AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 19 



must be ample if one Lave sin eye for the beauties 

 of nature, or any appreciation of the grandeur of the 

 Creator' s greatest works. 



Vain, self-loving man is wont to consider himself 

 the noblest work of God, but let him go to the top of 

 one of these lofty mountains, surrounded by other 

 towering peaks, and if he be a sane man he will soon 

 be convinced that his place in the scale of creation is 

 far from the top. Let him stand, for instance, on the 

 summit of Mount Hood, Mount Tacoma, or Mount Ba- 

 ker, thousands of feet above all surrounding peaks, 

 hills, and valleys, where he may gaze into space hun- 

 dreds of miles in every direction, with naught to ob- 

 struct his view, face to face with his Creator, and 

 if he have aught of the love of nature in his soul, or of 

 appreciation of the sublime in his mental composi- 

 tion, he will be moved to exclaim with the Apostle, 

 " What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the 

 son of man that Thou visitest him V ' He will feel 

 his littleness, his insignificance, his utter lack of im- 

 portance, more forcibly perhaps than ever before. It 

 seems almost incredible that there should be men in 

 the world who could care so little for the grandest, 

 the sublimest sights their native land affords, as to 

 be unwilling to perform the labor necessary to see 

 them to the best possible advantage ; and yet it is so, 

 for I have frequently heard them say : 



" I should like very much to see these grand 

 sights you describe, but I never could afford to climb 

 those high mountains for that pleasure ; it is too 

 hard work for me." 



And, after all, the benefits to be derived from 

 mountain climbing are not wholly of an intellectual 



