Resumen de Wascana centre: A metaphor for Prairie Settlement
In the dry, flat interiors of continents, where land is the measure of unlimited space, sanctuary is a river valley or a lake basin that lies beneath the general surface. Even a sluggish stream or a brackish lake or slough bring comfort in regions that are particularly flat and dry. Novelist Wallace Stegner's "hibernating ground", where he escaped from the immense sky, the baking heat, and the untrammelled winds of the Saskatchewan prairie summer, was the sunken valley of the Whitemud River. In a country often "blistered and crisped" the valley served as an oasis; green, noted Stegner, was the colour of safety. Although exposed, the Stegner homestead was on prairie that undulated gently. To the north-east lay a region even more intimidating in its openness: the Regina Plain. Once the bottom of a large melt-water lake, the plain is perfectly flat and before settlement by Europeans it was, like the Stegner country, treeless. Both regions were shown on maps as northern extensions of the Great American Desert. Indians ventured onto the plain only to hunt and early settlers described it as a billiard board.
