Francis Parkman 235 



been presented to the Pope. He stopped at Flor 

 ence, Bologna, Modena, Parma, and Milan, and 

 admired the Lake of Como, to which, however, 

 he preferred the savage wildness of Lake George. 

 He saw something of Switzerland, went to Paris 

 and London, and did a bit of sight-seeing in Edin 

 burgh and its neighbourhood. From Liverpool he 

 sailed for America ; and in spite of the time con 

 sumed in this trip we find him taking his de 

 gree at Cambridge, along with his class, in 1844. 

 Probably his name stood high in the rank list, for 

 he was at once elected a member of the Phi Beta 

 Kappa Society. After this he entered the Law 

 School, but stayed not long, for his life s work was 

 already claiming him. In his brief vacation jour 

 neys he had seen tiny remnants of wilderness here 

 and there in Canada or in lonely corners of New 

 England ; now he wished to see the wilderness it 

 self in all its gloom and vastness, and to meet face 

 to face with the dusky warriors of the Stone Age. 

 At this end of the nineteenth century, as already 

 observed, such a thing can no longer be done. No 

 where now, within the United States, does the prim 

 itive wilderness exist, save here and there in shreds 

 and patches. In the middle of the century it cov 

 ered the western half of the continent, and could 

 be reached by a journey of sixteen or seventeen 



