THE WILD 81 



waters rich in fish. He can ride or walk 40 miles a day with ease and elation 

 in his hardihood. He is at home in the wild. 



There are certain natures and characters that, however highly developed 

 and admirable, simply do not rise to the exacting requirements of wilder- 

 ness conditions. Partly it is the altitude; high elevations exert a depressing 

 effect on some people. But it is also the endless expanse and grandeur of the 

 scene. That is often too much for them; it makes them feel like ants crawling, 

 tiny, insignificant; it depresses a fellow, they say. On a long trip such people 

 often wearily count the hours and miles. When at length they come 

 down the last divide, back into civilization, and behold neatly clad sports- 

 men following little white balls around a beautifully tended golf course, 

 they all but weep for joy. 



There are other people, unused at first to the wilderness, who react 

 favorably to it; who since their first trip have reentered it, more on their 

 own. It is simply a question of one man's meat; no ethical or moral judg- 

 ments enter, and this should be made plain. There are others, even among 

 foresters, who can make their way to fishing streams and glades no farther 

 from a highway than to dim the purr of tires and the sound of voices, and 

 feel or imagine with greater comfort that they are at least a million miles 

 from everything. 



It is really important, for reasons both of public safety and of effective 

 forest administration, that nothing said here by wilderness lovers be taken 

 as a dare to urge more forest visitors beyond the trails, beyond their capaci- 

 ties or tasks as woodsmen and explorers. 



"Take it easy. Test yourself," those experienced in the wilderness advise. 

 See how much of utter isolation you really like, want, and can take. The 

 old-time frontiersman, you must remember, took all the time he was grow- 

 ing up to fit himself for long hikes beyond the trails. And even then, many 

 brave men and women found in untrod lonely spots no necessary satisfac- 

 tion, and stuck close to the trails. 



It is, to speak quite seriously, no fun to be lost in the woods. Some people 

 who go through the experience and come out of it are never quite the same 

 afterwards, and even with the entire personnel of the forest out day and 

 night on search parties, the unprepared wilderness adventurer is not always 



