APPOINTED ASSISTANT DIRECTOR 249 



before. The remarkable coincidence has remained in my mind 

 as a possible explanation of explosions at certain times in coal 

 mines. When we reached Nainamo, they were then bringing the 

 dead men out of the mine and laying them down in rows and, to 

 a person who had never seen the like before, it was an awful shock. 

 They laid the Chinese by themselves and the white men by them- 

 selves. 



After remaining in and around Victoria for a number of weeks, 

 we decided to leave there and go on to Nanaimo with the intention 

 of climbing Mt. Benson. At that time, a pathless forest extended 

 for nearly the whole way to the summit and my son and I were 

 advised to go up from beside Wellington, where there was a farm, 

 and the owner, who was a hunter, said he had been at the top 

 and would guide us up. We went out and stopped there over 

 night with him and started in the early morning and climbed 

 through a forest of beautiful pine and fir in which the underbrush 

 was Salal and it was with great difficulty we could force our way 

 through it. We reached the summit, however, and had a most 

 glorious view from the top. What I have never seen before nor 

 since was a thunder-storm below us along the slope of the moun- 

 tain. In other words, we were in bright sunshine on the summit 

 and, over 1,000 feet below us, the thunder was rolling. After 

 doing what we intended to do around Nanaimo, we went on up 

 to Qualicum and took up our abode with "Qualicum Tom." 



I very soon arranged with him for an expedition to Mt. Ar- 

 rowsmith and his son, James, who was a boy like my son at that 

 time, Tom, my son, and myself, started with four days' provisions. 

 Our first day, we went down in Tom's canoe to the mouth of Little 

 Qualicum River and went up the river until we came to rapids. 

 We then left it and Tom led us through the woods to where the 

 road, that had just been cut out from Nanaimo to Alberni, was. 

 When we reached the road, we discovered we were surrounded by 

 fire, which to me was a new experience as there was scarcely any 

 fire on the ground, but it was burning fiercely over a hundred feet 

 above our heads. Tom, like a good leader, said there was no 

 special danger and to go on because we were near the bridge at 

 Cameron Lake. Late in the afternoon, we reached there and 



