Francis Parlcman 235 



been presented to the Pope. He stopped at Flor- 

 ence, Bologna, Modena, Parma, and Milan, and 

 admired the Lake of Como, to which, however, 

 he preferred the savage wildness of Lake George. 

 He saw something of Switzerland, went to Paris 

 and London, and did a bit of sight-seeing in Edin- 

 burgh and its neighbourhood. From Liverpool he 

 sailed for America ; and in spite of the time con- 

 sumed in this trip we find him taking his de- 

 gree at Cambridge, along with his class, in 1844. 

 Probably his name stood high in the rank list, for 

 he was at once elected a member of the Phi Beta 

 Kappa Society. After this he entered the Law 

 School, but stayed not long, for his life's work was 

 already claiming him. In his brief vacation jour- 

 neys he had seen tiny remnants of wilderness here 

 and there in Canada or in lonely corners of New 

 England ; now he wished to see the wilderness it- 

 self in all its gloom and vastness, and to meet face 

 to face with the dusky warriors of the Stone Age. 

 At this end of the nineteenth century, as already 

 observed, such a thing can no longer be done. No- 

 where now, within the United States, does the prim- 

 itive wilderness exist, save here and there in shreds 

 and patches. In the middle of the century it cov- 

 ered the western half of the continent, and could 

 be reached by a journey of sixteen or seventeen 



