He is a well respected travel writer, whose insight into the country and people he encountered during his time in Canada are referred to in other journals up to the present day.
The Company's work consisted in the main of construction of new hutted camps, hospitals and base installations, e.g. ammunition depots.
[2] In 1908 he was commissioned by the British Columbian Ministry of Mines, Canada, to carry out coal surveys of the Peace River Valley and surrounding area.
They named it Mount Cardiff, after Christian's home town, a name it retains to this day in the Cardiff Mountain Ecological Reserve, British Columbia[12][13] In August 1913 he attended the International Geological Conference, 12th Session, at the University of Toronto, Canada[14] and his work is referred to in the 'Peace River Coal Project' of February 1972 prepared for Canada West Petroleums Ltd. of Vancouver.
[19] His travel log book The Call of the West gives a clear insight into the beauty of the area and hardship involved in being a settler in British Columbia in the early 20th century, especially in the winter when all roads and rail links could be blocked by snow.
He describes life in his base in Vancouver and, in the final chapters, recounts his journey down the western coast of America by steamer (with photographs of San Francisco, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Panama).
References to his comments on Vancouver,[20][21][22] the importance of the railways to the isolated communities,[23] and many other aspects of life in those times, are used by writers of today,[24] for example, the attitudes of the new settlers towards the indigenous population, who had received payments to move their reservations, actually driving around in cars.
In 1912 he wrote to them describing his experiences of attempting to survive in the wilds of Canada without eating flesh of any kind, which they printed in their journal 'The Herald of the Golden Age', Vol XV, No.