212 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Jan. 



DR. FLETCHER AS A NATURALIST. 



By Prof. John Macoun. 



My intention to-night is to speak of Dr. Fletcher as a 

 Naturalist, for as such I was privileged to know him well. I 

 was twenty years in the field when I came here in 1876 to give 

 evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons in 

 connection with the development of the West. I spent two 

 days here and amongst the other boys I met at that time were 

 Dr. Fletcher, Dr. Small. Mr. Harrington, and one or two others 

 of the old men of to-day. Three years later I came back to 

 live here during the winter of 1879-80 and then came in contact 

 with Dr. Fletcher, who in the three years intervening had 

 developed. How did he develop? How do men pass from the 

 condition of ignorance into light? By the methods pursued 

 by the 3'oung men of to-day? No. The young men of the past 

 worked; there was less play then than to-day. I can see Dr. 

 Fletcher and so can you, Sir, when he was Accountant in the 

 Library. What I had never seen before I saw on his desk, a 

 wardian case, in which plants are kept in a humid atmosphere 

 and developed so that they may be seen and studied for a 

 length of time. Alongside of the wardian case stood a couple 

 of glass jars and in these jars were insects, either as caterpillars 

 or in a more advanced stage, and he was studying them while 

 attending to his regular duties. When the other gentlemen 

 stood up here to-night they spoke of Dr. Fletcher as being a 

 teacher who talked about what he knew. Nine-tenths of the 

 men who talk don't know, but he always knew. How many 

 men present to-night could argue with him? Whether he was 

 right or wrong, he was always right, and it was a strong man 

 who could argue him down. Hence, I often said, "Fletcher, 

 there is no use arguing about it, we cannot change our 

 opinions." But Fletcher knew and could teach others and there 

 is where his power lay. He went into the country and talked 

 to men. I know old people who look upon him as a god 

 because every word that he spoke went to their hearts and they 

 lived on his word. His power lav in the development of the 

 man as a naturalist and a teacher. I have been going through 

 this thing in the night and thinking over Dr. Fletcher since 

 his death and of the many thoughts was, "Why was there 

 such a man?" I have met during the last fiftv years many 

 men, amongst them Dr. Gray and Dr. Torrey, old men, and a 

 host of others, but none like Dr. Fletcher. Here is the reason. 

 The first summer I was here, 1880, I began to see something 

 about him that was different from others. He was not like 



