HISTORY OF THE ICHTHYOLOGY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 35 



courses. His energy was remarkable ; his capacity for 

 intellectual work apparently unlimited. ISTo sooner did 

 he return from a trip of exploration, than dispatching 

 his official duties, and putting the results of late investi- 

 gations in shape, he was oif again to some remote region. 

 Kothing escaped him. He was equally at home in the 

 Indian's wigwam, studying his habits and listening to 

 his traditions — the uncertain twilight of a savage history ; 

 collecting stone implements, or digging into the kitchen- 

 middens of some prehistoric camping-ground ; in the log- 

 cabin of the back-woods settler, observing the customs of 

 frontier life and learning of the trials and hopes of the 

 hardy pioneer; in the lumberman's shanty away in the 

 depth of the forest, studying woodcraft, the effects of 

 climate, and the winter habits of birds and animals ; in 

 the hunter's "lean-to" beside a solitary Indian guide, 

 whither he had gone to observe the battle between the 

 cunning and intelligence of fur-bearing animals and the 

 trapper's craft; along with the chance poacher or pot- 

 hunter to witness with loathing the cowardl}^ and merci- 

 less slaughter of the lordly moose as it wallowed helpless, 

 cut, and bleeding in the deep, sharp-crusted snow, in 

 order to be the better able to denounce the barbarous de- 

 struction of the noblest game-animal of America ; in bark 

 canoe, on river or lake, capturing the finny denizens o^ 

 the waters, or wading through stagnant ponds and quag- 

 mires collecting the oozy reptile ; in the trader's store- 

 room measuring and comparing the skins of animals, and 

 drawing conclusions, alike interesting to the general 

 reader and valuable to men of science ; or in rocky gulch 

 of mountain stream, on peaty barren, or bed of tarn, 

 studying the geology of the region. 



But while prosecuting his field work with ardor, 

 he was also a student of books, having an inti- 



