322 Canadian Record of Science 



which was the wonder of many in his after life. Few 

 topics could he started in his presence to which he was 

 not able to make a contribution, so diversified had been 

 his reading in his younger years. Philosophy, History, 

 Political Economy, Medicine and Divinity his stalwart 

 understanding had studied and made its own. Left 

 alone with his books and his thoughts, he had pondered 

 much over the great problems besetting human life. 

 The self-discipline through which he passed during these 

 solitary winters in Labrador made him the strong 

 man, independent alike in his thinking and acting, that 

 he afterwards showed himself. Among other volumes 

 in the "post's" library were works on Zoology and 

 Botany, and these he perused with. great care, so as to 

 enable him to identify the few animals and plants in- 

 habiting the country which he was wont to traverse. 

 Although the descriptions and nomenclature of the books 

 he studied differed not a little from those now employed, 

 he knew the things and was able to differentiate them, 

 while confessing that he could not attach to them their 

 technical specific names. He knew all about the polar 

 bear, the walrus, the eider-duck, and the wild goose, as 

 well as about the fur-bearing animals, in which as a 

 trader be was an interested expert. In like manner, he 

 recognized the mosses, and lichens, and stunted shrubs 

 which were found growing in the crevices of the rocks 

 or on their surface. He also acquired a clear insight 

 into the peculiarities of the Eskimos, of the Montaig- 

 nais and other Indian tribes, with whom business 

 brought him in contact, of whom he was ever ready to 

 become a champion. And as he appreciated their finer 

 native qualities, so they reciprocated his kind sympathy 

 with them, by reposing in him implicit confidence. He 

 was to them at once physician and priest, healing their 

 sick, marrying them, and burying their dead. His deal- 

 ings with the natives helped to make him a keen, shrewd 

 judge of men. His shaggy brows gave to his eyes a 

 telescopic look significant of his penetrating perception 



