Letters Home 



surrounding level, and lined with lovely ever- 

 greens. It must be a very heaven among the islands 

 in summer, if there is any season when the mos- 

 quito is not busy. After this there was a very 

 sparse settlement, just an odd settler here and 

 there for thirty-five miles to Big River. 



" Of the whole distance of, say, a hundred miles 

 roughly, the first twenty is prairie; the next 

 twenty is solid bush ; the next twenty is suitable 

 for ranching, being bushy grazing land ; the next 

 twenty is burnt bush, with a big grassy oasis 

 approaching the Indian Reserve on either side 

 of several miles, though none of it as open as the 

 prairie that we are used to. In many of the 

 lower places there is high grass. The next 

 twenty miles is again solid bush, relieved fre- 

 quently by lakes among the hills, just as big 

 and lovely in their way as Grasmere, for instance, 

 and many of them not shown on our map. Round 

 most of these lakes, but not all, there is a con- 

 siderable piece of grass, or, as we should say, slough ; 

 ^ then in some parts only the grass-land opens 

 [ out into bushy country, and then the woods. In 

 ! other lakes the woods come right to the water's 

 edge and even lie over. 



" The town of Big River is about as big a town 



as R , and is distinctly a one man town, 



being overshadowed by certain business interests, 



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