42 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. Vlii. 



He was strong in body, of active mind, industrious and dog- 

 gedly persevering, painstaking, a lover of truth, generous, 

 possessed of the keenest knowledge of human nature, sound in 

 judgment, but always cautious in expressing an opinion. 



He belonged to that school of geologists — unfortunately not 

 so numerously represented as it ought to be — whose motto is, 

 "Facts, then theories," and was wholly above rapping down 

 facts to make them fit theories. As a consequence, he rarely 

 had to un-say what was once said ; and this is why he so tho- 

 roughly gained the public confidence. So long as he felt that 

 he was in the right, he held to his own views as tenaciously as 

 did ever any true Scot ; but if shewn to be in the wrong, he 

 knew how to surrender gracefully. 



Those who have clambered with him over our log-strewn 

 Laurentian hills know well what were his powers of endurance. 

 He never seemed to tire, never found the days long enough. 

 His field-books are models of carefulness, replete with details, 

 and serve as an example of the painstaking way in which he 

 did all his work. They were written in pencil, but regularly 

 inked in at night, when the camp fire was often his only light. 

 In addition to his field-book proper, he frequently kept a diary, 

 and delighted to jot down little every-day occurrences, or sketch 

 objects of interest — for the hand that could so well wield a 

 hammer, could also guide a pencil and produce drawings of no 

 mean artistic skill. His descriptions of his backwoods expe- 

 riences are often very amusing, and we cannot resist giving a 

 specimen. He had been travelling through the forest for two 

 months and had suddenly come upon the house of a settler 

 called Barton, whose good wife was justly alarmed when Sir 

 William and party entered her dwelling. Sir William describes 

 his appearauce, on this occasion, as follows : — " We are all pretty- 

 looking figures. I fancy I cut the nearest resemblance to a scare- 

 crow. What with hair matted with spruce gum, a beard three 

 months old, red, with two patches of white on one side, a pair of 

 cracked spectacles, a red flannel shirt, a waistcoat with patches 

 on the left pocket, — where some sulphuric acid, which I carry in 

 a small vial to try for the presence of lime in the rocks, had 

 leaked through, — a jacket of moleskin, shining with grease, and 

 trowsers patched on oue knee in four places, and with a burnt 

 hole in the other ; with beef boots — Canada boots, as they are 

 called — torn and roughened all over with scraping on the stumps 



