PREFACE-DEDICATION 



of man. Once more ride over the enchanted 

 mesas of Arizona at sunrise or at sunset, with 

 the ragged mountains of Mexico to the south of 

 you and the broken spurs of the great sierra 

 round about you ; and all the glory of the old 

 shall be as nothing to the gold and purple and 

 burning crimson of this new world. 



You will not be surprised then if, in speaking 

 of desert, mesa and mountain I once more take 

 you far beyond the wire fence of civilization to 

 those places (unhappily few now) where the 

 trail is unbroken and the mountain peak un- 

 blazed. I was never over-fond of park and 

 garden nature-study. If we would know the 

 great truths we must seek them at the source. 

 The sandy wastes, the arid lands, the porphyry 

 mountain peaks may be thought profitless 

 places for pilgrimages ; but how often have you 

 and I, and that one we both loved so much, 

 found beauty in neglected marshes, in wintry 

 forests, and in barren hill-sides ! The love of 

 Nature is after all an acquired taste. One be- 

 gins by admiring the Hudson-River landscape 

 and ends by loving the desolation of Sahara. 

 Just why or how the change would be difficult 

 to explain. You cannot always dissect a taste 

 or a passion. Nor can you pin Nature to a 



