PEARLS & PEBBLES.

Toronto: Natural Heritage, 1999. 211 pp, 9" H. B&w illustrations. First published in 1894, this "is an unusual book with a lasting charm, in which the author's broad focus ranges from the Canadian natural environment to early settlement in Upper Canada. Through Traill's eyes, we see the life of the pioneer woman, the disappearance of the forest, and the corresponding changes in the lives of the Native Canadians who have inhabited the forest. The editor reminds us of the significance of the writings by Traill, the aged author/naturalist, who felt that the hours spend gathering the pebbles and pearls from her notebooks and journals written in the backwoods of Canada, were not time wasted." Chapter headings: Pleasant Days of My Childhood; Sunset and Sunrise on Lake Ontario: A Reminiscence; Memories of a May Morning; Another May Morning; More About My Feathered Friends; The English Sparrow: A Defense; Notes From My Old Diary; The Spider; Prospecting, and What I Found in My Digging; The Robin and the Mirror; In the Canadian Woods; The First Death in the Clearing; Alone in the Forest; On the Island of Minnewawa; The Children of the Forest; Thoughts on Vegetable Instinct; Some Curious Plants; Some Varieties of Pollen; The Cranberry Marsh; Our Native Grasses; Indian Grass; Mosses and Lichens; The Indian Moss Bag; Something Gathers Up the Fragments; Appendices. Interior - clean and tight with no previous ownership marks. Exterior - price is 'blacked' out on the rear cover, minor twist to the spine.. Not Signed. Soft Cover. Very Good.