CANADIAN HISTORY READERS

nature of the country, its valleys hemmed
in by mountains, its impassable rivers and
Streams, swollen by mountain torrents, with
their treacherous rapids, and the blinding
snow-storm which descending wipes out in
a moment every vestige of path or trail.
Stationed first at St. Mary’s Mission on
the Lower Fraser, B.C., a mission then in
charge of the Oblates, young Morice, not yet
ordained, had an opportunity to become ac-
quainted with what was to be his future
life-work—the teaching and conversion of
pagan Indians. Here at St. Mary’s Mission,
in the Industrial School for boys, our young
subject found ample scope for his versatile
mind and tastes; for we find him organizing
among the Indian boys a brass band, and
deep in the work of photography and print-
ing. The latter, no doubt, stirred in him a
desire to make himself master of the num-
erous Indian dialects, which, in time, came
to be such a passion that to-day Father Mor-
"ice is recognized as among the great authori-
ties on the Indian dialects of Canada.
Being ordained to the priesthood on July
2, 1882, Father Morice was assigned to
William’s Lake Mission in the northern in-

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