On the Achievements of Scotsmen During the Nineteenth Century in the Fields of Geographical Exploration and Research
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Scottish Geographical Magazine ISSN: 0036-9225 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsgj19 On the achievements of Scotsmen during the nineteenth century in the fields of geographical exploration and research Arthur Silva White F.R.S.E. To cite this article: Arthur Silva White F.R.S.E. (1889) On the achievements of Scotsmen during the nineteenth century in the fields of geographical exploration and research, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 5:10, 540-549, DOI: 10.1080/00369228908732403 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00369228908732403 Published online: 27 Feb 2008. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 8 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rsgj20 Download by: [137.189.171.235] Date: 10 June 2016, At: 16:53 540 ACHIEVEMENTS OF SCOTSMEN DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY fitted out with the necessary sounding apparatus, thermometers, areo- meters, zoological capturing gear, etc., not to mention accurate compasses and logging machines for the exact determination of the direction and rate of the currents. For the physical, chemical, and biological researches on shore, as well as for the working up of the observations collected at sea and on shore, there is required a special board or commission, with a laboratory and scientifically trained workers. To a country like Norway, with its extended and rich home fisheries, such an institution would be an immense benefit. It would cost much money, of course, but there is no short cut conducting to the goal. Theoretical speculations based upon chance and one-sided observations may be interesting, but do not always point in the true direction. The Barents Sea, with its fisheries, is an interesting field for investiga- tion. Imagine what it would mean to the hard-working fishermen if the near approach to the land or the habitat of the fish could be predicted beforehand. What advantages has not the telegraph added by flashing instantaneous messages regarding the arrival of the fish, in place of the slow and inadequate means of reporting from the fishing-stations as in former days ! Why should not an investigation of the fishing-grounds, systematically planned and carried out, by means of the telegraph, in future warn the fishermen where to find and to await the migrations of the shoals of fish 1 What modern meteorology, a science scarcely thirty years old, has achieved in the way of giving warning of storms to seamen and of weather to agriculturists, is only a beginning ; but it leads one to hope that a duly organised institution for the investigation of the sea bordering our coasts, at some not very remote future, could do something like this for our fisheries. For the movements and changes in the Ocean are slow in comparison with the rapid motions and frequent fluctuations of the atmosphere. Downloaded by [] at 16:53 10 June 2016 ON THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF SCOTSMEN DURING THE NINE- TEENTH CENTURY IN THE FIELDS OF GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH. A REPORT TO THE PARIS GEOGRAPHICAL INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF 1889. BY ARTHUR SILVA WHITE, F.R.S.E., Secretary to the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. (Continued.) NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA AND POLAR REGIONS. THE achievements of Scottish explorers in America and the Polar Regions are more concentrated the further we proceed north, until in Arctic America and the North Polar Regions they stand out in remarkable prominence. For the purposes of this Report, it will, therefore, be more IN THE FIELDS OF GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH. 541 convenient to chronicle Scottish exploratory work in those regions under the one geographical division. After the brilliant discoveries in America up to nearly the close of the sixteenth century, a long period of inaction set in. In North America, particularly in the Arctic regions of the continent, this torpor was dis- pelled by the action of the British Government in offering (1746) a reward of £20,000 for the discovery of the North-West Passage—in the attempt at which two hundred expeditions, exclusively British, are said to have set out. Of these only the most prominent, under Scottish leadership, can be mentioned here. At the same time, the officers of the Hudson Bay Company—which numbered many Scotsmen—were the pioneers of discovery in many of the interior parts of British North America. SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, who was the first European to cross the American continent from Ocean to Ocean, carried out two important ex- peditions towards the close of last century. In 1789 he started from Fort Chipewyan, on the northern shore of Lake Athabasca, and, reaching Great Slave Lake, passed