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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



his style which is shown in manifold happy turns of expression: 

 "That all pervading presence called silence has its happy home 

 within the forest. . . . Silence is almost as kind to mortals as is 

 her sweet sister sleep." This charming volume is fitly dedicated 

 to John Muir. H. M. LeC. 



"Trails of the There are books which appeal to the perpetual 

 Pathfinders."* boyhood of the race ; books which will be read 

 as eagerly by graybeards as by those of the un- 

 razored lip ; books full of the eagerness for novelty and conquest, 

 full of the adventures of men who know no obstacles and feel no 

 fear. Such a book is Mr. Grinnell's "Trails of the Pathfinders." 

 The author's preface tells us: "The chapters in this book ap- 

 peared first as part of a series of articles under the same title 

 contributed to Forest and Stream several years ago. . . . 



"The books from which these accounts have been drawn are 

 good reading for all Americans. They are at once history and 

 adventure. They deal with a time when half the continent was 

 unknown; when the West — distant and full of romance — held 

 for the young, the brave and the hardy possibilities that were 

 limitless. 



"The legend of the kingdom of El Dorado did not pass with 

 the passing of the Spaniards. All through the eighteenth and part 

 of the nineteenth century it was recalled in another sense by the 

 fur trader, and with the discovery of gold in California it was 

 heard again by a great multitude — and almost with its old 

 meaning. 



"Besides these old books on the West, there are many others 

 which every man should read. They treat of that same romantic 

 period, and describe the adventures of explorers, Indian fighters, 

 fur hunters, and fur traders. They are a part of the history of 

 the continent." 



Carlyle tells us that a poet moves us by virtue of the fact that 

 he is so much more a man than we. The frontiersman moves us 

 by virtue of the same fact. Where Mr. Grinnell has let his heroes 

 speak to us directly — has quoted from the journals of the original 

 published accounts of exploration, — the incisive strength, the de- 

 light in finesse, the irresistible patience and dauntlessness compel 

 our admiration. Alexander Henry, Jonathan Carver, Alexander 

 Mackenzie, Lewis and Clarke, Pike, Fremont, and the others 

 walk through the pages, heroic in stature, though entirely alive 

 and human. Dr. Coues comments upon the diary of Alexander 



*Trails of the Pathfinders. By George Bird Grinnell. Charles Scrib- 

 ner's Sons, New York, 191 1. Illustrated with map and views of frontier 

 adventure. 460 pages. Price, $1.50 net. 



