Pearls and PebblesHow fitting to close out the 20th century with a brand new edition of Pearls & Pebbles by the noted chronicler of pioneer life, Catharine Parr Traill. Published in 1894, Pearls & Pebbles is an unusual book with a lasting charm, in which the author's broad focus ranges from the Canadian natural environment to early settlement of Upper Canada. Through Traill's eyes, we see the life of the pioneer woman, the disappearance of the forest, and the corresponding changes in the life of the Native Canadians who have inhabited that forest. Editor Elizabeth Thompson reminds us of the significance of the writings by Traill, the aged author/naturalist, who felt that the hours spent gathering the pebbles and pearls from her notebooks and journals written in the backwoods of Canada was not time wasted. |
From inside the book
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... land , in 1818 , welcomed her assistance , meager though it might be . In May 1832 Catharine married Thomas Traill , a half - pay officer in the British army . Deciding that they could not support a family on his income , and hoping for ...
... land- scape of the Thousand Islands ; both are seen through a rosy lens and are interpreted with the hope and confidence of the untested new arrival . Traill only hints at what is to come . " The First Death , " anecdotal in style ...
... land . Coming to make himself a home , he must cut down the liv- ing trees and clear the ground with axe and fire . Although the diction ( fire , struggle , death ) still attests to a troubled con- science , and while the reference to ...
... jungle of wild bushes , among which woodbine and sweet briar entwined , forming luxu- riant bowers , beneath which all sorts of flowers grew in rich profusion . On the other , or lower side of the land 6 PEARLS AND PEBBLES.
... land , a little tinkling rill , that a child might step across , ran down , its water clear and bright . From this slender streamlet we children drank the most draughts from Nature's own chal- ice , the hollow of our hands , or sipped ...
Contents
3 | |
5 | |
9 | |
14 | |
21 | |
MORE ABOUT MY FEATHERED FRIENDS | 32 |
A DEFENSE | 45 |
NOTES FROM MY OLD DIARY | 49 |
THOUGHTS ON VEGETABLE INSTINCT | 109 |
SOME CURIOUS PLANTS | 115 |
SOME VARIETIES OF POLLEN | 120 |
THE CRANBERRY MARSH | 123 |
OUR NATIVE GRASSES | 126 |
INDIAN GRASS | 132 |
MOSSES AND LICHENS | 136 |
THE INDIAN MOSS BAG | 141 |
THE SPIDER | 58 |
PROSPECTING AND WHAT I FOUND IN MY DIGGING | 62 |
THE ROBIN AND THE MIRROR | 65 |
IN THE CANADIAN WOODS | 67 |
THE FIRST DEATH IN THE CLEARING | 82 |
ALONE IN THE FOREST | 90 |
ON THE ISLAND OF MINNEWAWA | 99 |
THE CHILDREN OF THE FOREST | 103 |
SOMETHING GATHERS UP THE FRAGMENTS | 144 |
APPENDIX A | 151 |
APPENDIX B | 181 |
APPENDIX C | 183 |
ENDNOTES | 187 |
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS | 199 |
INDEX | 203 |