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diff --git a/33053.txt b/33053.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5dcc196 --- /dev/null +++ b/33053.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2258 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Camping & Tramping with Roosevelt, by John Burroughs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Camping & Tramping with Roosevelt + +Author: John Burroughs + +Release Date: July 2, 2010 [EBook #33053] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPING & TRAMPING WITH ROOSEVELT *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + CAMPING & + TRAMPING + WITH + ROOSEVELT + + BY JOHN BURROUGHS + + + + + Books by John Burroughs + + + #WORKS.# 19 vols., uniform, 16mo, with frontispiece, gilt top. + WAKE-ROBIN. + WINTER SUNSHINE. + LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY. + FRESH FIELDS. + INDOOR STUDIES. + BIRDS AND POETS, WITH OTHER PAPERS. + PEPACTON, AND OTHER SKETCHES. + SIGNS AND SEASONS. + RIVERBY. + WHITMAN: A STUDY. + THE LIGHT OF DAY. + LITERARY VALUES. + FAR AND NEAR. + WAYS OF NATURE. + LEAF AND TENDRIL. + TIME AND CHANGE. + THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS. + THE BREATH OF LIFE. + UNDER THE APPLE-TREES. + FIELD AND STUDY. + + #FIELD AND STUDY.# _Riverside Edition._ + + #UNDER THE APPLE-TREES.# _Riverside Edition._ + + #THE BREATH OF LIFE.# _Riverside Edition._ + + #THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS.# _Riverside Edition._ + + #TIME AND CHANGE.# _Riverside Edition._ + + #LEAF AND TENDRIL.# _Riverside Edition._ + + #WAYS OF NATURE.# _Riverside Edition._ + + #FAR AND NEAR.# _Riverside Edition._ + + #LITERARY VALUES.# _Riverside Edition._ + + #THE LIGHT OF DAY.# _Riverside Edition._ + + #WHITMAN: A Study.# _Riverside Edition._ + + #A YEAR IN THE FIELDS.# Selections appropriate to each season + of the year, from the writings of John Burroughs. Illustrated + from Photographs by CLIFTON JOHNSON. + + #IN THE CATSKILLS.# Illustrated from Photographs by CLIFTON + JOHNSON. + + #CAMPING AND TRAMPING WITH ROOSEVELT.# Illustrated from + Photographs. + + #BIRD AND BOUGH.# Poems. + + #WINTER SUNSHINE.# _Cambridge Classics Series._ + + #WAKE-ROBIN.# _Riverside Aldine Series._ + + #SQUIRRELS AND OTHER FUR-BEARERS.# Illustrated. + + #BIRD STORIES FROM BURROUGHS.# Illustrated. + + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + + + + + [Illustration: THE PRESIDENT ON GLACIER POINT, YOSEMITE VALLEY + + From stereograph, copyright 1905, by Underwood & Underwood, + New York] + + + + + CAMPING & TRAMPING + WITH ROOSEVELT + + BY + JOHN BURROUGHS + + _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_ + + [Illustration] + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + #The Riverside Press Cambridge# + + + + COPYRIGHT 1906 BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. + COPYRIGHT 1907 BY THE OUTLOOK COMPANY + COPYRIGHT 1907 BY JOHN BURROUGHS + + _Published October 1907_ + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + THE PRESIDENT ON GLACIER POINT, YOSEMITE VALLEY _Frontispiece_ + ARRIVAL AT GARDINER, MONTANA 10 + THE PRESIDENT, MR. BURROUGHS AND SECRETARY LOEB 24 + THE PRESIDENT IN THE BEAR COUNTRY 38 + MR. BURROUGHS'S FAVORITE PASTIME 50 + SUNRISE IN THE YELLOWSTONE 64 + THE PRESIDENT ON A TRAIL 72 + THE PRESIDENT'S HOME ON SAGAMORE HILL, SHOWING ADDITION KNOWN + AS THE TROPHY ROOM 82 + A BIT OF WOODLAND ON THE SLOPE TOWARDS OYSTER BAY 88 + A PATH IN THE WOODS LEADING TO COLD SPRING HARBOR 92 + A YEARLING IN THE APPLE ORCHARD 98 + HALLWAY, SAGAMORE HILL 106 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +This little volume really needs no introduction; the two sketches of +which it is made explain and, I hope, justify themselves. But there is +one phase of the President's many-sided character upon which I should +like to lay especial emphasis, namely, his natural history bent and +knowledge. Amid all his absorbing interests and masterful activities +in other fields, his interest and his authority in practical natural +history are by no means the least. I long ago had very direct proof of +this statement. In some of my English sketches, following a visit to +that island in 1882, I had, rather by implication than by positive +statement, inclined to the opinion that the European forms of animal +life were, as a rule, larger and more hardy and prolific than the +corresponding forms in this country. Roosevelt could not let this +statement or suggestion go unchallenged, and the letter which I +received from him in 1892, touching these things, is of double +interest at this time, as showing one phase of his radical +Americanism, while it exhibits him as a thoroughgoing naturalist. +I am sure my readers will welcome the gist of this letter. After +some preliminary remarks he says:-- + +"The point of which I am speaking is where you say that the Old World +forms of animal life are coarser, stronger, fiercer, and more fertile +than those of the New World." (My statement was not quite so sweeping +as this.) "Now I don't think that this is so; at least, comparing the +forms which are typical of North America and of northern Asia and +Europe, which together form but one province of animal life. + +"Many animals and birds which increase very fast in new countries, and +which are commonly spoken of as European in their origin, are really +as alien to Europe as to their new homes. Thus the rabbit, rat, and +mouse are just as truly interlopers in England as in the United States +and Australia, having moved thither apparently within historic times, +the rabbit from North Africa, the others from southern Asia; and one +could no more generalize upon the comparative weakness of the American +fauna from these cases of intruders than one could generalize from +them upon the comparative weakness of the British, German, and French +wild animals. Our wood mouse or deer mouse retreats before the +ordinary house mouse in exactly the same way that the European wood +mouse does, and not a whit more. Our big wood rat stands in the same +relation to the house rat. Casting aside these cases, it seems to me, +looking at the mammals, that it would be quite impossible to +generalize as to whether those of the Old or the New World are more +fecund, are the fiercest, the hardiest, or the strongest. A great many +cases could be cited on both sides. Our moose and caribou are, in +certain of their varieties, rather larger than the Old World forms of +the same species. If there is any difference between the beavers of +the two countries, it is in the same direction. So with the great +family of the field mice. The largest true arvicola seems to be the +yellow-cheeked mouse of Hudson's Bay, and the biggest representative +of the family on either continent is the muskrat. In most of its +varieties the wolf of North America seems to be inferior in strength +and courage to that of northern Europe and Asia; but the direct +reverse is true with the grizzly bear, which is merely a somewhat +larger and fiercer variety of the common European brown bear. On the +whole, the Old World bison, or so-called aurochs, appears to be +somewhat more formidable than its American brother; but the difference +against the latter is not anything like as great as the difference in +favor of the American wapiti, which is nothing but a giant +representative of the comparatively puny European stag. So with the +red fox. The fox of New York is about the size of that of France, and +inferior in size to that of Scotland; the latter in turn is inferior +in size to the big fox of the upper Missouri, while the largest of all +comes from British America. There is no basis for the belief that the +red fox was imported here from Europe; its skin was a common article +of trade with the Canadian fur traders from the earliest times. On the +other hand, the European lynx is much bigger than the American. The +weasels afford cases in point, showing how hard it is to make a +general law on the subject. The American badger is very much smaller +than the European, and the American otter very much larger than the +European otter. Our pine marten, or sable, compared with that of +Europe, shows the very qualities of which you speak; that is, its +skull is slenderer, the bones are somewhat lighter, the teeth less +stout, the form showing more grace and less strength. But curiously +enough this is reversed, with even greater emphasis, in the minks of +the two continents, the American being much the largest and strongest, +with stouter teeth, bigger bones, and a stronger animal in every way. +The little weasel is on the whole smaller here, while the big weasel, +or stoat, is, in some of its varieties at least, largest on this side; +and, of the true weasels, the largest of all is the so-called fisher, +a purely American beast, a fierce and hardy animal which habitually +preys upon as hard fighting a creature as the