PREFACE 



not find it all as I write, think me not less 

 dependable nor yourself less clever. There 

 is a sort of pretense allowed in matters of 

 the heart, as one should say by way of 

 illustration, " I know a man who . . . ," 

 and so give up his dearest experience with- 

 out betrayal. And I am in no mind to 

 direct you to delectable places toward 

 which you will hold yourself less tenderly 

 than I. So by this fashion of naming I 

 keep faith with the land and annex to my 

 own estate a very great territory to which 

 none has a surer title. 



The country where you may have sight 

 and touch of that which is written lies 

 between the high Sierras south from Yo- 

 semite — east and south over a very great 

 assemblage of broken ranges beyond Death 

 ix 



