PROCEEDINGS FOR 1922 XXI 



Acrogens, 1890; Musci, 1892; Lichenes and Hepaticae, 1902. The 

 series contains about 1,700 pages. 



During this time he was actively employed, especially in summers, 

 in exploring the country from Sable Island in the Atlantic, where 

 a new fresh water sponge {Heteromeyenia Macoiini McK.) was collected 

 by him in the solitary lagoon in the sand, through Cape Breton, 

 Nova Scotia, across the Continent and over the Rockies to Vancouver 

 Island and the inhospitable Yukon. He photographed the forest 

 trees of British Columbia which he could not carry with him, named 

 the animals and birds sighted as well as the plants, and came to 

 Ottawa with his treasures. 



In 1887 his work was recognized by his appointment by the 

 Government as Assistant Director and Naturalist of the Geological 

 Survey. His collections of Bird Skins were mounted, and contributed 

 largely to complete the collection now in the Museum. In 1900 he 

 commenced the publication of a Catalogue of Canadian Birds, the 

 second part in 1903, the third part in 1904. On the exhaustion of 

 theseeditionsarevisionof the whole, with the range and breeding habits 

 of each species, was published in 1909 with the assistance of his son. 



He published an "Elementary Botany" for schools. But his 

 flora of the Atlantic Provinces, which the respective Education 

 Departments hoped to utilize in connexion with the public schools, 

 has not yet been printed. Annotated lists of the Flora of Ottawa, and 

 of Vancouver Island are also yet unpublished. At least forty species 

 of plants and a half a dozen zoological species have been named after 

 him by contemporary naturalists. A committee of the Privy Council, 

 June 9, 1913, allowed him to retain his connexion with the Depart- 

 ment of Mines, which would be severed by the superannuation 

 regulations, in recognition of his eminent services. From this date 

 he continued to enjoy working up the cryptogams of Vancouver 

 Island — more gently with the growing disabilities of age, but still with 

 the joy of the sportsman, the satisfaction of the naturalist and the 

 enrichment of science. He presented a valuable Herbarium of varied 

 plants to the Provincial Government of British Columbia at Victoria. 

 He always enjoyed the satisfaction of the public appreciation. His 

 opportunities for similar exploration can never exist again. Yet there 

 are boundless other fields of exploration beckoning to the votaries of 

 science in Canada to-day. No great explorer of Nature exhausts the 

 field. He only opens to view many other boundless areas. But no 

 succeeding naturalist is likely to surpass the record of John Macoun's 

 motile energy in exploration and carry in his mind's eye more numer- 

 ous distinct images of definite specific forms of Nature's workmanship. 



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