White House, W’ashington 
My dear Mr. Job: 
As a fellow Harvard man I must thank you for 
your exceedingly interesting book. I have been delighted 
with it, and I desire to express to you my sense of the 
good which comes from such books as yours and from the 
substitution of the camera for the gun. The older I grow 
the less I care to shoot anything except “varmints.” I do 
not think it at all advisable that the gun should be given 
up, nor does it seem to me that shooting wild game under 
proper restrictions can be legitimately opposed by any who 
are willing that domestic animals shall be kept for food 5 
but there is altogether too much shooting, and if we can 
only get the camera in place of the gun and have the 
sportsman sunk somewhat in the naturalist and lover of 
wild things, the next generation will see an immense change 
for the better in the life of our woods and waters. 
Faithfully yours. 
(This letter, written after a reading of the author’s earlier book, “ Among the Water- 
Fowl,” is here printed by permission of the President.) 
