APPOINTED ASSISTANT DIRECTOR 



255 



at me and turned to his secretary and said: "Henry, bring in 

 those papers relating to Mr. Macoun's appointment." He did so 

 and I saw that I was really appointed Naturalist. He then told 

 me the reason that nothing had been said about it, as Dr. Selwyn 

 was trying to have other arrangements made and, up to that time, 

 Selwyn had not been told of my appointment. Burgess said: 

 "The fat is now in the fire and I will send a note of notification 

 to Dr. Selwyn today, so that you may have a chance to have a 

 talk with him." 



Dr. Selwyn was very angry and said that Mr. Whiteaves was 

 Zoologist and that that covered all the ground necessary and that 

 there was no necessity for a Naturalist and advised me to reject 

 the title as it gave me no higher position than I had had before. 

 I answered with some heat: "Dr. Selwyn, I have studied geometry 

 and I have learned that the greater always includes the less 

 and 'Naturalist' includes 'Zoologist,' so that, from this time 

 forward, Dr. Whiteaves is under me and I am not his servant 

 any longer. But this I will agree to: to leave Dr. Whiteaves just 

 as he is and never interfere with him nor shall I take any inter- 

 ference from him." I kept my word and, until his death, never 

 interfered with the Museum nor with what he did in it. 



An incident, which occurred about this time, was an invitation 

 from Wolfville, in Nova Scotia, to a great Agricultural Convention 

 which I attended along with Dr. James Fletcher and Dr. Wm. 

 Saunders. Hon. Mr. Longley, the Minister of Agriculture for 

 Nova Scotia, was the first one on the programme and I was the 

 second and I pleased the audience so well that I got a wonderful 

 reception and Longley congratulated me on my success as a 

 lecturer. The next day, he and I , with Dr. Fletcher, returned 

 together to Halifax and, on our way, we had a political discussion 

 as he was a noted Liberal, and I took the side of Sir John A. Mac- 

 donald. At this time, Nova Scotia was attempting to leave the 

 Confederation and politics were very virulent. There was talk 

 of an election, at this time, and he said that Sir John A. Macdonald 

 would be beaten at the coming election and I said that he would 

 win and I agreed to telegraph him, when the election took place, 

 what Sir John's majority was and he agreed to pay for the tele- 



