HUNTING LORE. 259 



Such a pastime is snow-shoeing, whether with 

 webbed rackets, in the vast northern forests, or 

 with skees, on the bare slopes of the Rockies. 

 Such is mountaineering, especially when joined 

 with bold exploration of the unknown. Most 

 of our mountains are of rounded shape, and 

 though climbing them is often hard work, it is 

 rarely difficult or dangerous, save in bad 

 weather, or after a snowfall. But there are 

 many of which this is not true ; the Tetons, for 

 instance, and various glacier-bearing peaks 

 in the Northwest ; while the lofty, snow-clad 

 ranges of British Columbia and Alaska offer 

 one of the finest fields in the world for the 

 daring cragsman. Mountaineering is among 

 the manliest of sports ; and it is to be hoped 

 that some of our young men with a taste for 

 hard work and adventure among the high hills 

 will attempt the conquest of these great un- 

 trodden mountains of their own continent. As 

 with nil pioneer work, there would be far more 

 discomfort and danger, far more need to dis- 

 play resolution, hardihood, and wisdom in such 

 an attempt than in any expedition on well 

 known and historic ground like the Swiss 

 Alps ; but the victory would be a hundred- 

 fold better worth winning. 



The dweller or sojourner in the wilderness 

 who most keenly loves and appreciates his 

 wild surroundings, and all their sights and 

 sounds, is the man wlio also loves and appre- 

 ciates the books which tell of them. 



Foremost of all American writers on out- 

 door life is John Burroughs ; and 1 can 



