jt'l.V 22, 1899.3 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
M-bere, oblivious of storms, canoemeii rocked on glassy 
■seas, and m swayjiig hainmocks senoritas slumbered in the 
siesta ; all this faded otf into dreamland, misty and 
ethereal, leaving only a dim and shadowy picture in the 
hall of memory. Orin Bet.knap. 
Vaj-ley, Washington. 
The World's Greatest Explorer. 
BY CHAELES HALLOCK. 
Edilor Forest and Stream: 
^ For thirty years I have known Dr. Robt. Bell, F. R. S., 
Chief of the Geological Survey of Canada. To his 
personal canvass Forest and Stream is largely indebted 
for its ^arly prestige and strength in the New Dominion. 
This month he is starting out on his forty-third year of 
commuous field work in British North America, his des- 
tination being the Great Slave Lake in the Mackenzie 
River Basin, N. W. T., lat. 63 degrees, of which he is to 
make a topographical and geological survey. The lake is 
300 miles long and 3,000 miles off, though now acces- 
sible nearly all the way from Ottawa by rail and steam- 
boat. 
Although fifty-seven years of age, and exposed all these 
ears to the rigors of high latitudes, he writes me that he 
IS m perfect heahh and vigor, and able to get about as 
well as ever. This fact he attributes to a knowledge of 
low^ to take care of himself, <'No matter how tired I 
im, he says, "I see that I always have a comfortable and 
iry bed of brush or some substitute, every night. I al- 
ivays dry my clothes, or change to dry ones if I can have 
I change, and do not go without more meals than I can 
lelp." He has always followed the simplest methods in 
lis out of door life, carrying no tent or impedimenta" in 
he shape of camp furniture ; his habit being to "go light" 
md live off the country. Where fish or game \vas not to 
)e had, he has subsisted on the plain common food of the 
■■oyageur, and taken no alcoholic drinks. He is up to 
,U sorts of expedients in emergencies, and does not) believe 
n "accidents" and misadventures; and has never had 
.ny, because he knows how to avoid them. Old cam- 
•aigners of this ilk never think of exploiting their suffer- 
ngs and hairbreadth escapes as evidences of heroism 
rorthy of plaudit. On the contrary, they would be morti- 
ed to admit them. Yet I find in an official publication 
ke the U. S. Geographical Magazine for June fulsome 
longratulations for a callow adventurer who visited the 
otintrv north of the Great Slave Lake In 1892-3-4, upon 
eing^"able to live where earlier explorers starved and 
roze," and the reviewer parades his manifold "survivals 
rom starvation and storm, from wounded animals and 
reacherous natives, from desperate exhaustion and in- 
idious freezing, from engulfment in muskeg pools and 
idden ice crevices, from wrecking in rapids and capsizing 
n surf," as not only the natural incid^;nts and con- 
omitants of voyaging in high latitudes, but as credit 
narks for heroism and endurance! Quite likely these 
ecitals might impress the home members of travel 
lubs, but to my own mind, to glory in what one has 
ufifered through inexperience or awkwardness would 
eem to be about as sensible as to boast how many rod 
ps a man had broken in a season on a salmon stream, as 
vidence of prowess in handling big fish. 
Nevertheless many of our popular scientists with official 
idorsements are able to scoop a moiety of honors 
^r so-called discoveries which were old before they were 
orn. Like Schoolcraft, for instance, the pioneer of this 
uild, who claimed the credit of discovering the sources of 
le Mississippi (officially),, while employing as his guide 
a old woodsman named Morrison, who had trapped all 
ver that region for thirty years previouslv; or like 
■udents of Bowdoin in 1896, who exploited the dis- 
oyery of high falls at the head of Ivuktuk Inlet, in Lab- 
ador, which were described in 1836 by factor McLean, of 
Hudson's Bay Company's post located close by! 