raccoon, and which could +eat all the Asiatic and European varieties of weasels without an +effort. + +"About birds I should be far less competent to advance arguments, and +especially, my dear sir, to you; but it seems to me that two of the +most self-asserting and hardiest of our families of birds are the +tyrant flycatchers, of which the kingbird is chief, and the +blackbirds, or grackles, with the meadow lark at their head, both +characteristically American. + +"Did you ever look over the medical statistics of the half million men +drafted during the Civil War? They include men of every race and +color, and from every country of Europe, and from every State in the +Union; and so many men were measured that the average of the +measurements is probably pretty fair. From these it would appear that +the physical type in the Eastern States had undoubtedly degenerated. +The man from New York or New England, unless he came from the +lumbering districts, though as tall as the Englishman or Irishman, was +distinctly lighter built, and especially was narrower across the +chest; but the finest men physically of all were the Kentuckians and +Tennesseeans. After them came the Scandinavians, then the Scotch, then +the people from several of the Western States, such as Wisconsin and +Minnesota, then the Irish, then the Germans, then the English, etc. +The decay of vitality, especially as shown in the decreasing fertility +of the New England and, indeed, New York stock, is very alarming; but +the most prolific peoples on this continent, whether of native or +foreign origin, are the native whites of the southern Alleghany +region in Kentucky and Tennessee, the Virginians, and the Carolinians, +and also the French of Canada. + +"It will be difficult to frame a general law of fecundity in comparing +the effects upon human life of long residence on the two continents +when we see that the Frenchman in Canada is healthy and enormously +fertile, while the old French stock is at the stationary point in +France, the direct reverse being the case when the English of Old and +of New England are compared, and the decision being again reversed if +we compare the English with the mountain whites of the Southern +States." + + + + +CAMPING WITH PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT + + +At the time I made the trip to Yellowstone Park with President +Roosevelt in the spring of 1903, I promised some friends to write up +my impressions of the President and of the Park, but I have been slow +in getting around to it. The President himself, having the absolute +leisure and peace of the White House, wrote his account of the trip +nearly two years ago! But with the stress and strain of my life +at "Slabsides,"--administering the affairs of so many of the wild +creatures of the woods about me,--I have not till this blessed season +(fall of 1905) found the time to put on record an account of the most +interesting thing I saw in that wonderful land, which, of course, was +the President himself. + +When I accepted his invitation I was well aware that during the +journey I should be in a storm centre most of the time, which is not +always a pleasant prospect to a man of my habits and disposition. The +President himself is a good deal of a storm,--a man of such abounding +energy and ceaseless activity that he sets everything in motion around +him wherever he goes. But I knew he would be pretty well occupied on +his way to the Park in speaking to eager throngs and in receiving +personal and political homage in the towns and cities we were to pass +through. But when all this was over, and I found myself with him in +the wilderness of the Park, with only the superintendent and a few +attendants to help take up his tremendous personal impact, how was it +likely to fare with a non-strenuous person like myself? I asked. I had +visions of snow six and seven feet deep, where traveling could be +done only upon snow-shoes, and I had never had the things on my feet +in my life. If the infernal fires beneath, that keep the pot boiling +so furiously in the Park, should melt the snows, I could see the party +tearing along on horseback at a wolf-hunt pace over a rough country; +and as I had not been on a horse's back since the President was born, +how would it be likely to fare with me then? + +I had known the President several years before he became famous, and +we had had some correspondence on subjects of natural history. His +interest in such themes is always very fresh and keen, and the main +motive of his visit to the Park at this time was to see and study in +its semi-domesticated condition the great game which he had so often +hunted during his ranch days; and he was kind enough to think it would +be an additional pleasure to see it with a nature-lover like myself. +For my own part, I knew nothing about big game, but I knew there was +no man in the country with whom I should so like to see it as +Roosevelt. + +Some of our newspapers reported that the President intended to hunt in +the Park. A woman in Vermont wrote me, to protest against the hunting, +and hoped I would teach the President to love the animals as much as I +did,--as if he did not love them much more, because his love is +founded upon knowledge, and because they had been a part of his life. +She did not know that I was then cherishing the secret hope that I +might be allowed to shoot a cougar or bobcat; but this fun did not +come to me. The President said, "I will not fire a gun in the Park; +then I shall have no explanations to make." Yet once I did hear him +say in the wilderness, "I feel as if I ought to keep the camp in +meat. I always have." I regretted that he could not do so on this +occasion. + +I have never been disturbed by the President's hunting trips. It is to +such men as he that the big game legitimately belongs,--men who regard +it from the point of view of the naturalist as well as from that of +the sportsman, who are interested in its preservation, and who share +with the world the delight they experience in the chase. Such a hunter +as Roosevelt is as far removed from the game-butcher as day is from +night; and as for his killing of the "varmints,"--bears, cougars, and +bobcats,--the fewer of these there are, the better for the useful and +beautiful game. + +The cougars, or mountain lions, in the Park certainly needed killing. +The superintendent reported that he had seen where they had slain +nineteen elk, and we saw where they had killed a deer and dragged its +body across the trail. Of course, the President would not now on his +hunting trips shoot an elk or a deer except to "keep the camp in +meat," and for this purpose it is as legitimate as to slay a sheep or +a steer for the table at home. + +We left Washington on April 1, and strung several of the larger +Western cities on our thread of travel,--Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, +St. Paul, Minneapolis,--as well as many lesser towns, in each of which +the President made an address, sometimes brief, on a few occasions of +an hour or more. + +He gave himself very freely and heartily to the people wherever he +went. He could easily match their Western cordiality and +good-fellowship. Wherever his train stopped, crowds soon gathered, or +had already gathered, to welcome him. His advent made a holiday in +each town he visited. At all the principal stops the usual programme +was: first, his reception by the committee of citizens appointed to +receive him,--they usually boarded his private car, and were one by +one introduced to him; then a drive through the town with a concourse +of carriages; then to the hall or open-air platform, where he spoke to +the assembled throng; then to lunch or dinner; and then back to the +train, and off for the next stop,--a round of hand-shaking, +carriage-driving, speech-making each day. He usually spoke from eight +to ten times every twenty-four hours, sometimes for only a few minutes +from the rear platform of his private car, at others for an hour or +more in some large hall. In Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul, +elaborate banquets were given him and his party, and on each occasion +he delivered a carefully prepared speech upon questions that involved +the policy of his administration. The throng that greeted him in the +vast Auditorium in Chicago--that rose and waved and waved again--was +one of the grandest human spectacles I ever witnessed. + +In Milwaukee the dense cloud of tobacco smoke that presently filled +the large hall after the feasting was over was enough to choke any +speaker, but it did not seem to choke the President, though he does +not use tobacco in any form himself; nor was there anything foggy +about his utterances on that occasion upon legislative control of the +trusts. + + [Illustration: ARRIVAL AT GARDINER, MONT. + (ENTRANCE TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.) + + From