John Palliser

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

Biography

Palliser was born into a respected and wealthy Irish family. By abroad with his parents learned of the young John French, German and Italian speaking.

The result of his first visit to America (1847-1849), devoted mainly to hunting in the prairies of the West, was the publication of his book "From the 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 1857-1860 ( British North American Exploring Expedition ) in the southwestern Prairiengebiet Canada and the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, which was devoted to the mapping and demarcation ( 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 has not only some rivers such as the North Saskatchewan River and the South Saskatchewan River for the first time recorded cartographically, but also warned that the country discovered by him was unsuitable for farming. The British government sent settlers still in the so-called Palliser Triangle, however, Pallisers prediction proved to be correct in the long run.

In 1869 he undertook another expedition by sea to the north of Russia on Novaya Zemlya and the Kara Sea. The last years of his life he spent in Comeragh House, surrounded by his relatives.