from Halifax to

ii¥Ji/ig>ik^ia$bxi^-Ji:-:k'.]iimi^^

44

The British Association in Canada.

Montreal. Then, again, some fifteen years ago Lord Wolseley was
engaged in an arduons struggle to send a British force to the Red
River to qnell an insignificant rising of half-breeds, who for six
months had entire possession of the country, owing to the fact
that at the time the place was inaccessible by any other way except
through the United States of America, and of course to send a
force by that way was impossible. What is the fact to-day?
Why, that the force could be sent in an infinitely shorter number
of hours than days were consumed in getting across the 400 miles
of inaccessible ravine and river. It is true that on that occasion
the gallant general acquired the very knowledge and experience
that have been found so useful to him in encountering the cata-
racts of the Nile, and I am right glad to know that, acting with
his usual foresight and consideration, he availed himself, not only
of that knowledge, but of the services of the Canadian voyageura,
whom he had found of such use in his former expedition. I have
been led to say these things in consequence of the remarks of the
gallant General concerning Quebec, whose defences will, I trust,
long be maintained, if only for the purpose of handing down to
posterity some visible sign of the gallant deeds done on those
heights ; and I also wished to point out that we have not been
unmindful of the duty of providing for the defence of the country.

Professor T. G. Bonney, F.R.S. : After the exhaustive and able
Paper, and the speecheis that have followed, it is hardly necessary
for me, as Secretary to the British Association, to make any
remarks further than to express my own personal sense of the deep
kindness and cordial hospitality received at all sides in Canada.
It would have been quite impossible to carry out this visit without
the hearty welcome which we got in every quarter. I may, perhaps,
be allowed to say that all the time I had to spare from ofScial duty
was devoted to the geology and natural features of the country, and
I may make a few remarks upon matters which impressed them-
selves upon my mind while in Canada. The geology of Canada to
an Englishman is peculiarly interesting. It exhibits many of the
features which we find in the northern part of Britain, with this
difference — that a rolling-pin appears to have passed over the faqe
of the country, and the furlongs have been made into leagues. In
the extreme east the mineral resources are well known. In the west
they are becoming knowa There is a very large tract of country
which lies to the north of f * great lakes, where probably
mineral deposits of considerable value will yet be found. I think
you will probably find deposits of apatite, of iron ore, possibly

•^ i> ,j:t^itidLh*.Mhisjr^iik%i',*

ip

The Britiak Aa$ociation in Canada.

iS

copper ore also, and it may be that metals yet more preoioas will
be found. It appears to me it will be wise on the part of the
Government of the Dominion to endeavour to explore as far as pos-
sible the mineral resources of the great tract which lies to the north
of the St. Lawrence and the north and north-west of the great
lakes. I do not wish to be supposed to be offering criticism on the
work of the geological survey ; on the contrary, it is hardly possible
to speak in words too high of what has already been done ; but I
do not think it is possible to carry out this work consistently with
the advance of scientific knowledge unless a special department is
created for the purpose. It would be a great advantage if the
Government were to add to the present staff a band of workers
whose special fiinction should be to explore the mineral resources
of the country. The other thing which struck me as a traveller is
that there is danger lest Canada should imitate the example of
young people in living rather too fast, and using up their resources
too quickly. You cannot go on using even the fat soils of the West
year after year without producing a state of exhaustion at last. It
seems to me, further, that there is great waste going on in the
Canadian forests. By the liberality and kindness of the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company, I was enabled to take a journey into the
interior, east of Lake Huron, and I was painfully impressed by the
reckless destruction of forests that is going on. It left upon my
mind an impression absolutely sorrowful to see the enormous waste
of timber. You cannot go on using the gifts of nature in that way
without having ultimately to repent of it. I do hope the Canadian
Government will make stringent laws for the preservation of the
foresta I know that the difficulties in the way are great, and I
know the singular obtuseness of Englishmen — the singular objection
to be ruled in all matters where they do not exactly see the why
and the wherefore. I do, however, hope that these splendid forests,
stretching over hundreds and hundreds of square leagues, may be
saved from the reckless devastation to which they are too often
ixposed.

