292 DEATH OF PROF. MACOUN 



great wheat fields, for mile after mile, he was, naturally, pleased 

 that the conclusions he drew in regard to the fertility of the land 

 and the kind of climate had been so thoroughly demonstrated by 

 the results obtained. On this trip, in 1906, his work was mainly 

 to compare the country through which the Grand Trunk Pacific 

 ran with that through which the Canadian Pacific Railway passed 

 further south. He found the land was good over a large propor- 

 tion of the territory through which the Grand Trunk Pacific line 

 went, and the report which he published of each section of the 

 country through which he passed gives an excellent idea of the 

 topography and the character of the crops that year. 



So far, the many interesting and amusing incidents of his 

 life have been related by himself, but the following incidents of 

 his trip in 1906 are described by Mr. W. Herriot, Gait, Ont., 

 who accompanied him: 



"While camped in the Assiniboine Valley, a very severe storm 

 took place, which kept us in our tents over the noon lunch hour. 

 We had a bottle of pickled white onions of which Prof. Macoun 

 was negotiating the contents with a spoon. At this moment, a 

 large hailstone bounced into the tent before us and he, noticing 

 it, and thinking he had dropped one of the onions, scooped it up 

 and put it in his mouth. . The look of astonishment on his face 

 caused much amusement and none enjoyed the joke more than 

 he "Well, well, doesn't that beat all," his favourite phrase when 

 anything unusual happened, was his remark. 



"We were camped at Ribstone Creek on a very hot day in 

 early August. Atkinson had provided the usual good supply of 

 dinner but, owing to the extreme weather conditions, we were all 

 "off our feed," and very little was eaten. As we were about to 

 clean up, a settler sauntered up and we invited him to have dinner, 

 which he graciously declined at first, stating that he had just 

 finished dinner an hour ago. As we had a quantity of cooked 

 food, we pressed him further to have some, when he started in 

 and systematically cleaned up one dish after another until nothing 

 was left. I remember Prof. Macoun putting this in his notes and 

 estimating that he had eaten more than the four of us after assur- 

 ing us that he wasn't hungry, having had dinner only a short time 



