GCHRAP TE Rs .t We 
THE DEPARTURE—THE CARAVAN 
S OME human beings, like birds of pas- 
sage, are ill at ease when kept for a 
considerable length of time under the 
same sky. They consider all Nature 
one great family; the whole world their 
a home. I will not decide whether or 
not I belong to this class; but I do know that from 
time to time an irresistible fever for wandering seizes 
me, and that I find no better remedy against the 
moods and crochets of hum-drum daily life than 
change of place and of air. 
Chained for several years to an exacting medical 
practice, in which I had tasted to the full the sorrows 
and pleasures of the active physician, I felt the need 
of mental and physical recreation. An excursion to 
the cultivated part of the United States, through the 
greater part of which I had already traveled, suited 
neither my means nor my inclinations. The far 
West, with its wilderness and its aboriginals, was far 
more to my liking. Apart from the selfish purpose 
