3i8 THE UPPER YUKON 



and his business is generally affected by it. 

 This is not a fanciful picture, but one that is 

 unfortunately too true, as the vital statistics 

 year after year inevitably show. 



Therefore, my apology for the writing of 

 this book — if one is needed — is that I hope by 

 picturing the manifold blessings of an out- 

 door life, if indulged in even for a brief 

 period of time, to stir my readers to a realiza- 

 tion of the truth of the adage: 



"Heed now this maxim, lest j'ou go astray, 

 Put not off till the morrow — work to-day; 

 And be you well assured in life's great hurry, 

 That the hunt will cure the ills produced by worry." 



The Englishman, F. C. Selous, the most 

 famous hunter in all the world, has this to 

 say about hunting: "Ten thousand years of 

 superficial and unsatisfactory civilization 

 have not altered the fundamental nature of 

 man, and the successful hunter of to-day be- 

 comes for the time being a primeval savage — 

 remorseless, triumphant, full of a wild ex- 

 ultant joy, which none but those who have 

 lived in the wilderness and depended on their 

 success as hunters for their daily food can 

 ever know or comprehend." 



The Reverend W. S. Rainsford, who is 