stereograph, copyright 1906, by Underwood & Underwood, + New York.] + +In St. Paul the city was inundated with humanity,--a vast human tide +that left the middle of the streets bare as our line of carriages +moved slowly along, but that rose up in solid walls of town and +prairie humanity on the sidewalks and city dooryards. How hearty and +happy the myriad faces looked! At one point I spied in the throng on +the curbstone a large silk banner that bore my own name as the title +of some society. I presently saw that it was borne by half a dozen +anxious and expectant-looking schoolgirls with braids down their +backs. As my carriage drew near them, they pressed their way through +the throng and threw a large bouquet of flowers into my lap. I think +it would be hard to say who blushed the deeper, the girls or myself. +It was the first time I had ever had flowers showered upon me in +public; and then, maybe, I felt that on such an occasion I was only a +minor side issue, and public recognition was not called for. But the +incident pleased the President. "I saw that banner and those flowers," +he said afterwards; "and I was delighted to see you honored that way." +But I fear I have not to this day thanked the Monroe School of St. +Paul for that pretty attention. + +The time of the passing of the presidential train seemed well known, +even on the Dakota prairies. At one point I remember a little brown +schoolhouse stood not far off, and near the track the school-ma'am, +with her flock, drawn up in line. We were at luncheon, but the +President caught a glimpse ahead through the window, and quickly took +in the situation. With napkin in hand, he rushed out on the platform +and waved to them. "Those children," he said, as he came back, "wanted +to see the President of the United States, and I could not disappoint +them. They may never have another chance. What a deep impression such +things make when we are young!" + +At some point in the Dakotas we picked up the former foreman of his +ranch and another cowboy friend of the old days, and they rode with +the President in his private car for several hours. He was as happy +with them as a schoolboy ever was in meeting old chums. He beamed with +delight all over. The life which those men represented, and of which +he had himself once formed a part, meant so much to him; it had +entered into the very marrow of his being, and I could see the joy of +it all shining in his face as he sat and lived parts of it over again +with those men that day. He bubbled with laughter continually. The +men, I thought, seemed a little embarrassed by his open-handed +cordiality and good-fellowship. He himself evidently wanted to forget +the present, and to live only in the memory of those wonderful ranch +days,--that free, hardy, adventurous life upon the plains. It all came +back to him with a rush when he found himself alone with these heroes +of the rope and the stirrup. How much more keen his appreciation was, +and how much quicker his memory, than theirs! He was constantly +recalling to their minds incidents which they had forgotten, and the +names of horses and dogs which had escaped them. His subsequent life, +instead of making dim the memory of his ranch days, seemed to have +made it more vivid by contrast. + +When they had gone I said to him, "I think your affection for those +men very beautiful." + +"How could I help it?" he said. + +"Still, few men in your station could or would go back and renew such +friendships." + +"Then I pity them," he replied. + +He said afterwards that his ranch life had been the making of him. It +had built him up and hardened him physically, and it had opened his +eyes to the wealth of manly character among the plainsmen and +cattlemen. + +Had he not gone West, he said, he never would have raised the Rough +Riders regiment; and had he not raised that regiment and gone to the +Cuban War, he would not have been made governor of New York; and had +not this happened, the politicians would not unwittingly have made his +rise to the Presidency so inevitable. There is no doubt, I think, that +he would have got there some day; but without the chain of events +above outlined, his rise could not have been so rapid. + +Our train entered the Bad Lands of North Dakota in the early evening +twilight, and the President stood on the rear platform of his car, +gazing wistfully upon the scene. "I know all this country like a +book," he said. "I have ridden over it, and hunted over it, and +tramped over it, in all seasons and weather, and it looks like home to +me. My old ranch is not far off. We shall soon reach Medora, which +was my station." It was plain to see that that strange, +forbidding-looking landscape, hills and valleys to eastern eyes, +utterly demoralized and gone to the bad,--flayed, fantastic, treeless, +a riot of naked clay slopes, chimney-like buttes, and dry +coulees,--was in his eyes a land of almost pathetic interest. There +were streaks of good pasturage here and there where his cattle used to +graze, and where the deer and the pronghorn used to linger. + +When we reached Medora, where the train was scheduled to stop an hour, +it was nearly dark, but the whole town and country round had turned +out to welcome their old townsman. After much hand-shaking, the +committee conducted us down to a little hall, where the President +stood on a low platform, and made a short address to the standing +crowd that filled the place. Then some flashlight pictures were taken +by the local photographer, after which the President stepped down, +and, while the people filed past him, shook hands with every man, +woman, and child of them, calling many of them by name, and greeting +them all most cordially. I recall one grizzled old frontiersman whose +hand he grasped, calling him by name, and saying, "How well I remember +you! You once mended my gunlock for me,--put on a new hammer." "Yes," +said the delighted old fellow; "I'm the man, Mr. President." He was +among his old neighbors once more, and the pleasure of the meeting was +very obvious on both sides. I heard one of the women tell him they +were going to have a dance presently, and ask him if he would not stay +and open it! The President laughingly excused himself, and said his +train had to leave on schedule time, and his time was nearly up. I +thought of the incident in his "Ranch Life," in which he says he once +opened a cowboy ball with the wife of a Minnesota man, who danced +opposite, and who had recently shot a bullying Scotchman. He says the +scene reminded him of the ball where Bret Harte's heroine "went down +the middle with the man that shot Sandy Magee." + +Before reaching Medora he had told me many anecdotes of "Hell-Roaring +Bill Jones," and had said I should see him. But it turned out that +Hell-Roaring Bill had begun to celebrate the coming of the President +too early in the day, and when we reached Medora he was not in a +presentable condition. I forget now how he had earned his name, but no +doubt he had come honestly by it; it was a part of his history, as was +that of "The Pike," "Cold-Turkey Bill," "Hash-Knife Joe," and other +classic heroes of the frontier. + +It is curious how certain things go to the bad in the Far West, or a +certain proportion of them,--bad lands, bad horses, and bad men. And +it is a degree of badness that the East has no conception of,--land +that looks as raw and unnatural as if time had never laid its shaping +and softening hand upon it; horses that, when mounted, put their heads +to the ground and their heels in the air, and, squealing defiantly, +resort to the most diabolically ingenious tricks to shake off or to +kill their riders; and men who amuse themselves in bar-rooms by +shooting about the feet of a "tenderfoot" to make him dance, or who +ride along the street and shoot at every one in sight. Just as the old +plutonic fires come to the surface out there in the Rockies, and hint +very strongly of the infernal regions, so a kind of satanic element in +men and animals--an underlying devilishness--crops out, and we have +the border ruffian and the bucking broncho. + +The President told of an Englishman on a hunting trip in the West, +who, being an expert horseman at home, scorned the idea that he could +not ride any of their "grass-fed ponies." So they gave him a bucking +broncho. He was soon lying on the ground, much stunned. When he could +speak, he said, "I should not have minded him, you know, _but 'e 'ides +'is 'ead_." + +At one place in Dakota the train stopped to take water while we were +at lunch. A crowd soon gathered, and the President went out to greet +them. We could hear his voice, and the cheers and laughter of the +crowd. And then we heard him say, "Well, good-by, I must go now." +Still he did not come. Then we heard more talking and laughing, and +another "good-by," and yet he did not come. Then I went out to see +what had happened. I found the President