PIONEER HUN'l ERS OK 1 HK ICANKAKKh 



wild-hog, turkeys, geese and ducks made the 

 hunters meat; the otter, mink, musk-rat, raccoon, 

 wolf, fox, lynx and wild-cat were the fur-bearing 

 animals. It surely was the home of the hunter 

 and trapper. This was the condition of the re- 

 gion when the Redman left it and the white 

 hunter built his cabin on the wooded islands 

 and the shores of the Kankakee. Yet many of 

 the readers wonder why white men with their 

 families lived in so secluded a spot. Could the 

 hearts of the hunters ask for more; could nature 

 more bountifully bestow her gifts? That he 

 should look with disapproval on the swamps is 

 no small wonder. But by and by the man with 

 the hoe came and looked upon the country and 

 it seemed to him that this swamp region was 

 too good to be given over to the musk-rat and 

 the raccoon and to the exclusive use of the few 

 men who did not own them and this is what 

 brought about the reclaiming movement. Un- 

 der the new conditions, with the advent of the 

 Swamp (Gifford) f^ailroad, the Kankakee swamp 



191 



