254 APPOINTED ASSISTANT DIRECTOR 



thanked him for his great kindness and care while we were with 

 him. My son and I spent a happy and eventful summer on the 

 Island and returned to Ottawa in the autumn and had the privi- 

 lege of starting home at Vancouver as the people do at present 

 and going the whole way to Ottawa without a change, the Cana- 

 dian Pacific Railway having been completed this summer. 



Some time in the fall, Dr. Ells and Hugh Fletcher asked me 

 if I would go with them to the Minister of the Interior as they 

 wished some one to introduce them to him. As I was acquainted 

 with him, I cheerfully went and introduced them to him. I sat 

 at one side, while they made their complaints and requests, and 

 he told them to put them in writing and send them to him and 

 he would give them careful examination. He then turned to me 

 and said: "Mr. Macoun, what can I do for you?" I told him 

 that I had only come to introduce the gentlemen, but I certainly 

 had a grievance. "Well," he said, "tell me, what is wrong?" So 

 I said: "You are aware that I stand high in England, on account 

 of what I have done for the country, but here, I have obtained no 

 recognition." He then said: "Put your grievances in writing 

 and send them to me and I will see what can be done for you." 

 Later in the month, I did so and asked that I might be appointed 

 Assistant Naturalist, as Dr. Selwyn had led me to believe that Mr. 

 Whiteaves was Naturalist and I, only Botanist, under him. At 

 this time, Mr. Whiteaves wished to appoint a gentleman called 

 Chamberlain, of St. John, New Brunswick, as Ornithologist, a 

 position to which I aspired. Time passed, and I heard nothing 

 about the matter until Christmas Eve, when I received a com- 

 munication from Mr. A. M. Burgess, Deputy Minister of Interior 

 informing me that the Governor-in-Council had appointed me 

 Naturalist to the Geological Survey, and Assistant Director and 

 Botanist, with rank of Chief Clerk. Mr. Burgess, in his letter, 

 said that Hon. Mr. White, the Minister, wished me to accept the 

 position as a Christmas box. I immediately wrote and thanked 

 him. 



Nothing more was heard of this and, early in March, I began 

 to think that the whole matter was a joke of Mr. Burgess' and 

 I went up to see him and told him what I thought, and he laughed 



