PKEFACE. 



IT might be possible to find a wider field for the 

 study of Nature than the highway, but in many re- 

 spects certainly not a better one ; for, if we keep on 

 traveling, we will have eventually seen and heard 

 about everything that is worth seeing and hearing in 

 the wide world. 



What kind of a country is that without a road ? 

 Hardly an interesting or beautiful one, and very 

 probably a barren, trackless waste ; certainly not a 

 wilderness, for that, with its wealth of wild life, its 

 solemn forests and majestic mountains, is most fre- 

 quently the objective point for which the road was 

 built. 



The road will lead us everywhere ; to the top of 

 the loftiest mountain, to the margin of the sea, 

 across peat bogs, through primeval forests, over 

 green meadows, along ferny pastures, down shady 

 glens, over pleasant hills, beside silvery lakes and 

 gliding, shining rivers, over rushing brooks, and, 



^,350^56 



