PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKEE 

 tcr of this story and it is only right and proper 

 that I take them with me to my island home on 

 }he Kankakee. It was way back in the hazy 

 and smokey old days of October, in 1871, those 

 days that now seem to belong to another cen- 

 tury and another manner of living, These were 

 the days you could hardly see the sun on ac- 

 count f the dense clouds of smoke that would 

 settle over the lowlands and thousands of acres 

 of Kankakee marshes and swamps were on fire 

 not only here but thousands of acres elsewhere 

 were burning and not only the prairie, marshes 

 and forests, but cities and towns were passing 

 away in smoke. The year '71 was known as 

 the dry season. The river was very low, the 

 lowest it had been for years. The swamps and 

 marshes in many places had dried out and the 

 filling of self-moved earth of past centuries that 

 had washed in from the highlands, sediments 

 and decayed vegitation. This took fire and 

 burned everything down to the sub-soil. Thous- 

 ands of acres of marsh land were burned out in 



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