PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE tCANKAKEE 

 speculator, who was sailing over the marshes 

 hunting for his farm. The steamer had struck a 

 snag and the crew was at work getting loose 

 when Jones and his party came up. He began 

 telling the crew how tired he was of water and 

 marshes and more water and scraggley brush 

 and more water. Finally he bluffed the captain 

 of the White Star by saying: "Coptain, what is 

 the average price of land up in this part of the 

 country. By the gallon, 1 think." .^r. Jones 

 was tired of his Kankakee land speculation 

 when he made his trip down the Kankakee. 

 Aany other Easterners have been taken in the 

 same way by buying or trading Kankakee land 

 without seeing it and when they come to look 

 for the land it is out of sight, covered with 

 water. Sometimes this region was called "the 

 land that God forgot to finish." To my mind it 

 was finished just as the Almighty intended it to 

 be, it was left for man to finish. And now 1 am 

 going to tell you in part how it was done. 5y 

 the ingenuity of man, assisted by the State gov- 



5 79 



