278 BEGINS CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS 



not, I cannot say. As far as attention was concerned, the lecture 

 was a complete success, but whether it did any good or not I do 

 not know. 



On another occasion, I was making a trip to the northern end 

 of the island and engaged a young man and a horse and buggy at 

 Baddeck to take me along for a number of days. Our first day 

 took us to a stopping place a few miles from Baddeck where we 

 had lunch and, while the dinner was being made ready, I wandered 

 around as I usually did, and collected plants in front of the hotel. 

 About an hour after we left, a carriage drove up and in it were my 

 wife "and daughter, who were boarding at the hotel at Baddeck, 

 and a gentleman who had brought them out, and who was an offi- 

 cial belonging to the Fisheries Department and, of course, an 

 important man. In conversation with the landlord, while they 

 were having tea, he said: "If you had been here a little while 

 ago you would have had a good chance to talk with an old tramp 

 who was here and who was all the time hunting round amongst 

 the rocks looking for grasses and one thing or another." My 

 daughter, Nellie, said: "That old tramp is my father." She tells 

 me that the poor man nearly fainted. We met a great many 

 cultured people while at Baddeck and enjoyed ourselves very 

 much and seemed to make a great many friends, some of whom 

 are still friends of ours. That winter was spent, as usual, at 

 Ottawa and Dr. Dawson, who was Director of the Survey, told 

 me that the wish of the Government was that I should spend a 

 season on Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, as they 

 wished to get some knowledge of the vegetation of the island. 

 In accordance with instructions, I left Ottawa at an early date 

 and stopped, on my way, at Boston and Cape Cod, where my son- 

 in-law had a summer residence I made, while there, an ac- 

 quaintance with a number of American botanists who belonged 

 to the New England Botanical Club, and they invited me to 

 spend a few days with their society, the members of which were 

 then on their way to the Aroostook, a river in Maine, where they 

 were going to botanize for a few days. I had a pleasant time with 

 them and then went on to Halifax to learn at what time I could 

 go down to Sable Island on a government boat. I had a few days 



