262 APPOINTED ASSISTANT DIRECTOR 



William's observation, said privately to an Englishman: "Ask 

 them why the mouth is sewed up," and they made a lame excuse; 

 then I prompted another man to have the mouth cut open and 

 the result was that we discovered that the fish had been filled 

 with stones, to make it heavy, and almost 10 pounds of stones 

 were taken out of its inside — so their glory departed. 



We had a great summer at Banff, and had many adventures 

 and a pleasant time and, late in August, went up to Lake Louise 

 where, at that time, there was only a small hut where you could 

 sleep, but you had to take your own food and blankets, which we 

 did. At that time, we walked round the lake without a path and 

 went up on the glacier at the head of the lake and looked up at 

 the place where Mr. Abbot had been killed a short time before. 

 We also climbed up to the other lakes that have since become 

 very popular resorts and, from there, brought home many valuable 

 species, which have since been named by specialists. Our season 

 at Banff satisfied me that one man, who was willing to work, and 

 myself, could do as much as a large party with idlers attached. 

 From this year forward, Spreadborough and myself, or my son, 

 James M., have always constituted our party when collecting in 

 the mountains. 



That fall, in Calgary, Mr. Pearce, of the C.P.R., had built a 

 new house and wished to have trees growing around it. He asked 

 me to go and see the location and there was neither tree nor shrub 

 and I told him to do exactly as I had seen trees growing before, 

 on the bare prairie — plant a wind break of shrubs to catch the 

 snow and plant his trees near enough to the bushes to receive 

 moisture from the banks formed by the wind break. That was 

 the commencement of tree growing in Calgary. From Calgary, 

 we moved on to Indian Head and I saw what I thought was a new 

 sparrow and we collected about a dozen specimens and, later, I 

 discovered that it was only the young of the bobolink — so much 

 for my bird knowledge in 1891. 



In 1892, my son was being sent to Behring Sea and I took 

 William S. with me to make an examination of the country round 

 Lake Erie, as it was noted for a great variety of plants and trees. 

 We spent the summer there and, in the early part of the season, 



