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PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



deep half the year, and the spring flits into summer, and 

 the summer into winter, as rapidly as the changing scenes 

 of a drama, he would possibly have described the happy 

 hunting-ground similar to the great lone land, the home of 

 the ptarmigan. What eye hath not seen, the mind seldom 

 can conceive ; and I have no doubt the aborigines of these 

 far-off, desolate regions, with their cutting north winds and 

 interminable winter nights, if asked to picture what they 

 deemed a perfect paradise, would describe their own land ; 

 thus contentment springs out of ignorance. 



PTARMIGAN. 



But to the country Mr. M'Donald describes as back of 

 the north wind, lonely as it is for it is but sparsely pop- 

 ulated if visited at the proper season, is not without its 

 beauties; for arid mountain, verdant swamp, and rocky 

 crag mingle together, intersected by innumerable dancing 

 brooks or grand pellucid rivers, forming a landscape ever 

 grand and impressive. 



Here the ptarmigan is to be found in abundance, even 

 without the aid of a dog ; but should the sportsman be ac- 



