INTRODUCTION xxi 



This vast expanse west of the Mississippi River 

 boasts of some of the wildest and most romantic 

 scenery on the North American continent, and it is 

 in the heart of this picturesque country that the Na- 

 tional Forests are located. This is the country in 

 which Owen Wister, Harold Bell Wright, Stewart 

 Edward White, Jack London, Theodore Roosevelt, 

 and other authors have gotten their inspirations 

 and laid their plots. To one who knows "The Vir- 

 ginian," or "When a Man's a Man," or "The Win- 

 ning of Barbara Worth," or "The Valley of the 

 Moon," nothing more need be said. To others I 

 might say that my pen picture of that country is a 

 very poor and very inadequate method of descrip- 

 tion. It is the land of the cow-puncher, the sheep- 

 herder, and the lumber-jack; a land of crude cus- 

 toms and manners, but, withal, generous hospitality. 

 It is the country of the elk and the mule-tail deer, 

 the mountain lion and the rattlesnake. Its gran- 

 deur makes you love it ; its vastness makes you fear 

 it ; yet there is an irresistible charm, a magic lure, an 

 indescribable something that stamps an indelible 

 impression upon the mind and that makes you want 

 to go back there after you have sworn an oath never 

 to return. 