Puerile summer outings like these pale into nonentity 
eside the stupendous life work of explorers like Dr. Bell 
nd William Ogilvie, of the Dominion Survey, which cover 
imost the northern half of this continent. Already the 
Liblished reports of Dr. Bell alone comprise more than 
io titles on a great variety of scientific subjects, yet so 
uietly and unostentatiously have his duties been per- 
irmed that the public is not cognizant of them, nor per- 
aps ever heard of him, while plaudits attend the high 
jller who has compassed the earth in eighty days, or 
archance outlined a rapid transit trip to Mars or the 
*oon. Meanwhile, immense geographical areas have been 
lapped and charted and districted and divided into 
erritories and Provinces and settled, which had been 
rra incognita until this indomitable surveyor first set 
)0t on them. And up to present date no abstract of 
lese researches has ever been published. Modesty or 
reoccupation has intervened, though he has been often 
nportuned. But at last I have procured from him the 
ibjomed enumeration, wliich reads like Revelation, and 
Dr which I am sure you will congratulate me and your 
umerous readers. 
Beginning in 1857, as a youth of fifteen, under the late 
ir W. £. Logan, Director of the Geological Survey, he 
rved for the first three years as assistant to the prin- 
pal members of the staff, and has continued as the head 
: parties m the same work ever since. Commencing on 
le east side of the continent, his survevs comprise the 
aspe Peninsula from Perce to Rimouski, and from the 
t. Lawrence to the Bale des Chaleurs, and thence to 
uebec, the eastern townships, the Saguenay and Lake St. 
bhn region, the north shore of the Gulf of St. Law- 
^ce, the west coast and the interior of Newfound- 
nd and parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He 
IS coasted all around the Labrador peninsula, from the 
aguenay, via Belbsle, its eastern or Atlantic coast, its 
3rtliern coast, which forms the south side of the Hud- 
m Straits, and its western coast, which is the east side of 
udson and James' bays, besides some of the islands lying 
r off this coast. Dr. Bell has compnted the area of the 
abrador peninsula to be 560,000 square English statute 
lies, or considerably more than the comi,-iined areas of 
"^^^T.J^^^V^ Ireland, France, Germ,any, Belgium 
id Holland. 
In 1897 our friend made a survey of most of the 
uthern coast of the great Island of Baffinland, opposite 
Greenland, and which is only exceedled in size by this 
e-covered island and by Australia, l^epng x,ioo miles in 
length. Besides surveying its southern coast, he made 
an exploration of the interior, as far as the large lakes, 
only one of which had ever before been seen bv a white 
man. 
He has visited some of the large islands at the north 
end ot Hudson Bay, that great inland sea of our con- 
tinent, which he described more than twenty years ago as 
the Mediterranean of North America. He has in different 
years explored and, in fact, surveyed the whole east 
coast of Hudson Bay, except a few miles in the north 
part, from the Straits south to the head of James' Bay, 
also parts of the west coast of this inland sea from Marble 
Island to Moose Factory, at its southern extremity. In- 
strumental or, in some cases^ good track surveys have 
been made by him of the rivers flowing into James' Bay 
from tlie southeast, south, southwest and west. The 
largest of these is the Noddawai— a bigger stream than 
the Ottawa, and which drains an area exceeding that of 
England. The great west branch of the Noddawai had 
no recognized name, and by common consent it has been 
called Bell River, in honor of the man who first called at- 
tention to its existence and made an instrumental survey 
of its entire course. In connection with this work, he 
also surveyed a chain of lakes from the Waswanipi to the 
Ruperts River, and mapped out the whole of this great 
region, heretofore a blank. 
The other principal rivers mentioned as flowing into 
James' Bay are the Moose and its larger branches (Matta- 
gami, Missinaibi, etc.), the Albany to its source and its 
branches (Kenagami, Kabinakagami, Ogoke, etc.), the 
Ottawapiskat-— the next river north of the Albany, 40Q 
miles long and as large as the Rhine. 
^ Further north he has done the Hayes, Steel and Hill 
rivers, Oxford Lake, Knee Lake, etc., as well as the 
DR, ROBERT BKLL. 
whole of' the, Nelson — one of the great rivers of the world 
— -which drains the continent west to the Rocky Moun- 
tains, besides some of its tributary streams, also the Great 
and Little Churchill rivers. 
