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and made some original observations with regard to the zoology 

 of the country and other matters, but I am inclined to think that 

 the most useful lesson to myself was one that sank deeper and 

 deeper into my mind, I might say heart, with every day lived in 

 these great solitudes — and that was the knowledge of my own 

 ignorance. The long solitary days in the forests, on the pampas, 

 and about the stormy fjords of the Cordillera brought me face 

 to face with Nature. There are many voices in the silence of 

 Nature. The stars above, the waters beneath, and the earth all 

 spoke in a hundred tongues, and little enough of it all could I, 

 with my lack of knowledge, interpret. " There are many kinds 

 of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification," 

 but so long as they spoke to me in unknown tongues how much 

 was I the better ? And there it was I learned the useful truth that, 

 to be a traveller of any value, a man must also be an adequate 

 interpreter. 



THE AUTHOR 



