104 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



genuine equanimity, be the weather hot or cold, under clear skies 

 or in storms. Nothing seemed to dampen his lightheartedness. 

 We portaged our burdens through dense forests — once by night; 

 we paddled our birch-bark all day long; sometimes we lost the route, 

 or the rain imprisoned us in the tent; the sun would burn at midday, 

 the ground would be white with frost at dawn; we ran rapids of 

 dangerous violence, and yet in such circumstances, as in all others, 

 Lampman was always the spirit of hope, of joy, of pure delight. 



There was never a time when he could not see the humour in 

 every happening. Often as we paddled in silence by the hour, 

 resting his paddle, he would suddenly break into that hearty laugh 

 of his at the recollection of some humourous incident and start the 

 echoes bounding from shore to shore and rousing the solitary loon. 

 Great was his delight when a strange little berry or plant was found. 

 To become acquainted with his new friend was now his serious pur- 

 pose and until he had discovered its name in Gray's Botany, his 

 constant companion, he could not rest content. Each new find 

 became a personal friend whom he never forgot. 



Thus it was that he always seemed to dwell in a plane quite 

 foreign to us of homelier build. While we could merely recognize 

 the beauty of a moss-covered cliff, he would see in it a wealth of colour 

 unperceived by us. As the prospector searches for traces of the 

 coveted vein of gold, so Lampman was a prospector for the treasures 

 of forest and field. Nothing was too humble for his admiration 

 because he recognized friends in nature's community. On one 

 occasion when a companion had differed with his admiration of the 

 common yarrow, great was his indignation, and then he composed 

 the poem of the yarrow: 



"It blooms as in the fields of life 

 Those spirits bloom for ever. 

 Unnamed, unnoted in the strife, 

 Among the great and clever." 



Lampman's devotion to nature was not without reason, for his 

 ancestors had entered Canada while it was still a wilderness. As 

 pioneers they had penetrated the primeval forests, and lived de- 

 pendent upon nature's resources and had been taught of her whims 

 and fancies. Deep in their hearts was an inborn love of her fields 

 and forests, a love which has survived in remarkable degree in their 

 descendants. 



In the affairs of nations and of men Lampman evinced a keen 

 interest. A deep student of history, delving into chronicles of medie- 



