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PUBLISHER'S NOTE 



Soon after my return from Montana in the late fall of 1913, I showed to 

 my artist friend, Mr. James Blomfield, some photo-prints which I had made 

 along the Madison river and in the Teepee basin during late September and 

 early October. 



He was much impressed by them, and voiced the hope that some day he 

 might be able to visit the section, and paint the rolling prairie vistas and em- 

 battled walls which the clear mountain air had permitted the camera to record. 

 As 1 had long desired one or two canvases that would be typical of the 

 section, 1 then suggested to him that he arrange to accompany me the follow- 

 ing fall, well knowing also that my own enjoyment of the trip would be greatly en- 

 hanced by the presence and influence of one who combined a keen appreciation 

 of the wondrous beauty of the vast outdoors with the rare ability to make 

 permanent with pigment and canvas the fleeting moods of the landscape's hour. 

 He accepted the invitation then extended, and joined my genial friend Mr. 

 Arthur L. Pratt and myself on the visit which we made to the same region in 

 September and October of the present year. 



This last was by far the most pleasant trip which 1 have ever made into 

 this country, which 1 have visited annually for a number of years, and was made 

 so by the companionship and work of the peiinter man. I found myself hanging 

 about him and his work, constantly fascinated with the free though faithful 

 handling of his color, and by his ability to preserve not only form and aerial 

 distance, but also all the related substances of matter as Nature assembles them 

 in the atmosphere appeared to be sensed by him, and unconsciously expressed 

 through his brush. 



Mr. Blomfield made some twenty-three studies in oil and water color, 

 besides a book full of pencil sketches during the month he was with us, all of 

 which were most satisfying to one who knows and loves the country at the 

 time late fall, as chief femme du chambre, arranges the morning gowns and 

 evening robes for Mistress Earth. 



He was vacationing at his work, and the country and the air at the 6,700 

 and 8,000 foot elevations, at which it weis done, were both a joy and an inspira- 

 tion to him. He seemed to hear and understand the tongueless tattle of the 

 vibrant mornings and the solemn speech of the sentinel hills at evening. As 

 science has proven to us that sound and color are akin, so 1 may say that to me, 

 Mr. Blomfield caught and fastened in a frame the songs of the waters and the 

 wooded slopes, so that we may listen with our eyes. 



Mr. Blomfield also kept a log of our trip, and I found his pen as facile as 

 his brush, and that his log very naturally carried some splendid word pictures 

 of the constantly changing environment of prairie, butte, stream, and moun- 

 tain, in all their variation of tone and color as an artist saw them every day. 

 He has written so charmingly and honestly of our simple camp life, its small 

 events and good companionship, and enriched it with so many descriptions of the 

 fields and hills as they smiled or sulked in alternate sun and shade that I deter- 

 mined to produce his log in permanent form. Mr. Blomfield has most kindly 

 added to it a number of rapid pen drawings, from his own sketches. 



I hope that the printing of this log will vivify the aflFection of its readers 

 for the great outdoors, and the outdoor life. 



It will do that, I am sure, for every one who has already tasted the nectar 

 of the hills at morn, and if perchance some starved soul should scan this log 

 who has heretofore by choice denied himself the hills and streams for town, and 

 then, resolving to mend his ways, shall turn for himself with reverence and with 

 joy the leaves of the Great Open Book, I shall be glad. 



WILLIAM E. WROE 



Chicago, November 1914. 



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