AMERICAN BACKWOODS CLEARINGS. 123 



The harm however, it is to be feared, is now irre- 

 mediable, though some efforts are at last being made 

 to preserve the wreck of what is left by appropriating 

 some of the most remarkable spots as national parks, 

 or grounds for public recreation ; and, all too late, some 

 laws for the protection of game have also been passed ; 

 but the remains of Nature's former beauty and mag- 

 nificence are now only to be met with in isolated 

 spots, few and far between. 



Nothing more painfully impresses the traveller who 

 loves Nature, than the aspect of one of these modern 

 American settlements, notwithstanding its perhaps 

 grand name; a collection of a few log houses and 

 drinking saloons, dubbed a " city, " having very likely 

 appropriated to itself some illustrious title, borrowed 

 from the historical annals of the Old World. The 

 European traveller can at times hardly repress a smile 

 at this absurd and obvious incongruity ; the utter want 

 of respect for history and antiquity, however, proves 

 none the less offensive to his sense of decorum. 



This however by no means detracts from the hearti- 

 ness or the hospitable reception he meets with at the 

 hands of the worthy citizens, who generally welcome 

 the new-comer with the hope " that he will conclude 

 to settle there." We remember reading of one of 

 these cases, where the stranger, who showed some 

 signs of disappointment and doubt as to whether the 

 place would suit him, was promptly reassured by a 

 local celebrity, something to the following effect : " Oh ! 

 you'll not find - - such a bad place after all. There's 



many worse places than in the West ; for you can 



always get a drink in - ; but there's places out West 

 where you can't get a drink." Whether in view of 



