42 CONTINUATION OF BOTANICAL STUDIES 



and chiefly to local men. One of the shareholders, Mr. Robert 

 Patterson, asked me in November if I would go out to Madoc and 

 report to him what I thought of it. I told him that I knew very 

 little of geology and less of mineralogy, and that he had better 

 get someone who knew more. He said that he would risk me, so 

 I made the "Pilgrimage" as we called it. I had three ideas about 

 how to distinguish gold and with these and a jack-knife I became 

 a specialist. I knew that iron pyrites and quartz were too hard 

 for my knife, that calcite or limerickite would cut or crumble and 

 that gold would cut readily but not crumble. With this primitive 

 knowledge I entered the lists in a hotel in Madoc Village and found 

 all sorts and conditions there. The people generally had samples 

 which the farmers called "Quartz." I asked to see the specimens 

 and found, as I expected, calcite, which cut easily and looked like 

 quartz. I told them that it was not quartz, and at once I had a 

 crowd around me. Quartz, iron pyrites and calcite were dis- 

 posed of in short order, and I was the centre of a crowd. A man 

 came up and produced a nugget of pure gold, but lighter in color 

 than the Madoc gold. This was the Quebec gold, which I had 

 seen in Belleville. I immediately said that it was not found here 

 and told him he got it before he came to Madoc, and that it came 

 from the Chaudiere. It was seen that I was a specialist and 

 took precedence at once. I may say that that was the first and 

 last time I ever claimed the role of a mineralogist. The upshot 

 of my investigation at the mine next day was that gold was there, 

 but in small quantities. Mr. Patterson unloaded and I rose in 

 public favour. 



The year 1867 was spent without special incident and in 

 1868 a grand expedition was planned to the source of the Trent 

 River. I.I. Tenill a teacher in the Deaf and Dumb Institution 

 in Hamilton, Ont., Henry Reizen, School Inspector of South 

 Victoria and myself were the explorers, I being the botanist. De- 

 tails of our trip and how we left Lindsay and reached the Muskoka 

 Lakes and our adventures by flood and field would fill a book 

 itself. In this connection I will only say that I made very large 

 collections of many species hitherto not seen by me. I made a 

 very large collection of potamogetons and rushes and other genera 



