58 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



Mr. Boardman writes : " The great loss to this country 

 from the Saxby gale will be to the woods. We have had 

 some of our men up exploring and they say they can 

 walk ten miles at a time on the trees that are down with- 

 out stepping on the ground. In some places for half a 

 mile about every tree is down. The bridges and build- 

 ings can easily be put back, but the woods all down will 

 soon get on fire and burn all over the down district. 

 The wind did not reach very far up the river, only about 

 thirt}^ or forty miles it was the heaviest about the 

 shores." The Saxby gale has gone into history as one 

 of the most destructive gales that ever visited the coast of 

 this state and of New Brunswick. 



The years of 1869 to 1872 were very happy ones to 

 Mr. Boardman. They were indeed among the happiest 

 of his most happy life. The summers were spent at home 

 and in visits to the great cities where he loved to go to 

 meet his scientific friends and study at the museums, 

 while the winters were spent in Florida. On Januarj' 7, 

 1869, he left for Florida, accompanied by Mrs. Board- 

 man and his son William. They made stops of several 

 days at Boston and New York where Mr. Boardman met 

 his old friends and made many new acquaintances. In 

 Washington, at a party at Prof. Baird's, he met Hon. 

 George F. Edmunds, United States Senator from Ver- 

 mont, Judge Hale, Mr. King and others. At the Smith- 

 sonian Institution where he spent five days he met for the 

 first time Robert Ridgway, Henry Banister, W. H, Dall, 

 Prof. Gibb and other young naturalists. Townend 

 Glover, Prof. Blake and Theodore Gill were also among 

 those whose acquaintance he made at that time. Mr. 

 and Mrs. Boardman arrived at Jacksonville, January 25 

 and left on the return north, April 6. 



