SOME NEW ZEALAND NATURALISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3339, 13 March 1918, Page 53

SOME NEW ZEALAND NATURALISTS.

By G. M. Thomson, F.L.S.

XV.—SIR JAMES HECTOR, F.R.S. Dr James Hector, the subject of this brief memoir, was born in Edinburgh in 1834. His father, Alexander /Hector, was a well-known writer to the Signet, a lawyer of some note, and of great repute as a conveyancer. „But he lives in memory more as a reader of black-letter deeds. In his younger days he used to translate and read old manuscripts to Sir Walter Scott, and on some of these more than one of the famous series of romances known as the Waverley Novels were founded. The legal profession stands very high in - social rank in the Scotch capital, and young Hector became a pupil of the Edinburgh Academy, a classical school which was in touch with the best university life , of both Scotland and England. He also appears to have been for a time at the ,Edinburgh High School. At the age of 14 he entered his father's office for a short time, and was then articled to Mr James Watson, an eminent actuary, for a period of three years. Rut he very early showed a decided bent for chemical and natural history studies, and during these years he attended classes at the School of Arts, a technical school which has since become famous as the Heriot-Watt College. In 1852 he matriculated, ~ and entered the University of Edinburgh, taking up the study of medicine, the only branch in which any scientific work was possible for one who was fond of biology. Throughout his university career he gave the largest share of his time to natural science, and particularly to geology. From the age of 13 every holiday had been occupied in long weekly excursions in the Highlands of Scotland, and also into England and Ireland. In this way he early acquired the spirit and endurance of an explorer, and the habits of a quick accurate observer, and of a careful collector. At this time, and for long after, John Hutton Balfour was the professor of botany in the university, and every Saturday during the summer session his classes were taken out on botanical excursions over many parts of the country. The present writer remembers these excursions in his time very vividly, when the wiry old professor, known to his students as "Woody Fibre," led a band of a. hundred or more students over many parts of Scotland, from the Pass of Killiekranlde in the north, to the summit of the Cheviots. Young Hector, on account of his accurate observation and his enthusiasm, was always selected by Professor Balfour to give an account to the Botanical Society, of the geological and physical features of the ground gone over in these excursions. He thus acquired the position of a leader and authority on geological matters among the students. There being at that time no separate chair for geology in the university, he attended the extraacademic lectures on mineralogy, geology, and palaeontology of Macadam, Rose and Page. After completing his medical studies and hospital attendance, Hector took his degree of M.D., in 1856, passing both his examinations in one year, as his devotion to natural history had prevented his spreading them over several years according to the usual practice. His graduation thesis was "The Antiquity of Man," being the same title as the well-known book'" written by Sir Charles Lyell in 1863. During the course of his college career he had not / onlv acted as assistant to Professor Balfour, but also to his other teachers, Edward Forbes, Goodsir, and Gregory. After taking his degree he was for a time asistant to Sir James Simpson. In 1857 he was selected by SirTloderick Murchison, Director-general of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, to accompany the Paliser expedition to America, as surgeon and geologist. The obiect of the expedition was to explore and report upon that part of British North . America lying to the west of Lake Superior, and the chief share of the scientific work fell upon Dr Hector. The work occupied four years, and the members endured many hardships and privations. Besides the regular summer work, Dr Hector made arduous winter journeys on foot with snow-shoes and dogs, so as to thoroughly master the features of the country at all seasons of the year. On these journeys he was accompanied by only two of the -men, and for months they slept every night in the snow, with the temperature sometimes 50deg below zero, Fahrenheit. Each winter season during the expedition Dr Hector travelled over 1200 miles in this fashion, living on pemmican and any chance game that might be caught or shot. During the slimmer the expedition traversed the open prairies, and autumn was devoted to the exploration of the Rocky Mountains. In these Dr Hector discoveied five passes, ascertaining the altitudes and surveying the topographical features. One of these passes, named "Kicking Horse Pass," from an acident which nearly cost him his life, is that by which the great transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway crosses the" mountains. A great part of the surveyed region Avas then untrodden except by Indians, but is now settled and traversed by roads and railways. The difficulties which beset its exploration have all disappeared, and elaborate ' surveys, made in comparative ease and comfort, testifv to the accuracy of the work done by Dr Hector, and to the justness of his deduction's respecting the structure of the country and Its availability for settlement. For the whole extent of country traversed by the expedition was mapped by him both topographically and geologicallv, but —with the cursed ignorance of the British .official mind—the renort was buried in a Parliamentarv Blue Book. TJnfortunntelv, we In New Zealand still adopt this idiotic policv of printing scientific reports of great value in Blue Books which no one reads, and few can obtain access to. and n.ll because our politicians are badly educated men. At the close of the