Coming back to more southern latitudes, his geological 
work comprises the Ottawa River from its mouth to its 
extreme source, including surveys of the Gatineau, the 
Upper Ottawa and some of the streams east of Lake 
Temiscamingue, the Montreal River and the country 
to the north and south of it, the country north of Lake 
Huron to the watershed, Lake Nipissing and Mattawa 
River, the French, Spanish, Mi ssisagi and W^hite rivers 
to their sources; Blind, Thessalon and Garden rivers, also 
Lake Temagami, Lady Evelyn and surrounding lakes; 
Temagami and Sturgeon rivers; and all the geographical 
as well as geological features in the Sudbury mining dis- 
trict. He had visited every square mile of the several 
islands of the Manitoulin chain before any township sur- 
veys had been made or a single settler had gone there. 
His purely geological labors comprise the western or lake 
peninsula of Ontario, while on the north side of Lake 
Superior, besides the geological work, he surveyed nearly 
all the rivers, Nipigon Lake, the uppermost of the Great 
Lakes of the St. Lawrence; Nipigon River, Long Lake 
and Pic River, and the country northward of these to the 
Alban3'-, and most of the thirteen rivers flowing into 
Lake Nipigon, together with their lakes. Westward of 
Lake Superior he has explored all the wooded country to 
the prairies and made the first passably good map of 
the Lake of the Woods (published in i88r). In the 
northern parts these extended operations included Min- 
nietaki Lake, Lonely Lake (100 miles long), and Lake 
St. Joseph or Osnaburgh Lake, nearly as large, the Eng- 
lish River _and_ its chain of lakes. Shoal Lake and Red 
Lake,_and its river. The international boundary line was 
examined geologically from Lake Superior westward to 
Lake of the Woods, including Rainy Lake and River. 
A track. survey was made of most of the shores of Lake 
Winnipeg; Lake Manitoba and the boat route from it to 
Lake Winnipeg were explored, as well as the "mountains" 
along the west side of the Winnipeg Basin, and a track 
survey, showing the details of the course of Red River 
from Winnipeg City to the lake of the same name. 
Further west the Assinnaboine, Swan and Qu'Appelle 
rivers were explored, as well as considerable portions of 
the North and South Saskatchewan, also the prairie re- 
gion betAveen these streams, and thence southward to 
Montana. Two routes were explored from the North 
Saskatchewan ttt Clearwater River, and a. good track sur- 
vey made of Lac la Biche and its river to the Athabasca, 
as well as of this stream itself all the way to Athabasca 
Lake, and of the waters around its western extremity, Lac 
la Loche, Clear Lake and Isle ^i. la Crosse, Beaver River, 
Green Lake and the route thence to Prince Albert. 
The above enumeration Dr. Bell has put down 
hastily from memory, but it does not by any means men- 
tion all the geological and topographical work which 
has been personally accomplished by him. He is also fairly 
entitled to credit for additional work performed under 
his immediate superintendence by field assistants whom 
he has trained and specially equipped for each particular 
survey. Some of these which we recall are the Megiskun 
and Waswanipi rivers and connected lakes, a route south 
from Lake Mistassini toward Lal<c St, John, God's Lake, 
Island Lake, various rivens on the east side of Lake 
Winnipeg, Pine River from Cross Lake, on Nelson 
River, westward to Moose Lake and the Saskatchewan, 
and this river itself, two routes from this stream north- 
ward to Reindeer Lake, this large lake itself: Wollaston 
Lake and route thence to Athabasca Lake, this lake and 
the chain of lakes forming the upper Churchill River, 
Black Sturgeon Lake and River, Cat Lake and River, with 
the connected lakes, the Abitibi River and numerous other 
important features in various regions. , 
Dr. Bell was on all the steamship expeditions sent by tlie 
Canadian Government to Hudson Straits and Bay. In 
addition to his duties as geologist and naturalist, he was 
medical officer on the Neptune and Alert expeditions, but 
on the Diana expedition of 1897 he was obliged to leave 
the ship in order to make his surveys by means of a yacht 
and boat, so that it became necessary to take out another 
medical man. 
