294 DEATH OF PROF. MACOUN 



a tree, waiting for us. His opinion of Atkinson's movements that 

 morning took a very severe slump. I mention this incident to 

 show how perfectly at home he was in the great out-doors and 

 the idea of our losing him appeared to be very remote from his 

 thoughts. He used to say of Indians that they never got lost. 

 They would assert: "Indian here, wigwams lost." 



"Acuteness of vision, due to close discrimination of plants, 

 he had developed to a marvellous extent. While driving along at a 

 rapid pace he would order a stop, when he gathered some com- 

 paratively inconspicuous plant from the grass and proceeded. 

 While we stopped for camp, his usual custom was to look up any 

 settlers in the vicinity and gather their views of things. Anyone 

 passing our camp was regarded as a legitimate source of infor- 

 mation and he always made first advances to draw them into 

 conversation. We were away on our usual forage one morning 

 when Atkinson, who wore a heavy drooping moustache, shaved 

 it off and, when Prof, Macoun returned at noon, Atkinson saun- 

 tered past the camp with the expected results. "Good morning, 

 sir, and do you live around here" was the salute. When Atkinson 

 laughed, he saw his mistake, which he took with a mixture of 

 chagrin and amusement. This was one time when his acuteness 

 of vision got a set-back. 



"To the inexperienced with prairie life, the mirage is a source 

 of curious interest, as it was much so to me. In the distance, we 

 would see a lake with innumerable islands, which, as we travelled 

 along, would gradually simmer down to nothing on the horizon. 

 Now it would be a line of flapping clothes, a very common de- 

 lusion, always in the distance. An apparent grain elevator and 

 a church spire of a supposed town would gradually flatten out 

 into a settler's shack and a stack of poles. One day, I was collect- 

 ing in a depression on the prairie and walking along the bank of 

 this hollow for perhaps a mile. Prof. Macoun had been collecting 

 at some distance, but eventually came up and discovered me in 

 the hollow. I was wearing a white linen hat at the time, which had 

 magnified in the distance, so that he took me for a caravan and 

 hastened to overtake it. His supposed caravan had dwindled down 

 to my white hat and this was great cause of .amusement to him. 



