The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-07-19

! The camping season has begun again in good
Earnest. Numerous parties have been out from
Ottawa to various points along the river. Nor
were the parties made up Of readers OF Mayne
Reds stories only 10y any means. Even grave
legislators like Loosh Crooker sought the wilds
of Starved Rock for recreation and buffalo. And
now the canons begin to attract their visitors
again. and rumors are afoat that shortly they
will be filed with campers as last season, the
young ladies as well as the young men seeking
the haunts Of Nature; hold communion with
her visible FORMS" devour camp fare and fight
mosquitoes and sand flies. OF late years this has
come to be one Of the fashionable amusement,
both here and elsewhere. Luckily We are well
provided with grounds suitable in all rcspe cts
Certainly no people have need to go a less dis
lance from home to crafty a craving for the pic
turesque than our citizens of La Sale county
especially those living along the Illinois river
from Ottawa west to the county line. So far as
our wanderings through Illinois enable Us tc
form an opinion. no part OF the state has greater
natural beauty than our own Illinois valley. her
bluffs clothed in the richest green, or the bold
rocks with their sides painted with MOSES,
creeping vines cedars, ferns and flowers; and
at their base the "silvery stream" In the sum.
mer the Islands Of the stream are covered with
an almost tropical foliage, looking SO cool and
inviting during the hot DAYS OF August, while al
autumn the wooded bluffs fairly blaze with the
splcndor of the painted leaves. 1t is rs yet too
early to notice this latter beauty, il the reader
has never noted it before; but when October, the
"sunset month, "-as Thoreau calls it-comes
and its rich glow flashes round the world see
how
the fading many color"d woods
shade deepening over shade, the country round
For miles west OF our city along the river The
before those who seek 1t. There is nothing
grand about it, There is nothing weird about it
1t has none of the Wild rugged beauty Of the
mountains hut it has its own hills and valleys
ravines, sunless glens and quiet hooks. 1t ha,
none OF the wonderful coloring Of the Scotch
lochs that Hammerton writes gowingly
about, or of the northern Scotch country vii
liam Black describes gorgcously--only II ricl
! green and the beauty of summer sun. The
valley is rcplete with spots interesting alike t.
the scientific man, the artist the dillctantc natu
At all Of the principal paces'-the canons
Starved Rock Deer Park, on the Ncrmillion, etc.
! the neccssaries, wood and water are at hand
while none are so far from markets that the ne
cessary provisions and the luXuries Of home can
not be readily obtained daily. Game, uniortun
ately, is pretty scarce wherever you so, and even
fishing is by no means tirst-class. These are Sc
rious drawbacks, bat they are felt at nearly al
of Illinois camping grounds. The rage fo
camping cut during last season, however, indu
ccs the belief that hunting and fishing formed NJ
great part OF the programme OF passing the day
SO then if you wish to camp ont for the sake o
merely enjoying camp life; sleeping in tent o
in hammock slung under the trees, eating
camp meal, feeling uncomfortable, lighting bugs
getting the horrors at the sight of a water suck
err and all that sort o think,-you need not q
more than few miles from home to find q, !
a place as you'll find in the state.