48 HIS FIRST JOURNEY ACROSS THE PRAIRIES 



the Pacific Coast and act as Botanist to his party which was now 

 on the way. I now found that the men who were peculiarly 

 dressed were his party. I became one of the company : the Chief, 

 Sandford Fleming, C.E., Ottawa, the Secretary, Rev. George M. 

 Grant, Halifax, the Doctor, Arthur Moren, M.D., Halifax, the 

 Botanist, John Macoun, M.A., Belleville, and Mr. Horetzky, 

 Photographer. 



I soon felt myself at home in their company and was told by 

 Mr. Fleming to keep my eyes open and make a note mentally or 

 otherwise of the productions of the part of the country we passed 

 through. My observations on the trip are found in my report to 

 the Government. I made a practice of going on shore at every 

 opportunity, showing that I was on the job, and very soon at- 

 tracted the attention of the party and the passengers on the boat, 

 among whom there were a great many tourists. The following 

 extracts are given word for word as they are found in "Ocean to 

 Ocean," which was written to record events of this expedition by 

 Reverend Dr. Geo M. Grant, later Principal of Queen's University. 



"Two or three days previously, the Chief had noticed, among 

 the passengers, a gentleman out for his holidays on a botanical 

 excursion to Thunder Bay, and, won by his enthusiasm, had en- 

 gaged him to accompany the expedition. At whatever point the 

 steamer touched the first man on shore was the Botanist, scramb- 

 ling over the rocks or diving into the woods, vasculum in hand, 

 stuffing it full of mosses, ferns, liverworts, sedges, grasses and 

 flowers, till recalled by the whistle that the Captain always for- 

 tunately sounded for him. Of course, such enthusiasm became 

 known to all on board, especially the sailors, who described him 

 as "the man that gathers grass" or more briefly "the Hay-picker 

 or the Hay-maker." They regarded him, because of his scientific 

 failing, with the respectful tolerance with which all fools in the 

 East are regarded, and would wait an extra minute for him or 

 help him on board, if the steamer were cast loose from the pier 

 before he could scramble up the side. This morning the first 

 object that met our eyes on looking out of the stateroom window 

 was our Botanist on the highest peak of the rugged hills that 

 enclose the harbor of Gargantua. Here was proof that we all 