Major P. G. Cbaioie (Secretary to the Central Chamber of
Agriculture) : As one of the visitors to Canada last year, I would
re-echo what has been said of the great impressions left on the mind
of an Englishman in visiting for the first time our vast possessions
in the Dominion. No other impression remains so strong, although I
was on the American Continent for some months, as the first one of
the immensity of this heritage, which the British nation has only
just begun to realise. After listening to the account that has been

46

The British Aatociation in Canada,

given this evening of the Dominion and what happened there Ust
autamn, everyone in this large meeting must, I think, go away
with the impression that we ought to do all in our power to make
known the great possibiUties of the future for the British nation in
the full use and colonisation of our possessions which lie on the
other side of the Atlantic. With regard to the particular matter
which naturally engaged the largest share of my attention — the
agricultural resources of the country — I wish first of all to thank
the various authorities for their kindness in giving me every possible
fscility for spying out not only the fatness of the land, but equally
the nakedness of the land. The conclusion I came to was very clear
and undoubted, viz., that, as you have heard from so high an
authority as Dr. Gilbert, the soil of the great North-West of
Canada is of remarkable fertility, and, subject only to questions
which must affect all countries — viz., prices and cost of production
' — the agricultural future of the country is assured. Even those
districts the fertility of which has often been challenged, those
lands which, owing to alkali deposits, have been the subject of
complaint — even those lands will, I think, be developed in time. I
visited lands in the United States of America which are now
covered with homesteads and peopled with settlers, although twenty
years ago they had an equally bad reputatioa [The Chairman :
In what State ?] In Illinois. The question of emigration is one
in which every Englishman has necessarily a great interest. Of
course, the future of Canada will depend in a large measure on the
facility with which the settlers adapt themselves to the conditions
which are necessary to success. You cannot for ever go on using
the soil of the North- West, as in many parts it is now used, as a
simple wheat mine. Mixed husbandry must be employed, and
more stock must be kept. Nothing impresses the British faimer
more than the absence of sheep and the very high price of very in-
ferior mutton. The keeping of a greater amoimt of stock, a more
varied class of farming, and a greater regard for the capacities of
the soil, may require larger capital to be invested in agriculture,
and the chance of getting this must undoubtedly be among the
elements that will have to be taken into account in estimating the
rate of future development ; but I am sure that, as Englishmen, we
can rejoice that so far as the capacity of the soil is concerned the
agricultural future of the Dominion is so well assured. i

Mr. Heotob Cameson (M.P., Canada) : As a member of the
Legislature of the Dominion, I am glad to have the opportunity
of expressing my great gratification at the visit of the British

V.__

ijfc».iAMiii— ■.-i«-*i...M. i«-nJViU<iikrtiH*gfc(^- "'- ■ ■■■'— — '"-'-^ — ' — * —

The British Auociation in Canada.

47

Association to Canada. It was my good fortune to take a
humble and secondary part in bringing about the visit, my friend
and connection, Captain Bedford Pirn, being the first to propose it.
I knew the energy and enthusiasm with which he enters into any
undertaking to which he gives his mind, but I hardly believed he
would succeed in this. You have heard all about the visit, and
there is no need why I should trouble you further on that point. I
may mention that, having joined Captain Pim's party at Toronto,
I went with him as far as the Booky Mountains. The Canadian
Pacific Bailway Company furnished a private car, and we were able
to go to the end of the track. I saw Sir James Douglass drive the
then last spike of the last rail laid at that time. The scenery of
the Bocky Mountains is charming, exceeding in beauty in some
parts, I think, the Swiss mountains, and I feel sure that these
regions will in the future attract a great many visitors, so wonder-
ful is the scenery to be discovered there. With reference to tb<*
fertility of the alkaU regions, I visited three or four of the farms
experimentally established by the Canadian Pacific Bailway, on
what were supposed to be alkaline tracts, and I saw there magni-
ficent crops of grain and vegetables. I saw wheat land producing
26 bushels an acre of the finest quality, and raised during the first
year of cultivation, the land a few months before having been an
utterly wild tract of prairie. That land was supposed to be of
inferior quality. I also visited the well-known Bell farm, consisting
of some 68,000 acres ; about 7,000 acres were under wheat, and one
field was producing 80 to 86 bushels an acre. The agricultural
machinery was in the highest perfection. At the Sykes Farm,
about 20,000 acres, I had an opportunity of seeing what the North-
West could really do. Some 13 months before the proprietor took
out steam ploughs from this country, and in the first year he had
1,600 acres under wheat. Although he has had many disadvan-
tages to contend with, he was raising 26 bushels an acre. I mention
these things to show that a settler in the North- West, with industry
and a moderate amount of capital, may within the very first year
enter upon a career of prosperity. I do not wish to recommend
anyone to go there unless he is prepared to face hard work and
difficulties of various kinds, but my experience, extending to a life-
time in Canada, is that an industrious, sober, and self-reliant man
never fails to get on. Some do not succeed, but you generally find
that some particular fault has led to that result. But with the
qualities of which I have spoken success may be regarded as certain,
more particularly for the agricultural labourer going to the North-

