PREFACE 1x 
tended the meetings of the Commission of Conservation, 
at Montreal, on February 19 and 20, at which he pre- 
sented an important paper on ‘Fur-bearing Animals, Their 
Economic Significance and Future.’ 
“Soon after his return to Ottawa, on the 20th, he was 
taken seriously ill with influenza; this soon developed into 
pleural pneumonia, and he died about 11 Pp. m., on Febru- 
ary 29, 1920. 
‘“He seemed to be on the threshold of a long career, in 
which added years would bring even greater success, and 
would fulfil all that he was destined to accomplish. His 
gifts were varied, and his sympathies deep and general. 
He touched life at so many points that one cannot think 
that his interest ever flagged. His knowledge and apprecia- 
tion of the arts and belles lettres were finely balanced by a 
warm love of nature, and this led him into enthusiasms for 
our wild life. His ideal habitation was always surrounded 
by a garden, and every foot of soil was made to yield 
either use or beauty. There was in all his work a rare 
combination of earnestness, with lightness of touch. Highly 
characteristic, too, was a fine sense of humour, which kept 
all things in their proper relation. His personality was of 
that even bearing that finds the best in all men, and gives 
duly the best in itself. Even his casual acquaintances had 
‘sorrow when he died. To those who knew him well there 
will remain a deep regret; to those who received fully the 
intimate charm of his personality in familiar intercourse 
there cannot be any mitigation of his loss, for he was a 
peerless friend.” 
EvizABETH HeEwiIrTr. 
RockuiFFE Park, OTTawa. 
