Trail and Camp-Fire 



hand of the impious and wasteful lumberman 

 falls less cruelly, and if fire does not follow in 

 his train, destroying all, we dismiss him from 

 our thoughts, with curses upon him only for 

 having cut down all the pines. But Sintamas- 

 kin, I learned, falls within neither of these 

 categories. High upon the very summit of 

 the hills, and distant only some three miles 

 from the main river, it discharges its waters 

 down the steep mountains in a tumbling, 

 rock-strewn flood, and dam or no dam, the 

 lumberman cannot handle his logs in that 

 precipitous descent. Some day he will find 

 another way, perhaps ; but, for the present, 

 nature's defense holds good, and this spot is 

 still inviolate. So it seemed that I might 

 look for some sort of confirmation of my 

 fancies concerning it. To be sure, now that 

 the deep snow had blotted out all but the 

 boldest shore-lines, we could hardly hope to 

 realize one of the greatest beauties of this still 

 unmolested lake. But my resolve to go there 

 was none the less firm, and even George, to 

 whom the whole country was a new wonder, 

 caught something of the infection, so that 

 now both our voices were raised against the 

 proposal of the Indian to take up again the 



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