48

The Britith Association in Canada,

West. The summer climate of the North-West is more perfectly
lovely than that of any country I know in the world. I am told
the winters are more enjoyable and delightful than in our part of
Canada, and I assure you there is no comparison between the
winters here and in Ontario. A more horrible and detestable
climate than this I do not know. Oive me our Canadian winters,
with their dry, rare atmosphere, moderate cold, and the oomfocta of
our houses, rather than the English winter, with the disoomforte of
year badly-heated houses, and your abominable snow and fogi. In
conclusion, I wish to say that as a humble Canadian I have ^reat
gratification in expressing my thanks to the British Association for
the visit they gave us last year. 1 ^

Mr. W. ToPLET (Geological Survey of Eng \nd Becorder of
the Geological Section, British Association) : I had the adva&tage
after the Association meeting of visiting the Booky Mountains' with
the special excursion, and subsequently Nova Scotia. As regards
the North-West I may remark that the lands are of ve*-y different
qualities — a point not always sufficiently appreciated by writers on
this subject. There is the very fertile land of the Bed Biver Valley,
which has yielded, and will yet yield, abundant crops for many suc-
cessive years without rest or manure. Land of the same kind
stretches up the valley of the Saskatchewan and Peace rivers. The
Canadian Pacific Bailway does not go through the most fertile
parts of the North-West ; these yet await development in the great
valleys just mentioned. The soil of the Bell farm fairly represents
that of a great part of the prairies ; but although crops may be taken
from such land without notable diminution of fertility for some
years, this cannot go on indefinitely. Major Bell has frankly
recognised this, and from the first has arranged to crop the land
with wheat, as far as possible, in alternate years. There is great
difficulty at present in introducing mixed husbandry, but in place of
that the land will be allowed to rest. The phosphate deposits near
Ottawa, which I visited, are capable of great development. At
present they are worked almost entirely for export to Europe : not
much phosphate is used in Canadian agriculture, and this mainly
comes from Carolina. The completion of the Canadian Pacific
Bailway will enable the phosphates to be sent to the North-West
without transhipment, and consequently at a cheap rate. I would
further remark that, without wishing in any way to depreciate the
North-West, in the great future in which I firmly believe, I cannot
but feel that the Eastern Provinces of Canada are now in danger of
being undervalued, both by Englishmen and by the Canadians

i^mmr^

The Briti»h ABtociation in Canaihi,

#

[erfeotlj
im told
I part of
fen the
ratable
winters,
^fortsof
ifortfl of
>gi. In
|e ^reat
tion for

themselveB. As rogards Nova Scotia, I speak from personal kuow-
lodge. Well-furnished fartuH, on excellent land, can now be had at
low ratea Many farmery have loft the country, and have joined in
the rusli to the North- West, and there is a despondent feeling in
the province, which is oortaiiily not justified. Some of the land in
the valleys of Nova Scotia in of the greatest richness and fertility,
and over large areas is of high class. This was not my opinion
only^ but I may state that it was also the opinion of Professors
Sheldon and Fream, in whoso company I visited the district. There
are also here good openings for agricultural and other labourerH,
with whom there are not the same difficulties as regards winter
labour which occur ii the North West. As a geologist I cannot
help referring to the splendid sections of the carboniferous rocks
at tlie Joggins, which are celebrated throughout the world.

The Chairman (the Bight Hon. the Marquis of Lome, K.T.,
G.G.M.G.) : My present duty is to propose a vote of thanks to the
lecturer. A short time ago we had the honour and pleasure of
welcoming to this country a statesman revered in Canada and
honoured throughout the Empire — Sir John Maodonald, who has
now completed a term of 40 years of political service. It is not
too much to say that Sir Henry Lefroy has known Canadian scien-
tific life for over 40 years ; indeed, he may almost be called the
fatlier of Canadian science, for it is now, as lam informed, 42 years
since he first traversed those great North-Western prairies of which
sorao eloquent and accurate descriptions have been given to-night.
I remember there is a gigantic snow peak in the mountains, which
was pointed out as Mount Lefroy, and I did not know at the time
after which member of our guest's illustrious family the mountain
was called. He went on that occasion as far as the Mackenzie —
the great river to the north of the Peace River — a district soon, I
hope, to be opened out, and which, I believe, will become as popular
with settlers as the Bed River of Manitoba. I am sure yon will all
agree with me that Sir Henry Lefroy thoroughly deserves our
thanks. I gather from what he said to-night that he is somewhat
critical on the wording of votes of thanks, and so I thank him for
his " important and interesting paper on this subject," as well as
for his paper on this " important and interesting subject." I would
only say one word in a hostile spirit, and that is with regard to the
defences of the ancient fortress of Quebec. It is rather hard, after
employing our best energies with an economical Government — a
justly economical Government — to have those ancient walls kept up,
to find a distinguished officer of the British army telling us we

