88 ARRIVAL AT THE COAST 



through the car? Well, he fell into the hands of one of these 

 confidence men and he actually gave him a cheque that he had 

 so that he could pay for some goods which he was buying and he 

 would make it good when they got home, as they both were from 

 Vermont!" Johnston and I proceeded on our way and were the 

 best of friends going home and I have never seen him since. I 

 may say that the basket fell to my lot and it has been in the family 

 ever since. 



On my arrival home, I found everything in order. My wife 

 had conducted the affairs of the establishment in an efficient 

 manner. My family having increased from four to five, in my 

 absence, I decided that it was now necessary to have larger quar- 

 ters and I immediately set about putting up a large front to my 

 house with a centre hall and tower three stories high. This, 

 being a new undertaking for me, was given to a carpenter to carry 

 out. I was shortly summoned to Ottawa to give an account of 

 my trip and, on consultation with Mr. Sandford Fleming, I 

 returned to my home and commenced to write a complete report 

 of my extended trip. After this, I took up my duties in school and 

 college and continued my work. When my report was completed, 

 I sent it to Ottawa and got a reply from Mr. Fleming's assistant 

 that my report was considered the best given for the season and 

 that it would be printed in full. I was satisfied with this and 

 troubled myself no more about it. 



My summer's experience had opened my eyes to the necessity 

 of knowing more about our country than I had known before and 

 I took up my studies of physical geography and climatology 

 with greater vigour, at this time, than ever before. I was lectur- 

 ing at this time on physical geography and geology to the stu- 

 dents and it only added to my knowledge and not to my work. 

 I may say that I lectured also on meteorology. In the course of 

 my lectures, many questions came up that I could not solve and 

 others I solved in my own way but was uncertain of their accur- 

 acy. One or two conclusions that I came to may be here ex- 

 pressed. Up to this time, when speaking of the climate of a 

 country, the statement was always made of the annual tempera- 

 ture. For years, I had been studying the growth of things and I 



