Reminiscences of Willet G. Miller

This little sketch of the late Willet G. Miller, Provincial Geologist of Ontario, is intended to be neither a biography of his career nor a eulogy of his life. His biography has already been written in an incomparable manner by Mr. T. A. Rickard, his eulogy by Canon Cody. What more can be said of Dr. Miller than is summed up in the words of that great Canadian divine, Canon Cody, that he was "Big in body, big in heart, and, as we learned, big in brain." This article, then, will merely record a few personal reminiscences of the man himself, and while they are necessarily disjointed, they may at least serve to illustrate certain traits in his character which are not generally known or appreciated outside of the circle of his intimate friends. In the latter part of May in the year 1904, Willet G. Miller, with two? assistants, set out for the small village of Haileybury to begin his geological work in the area a few miles to the south which he was soon to name Cobalt. At that time the Timiskaming and Northern Ontario railway was not finished, although the right-of-way was cleared and partly graded. The nearest railway station was on the Canadian Pacific at the south end of lake Timiskaming, from which point the old steamer Meteor carried passengers and freight up the long, narrow and deep waters of lake Timiskaming, a very pleasant trip of some sixty miles. On this particular trip there was a fairly large crowd on board consisting of settlers going into the clay belt north of lake Timiskaming, of lumbermen, and of a few merchants and commercial travellers who were interested in the small business centres of Haileybury, New Liskeard and Ville Marie. Scarcely any attention was paid to the reports of the newly found silver deposits, although the daily papers had announced discoveries in the district six months before. As a matter of fact, the chief excitement on board was afforded by a moose, which, in swimming from the Ontario to the Quebec shore of the lake, crossed the bow of the boat, the captain steering to within a few yards of the terrified animal.