NORTH-WEST REBELLION OF 1885 



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Then another gentleman came up who said he was the President 

 of the Ornithological Association in London and asked me ho** I 

 knew. Of course I knew, by my familiarity with Canadian birds; 

 I said that falcons fly swiftly because they take their prey chiefly 

 on the wing and the buzzards soar and catch their food mainly 

 on the earth. I now obtained a double standing amongst the 

 men and I required no introduction, as every man that had any 

 troubles about the birds applied to me and, when we reached the 

 land, it was still more apparent, for I was at home there as well. 

 When we reached Port Arthur, we were located in eight pullman 

 carriages and started for our trip across the prairies to the Rocky 

 Mountains. There, by chance or previous arrangement, I am 

 not sure which, Mr. Bennett of Kew Gardens, and Mr. Mennell, 

 of Croydon, and Professor Traill, Trinity College, Dublin, were 

 placed in the car that I was in and from that day to the end of 

 the journey, our two compartments were the scene of constant 

 talk and explanation about the botany and all the flowers that 

 were collected by other parties on the way. 



It would take too long to tell of what happened in crossing 

 the prairies, but I can say this much, at any rate. The excur- 

 sionists made a point of asking me everything that came up and 

 I found that, like Englishmen generally, they took my sayings for 

 all they were worth, and I learned the value of their opinions later 

 in my life. Suffice it to say, that we eventually reached Laggan 

 and, after remaining there all night, we went on as far as Hector 

 where we formed parties to explore or to walk around. Dr. Sel- 

 wyn led the geologists down to the tunnel and was nearly killed 

 by hammering on the rock at the mouth of the tunnel, which 

 caused a fall of rock which blocked up the exit, and no further 

 progress in that direction could be made. In the meantime, Mr. 

 Mennell and myself had climbed up the flank of Cathedral Moun- 

 tain and, after we had ascended as far as my shoes would allow 

 me to go, we made some observations. Standing where we were 

 and looking north, we saw a beautiful lake embosomed in the 

 hills, which Mr. Mennell said was like a Swiss tarn and another 

 object we saw was in the distance to the north west. A large 

 glacier with a creek apparently running down it, and falling for a 



