American Big Game in its Haunts 



for a time in the California mountains to realize 

 how great is the service to the men of his own and 

 to succeeding generations of him who more than 

 any one else has illuminated the study of the Sier- 

 ras and of all our forest-clad mountains, our 

 glacier-formed hills, valleys and glades. Not by 

 any means do all lovers of nature, however faithful 

 their purpose, come to its study with the endow- 

 ment of John Muir. In him we see the trained 

 faculties of the close and accurate observer, joined 

 to the temperament of the poet the capacity to 

 think, to see and to feel and by the power of sus- 

 tained and strong emotion to make us the sharers 

 of his joy. The beauty and the majesty of the 

 forest to him confer the same exaltation of mind, 

 the same intellectual transport, which the trained 

 musician feels when listening to the celestial har- 

 monies of a great orchestra. In proportion as 

 one conceives, or can imagine, the fineness of the 

 musical endowment of a Bach or Beethoven, and 

 in proportion as he can realize in his own 

 mind the infinity of training and preparation which 

 has contributed to the development of such a 

 master musician in such proportion may he 

 comprehend and appreciate the unusual qualities 

 and achievements of a man like Muir. He will 

 realize to some degree indistinctly to be sure, 



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