FOREWORD 
Most of the written inspiration for nature lov¬ 
ers has hitherto come from the east, principally 
New England. Thoreau, Emerson, Bryant, 
Whittier, Burroughs, — these and many others 
have written, with consummate charm and beauty, 
of Nature as seen near the Atlantic seaboard. The 
popular nature books and even many of the scien¬ 
tific works have all been written in the east and 
it has seemed to some as if there was nothing worth 
while on this side of the Appalachians, certainly 
not on this side of the Mississippi. 
But one need not go to Concord to find Walden 
woods and ponds. Had Thoreau lived in Iowa 
he could have written just as richly, and had Bry¬ 
ant’s home been on the hither side of the Father 
of Waters he would have sung just as sweetly. 
By and by some writer with the learning of a 
naturalist and the soul of a poet shall tell of the 
beauties in this great garden of Eden which is 
embraced by two mighty rivers and is filled with 
the color and perfume of the rarest flowers and 
the music of the sweetest of the singing birds. 
