r capable of rendering such
services, it appears ridiculous that they should sail under false
colours.

To make a man a hereditary duke for being humble and modest, or
hereditary marquis for being unselfish and generous, or an earl for
being a man of peace, and a benefactor in the things which make for
peace, such as a good husband and father and comrade, has, so far as I
know, never been tried. Some of the so-called lesser honours, such as
knighthood, are reserved for these. However, an order of knightly
citizens, so long as they are real knights, is, after all, little
more than the gold key of the Phi Beta Kappa, or the red triangle of
the Y.M.C.A. worker, or the Red Cross badge of the nurse. We are
human, anyhow, and such concessions, seeing that they do have an
undoubted stimulating value in the present stage of our development,
to an Englishman seem permissible.

CHAPTER XVII

THE REINDEER EXPERIMENT

Labrador will never be a "vineland," a land of corn and wine, or a
country where fenced cities will be needed to keep out the milk and
honey. But though there may be other sections of the Empire that can
produce more dollars, Labrador will, like Norway and Sweden, produce
Vikings, and it is said that the man behind the gun is still of some
moment.

In past years we have made quite extensive experiments in trying to
adapt possible food supplies to this climate. I had seventeen bags of
the hardiest cereal seeds known sent me. They consisted of barley from
Lapland, from Russia, from Abyssinia, Mansbury barley and Finnish
oats. All the seeds came from the experimental station at Rampart,
Alaska, and were grown in latitude 63 deg. 30', which is two degrees north
of Cape Chidley.

I find in the notes of one of my earliest voyages my satisfaction at
the fact that a storm with lightning and thunder had just passed over
the boat and freshened up some rhubarb which I was growing in a box.
It had been presented to me by the Governor to carry down to Battle
Harbour, and I was very eager that it, my first agricultural venture,
should not fail.

Everywhere along the coast the inability to get a proper diet, owing
to the difficulties of successful farming even on ever so small a
scale, had aroused my mind to the necessity of doing something along
that line. In one small cottage I saw a poor woman zealously guarding
an aged rooster.

"Have you got a hen?" I asked her.

"No, Doctor; I had one, but she died last y