XXXU BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



Mrs. Traill went to Government House, and took a lively 

 interest in the gay scenes on the skating rink and toboggan 

 slides, as smiling and happy as the youngest among us, and 

 winning admiration and affection from all those who had the 

 pleasure of seeing her. It was during this visit to Ottawa 

 that the photograph was taken from which the engraving 

 forming the frontispiece to the present volume is made. Mrs. 

 Traill was then in her eighty-fourth year. 



The fac-simile engraving shown on the page facing this 

 portrait of Mrs. Traill is taken from part of a letter written 

 recently to a friend whom she values highly. It is interest- 

 ing not only as a specimen of the handwriting of one of 

 such advanced years, but also as indicating the unaffected 

 piety of her life. 



"Studies of Plant Life" is now -a rare book, chance copies 

 selling for three times the original price. 



Mrs. Traill had always received kindly presents from her 

 sisters in England, and during the last few years of their lives 

 they were in a better position to help her and add to the 

 comforts of her home surroundings. The copyright of the 

 " Queens of England," left her by her sister Agnes, although 

 sold for half its value, has added a little to her very small 

 income. 



In 1893, hearing of the likelihood of the sale of the little 

 island in Stony Lake, where a poor Indian girl was buried, 

 Mrs. Traill wrote to the Department at Ottawa to ask that 

 it should be granted her. It was but a tiny island, and her 

 anxiety to preserve the Indian girl's grave from desecra- 

 tion induced her to take this step. Mr. Sandford Fleming 

 kindly interested himself in her behalf, and the request was 

 granted. 



The following extract from her old friend's announcement 

 is so gratifying to Mrs. Traill that I cannot refrain from 

 quoting it : 



" I have the pleasure to inform you that by the same post 



