# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Hector, James

​HECTOR, Sir JAMES (1834–1907), Canadian geologist, born in Edinburgh on 16 March 1834, was son of Alexander Hector, writer to the signet, by his wife Margaret Macrostie. Educated at the Edinburgh Academy, he matriculated at the university in 1852, and qualified M.D. in 1856. During the short period in 1854 when Edward Forbes [q. v.] filled the chair of natural history in the university, his lectures deeply interested Hector, who became his assistant and worked zealously at geology and other branches of natural science. Medical studies were likewise pursued with ardour, and Hector acted as assistant to Dr. (afterwards Sir James Young) Simpson [q. v.].
Through the influence of Sir Roderick Impey Murchison [q. v.]. Hector was chosen as surgeon and geologist to accompany the government exploring expedition to the western parts of British North America, under the command of Captain John Palliser [q. v.], during 1857-60. An immense tract of country from Lakes Superior and Winnipeg to Vancouver Island was traversed with a view to colonisation. Hector then discovered the pass, now known as Hector's Pass, by which the Canadian Pacific railway crosses the Rocky Mountains. Many other important geographical as well as ethnological and geological observations were made and communicated, some to the British Association (1858-60), others to the Geological Society of London (1861). Hector drew attention to the erratic blocks and the evidence of extensive glaciation; he noted the general structure of the Rocky Mountains, and described beds of tertiary and cretaceous lignite and coal in the country east of the mountains and at Nanaimo in Vancouver Island. In 1861, on Murchison's recommendation. Hector was appointed geologist to the provincial government of Otago, New Zealand. Four years later he became director of the geological survey of the colony (now dominion), and from 1866 ​director of the meteorological and weather department of the New Zealand Institute, and of the colonial museum and the botanical gardens at Wellington. He resided in Wellington until his retirement in 1903.
During this service of forty-two years Hector gained a world-wide reputation as a naturalist and geologist. His numerous official reports included several on the coal-deposits of New Zealand and on the geological structure and other economic deposits of various districts. His first sketch map of the geology of the islands was published in 1869, and later editions, embodying the work of F. von Hochstetter, Julius von Haast, and others, in 1873 and 1885. A table of the fossiliferous formations of New Zealand accompanied his reports for 1879-1880 (1881). He edited the 'Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute' for 1869-76. To scientific societies and journals in England as well as in New Zealand he communicated many and important observations on such subjects as the volcanic and earthquake phenomena; the thermal and mineral springs; the eruption of Tarawera in 1886; the rock-basins; the glacial phenomena; the meteorology; recent and fossil fauna and flora, notably fishes, reptiles, birds and cetacea; and the Moas. He also obtained from tertiary strata in Nelson the remains of a gigantic penguin described by Huxley under the name of Palaeeudyptes antarcticus.
He was appointed C.M.G. in 1875 and K.C.M.G. in 1887, and received the order of the Golden Cross from the German emperor in 1874.
He was elected F.R.S. Edinburgh in 1861, and F.R.S. London in 1866, and also a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London. The Lyell medal was awarded to him in 1876 by the Geological Society, and the founder's gold medal in 1891 by the Royal Geographical Society. He was president of the Wellington Philosophical Society in 1873-74, and president of the Australasian Association for the advancement of science in 1891. In his later years he was chancellor of the New Zealand University. He died at Wellington, N.Z., on 5 Nov. 1907.
Hector married in 1868 Maria Georgiana, daughter of Sir David Monro [q. v.], speaker of the house of representatives in New Zealand.
His published works include: 1. 'Handbook of New Zealand,' 1879; 4th edit. 1886. 2. 'Outlines of New Zealand Geology,' 1886 (with geological map, 1885).
[The Times, 7 Nov. 1907; obituary by Prof. J. W. Gregory in Nature, 14 Nov. 1907; see also Geology of Now Zealand, by Prof. James Park, 1910 (bibliography).]
H. B. W.