At the close of his field operations in 1880 he sailed by 
the Hudson's Bay Company's barque Ocean Nymph, from 
York Factory, on the west side of the bay, to London, and 
had a long and very stormy voyage. He has passed 
through Hudson Straits nine different times, and having 
studied the navigability of these waters is considered an 
authority on this subject. 
On account of the length of time he has devoted to the 
work, together with the fact that the expenses were de- 
frayed by the Government, and with a great capacity for 
physical endurance, Dr. Bell has been enabled to accom- 
plish a greater amount of geographical and geological 
work than any other man in America, or probably in any 
other country. As most of this work was in heretofore 
unknown regions without many distinctive names/ he 
has been obliged to give a vast number of such names as 
a necessity for the sake of identification and description. 
Mr. George Johnson, the official Dominion statistician, 
who has paid great attention to this matter, calls him the 
principal place-name father of Canada. 
More of the above work was done by canoes with In- 
dian and half-breed voyageurs than by any other method, 
but the coasts of Hudson Bay, Lakes Superior, Winnipeg 
and Manitoba Avere explored by means of boats. His 
work on the prairies and plains was all done before 
treaties had been made with the Indians, before there were 
any mounted police, and before the international boundary 
line was run — when horse-stealing was considered a 
virtue and buffalo were abundant. Under these circum- 
stances he had many very exciting experiences and ad- 
ventures. 
Before closing this brief outline of Dr. Bell's career I 
might add that any part of his time which was not re- 
quired for actual official work he utilized to study and 
graduate as a bachelor of science, a doctor of medicine and 
master in surgery, to study practical chemistrv under 
Lord Playfair and others in the old country, to travel in 
Europe in diiferent years and to become a professor for 
five sessions in Queen's University, which conferred upon 
him the degree of LL.D. He is a fellow of many learned 
societies, among them the Royal Society of London, 
which is the highest distinction for scientists in the 
British Empire. He married an accomplished Scottish 
lady, and his daughters, who were educated in Germany 
and France, and the eldest of whom was last year pre- 
sented to Queen Victoria, are noted for their talents. 
While making his extraordinary record of geological 
and typographical survey and exploration Dr. Bell has 
had more adventures and thrilling experiences and more 
hardships from fatigue, wet and other discomforts, lack 
of provisions, etc., and has seen more of the game and 
fish, the real wild Indians and Eskimos and the Hudson's 
Bay Company's people of all ranks than anv other white 
man, or any Indian that ever lived. He has" improved his 
unequaled opportunities to map out the geographical 
distribution of the forest trees of Canada, has collected 
the folk-lore of the various Indian tribes and of the 
Eskimos, has taken great numbers of photographs in the 
far-aAvay regions, and has made extensive geological and 
botanical collections, and observations on a variety of sub- 
jects. He has a rare genius for telling his experiences, 
and although he has never written them out from his field 
notes, the original records in his possession would fill 
many most entertaining and useful volumes. As the 
author of this running biographical sketch I am proud 
of the distinction of first making public this record of 
marvelous achievements. 
A Mother Bass. 
New York, July 10.— Editor Forest and Stream: Per- 
haps some of your readers would be interested in a 
little fish story, which, by the way, is quite true. While 
on a short stay at Lake George I discovered a large black 
bass about loft. from our dock, where she had her bed 
and hatched out the largest brood of j'-oung ones I ever saw 
at one time. Other fish seem to annoy her, and I have seen 
her chase a pickerel twice and three times her size. 
One of the small boys while fishing off the dock hooked 
her, and Mrs. Bass gave him quite an exciting time, un- 
til finally some of the men came to his rescue and suc- 
ceeded in landing her on the dock, where we took the hook 
from her mouth and put her back to take care of her 
young. She is now so tame that the children throw her 
worms ; and it is very interesting to see one of the gamest 
fish that swim eat her meals to the satisfaction of youno- 
and old. _G. O. Wakeman. 
The Forest and Stream is pat to press each week on Tuesday 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us al the 
latest by Monday and aa mnoh earSer as practicabje. 