down on the ground shaking +hands with the whole lot of them. Some one had reached up to shake his +hand as he was about withdrawing, and this had been followed by such +eagerness on the part of the rest of the people to do likewise, that +the President had instantly got down to gratify them. Had the secret +service men known it, they would have been in a pickle. We probably +have never had a President who responded more freely and heartily to +the popular liking for him than Roosevelt. The crowd always seem to be +in love with him the moment they see him and hear his voice. And it is +not by reason of any arts of eloquence, or charm of address, but by +reason of his inborn heartiness and sincerity, and his genuine +manliness. The people feel his quality at once. In Bermuda last winter +I met a Catholic priest who had sat on the platform at some place in +New England very near the President while he was speaking, and who +said, "The man had not spoken three minutes before I loved him, and +had any one tried to molest him, I could have torn him to pieces." It +is the quality in the man that instantly inspires such a liking as +this in strangers that will, I am sure, safeguard him in all public +places. + +I once heard him say that he did not like to be addressed as "His +Excellency;" he added laughingly, "They might just as well call me +'His Transparency,' for all I care." It is this transparency, this +direct out-and-out, unequivocal character of him that is one source of +his popularity. The people do love transparency,--all of them but the +politicians. + +A friend of his one day took him to task for some mistake he had made +in one of his appointments. "My dear sir," replied the President, +"where you know of one mistake I have made, I know of ten." How such +candor must make the politicians shiver! + +I have said that I stood in dread of the necessity of snowshoeing in +the Park, and, in lieu of that, of horseback riding. Yet when we +reached Gardiner, the entrance to the Park, on that bright, crisp +April morning, with no snow in sight save that on the mountain-tops, +and found Major Pitcher and Captain Chittenden at the head of a squad +of soldiers, with a fine saddle-horse for the President, and an +ambulance drawn by two span of mules for me, I confess that I +experienced just a slight shade of mortification. I thought they might +have given me the option of the saddle or the ambulance. Yet I entered +the vehicle as if it was just what I had been expecting. + +The President and his escort, with a cloud of cowboys hovering in the +rear, were soon off at a lively pace, and my ambulance followed close, +and at a lively pace, too; so lively that I soon found myself gripping +the seat with both hands. "Well," I said to myself, "they are giving +me a regular Western send-off;" and I thought, as the ambulance swayed +from side to side, that it would suit me just as well if my driver did +not try to keep up with the presidential procession. The driver and +his mules were shut off from me by a curtain, but, looking ahead out +of the sides of the vehicle, I saw two good-sized logs lying across +our course. Surely, I thought (and barely had time to think), he will +avoid these. But he did not, and as we passed over them I was nearly +thrown through the top of the ambulance. "This _is_ a lively +send-off," I said, rubbing my bruises with one hand, while I clung to +the seat with the other. Presently I saw the cowboys scrambling up +the bank as if to get out of our way; then the President on his fine +gray stallion scrambling up the bank with his escort, and looking +ominously in my direction, as we thundered by. + + [Illustration: THE PRESIDENT WITH MR. BURROUGHS AND SECRETARY + LOEB JUST BEFORE ENTERING THE PARK. + + From stereograph, copyright 1906, by Underwood & Underwood, + New York.] + +"Well," I said, "this is indeed a novel ride; for once in my life I +have sidetracked the President of the United States! I am given the +right of way over all." On we tore, along the smooth, hard road, and +did not slacken our pace till, at the end of a mile or two, we began +to mount the hill toward Fort Yellowstone. And not till we reached the +fort did I learn that our mules had run away. They had been excited +beyond control by the presidential cavalcade, and the driver, finding +he could not hold them, had aimed only to keep them in the road, and +we very soon had the road all to ourselves. + +Fort Yellowstone is at Mammoth Hot Springs, where one gets his first +view of the characteristic scenery of the Park,--huge, boiling springs +with their columns of vapor, and the first characteristic odors which +suggest the traditional infernal regions quite as much as the boiling +and steaming water does. One also gets a taste of a much more rarefied +air than he has been used to, and finds himself panting for breath on +a very slight exertion. The Mammoth Hot Springs have built themselves +up an enormous mound that stands there above the village on the side +of the mountain, terraced and scalloped and fluted, and suggesting +some vitreous formation, or rare carving of enormous, many-colored +precious stones. It looks quite unearthly, and, though the devil's +frying pan, and ink pot, and the Stygian caves are not far off, the +suggestion is of something celestial rather than of the nether +regions,--a vision of jasper walls, and of amethyst battlements. + +With Captain Chittenden I climbed to the top, stepping over the rills +and creeks of steaming hot water, and looked at the marvelously clear, +cerulean, but boiling, pools on the summit. The water seemed as +unearthly in its beauty and purity as the gigantic sculpturing that +held it. + +The Stygian caves are still farther up the mountain,--little pockets +in the rocks, or well-holes in the ground at your feet, filled with +deadly carbon dioxide. We saw birds' feathers and quills in all of +them. The birds hop into them, probably in quest of food or seeking +shelter, and they never come out. We saw the body of a martin on the +bank of one hole. Into one we sank a lighted torch, and it was +extinguished as quickly as if we had dropped it into water. Each cave +or niche is a death valley on a small scale. Near by we came upon a +steaming pool, or lakelet, of an acre or more in extent. A pair of +mallard ducks were swimming about in one end of it,--the cool end. +When we approached, they swam slowly over into the warmer water. As +they progressed, the water got hotter and hotter, and the ducks' +discomfort was evident. Presently they stopped, and turned towards us, +half appealingly, as I thought. They could go no farther; would we +please come no nearer? As I took another step or two, up they rose and +disappeared over the hill. Had they gone to the extreme end of the +pool, we could have had boiled mallard for dinner. + +Another novel spectacle was at night, or near sundown, when the deer +came down from the hills into the streets and ate hay, a few yards +from the officers' quarters, as unconcernedly as so many domestic +sheep. This they had been doing all winter, and they kept it up till +May, at times a score or more of them profiting thus on the +government's bounty. When the sundown gun was fired a couple of +hundred yards away, they gave a nervous start, but kept on with their +feeding. The antelope and elk and mountain sheep had not yet grown +bold enough to accept Uncle Sam's charity in that way. + +The President wanted all the freedom and solitude possible while in +the Park, so all newspaper men and other strangers were excluded. Even +the secret service men and his physician and private secretaries were +left at Gardiner. He craved once more to be alone with nature; he was +evidently hungry for the wild and the aboriginal,--a hunger that seems +to come upon him regularly at least once a year, and drives him forth +on his hunting trips for big game in the West. + +We spent two weeks in the Park, and had fair weather, bright, crisp +days, and clear, freezing nights. The first week we occupied three +camps that had been prepared, or partly prepared, for us in the +northeast corner of the Park, in the region drained by the Gardiner +River, where there was but little snow, and which we reached on +horseback. + +The second week we visited the geyser region, which lies a thousand +feet or more higher, and where the snow was still five or six feet +deep. This part of the journey was made in big sleighs, each drawn by +two span of horses. + +On the horseback excursion, which involved only about fifty miles of +riding, we had a mule pack train, and Sibley tents and stoves, with +quite a retinue of camp laborers, a lieutenant and an orderly or two, +and a guide, Billy Hofer. + +The first camp was in a wild, rocky, and picturesque gorge on the +Yellowstone, about ten miles from the fort. A slight indisposition, +the result of luxurious living, with no wood to chop