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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... 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 , occurs at a later date ( appear- ing ...
... seen by the settler as obstacles to success ; accordingly , in the process of pioneering , trees are ruthlessly cut down and native life forms vanish . Although herself a pioneer , and thereby implicated in the destruction , Traill ...
... seen the Union Jack in friendly unison with the Stars and Stripes . The bells of the town rang cheerily in honor of a wedding party , who later came on board our vessel on their honeymoon trip to Niagara . Our departure was delayed by ...
... . One day they are seen building their temporary nests in our groves and forests , in our garden bushes and orchards , in. House Wren , by Thomas McIlwraith , in Birds of Ontario ( 1894 ) . MEMORIES OF A MAY MORNING 17.
... seen as she sat within it . I was attracted in passing the tree by the glitter of her large lustrous black eyes , and , on approaching nearer , by her soft rounded head , the snowy whiteness of her breast and her delicate fawn - brown ...
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 |