A GREAT MAN IN THE ROCKIES 337 



content to meet a fellow being on his own plane, at the sea- 

 level, if he could not breathe freely in the intellectual climate of 

 the hilltops. On his part, the lowly person was quick to discern 

 the good and lovable qualities of his passing associate, for 

 whether known as doctor (the degree of S. D. was conferred in 

 1875), professor, geologist, or by other recondite title, he soon 

 learned that above all else Mr. Shaler was a friend of his kind, 

 having the dash of humor that makes comradeship easy and the 

 knowledge and tolerance that gives wide understanding. Mr. 

 Shaler was even indulgent to the "prospector," often a pestifer- 

 ous fellow with his shiftlessness and boundless hopes. By the 

 camp-fire he would treat him as the rich heir of all his dreams, 

 and when he had seen a mirage, the fortune over the divide, and 

 stated it as a fact, it was a fact then and there; but on the 

 ground, if necessary, the mirage was ruthlessly dissipated, and 

 the hope dispelled ; yet not for long, "for the miner," Mr. Shaler 

 writes, "is an inveterate hoper. Nothing dampens his ardor 

 and only a few things enrage him. He knows his temporal sal- 

 vation is awaiting him somewhere underground and is con- 

 tent to bide his time." 



Nothing pleased Mr. Shaler so well during his visits to the far 

 West as to note, in the minds of the people he met, the gradual 

 recession of the despised "tenderfoot" and the "professor," 

 and the emergence of the sort of man they respected : the 

 resourceful expert and student of nature, the man who could 

 manage a mule and get the wheels out of the rut when they 

 were buried to the hubs in mud. The fact is, his swift divin- 

 ing power, his fearlessness in the presence of danger, his dis- 

 regard even of the "bullet argument," his stories and outgoing 

 sympathy, made him an idol among those people. He used 

 laughingly to say that whatever he might be in Cambridge he 

 was a great man in the Rockies. 



On one occasion, going for the first time to inspect a certain 

 mine in Montana, he was greatly amused, when the train 

 stopped, at being hesitatingly saluted on the platform by a 