or to saw, and no +hills to climb, as at home, prevented me from joining the party till +the third day. Then Captain Chittenden drove me eight miles in a +buggy. About two miles from camp we came to a picket of two or three +soldiers, where my big bay was in waiting for me. I mounted him +confidently, and, guided by an orderly, took the narrow, winding trail +toward camp. Except for an hour's riding the day before with Captain +Chittenden, I had not been on a horse's back for nearly fifty years, +and I had not spent as much as a day in the saddle during my youth. +That first sense of a live, spirited, powerful animal beneath you, at +whose mercy you are,--you, a pedestrian all your days,--with gullies +and rocks and logs to cross, and deep chasms opening close beside +you, is not a little disturbing. But my big bay did his part well, and +I did not lose my head or my nerve, as we cautiously made our way +along the narrow path on the side of the steep gorge, with a foaming +torrent rushing along at its foot, nor yet when we forded the rocky +and rapid Yellowstone. A misstep or a stumble on the part of my steed, +and probably the first bubble of my confidence would have been +shivered at once; but this did not happen, and in due time we reached +the group of tents that formed the President's camp. + +The situation was delightful,--no snow, scattered pine trees, a +secluded valley, rocky heights, and the clear, ample, trouty waters of +the Yellowstone. The President was not in camp. In the morning he had +stated his wish to go alone into the wilderness. Major Pitcher very +naturally did not quite like the idea, and wished to send an orderly +with him. + +"No," said the President. "Put me up a lunch, and let me go alone. I +will surely come back." + +And back he surely came. It was about five o'clock when he came +briskly down the path from the east to the camp. It came out that he +had tramped about eighteen miles through a very rough country. The day +before, he and the major had located a band of several hundred elk on +a broad, treeless hillside, and his purpose was to find those elk, and +creep up on them, and eat his lunch under their very noses. And this +he did, spending an hour or more within fifty yards of them. He came +back looking as fresh as when he started, and at night, sitting before +the big camp fire, related his adventure, and talked with his usual +emphasis and copiousness of many things. He told me of the birds he +had seen or heard; among them he had heard one that was new to him. +From his description I told him I thought it was Townsend's solitaire, +a bird I much wanted to see and hear. I had heard the West India +solitaire,--one of the most impressive songsters I ever heard,--and I +wished to compare our Western form with it. + +The next morning we set out for our second camp, ten or a dozen miles +away, and in reaching it passed over much of the ground the President +had traversed the day before. As we came to a wild, rocky place above +a deep chasm of the river, with a few scattered pine trees, the +President said, "It was right here that I heard that strange bird +song." We paused a moment. "And there it is now!" he exclaimed. + +Sure enough, there was the solitaire singing from the top of a small +cedar,--a bright, animated, eloquent song, but without the richness +and magic of the song of the tropical species. We hitched our horses, +and followed the bird up as it flew from tree to tree. The President +was as eager to see and hear it as I was. It seemed very shy, and we +only caught glimpses of it. In form and color it much resembles its +West India cousin, and suggests our catbird. It ceased to sing when we +pursued it. It is a bird found only in the wilder and higher parts of +the Rockies. My impression was that its song did not quite merit the +encomiums that have been pronounced upon it. + +At this point, I saw amid the rocks my first and only Rocky Mountain +woodchucks, and, soon after we had resumed our journey, our first blue +grouse,--a number of them like larger partridges. Occasionally we +would come upon black-tailed deer, standing or lying down in the +bushes, their large ears at attention being the first thing to catch +the eye. They would often allow us to pass within a few rods of them +without showing alarm. Elk horns were scattered all over this part of +the Park, and we passed several old carcasses of dead elk that had +probably died a natural death. + +In a grassy bottom at the foot of a steep hill, while the President +and I were dismounted, and noting the pleasing picture which our pack +train of fifteen or twenty mules made filing along the side of a steep +grassy slope,--a picture which he has preserved in his late volume, +"Out-Door Pastimes of an American Hunter,"--our attention was +attracted by plaintive, musical, bird-like chirps that rose from the +grass about us. I was almost certain it was made by a bird; the +President was of like opinion; and we kicked about in the tufts of +grass, hoping to flush the bird. Now here, now there, arose this +sharp, but bird-like note. Finally, we found that it was made by a +species of gopher, whose holes we soon discovered. What its specific +name is I do not know, but it should be called the singing gopher. + +Our destination this day was a camp on Cottonwood Creek, near +"Hell-Roaring Creek." As we made our way in the afternoon along a +broad, open, grassy valley, I saw a horseman come galloping over the +hill to our right, starting up a band of elk as he came; riding across +the plain, he wheeled his horse, and, with the military salute, joined +our party. He proved to be a government scout, called the "Duke of +Hell Roaring,"--an educated officer from the Austrian army, who, for +some unknown reason, had exiled himself here in this out-of-the-way +part of the world. He was a man in his prime, of fine, military look +and bearing. After conversing a few moments with the President and +Major Pitcher, he rode rapidly away. + +Our second camp, which we reached in mid-afternoon, was in the edge of +the woods on the banks of a fine, large trout stream, where ice and +snow still lingered in patches. I tried for trout in the head of a +large, partly open pool, but did not get a rise; too much ice in the +stream, I concluded. Very soon my attention was attracted by a strange +note, or call, in the spruce woods. The President had also noticed it, +and, with me, wondered what made it. Was it bird or beast? Billy Hofer +said he thought it was an owl, but the sound in no way suggested an +owl, and the sun was shining brightly. It was a sound such as a boy +might make by blowing in the neck of an empty bottle. Presently we +heard it beyond us on the other side of the creek, which was pretty +good proof that the creature had wings. + + [Illustration: THE PRESIDENT IN THE BEAR COUNTRY + + From stereograph, copyright 1905, by Underwood & Underwood, + New York] + +"Let's go run that bird down," said the President to me. + +So off we started across a small, open, snow-streaked plain, toward +the woods beyond it. We soon decided that the bird was on the top of +one of a group of tall spruces. After much skipping about over logs +and rocks, and much craning of our necks, we made him out on the peak +of a spruce. I imitated his call, when he turned his head down toward +us, but we could not make out what he was. + +"Why did we not think to bring the glasses?" said the President. + +"I will run and get them," I replied. + +"No," said he, "you stay here and keep that bird treed, and I will +fetch them." + +So off he went like a boy, and was very soon back with the glasses. We +quickly made out that it was indeed an owl,--the pigmy owl, as it +turned out,--not much larger than a bluebird. I think the President +was as pleased as if we had bagged some big game. He had never seen +the bird before. + +Throughout the trip I found his interest in bird life very keen, and +his eye and ear remarkably quick. He usually saw the bird or heard its +note as quickly as I did,--and I had nothing else to think about, and +had been teaching my eye and ear the trick of it for over fifty years. +Of course, his training as a big-game hunter stood him in good stead, +but back of that were his naturalist's instincts, and his genuine love +of all forms of wild life. + +I have been told that his ambition up to the time he went to Harvard +had been to be a naturalist, but that there they seem to have +convinced him that all the out-of-door worlds of natural history had +been conquered, and that the only worlds remaining were in the +laboratory, and to be won with the microscope and the scalpel. But +Roosevelt was a man made for action in a wide field, and laboratory +conquests could not satisfy him. His instincts as a naturalist, +however, lie back of all his hunting expeditions, and, in a large +measure, I think, prompt them. Certain it is that his hunting +records contain more live natural history than any similar records +known to me, unless it be those of Charles St. John, the Scotch +naturalist-sportsman. + +The Canada jays, or camp-robbers, as they are often called, soon found +out our camp that afternoon, and no sooner had the cook begun to throw +out peelings and scraps and crusts than the jays began to carry them +off, not to eat, as I observed, but to hide them in the thicker +branches of the spruce trees. How tame they were, coming within three +or four yards of one! Why this species of jay should everywhere be so +familiar, and all other kinds so wild, is a puzzle. + +In the morning, as we rode down the valley toward our next +camping-place, at Tower Falls, a band of elk containing a hundred or +more started along the side of the hill a few hundred yards away. I +was some distance behind the rest of the party, as usual, when I saw +the President wheel his horse off to the left, and, beckoning to me to +follow, start at a tearing pace on the trail of the fleeing elk. He +afterwards told me that he wanted me to get a good view of those elk +at close range, and he was afraid that if he sent the major or Hofer +to lead me, I would not get it. I hurried along as fast as I could, +which was not fast; the way was rough,--logs, rocks, spring runs, and +a tenderfoot rider. + +Now and then the President, looking back and seeing what slow progress +I was making, would beckon to me impatiently, and I could fancy him +saying, "If I had a rope around him, he would come faster than that!" +Once or twice I lost sight of both him and the elk; the altitude was +great, and the horse was laboring like a steam engine on an upgrade. +Still I urged him on. Presently, as I broke over a hill, I saw the +President pressing the elk up the opposite slope. At the brow of the +hill he stopped, and I soon joined him. There on the top, not fifty +yards away, stood the elk in a mass, their heads toward us and their +tongues hanging out. They could run no farther. The President laughed +like a boy. The spectacle meant much more to him than it did to me. I +had never seen a wild elk till on this trip, but they had been among +the notable game that he had hunted. He had traveled hundreds of +miles, and undergone great hardships, to get within rifle range of +these creatures. Now here stood scores of them with lolling tongues, +begging for mercy. + +After gazing at them to our hearts' content, we turned away to look up +our companions, who were nowhere within sight. We finally spied them a +mile or more away, and, joining them, all made our way to an elevated +plateau that commanded an open landscape three or four miles across. +It was high noon, and the sun shone clear and warm. From this lookout +we saw herds upon herds of elk scattered over the slopes and gentle +valleys in front of us. Some were grazing, some were standing or lying +upon the ground, or upon the patches of snow. Through our glasses we +counted the separate bands, and then the numbers of some of the bands +or groups, and estimated that three thousand elk were in full view in +the landscape around us. It was a notable spectacle. Afterward, in +Montana, I attended a council of Indian chiefs at one of the Indian +agencies, and told them, through their interpreter, that I had been +with the Great Chief in the Park, and of the game we had seen. When I +told them of these three thousand elk all in view at once, they +grunted loudly, whether with satisfaction or with incredulity, I could +not tell. + +In the midst of this great game amphitheatre we dismounted and enjoyed +the prospect. And the President did an unusual thing, he loafed for +nearly an hour,--stretched himself out in the sunshine upon a flat +rock, as did the rest of us, and, I hope, got a few winks of sleep. I +am sure I did. Little, slender, striped chipmunks, about half the size +of ours, were scurrying about; but I recall no other wild things save +the elk. + +From here we rode down the valley to our third camp, at Tower Falls, +stopping on the way to eat our luncheon on a washed boulder beside a +creek. On this ride I saw my first and only badger; he stuck his +striped head out of his hole in the ground only a few yards away from +us as we passed. + +Our camp at Tower Falls was amid the spruces above a canyon of the +Yellowstone, five or six hundred feet deep. It was a beautiful and +impressive situation,--shelter, snugness, even cosiness, looking over +the brink of the awful and the terrifying. With a run and a jump I +think one might have landed in the river at the bottom of the great +abyss, and in doing so might have scaled one of those natural obelisks +or needles of rock that stand up out of the depths two or three +hundred feet high. Nature shows you what an enormous furrow her plough +can open through the strata when moving horizontally, at the same time +that she shows you what delicate and graceful columns her slower and +gentler aerial forces can carve out of the piled strata. At the Falls +there were two or three of these columns, like the picket-pins of the +elder gods. + +Across the canyon in front of our camp, upon a grassy plateau which was +faced by a wall of trap rock, apparently thirty or forty feet high, a +band of mountain sheep soon attracted our attention. They were within +long rifle range, but were not at all disturbed by our presence, nor +had they been disturbed by the road-builders who, under Captain +Chittenden, were constructing a government road along the brink of the +canyon. We speculated as to whether or not the sheep could get down the +almost perpendicular face of the chasm to the river to drink. It +seemed to me impossible. Would they try it while we were there to see? +We all hoped so; and sure enough, late in the afternoon the word came +to our tents that the sheep were coming down. The President, with coat +off and a towel around his neck, was shaving. One side of his face was +half shaved, and the other side lathered. Hofer and I started for a +point on the brink of the canyon where we could have a better view. + +"By Jove," said the President, "I must see that. The shaving can wait, +and the sheep won't." + +So on he came, accoutred as he was,--coatless, hatless, but not +latherless, nor towelless. Like the rest of us, his only thought was +to see those sheep do their "stunt." With glasses in hand, we watched +them descend those perilous heights, leaping from point to point, +finding a foothold where none appeared to our eyes, loosening +fragments of the crumbling rocks as they came, now poised upon some +narrow shelf and preparing for the next leap, zig-zagging or plunging +straight down till the bottom was reached, and not one accident or +misstep amid all that insecure footing. I think the President was the +most pleased of us all; he laughed with the delight of it, and quite +forgot his need of a hat and coat till I sent for them. + +In the night we heard the sheep going back; we could tell by the noise +of the falling stones. In the morning I confidently expected to see +some of them lying dead at the foot of the cliffs, but there they all +were at the top once more, apparently safe and sound. They do, +however, occasionally meet with accidents in their perilous climbing, +and their dead bodies have been found at the foot of the rocks. +Doubtless some point of rock to which they had trusted gave way, and +crushed them in the descent, or fell upon those in the lead. + +The next day, while the rest of us went fishing for trout in the +Yellowstone, three or four miles above the camp, over the roughest +trail that we had yet traversed on horseback, the President, who never +fishes unless put to it for meat, went off alone again with his lunch +in his pocket, to stalk those sheep as he had stalked the elk, and to +feel the old sportsman's thrill without the use of firearms. To do +this involved a tramp of eight or ten miles down the river to a bridge +and up the opposite bank. This he did, and ate his lunch near the +sheep, and was back in camp before we were. + +We took some large cut-throat trout, as they are called, from the +yellow mark across their throats, and I saw at short range a +black-tailed deer bounding along in that curious, stiff-legged, +mechanical, yet springy manner, apparently all four legs in the air at +once, and all four feet reaching the ground at once, affording a very +singular spectacle. + + [Illustration: MR. BURROUGHS'S FAVORITE PASTIME. + + By kind permission of Forest and Stream.] + +We spent two nights in our Tower Falls camp, and on the morning of the +third day set out on our return to Fort Yellowstone, pausing at +Yancey's on our way, and exchanging greetings with the old +frontiersman, who died a few weeks later. + +While in camp we always had a big fire at night in the open near the +tents, and around this we sat upon logs or camp-stools, and listened +to the President's talk. What a stream of it he poured forth! and what +a varied and picturesque stream!