FACTS AND FIGURES

RELATING TO

VANCOUVER ISLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA

SHOWING

WHAT TO EXPECT AND HOW TO GET THERE

WITH ILLUSTRATIVE MAPS

BY

J. DESPARD PEMBERTON

SURVEYOR-GENERAL V. I.

"If, as I firmly believe, it is our duty to maintain our great and valuable Colonial
empire, let us see that those principles are sound which we adopt in our Colonial
administration "
LORD JOHN RUSSELL

"I believe that much of the power and influence of this country depends upon its having
large Colonial possessions in different parts of the world that by the acquisition of its
Colonial dominions the nation has incurred a responsibility of the highest kind, which it is
not at liberty to throw off"
EARL GREY

LONDON

LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS

ΤΟ

JOHN RAE, ESQ. M.D. F.R.G.S.

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK,

ETC ETC.

MY DEAR DR. RAE,

I would ask you, in glancing over the following pages, which I do myself the honour of Dedicating to you, to bear in mind, that, as the circumstances of the Colonies to which they relate will necessarily vary with every fresh discovery and political change from year to year, and even from month to month, a studied composition would have been but labour lost.

From abundant material I have endeavoured to select facts sufficient to support the opinions expressed, the whole being so roughly put together as to constitute a mere temporary literary structure, which I hope at leisure hours in the Colonies to rebuild and reproduce in a more complete and perfect form.

I take the liberty of associating your name with the volume, not simply on account of private friendship or personal admiration, nor because you are familiar with and take a deep interest in the subject of it; but influenced in doing so by this additional motive: Arctic enterprise, in which you have taken so distinguished a part, may be said to be practically at an end; the idea revives painful recollections only,-of cold unendurable, ships abandoned, famine, and the tomb; and I had hopes of enlisting those energies, deprived of their abject, but still unimpaired notwithstanding the hardships you have

undergone, in an enterprise of great national importance, that of connecting England, viâ the Canadas, Red River Colony, Sascatchewan, British Columbia, and Vancouver Island, with Australia, by one unbroken chain of commercial and postal communication.

That the undertaking, large as it may sound, is far from being impracticable, will, I am persuaded, be inferred from the evidence adduced.

But it is to individual exertion and private enterprise that we must look for the realisation of the project, towards the accomplishment of which it seems certain that the interests of various classes of the community and the assistance of Governments will not be invoked in vain.

I remain, my dear Dr. Rae,

Very sincerely yours,

J. DESPARD PEMBERTON.

PARSONAGE HOUSE, KENSALL GREEN,

LONDON August 20, 1860.

: