248 APPOINTED ASSISTANT DIRECTOR 



At this early day, there were many species to be found which 

 are now rare, that the Botanists of to-day scarcely ever see. Later 

 in the month of April, Mr. Taylor and Archdeacon Scriven were 

 going to make a visitation at Comox and we all went together on 

 the Nanaimo Railway, which had been opened, I believe, that 

 spring. After we passed Duncans, Mr. Taylor dared me to ride 

 to Nanaimo on the front of the engine alongside of him, which I 

 did, and suffered the agonies, I might say, of the damned. The 

 road was rough, the engineer, I was told afterwards, put on extra 

 speed, and we were so shaken that, instead of conversation, it 

 was as much as we could do for each one to hold on to a bar that 

 rose from the side where we sat. When we reached Nanaimo, we 

 both decided that that was too much of an experience and we 

 promised each other that we would never do such a foolish thing 

 again. We remained in Nanaimo only a short time, but my son 

 and I decided to return and climb Mt. Benson at a later date. 

 We made many excursions round Comox and were greatly pleased 

 with the old forests that then stood close to the village. On our 

 way up from Nanaimo, we saw Mt. Arrowsmith on our left and 

 both my son and I were delighted to see a snow mountain again 

 after our experience in the Rockies two years before. I enquired, 

 of the Captain of the boat, if there was any way by which we could 

 reach it and he said that when we reached Qualicum, we could 

 find out as there was an Indian there who kept what is often called 

 in the Yukon, a "Road House," where travellers could stop. He 

 had no doubt, he said, that "Qualicum Tom," as the Indian was 

 called, the proprietor of the House, would guide us through the 

 woods to the mountain. On our way down from Comox, I saw 

 Tom again and agreed to come back in the late summer to his 

 place and stop with him for some time. He said he could take 

 me anywhere I wished to go. 



While at Comox, there was a very low barometer and, while 

 at breakfast one morning, Mr. Taylor, who had been a mining 

 engineer in England, said that when the barometer was low, they 

 were always afraid of explosions in the mines in England. The 

 next day, when a boat came up from Nanaimo, we were told of 

 an explosion that had taken place in the coal mine there, the day 