down the river which now bears his name, to the Arctic Ocean. His second expedition (1792-3) was from the same starting-point. Proceeding up the Peace Eiver, over the Rocky Mountains, he reached the coast of the Pacific opposite Queen Charlotte Islands, thus accomplishing the overland journey to which I have referred. The earliest settlement in the great North-West was established by a Scotsman. This was the Selkirk or Eed River Settlement, founded in 1811 by the EARL OF SELKIRK. The pioneers of this colony were almost exclusively composed of Scotsmen, four of whom were reported as living in 1887 ; incorporated in the province of Manitoba, the district is still a point of attraction to Scottish emigrants. SIR GEORGE SIMPSON (1792-1860), who, in his youth, was a protégé of the Earl of Selkirk, was for some forty years in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, whose affairs in British North America he superintended. He rendered great service to exploration : the Arctic expeditions of the Company were, I Downloaded by [] at 16:53 10 June 2016 believe, whilst he held office, all planned and fitted out under his imme- diate direction. EOBERT CAMPBELL discovered (1840) the upper course of the Yukon Eiver, and, for a period of fifteen years, carried out im- portant explorations, which opened up a number of new routes. SIMON FRASER discovered (1806) the Fraser Eiver, explored the Stewart Eiver, and did other excellent work. SIR JAMES E. ALEXANDER spent seven years in exploring the forests of New Brunswick, the results of which he published (1849) in two volumes : L'Acadie, or Seven Years' Explora- tions in British North America. Between 1830 and 1831 he also made two exploring expeditions up the Essequibo and Mazaruni Eivers, in South America. The Geological Survey of Canada was instituted by the Provincial Government in 1843, with the more immediate object of surveying the mineral wealth of the countiy. No extended systematic work had been previously undertaken. In the newer provinces, especially in the North and West, the geologists have perforce been their own pioneers, and have had to construct reconnaissance maps of the country. Thus, the Survey 542 ACHIEVEMENTS OF SCOTSMEN DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY has been largely geographical, and has considerably added to our topo- graphical knowledge of the country. The greater number of those who have done the real work from the time of Logan (1842-3) up to the present year have either been Scotsmen or their immediate descendants. They may be briefly mentioned. SIR W. E. LOGAN was appointed provincial geologist in 1843, and held office till 1869. Up to the date of Sir W. Logan's resignation, about thirty-five annual reports were issued, the most important of which was the Geology of Canada, which summarised the results obtained by the Survey up to 1863. DR. DAWSON has carried out explorations on the mainland of British Columbia, in the Queen Charlotte Islands, from the Pacific coast to Manitoba by way of the Peace River, in the Rocky Mountains, and elsewhere. DR. R. BELL has explored the country between Lake Superior and Hudson Bay, and has carried out explorations on the Lower Athabaska, Nelson and Churchill Rivers, the coast of Hudson Bay, and in other adjacent regions. MESSRS. JAMES RICHARDSON and WALTER M'OUAT have explored north of Lake St. John, in the vicinity of Mistassini Lake, and on the Rupert River. MR. ANDREW LAWSON has worked on and in the neighbourhood of the Lake of the Woods. Other Scottish officers of the Survey, who also have done good work, have been Messrs. ALEXANDER MURRAY, CHARLES ROBB, HUGH FLETCHER, WALLACE BROAD, PETER M'KELLAR, ALEX- ANDER MACKENZIE, JOHN THORBURN, R. CHALMERS, and S. COCHRANE. At the end of last century a series of important scientific expeditions was commenced, the main incentive to which was the discovery of the North-West Passage. The British Admiralty itself took up the matter in the year 1818, and despatched Captain (afterwards SIR JOHN) ROSS in the Alexander, and Parry in the Isabella, in order to attempt a solution of the great problem. They made the circuit of Baffin Bay, ascending Lancaster Sound for some thirty miles, and returned the same season. Parry, more sanguine than his colleague, was intrusted by the Govern- ment with a commission in the following year, and succeeded in advanc- ing 30° of longitude further west than any of his predecessors, and in Downloaded by [] at 16:53 10 June 2016 showing the true direction in which the Passage was to be sought. The coast between Bering Strait and Point Turnagain (109° W. long.) being known, it was an important object to find some navigable passage between the latter point and Regent Inlet, to discover which Captain John Ross was again sent out in 1829. The expedition spent three winters away, exposed to great dangers amongst the ice, and reached lat. 74° N., and long. 90° W., but, owing to scarcity of provisions and the approach of another winter, returned to England in 1833.