I90r-2 TRAXSACTIONS. 21 



" The Golden Dog " has been twice translated into 

 French, once by Mr. Louis Frechette, and again by Mr. 

 Pamphile LeMay, both of them very prominent in the French- 

 Canadian world of letters. Mr. lycMay had already won even 

 higher merit as a translator by his fine rendering into French 

 of " Evangeline," which won the warm praise of Longfellow 

 himself. ^ 



In 1886 a romance entitled "An Algonquin Maiden," 

 by Miss Hthelwyn Wetherald and G. Mercer Adam, was pub- 

 lished at Toronto. It deals in a vivid and picturesque man- 

 ner \vi;h the critical period in Upper Canada between the 

 War of 181 2 and the Rebellion of 1837. A new edition is 

 said to be in contemplation by a Toronto publisher. 



Mr. Gilbert Parker may very properly be regarded as 

 Canada's leading novelist, whether we consider him merely 

 among his contemporaries, or with the whole group of Cana- 

 dian novelists. He is noi to be compared with Halibuton, 

 for Ha!;')r.:on, though, as has been pointed out, his books re- 

 veal the e^^sential qualities of a true novelist, was first and 

 foremost a humorist. 



Mr. Parker was born at Camden Kast, Ontario, in the 

 year ; 862. He studied at the Normal School, Ottawa, and at 

 Trinity College, Toronto, where he was also for a time Lecturer 

 in English Literature He went to Australia shortly after- 

 wards, owing to ill-health, and became associate editor of the 

 Jkfo niiig Hivald. He travelled extensively among the South 

 Sea Islands, embodying the result of his observations in a 

 book of travel, " Kound the Compa-s in Australia." While 

 there he also wrote several plays, " The Vendetta," " No De- 

 fence," and an adaptation of '' Faust." He subsequently 

 returned to Canada and travelled extensively in the North" 

 West, where he gathered materials for several of his sub- 



1. For a full account of the "Golden Dog" legend, see Sir James 

 LeMoine's " Maple Leaves," -1873, p. 89. 



The legend referred to above is as follows : 



"Je suis un chien qui ronge I'os, 

 En le rongeant, je prends nion repos ; 

 Un temps viendra qui n'est pas venu, 

 Que je morderai qui m'aura mordu." 



