THE WILD 83 



cruise for weeks through labyrinthian waterways without retracing his 

 course. Waterfalls will fascinate him. Native game will watch him as he 

 glides along. Cut off from civilization, he pitches his tent where night over- 

 takes him . . . cuts his own wood . . . catches fish . . . cooks his own meals 

 , . . becomes one with nature. 



Some 900,000 of these acres within the Superior National Forest have 

 been formally dedicated by the Forest Service as a primitive or roadless 

 area. And following years of hard work by the Quetico-Superior Council, 

 the Quetico-Superior Committee, appointed by the President in 1934, 

 has recommended creation here of an international wilderness sanctuary 

 and peace memorial to the Canadians and Americans who fought side 

 by side in the World War. 



To close this chapter with a more definite and personal description of 

 what men seek beyond the farthest established campsite, the late Robert 

 Marshall, quoted at the opening of this chapter, wrote the following 

 account of one of his recent forest wilderness trips : 



Up From Wind River. — The horses were waiting at Dickenson Park. 

 Here the dirt road ended. Here the wilderness began. Beyond were the 

 Wind River Mountains without a single road in an expanse more than 

 100 miles long and averaging 20 miles wide. It was a primitive land where 

 all travel was by substantially pioneer methods which were used before 

 white men had ever invaded this Shoshone country in Wyoming. 



We saddled and started climbing through lodgepole pine which made 

 us duck constantly to avoid being scalped by overhanging branches. 

 Toward the top of the mountain the pine gave way to spruce and fir, 

 and a little later we were out on the open divide. To the west lay the 

 promised land with wild, mysterious summits stretching as far as the eye 

 could reach along the backbone of the Wind River Range. 



Directly below was a basin with 10 fresh-looking lakes surrounded by 

 dark green timber and backed by rocky peaks. Look as closely as we could, 

 there was not the slightest evidence of man's activity. We started down 

 the west slope toward this wilderness basin. At many places the mountain 

 was so steep we had to lead our horses. One time we got rimrocked and 