.-.J :.J ,jtj.-y:jid^iji

80

The British Association in Canada.

should knock them down ; but we do not wish that this fortress, so
recently repaired, should ever be required for defensive purposes,
except in the sense mentioned by Sir Charles Tupper, viz., increas-
ing the resources of the country by attracting people to it. I am
glad to hear such a great concurrence of testimony as to the success
of che meeting at Montreal. When the question was first mouted,
I thought that, knowing how difficult John Bull was to persuade
and move, it would be a tough job to bring him over. However,
with a strong pull, a long pull, and a pull all together, the effort was
successful. I remember that one of the keenest in making the first
overtures was my friend Bishop Lewis, of Ontario, and after some
opposition from members of the Association, and also from influen-
tial members of the Press, the meeting was brought about. I hope
the visit is one which will be repeated, not only in Canada, but
also in Australia. It might be too much to ask the members of
the Association to go to India. They might, perhaps, be of opinion
that in Canada and in Austraha they might enlarge their minds,
and that they would only go to India to enlaitfe their livers. Still,
we may live to see the meeting of the Association held in Calcutta
or in Bombay. Some observations made this evening have been of
especial value. It has always been rather an uphill task to per-
suade the Canadian House of Commons how important are the
geological surveys, and I welcome the expression of opinion, on the
part of aprominec' officer of the British Association, that with such
an enormous country considerable expense is necessary in order to
fully elucidate the mineral resources of Canada. I hope Professor
Bormey's words will be borne in mind in Canada. With regard to
the conservation of forests, we must not wholly lay the blame upon
the Government for the destruction that is goi^ag on, because the
forests are in the hands not of the Federal Government but of the
Provincial Governments. With regard to the Province of Ontario
a great deal has been done, and on the right lines, to induce a more
scientific cultivation of the icnd, in the foundation of such excellent
colleges as the Guelph Agricultural College. I am sure you will be
glad to join me in this vote of thanks, and say that if in future any
British Government neglects the interests of the Colonies the British
Association may be expected to lead the revolt, and overthrow such
persons as no longer worthy of their places.

The motion was passed with acclamation.

General Sir J. Henbt Lefboy, KC.M.G., C.B. : I beg to return to
you my grateful thanks for the cordial manner in which my Paper
has been received. I feel sure that every member of the meeting

The British Association in Canada.

61

will give me plenary absolution, and even a vote of thanks, for not
accepting Sir Charles Tupper's invitation, and entering into the
question of the defences of Canada. I don't know ^here we should
have been now if I had gone into that subject. I am sorry that my
remarks should have been regarded as disrespectful to the fortress
of Quebec. I said nothing of the modern defences on the Point
Levis side, or of that noble citadel which guards the British flag,
and stands, a grey sentinel, witnessing to two centuries of history.
All I intended to say was that there are some portions of the old
works of Quebec which subserve no useful purpose of modem
defence, and are very much in the way of improvement, and that
the armament is obsolete.

Mr. Fredebick Young : It is no part of the ordinary programme
of the Institute that a vote of thanks should always be proposed to
the chairman of the evening, but I am sure we shall not be willing
to separate without giving our most hearty thanks to the noble
Marquis who has presided on this occasion. To my mind, it is
impossible to exaggerate the value and importance of gentlemen in
the position of the noble Marquis coming to our meetings and
taking a prominent part in our proceedings. I myself feel parti-
cularly grateful to our noble chairman for the kind and genial way
in which he responded to my request that he would preside this
evening. It seemed specially appropriate that when we were dis-
cussing a subject relating to Canada, the late Governor-General
should preside. I beg to propose that our heartiest thanks be given
to the Marquis of Lome.

The motion was cordially adopted.

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