182 Our North Land. 



navigator, well acquainted with almost all navigable waters of the 

 globe, and enjoys the most implicit confidence of his employers in 

 every respect. He is a man of most exemplary habits, sober, steady, 

 honourable, and, withal, a gentleman of considerable culture for one 

 who has made his home on the high seas from the age of fourteen 

 years. 



One of his peculiarities is that of repeating his remarks, prefacing 

 his words, the last time, with " I say." As for instance, " A head 

 wind is a miserable thing. I say, a head wind is a miserable 

 thing." He is a man of even temper, nearly always in a good 

 humour, but holds his crew at a considerable distance. Having in 

 his early life experienced all the hardships of a sea-faring life, he 

 is not over tender-hearted in the care of his men, especially in regard 

 to their diet. In fact, I don't think he will ever be guilty of extra- 

 vagance at his own table, much less in boarding his crew. He is 

 essentially a plain man, plain in speech, in dress, and in appearance, 

 and appears just a little dull ; but this appearance is very deceptive. 

 He is, on the contrary, very keen, wide-awake, always on the alert, 

 a close observer, and constantly well posted concerning every act 

 and movement of those whose acts and movements concern him. 

 Like all sea captains, he is talkative, good natured, and covered with 

 smiles in fine weather and fair winds ; but in the storm, or in a 

 contrary gale, he is impatient, cross and sour. Indeed, the weather 

 has much to do in souring or sweetening seamen. They are sort 

 of barometers of the weather, without being aware of it. Before 

 we had been at sea a week, I fancied I could tell when a storm 

 was approaching by the captain's countenance quicker than by the 

 mercurial column. No better man, it seems to me, could have been 

 found to command the ship in the first Hudson's Bay Expedition. 



Robert Bell, M.D., LL.D., F.G.S., and Assistant Director of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada, the Geologist and Medical Officer of 

 the Expedition, was born in Ontario in 1843. He was first educated 

 in the public school of Dundas, and afterwards at the Grammar 

 School of L'Orignal. Subsequently he took a full science course at 

 McGill College, Montreal, where he obtained the degrees of M.D., 

 CM., C.E. and B.S. or B. Ap. Sc, and LL.D. at Queen's. He com- 



