John Palliser

John Palliser.

John Palliser (born January 29, 1817 in Dublin , † August 18, 1887 in Comeragh House , County Waterford , Ireland ) was an Irish geographer and explorer in western Canada .

biography

Palliser came from a respected and wealthy Irish family. During his stays abroad with his parents, the young John learned to speak French, German and Italian.

The result of his first visit to America (1847-1849), mainly devoted to hunting in the prairies of the west, was the publication of his book " From Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains " (English title: " Solitary rambles and adventures of a hunter in the prairies") ”).

For the Royal Geographical Society , he led an expedition (British North American Exploring Expedition) in the southwestern prairie area of ​​Canada and the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific from 1857-1860 , which was dedicated to mapping and delimitation ( The papers of the Palliser expedition , 1857-1860 , Toronto 1968). One goal of the expedition was to find suitable routes for the Canadian Pacific Railway . Palliser not only mapped some rivers such as the North Saskatchewan River and the South Saskatchewan River for the first time, but also warned that the land he discovered was unsuitable for arable farming. The British government still sent settlers to the so-called Palliser triangle , but Palliser's prediction proved correct in the long run.

In 1869 he undertook another expedition by ship to the north of Russia to Novaya Zemlya and the Kara Sea . He spent the last years of his life at Comeragh House with his relatives.

Web links

• John Palliser . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
• Literature by and about John Palliser in the catalog of the German National Library
• John Palliser timeline
• Palliser photos at WaterfordCountyImages.org

literature

• Palliser, John: From the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains . Edition Erdmann, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-522-60360-5 .