CHAPTER VII 



The Wilderness 



THE trail is the one human artery that beats 

 in the wilderness. 

 As the life of a man is in the wilderness, 

 so is the trail. All the human sufferings, hardships, 

 and dangers, sought and mastered by the advance 

 guard of civilization — the trail builders — are reflected 

 in every tortuous curve of the dim path. As the 

 hunter with the call of the wilderness in his ear, 

 pushes beyond civilization into the wild land, and 

 beyond again into the unknown, the trail writes down 

 in living letters the story of his joys and sorrows. 



Take twenty experienced frontiersmen, and send 

 them one at a time through an untrammelled wilder- 

 ness to a given point, and on comparing the trails, we 

 would find that the majority had followed practically 

 the same route. This route is always the 

 line of least resistance, and in following it we 

 take the wild animals as teachers. When 

 big game animals first enter a country — and 

 they are always changing their feeding- 

 grounds — they do not know their surround- 

 ings, and consequently travel to and fro by 



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