--anecdote, history, science, +politics, adventure, literature; bits of his experience as a ranchman, +hunter, Rough Rider, legislator, civil service commissioner, police +commissioner, governor, president,--the frankest confessions, the most +telling criticisms, happy characterizations of prominent political +leaders, or foreign rulers, or members of his own Cabinet; always +surprising by his candor, astonishing by his memory, and diverting by +his humor. His reading has been very wide, and he has that rare type +of memory which retains details as well as mass and generalities. One +night something started him off on ancient history, and one would have +thought he was just fresh from his college course in history, the +dates and names and events came so readily. Another time he discussed +palaeontology, and rapidly gave the outlines of the science, and the +main facts, as if he had been reading up on the subject that very day. +He sees things as wholes, and hence the relation of the parts comes +easy to him. + +At dinner, at the White House, the night before we started on the +expedition, I heard him talking with a guest,--an officer of the +British army, who was just back from India. And the extent and variety +of his information about India and Indian history and the relations of +the British government to it were extraordinary. It put the British +major on his mettle to keep pace with him. + +One night in camp he told us the story of one of his Rough Riders who +had just written him from some place in Arizona. The Rough Riders, +wherever they are now, look to him in time of trouble. This one had +come to grief in Arizona. He was in jail. So he wrote the President, +and his letter ran something like this:-- + + "DEAR COLONEL,--I am in trouble. I shot a lady in the eye, + but I did not intend to hit the lady; I was shooting at my + wife." + +And the presidential laughter rang out over the tree-tops. To another +Rough Rider, who was in jail, accused of horse stealing, he had loaned +two hundred dollars to pay counsel on his trial, and, to his surprise, +in due time the money came back. The ex-Rough wrote that his trial +never came off. "_We elected our district attorney_;" and the laughter +again sounded, and drowned the noise of the brook near by. + +On another occasion we asked the President if he was ever molested by +any of the "bad men" of the frontier, with whom he had often come in +contact. "Only once," he said. The cowboys had always treated him with +the utmost courtesy, both on the round-up and in camp; "and the few +real desperadoes I have seen were also perfectly polite." Once only +was he maliciously shot at, and then not by a cowboy nor a _bona fide_ +"bad man," but by a "broad-hatted ruffian of a cheap and common-place +type." He had been compelled to pass the night at a little frontier +hotel where the bar-room occupied the whole lower floor, and was, in +consequence, the only place where the guests of the hotel, whether +drunk or sober, could sit. As he entered the room, he saw that every +man there was being terrorized by a half-drunken ruffian who stood in +the middle of the floor with a revolver in each hand, compelling +different ones to treat. + +"I went and sat down behind the stove," said the President, "as far +from him as I could get; and hoped to escape his notice. The fact that +I wore glasses, together with my evident desire to avoid a fight, +apparently gave him the impression that I could be imposed upon with +impunity. He very soon approached me, flourishing his two guns, and +ordered me to treat. I made no reply for some moments, when the fellow +became so threatening that I saw something had to be done. The crowd, +mostly sheep-herders and small grangers, sat or stood back against the +wall, afraid to move. I was unarmed, and thought rapidly. Saying, +'Well, if I must, I must,' I got up as if to walk around him to the +bar, then, as I got opposite him, I wheeled and fetched him as heavy a +blow on the chin-point as I could strike. He went down like a steer +before the axe, firing both guns into the ceiling as he went. I jumped +on him, and, with my knees on his chest, disarmed him in a hurry. The +crowd was then ready enough to help me, and we hog-tied him and put +him in an outhouse." The President alludes to this incident in his +"Ranch Life," but does not give the details. It brings out his mettle +very distinctly. + +He told us in an amused way of the attempts of his political opponents +at Albany, during his early career as a member of the Assembly, to +besmirch his character. His outspoken criticisms and denunciations had +become intolerable to them, so they laid a trap for him, but he was +not caught. His innate rectitude and instinct for the right course +saved him, as it has saved him many times since. I do not think that +in any emergency he has to debate with himself long as to the right +course to be pursued; he divines it by a kind of infallible instinct. +His motives are so simple and direct that he finds a straight and easy +course where another man, whose eye is less single, would flounder and +hesitate. + +One night he entertained us with reminiscences of the Cuban War, of +his efforts to get his men to the firing line when the fighting began, +of his greenness and general ignorance of the whole business of war, +which in his telling was very amusing. He has probably put it all in +his book about the war, a work I have not yet read. He described the +look of the slope of Kettle Hill when they were about to charge up it, +how the grass was combed and rippled by the storm of rifle bullets +that swept down it. He said, "I was conscious of being pale when I +looked at it and knew that in a few moments we were going to charge +there." The men of his regiment were all lying flat upon the ground, +and it became his duty to walk along their front and encourage them +and order them up on their feet. "Get up, men, get up!" One big fellow +did not rise. Roosevelt stooped down and took hold of him and ordered +him up. Just at that moment a bullet struck the man and went the +entire length of him. He never rose. + +On this or on another occasion when a charge was ordered, he found +himself a hundred yards or more in advance of his regiment, with only +the color bearer and one corporal with him. He said they planted the +flag there, while he rushed back to fetch the men. He was evidently +pretty hot. "Can it be that you flinched when I led the way!" and then +they came with a rush. On the summit of Kettle Hill he was again in +advance of his men, and as he came up, three Spaniards rose out of the +trenches and deliberately fired at him at a distance of only a few +paces, and then turned and fled. But a bullet from his revolver +stopped one of them. He seems to have been as much exposed to bullets +in this engagement as Washington was at Braddock's defeat, and to have +escaped in the same marvelous manner. + +The President unites in himself powers and qualities that rarely go +together. Thus, he has both physical and moral courage in a degree +rare in history. He can stand calm and unflinching in the path of a +charging grizzly, and he can confront with equal coolness and +determination the predaceous corporations and money powers of the +country. + +He unites the qualities of the man of action with those of the scholar +and writer,--another very rare combination. He unites the instincts +and accomplishments of the best breeding and culture with the broadest +democratic sympathies and affiliations. He is as happy with a +frontiersman like Seth Bullock as with a fellow Harvard man, and Seth +Bullock is happy, too. + +He unites great austerity with great good nature. He unites great +sensibility with great force and will power. He loves solitude, and he +loves to be in the thick of the fight. His love of nature is equaled +only by his love of the ways and marts of men. + +He is doubtless the most vital man on the continent, if not on the +planet, to-day. He is many-sided, and every side throbs with his +tremendous life and energy; the pressure is equal all around. His +interests are as keen in natural history as in economics, in +literature as in statecraft, in the young poet as in the old soldier, +in preserving peace as in preparing for war. And he can turn all his +great power into the new channel on the instant. His interest in the +whole of life, and in the whole life of the nation, never flags for a +moment. His activity is tireless. All the relaxation he needs or +craves is a change of work. He is like the farmer's fields, that only +need a rotation of crops. I once heard him say that all he cared about +being President was just "the big work." + +During this tour through the West, lasting over two months, he made +nearly three hundred speeches; and yet on his return