Pearls and Pebbles

by Catharine Parr Traill

How fitting to close out the 20th century with a brand new edition of Pearls & Pebbles by the noted chronicler of pioneer life, Catharine Parr Traill. Published in 1894, Pearls & Pebbles is an unusual book with a lasting charm, in which the author's broad focus ranges from the Canadian natural environment to early settlement of 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 life of the Native Canadians who have inhabited that forest.

Editor Elizabeth Thompson reminds us of the significance of the writings by Traill, the aged author/naturalist, who felt that the hours spent gathering the pebbles and pearls from her notebooks and journals written in the backwoods of Canada was not time wasted.

Genres: Nonfiction, Canada

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Catharine Parr Strickland Traill was an English-Canadian author and naturalist who wrote about life as a settler in Canada.

Reviews

[Evie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insights into the pioneering life of Upper Canada. Reader beware, though, of her offensive language against Native Americans, and accounts of how they were "rightly" evangelized. If you can set that aside and learn from it, then perhaps you'll enjoy her botanical commentary.

[Katja Labonté · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars & 4/10 hearts. As with “The Backwoods of Canada,” I enjoyed the descriptions of nature that filled this book, though sometimes it became a little boring. I especially enjoyed the lessons she taught using nature, though I didn’t agree with every single idea.

A Favourite Quote: “What a sight those maples present just now! ... the sunbeams brighten the flowers to gold against the blue of the May-day sky. Truly the trees are a sight to gladden the eye and to lift up the rejoicing heart from earth to the throne of the glorious God who has given such beauty to His creatures to enjoy.”
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: “Truly a lovely sight it was that met my view. The frosted ground was gemmed with countless mimic stars, glittering beneath as brightly as the stars in the blue sky above were gleaming ere they paled before the saffron light of the dawning day now streaking the eastern horizon. The mist was rising in clouds from the river where the rapids were tossing their white-crested heads beneath the shadows of the pines that clothed the opposite shores, grand and beautiful, untouched by the hand of man.”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “After we had studied [the salamander] to our hearts' content, and admired and counted its spots, it was consigned to a glass preserve jar half filled with water, and left in peace. Our prisoner did not, however, appear to be enjoying the bath as much as we expected he would, but on the contrary was evidently desirous of escaping the liquid element, raising his head and forefeet above the surface and looking anxiously through the transparent wall of his prison with rather a doleful expression of countenance.”