216 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- 
