8 Preface 



manliness for the lack of which in a nation, 

 as in an individual, the possession of no other 

 qualities can possibly atone. 



No one, but he who has partaken thereof, 

 can understand the keen delight of hunting in 

 lonely lands. For him is the joy of the horse 

 well ridden and the rifle well held; for him 

 the long days of toil and hardship, resolutely 

 endured, and crowned at the end with tri- 

 umph. In after years there shall come forever 

 to his mind the memory of endless prairies 

 shimmering in the bright sun; of vast snow- 

 clad wastes lying desolate under gray skies; 

 of the melancholy marshes; of the rush of 

 mighty rivers; of the breath of the evergreen 

 forest in summer; of the crooning of ice-arm- 

 ored pines at the touch of the winds of win- 

 ter; of cataracts roaring between hoary moun- 

 tain masses; of all the innumerable sights and 

 sounds of the wilderness; of its immensity and 

 mystery; and of the silences that brood in its 

 still depths. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



SAGAMORE HILL, 

 June, 1893. 



