The Forest

Of these many quickening potencies of inspiration, the mere name of a place seems tostrike deepest at the heart of romance. Colour, mystery, the vastnesses of unexplored spaceare there, symbolized compactly for the aliment of imagination. It lures the fancy as a flylures the trout. Mattágami, Peace River, Kánanaw, the House of the Touchwood Hills, Rupert's House, the Land of Little Sticks, Flying Post, Conjuror's House--how the syllablesroll from the tongue, what pictures rise in instant response to their suggestion! The journeyof a thousand miles seems not too great a price to pay for the sight of a place called the Hillsof Silence, for acquaintance with the people who dwell there, perhaps for a glimpse of thesaga-spirit that so named its environment. On the other hand, one would feel but littledesire to visit Muggin's Corners, even though at their crossing one were assured of thedeepest flavour of the Far North.