expedition, before returning to England, Dr Hector examined and reported on the coal mines of Vancouver Island, and made extensive journeys in order to acquaint himself with the goldfields of British Columbia and California, and with some of the- mines of Northern Mexico. He returned by Panama and the West Indies, and on reaching England, besides giving official reports, he laid the results of his work in the various branches of research in which he had been engaged before the different scientific societies to whom they were of interest. For the geographical discoveries effected by the expedition the Gold Medal of the Royal, Geographical Society was awarded in 1861. • Being now free to undertake other duties Dr Hector received two offers of employment from Sir Roderick Murchison; one to undertake a mission as political agent and geologist to Cashmere, with large emoluments in prospect,; and the other as geologist to the Provincial Government of Otago. Guided by Sir Roderick's experience, he choose the latter as likely to afford the best field for making substantial advance in geological science. Most of the information on which this account of Dr Hector's early life is based appears to be autobiographical. It is seen that before coming cut to this colony he had made a reputation as an explorer and man of science. In 1857 he had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Physical Society, and in 1860 the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Geological Society of London, and the Royal Geographical Society had ■ all granted him their fellowship. He was thoroughly well qualified for the task of exploring the wild country of Otago, and it shows what energy and vigour he possessed that very little has been added to his researches in many parts of the district. In three years he had made a fairly close examination of most of the province, and had explored a considerable part of the mountainous regions and sounds of the west coast under much exposure and privation. His work, as 1 recorded in the reports and maps he submitted, embraced nearly every branch of scientific research. In the Otago Provincial Gazette of November 5, 1863, is an account of the "Geological Expedition to the West Coast of Otago-," by Dr Hector. In April of that year he had made a rapid excursion from the west shore of Lake Wakatipu, in company with Mr Von Tunzelman, nearly to the head of the west branch of the Greenstone River. He followed the track of "Messrs M'Kellar and Gunn, two enterprising runholders, who had explored that country, and who were undoubtedly the first to obtain a view of the western slope of this province, although it was quite impossible for them to have seen the sea from the point which they reached." Dr Hector thought that the exploration should be conducted from the coast; hence the' expedition. I give some little account of it just to show young people of to-day some of the difficulties which early explorers had to contend with. The exploration lasted from May 20, when he left Dunedin, to September 23. \ The expedition sailed from Dunedin in a schooner-rigged yacht called the Matilda Hayes, of 20 tons register, and she carried on deck a light whaleboat 21ft long. The numbered nine persons, and carried provisions for five or six months. The Bluff was only reached on the 25th; but the five days were crowded with observations on the temperature and currents of the. ocean, and the topography and geology of the coast-line which was passed. Dr Hector wept on to Riverton, where the yacht also arrived on the 27th, and while waiting for a native ci*ew, which he hoped to take with him in their own boat, he made an expedition to the limestone caves of the Waiau, and ascended the valley of that river till he saw Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau. He returned to Riverton on June 5, and engaged a crew of eight natives; but they did not get away till the 12th, when they had to run across to Stewart Island to shelter, as a stiff breeze was blowing through Foveaux Strait from the west. Anyone who has sailed in the strait when wind and tide are in opposition knows that it is about as nasty a sea as one can wish to sail in. Port William and Paterson Inlet were explored, and then they got away again on the 16th. i quote Dr Hector's* own woi'ds to show the risks of sailing in those seas: "As Ave gradually lost sight of Stewart Island it became wreathed in dark, tempestuous clouds, while before us, over the valley of the Waiau River, the twilight was clear, but lurid. The breeze was rapidly increasing to a-gale, and the sea which it raised against the S.W. rollers was getting rather too heavv for us. The water was brilliantly illuminated by phosphorescent masses; but we were going too rapidly through, the water to attempt to capture any with the tow-net in order to examine their nature. At 8 p.m. we had made 42 miles from Saddle Point, and as this left only 26 miles further to run to Windsor Point, ,at 10.30 the schooner was 'hove-to' with her head inshore under close-reefed mainsail, being then, the skipper considered, about four miles S.E. of Windsor Point. At dawn on the 17th, after a terrible night of pitching and tossing, the skipper called me with the disagreeable newsi that we had drifted during the night further than was anticipated, and that he fancied we were now to the leeward of Preservation Inlet. Moreover, as thei'e was a tremendous sea limning, he doubted if we were able to recover the distance we had lost by beating. When daylight came in this proved to be correct, and we found that we were 11 miles S.W. of the point of land between Chalky and Preservation Inlets. As it would never do to be blown out into the South Seas, the yacht was steered under close-reefed canvas as near to the proper course as possible. She behaved well, and rose so lightly on the high waves that it seemed almost as if they would overwhelm her; the skipper hauled her closer and closer to the wind, so that we were able at last to enter Chalky Bay by the eouth passage."

The schooner remained at anchor for 16 days; but Dr Hector was out every day in the boat, and made a minute examination of the inlet during the time. '