172 The Ottawa NAfuRAUST. [January 



A WOMAN'S VISIT TO A PEAT BOG. PLENTY OF FUEL 



FOR CENTURIES TO COiME. A VISIT TO THE 



NEWINGTON PEAT WORKS. 



After an early breakfast, which to a woman living in cham- 

 bers, with the aid of a gas stove, was a thing of despatch, a 

 woman journalist, a fair-haired teacher in a Ladies' College, and 

 a bright, joyous enthusiast with the breeziness of a Canadian 

 prairie characterizing her, set out fram Ottawa on a tour of 

 investigation. 



At the Centra] Depot a train on the Ottawa and New York 

 Railway was boarded, and the party was augmented by the addi- 

 tion of five scientific men : a geologist, a chemist, and botanists and 

 entomologists — men whose names are household ones in Canada. 



It was a mid-October morning, a morning with the wine of 

 joy in it, clear, mellow, with the faint scent of frost in the air. 

 With Lampman we sang — 



" Silvery-soft b}' the forest side, 

 Wine-red, 3'ello\v, rose, 

 The Wizard of Autumn faint, blue-eyed, 

 Swinging his censer, goes.'' 



The scientific men were armed with botanical cases and 

 kodaks, the weaker sex with lunch boxes, and magazines, which 

 were never opened until the return journey. 



The officials of the Ottawa and New York Railway were 

 polite and attentive, the cars ran easily, and after a pleasant 

 journey of perhaps an hour and a half, the neat little station of 

 Newington was reached, forty miles from Ottawa. Here wt'aps 

 were deposited, and a walk of over two miles on the rail-tracks 

 was taken. 



With iest and good-humoured raillery, here and there in 

 spots, little earnest discussions on the plants, insects, and birds 

 discovered in passing, were indulged m. At last the tall chimneys 

 and brick walls of the Newington Peat Works were seen in the 

 distance, and, following the switch on the railway track, we came, 

 to our destination. Here we were met by the energetic president, 

 Dr. Spencer, and his efficient manager, Mr. Gray, who were 

 kindness itself 'm explaining all about the works. A number of 



