THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS 



heroics. The more modest man, with even more 

 self-consciousness, has been thinking of how he is 

 going to appear in the eyes of the expert. Both have 

 thought of themselves before their work. This 

 aspect of the matter would probably vastly astonish 

 the modest writer. 



If, then, one is to formulate an ideal toward which 

 to write, he might express it exactly in terms of man 

 and environment. Those readers desiring sheer 

 exploration can get it in any library: those in search 

 of sheer romantic adventure can purchase plenty of 

 it at any book-stall. But the majority want some- 

 thing different from either of these. They want, first 

 of all, to know what the country is like — not in 

 vague and grandiose "word paintings," nor in strange 

 and foreign sounding words and phrases, but in 

 comparison with something they know. What is it 

 nearest like — Arizona ? Surrey f Upper New York ^ 

 Canada.^ Mexico.^ Or is it totally different from^ 

 anything, as is the Grand Canon.'* When you 

 look out from your camp — any one camp — how far 

 do you see, and what do you see? — mountains in 

 the distance, or a screen of vines or bamboo near at 

 hand, or what.? When you get up in the morning, 

 what is the first thing to do.? What does a rhino 

 look like, where he lives, and what did you do the 

 first time one came at you.? I don't want you to tell 



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