In 1879, very great advances were made by Fleming and his staff in the exploration of the outlying portions of the Dominion; and the Report presented in 1880, together with the Appendices contributed by the various members of the Survey, marks a new departure in North American geography. The extent of territory embraced in the particular expedition referred to extended from the longitude of Edmonton, east of the Rocky Mountains, to Port Simpson on the Pacific. The main object of this survey was to verify the reports of the navigability of Wark Inlet by ocean-sailing ships, and to ascertain how far the tract of country between it and the Skeena River, with the valley of the Skeena itself, were suitable for railway purposes. Its result was the indication of a choice of practicable routes in the districts examined; but the Government, for reasons which, though not obvious, were no doubt well-grounded, decided in favor of the earlier route proposed, namely, that by the Yellow Head Pass and the Burrard Inlet. Thus the great expedition of 1879 was set aside, so far as its main purpose was concerned; but it accomplished much, and has perhaps really served a more practical end, in opening up immense regions barely known before, and providing the student of geography with maps urgently required. Sir J. H. Lefroy admirably expresses our indebtedness to the members who composed the expedition, in an address delivered before the geographical section of the British Association in 1880. He says: ――“The final decision of the Canadian Government to adopt Burrard’s Inlet for the Pacific terminus of their railway, relegates to the domain of pure geography a great deal of knowledge acquired in exploring other lines; explorations in which Messrs. Jarvis, Horetzky, Keeper, and others have displayed remarkable daring and endurance. They have forced their way from the interior to the sea-coast, or from the coast to the Peace River, Pine or Yellow Head Passes, through country previously unknown, to Port Simpson, to Burke Channel, to the mouth of the Skeena, and to the Bute Inlet, so that a region but recently almost a blank on our maps, which John Arrowsmith, our last great authority, but very imperfectly sketched, is now known in great detail.” Thus it has happened once more, as we have so often noted in the course of our narrative, that the traveler, foiled in his main purpose, has opened for himself and for the world new scenes by the way; and as we scan the pages of these Canadian reports, pictures rise before us of surpassing loveliness, while we dream of these vast territories as they will be when the glory of the gorge and the mountain pass is varied by the vision of plains covered with corn and dotted with smiling villages.