Mrs. Roosevelt +told me he looked as fresh and unworn as when he left home. + +We went up into the big geyser region with the big sleighs, each drawn +by four horses. A big snow-bank had to be shoveled through for us +before we got to the Golden Gate, two miles above Mammoth Hot +Springs. Beyond that we were at an altitude of about eight thousand +feet, on a fairly level course that led now through woods, and now +through open country, with the snow of a uniform depth of four or five +feet, except as we neared the "formations," where the subterranean +warmth kept the ground bare. The roads had been broken and the snow +packed for us by teams from the fort, otherwise the journey would have +been impossible. + +The President always rode beside the driver. From his youth, he said, +this seat had always been the most desirable one to him. When the +sleigh would strike the bare ground, and begin to drag heavily, he +would bound out nimbly and take to his heels, and then all three of +us--Major Pitcher, Mr. Childs, and myself--would follow suit, +sometimes reluctantly on my part. Walking at that altitude is no fun, +especially if you try to keep pace with such a walker as the President +is. But he could not sit at his ease and let those horses drag him in +a sleigh over bare ground. When snow was reached, we would again +quickly resume our seats. + +As one nears the geyser region, he gets the impression from the +columns of steam going up here and there in the distance--now from +behind a piece of woods, now from out a hidden valley--that he is +approaching a manufacturing centre, or a railroad terminus. And when +he begins to hear the hoarse snoring of "Roaring Mountain," the +illusion is still more complete. At Norris's there is a big vent where +the steam comes tearing out of a recent hole in the ground with +terrific force. Huge mounds of ice had formed from the congealed vapor +all around it, some of them very striking. + +The novelty of the geyser region soon wears off. Steam and hot water +are steam and hot water the world over, and the exhibition of them +here did not differ, except in volume, from what one sees by his own +fireside. The "Growler" is only a boiling tea-kettle on a large scale, +and "Old Faithful" is as if the lid were to fly off, and the whole +contents of the kettle should be thrown high into the air. To be sure, +boiling lakes and steaming rivers are not common, but the new features +seemed, somehow, out of place, and as if nature had made a mistake. +One disliked to see so much good steam and hot water going to waste; +whole towns might be warmed by them, and big wheels made to go round. +I wondered that they had not piped them into the big hotels which they +opened for us, and which were warmed by wood fires. + + [Illustration: SUNRISE IN YELLOWSTONE PARK. + + From stereograph, copyright 1904, by Underwood & Underwood, + New York.] + +At Norris's the big room that the President and I occupied was on the +ground floor, and was heated by a huge box stove. As we entered it to +go to bed, the President said, "Oom John, don't you think it is too +hot here?" + +"I certainly do," I replied. + +"Shall I open the window?" + +"That will just suit me." And he threw the sash, which came down to +the floor, all the way up, making an opening like a doorway. The night +was cold, but neither of us suffered from the abundance of fresh air. + +The caretaker of the building was a big Swede called Andy. In the +morning Andy said that beat him: "There was the President of the +United States sleeping in that room, with the window open to the +floor, and not so much as one soldier outside on guard." + +The President had counted much on seeing the bears that in summer +board at the Fountain Hotel, but they were not yet out of their dens. +We saw the track of only one, and he was not making for the hotel. At +all the formations where the geysers are, the ground was bare over a +large area. I even saw a wild flower--an early buttercup, not an inch +high--in bloom. This seems to be the earliest wild flower in the +Rockies. It is the only fragrant buttercup I know. + +As we were riding along in our big sleigh toward the Fountain Hotel, +the President suddenly jumped out, and, with his soft hat as a shield +to his hand, captured a mouse that was running along over the ground +near us. He wanted it for Dr. Merriam, on the chance that it might be +a new species. While we all went fishing in the afternoon, the +President skinned his mouse, and prepared the pelt to be sent to +Washington. It was done as neatly as a professed taxidermist would +have done it. This was the only game the President killed in the +Park. In relating the incident to a reporter while I was in Spokane, +the thought occurred to me, Suppose he changes that _u_ to an _o_, and +makes the President capture a moose, what a pickle I shall be in! Is +it anything more than ordinary newspaper enterprise to turn a mouse +into a moose? But, luckily for me, no such metamorphosis happened to +that little mouse. It turned out not to be a new species, as it should +have been, but a species new to the Park. + +I caught trout that afternoon, on the edge of steaming pools in the +Madison River that seemed to my hand almost blood-warm. I suppose they +found better feeding where the water was warm. On the table they did +not compare with our Eastern brook trout. + +I was pleased to be told at one of the hotels that they had kalsomined +some of the rooms with material from one of the devil's paint-pots. +It imparted a soft, delicate, pinkish tint, not at all suggestive of +things satanic. + +One afternoon at Norris's, the President and I took a walk to observe +the birds. In the grove about the barns there was a great number, the +most attractive to me being the mountain bluebird. These birds we saw +in all parts of the Park, and at Norris's there was an unusual number +of them. How blue they were,--breast and all! In voice and manner they +were almost identical with our bluebird. The Western purple finch was +abundant here also, and juncos, and several kinds of sparrows, with an +occasional Western robin. A pair of wild geese were feeding in the +low, marshy ground not over one hundred yards from us, but when we +tried to approach nearer they took wing. A few geese and ducks seem to +winter in the Park. + +The second morning at Norris's one of our teamsters, George Marvin, +suddenly dropped dead from some heart affection, just as he had +finished caring for his team. It was a great shock to us all. I never +saw a better man with a team than he was. I had ridden on the seat +beside him all the day previous. On one of the "formations" our teams +had got mired in the soft, putty-like mud, and at one time it looked +as if they could never extricate themselves, and I doubt if they could +have, had it not been for the skill with which Marvin managed them. We +started for the Grand Canyon up the Yellowstone that morning, and, in +order to give myself a walk over the crisp snow in the clear, frosty +air, I set out a little while in advance of the teams. As I did so, I +saw the President, accompanied by one of the teamsters, walking +hurriedly toward the barn to pay his last respects to the body of +Marvin. After we had returned to Mammoth Hot Springs, he made +inquiries for the young woman to whom he had been told that Marvin was +engaged to be married. He looked her up, and sat a long time with her +in her home, offering his sympathy, and speaking words of consolation. +The act shows the depth and breadth of his humanity. + +At the Canyon Hotel the snow was very deep, and had become so soft from +the warmth of the earth beneath, as well as from the sun above, that +we could only reach the brink of the Canyon on skis. The President and +Major Pitcher had used skis before, but I had not, and, starting out +without the customary pole, I soon came to grief. The snow gave way +beneath me, and I was soon in an awkward predicament. The more I +struggled, the lower my head and shoulders went, till only my heels, +strapped to those long timbers, protruded above the snow. To reverse +my position was impossible till some one came and reached me the end +of a pole, and pulled me upright. But I very soon got the hang of the +things, and the President and I quickly left the superintendent +behind. I think I could have passed the President, but my manners +forbade. He was heavier than I was, and broke in more. When one of his +feet would go down half a yard or more, I noted with admiration the +skilled diplomacy he displayed in extricating it. The tendency of my +skis was all the time to diverge, and each to go off at an acute angle +to my main course, and I had constantly to be on the alert to check +this tendency. + +Paths had been shoveled for us along the brink of the Canyon, so that +we got the usual views from the different points. The Canyon was nearly +free from snow, and was a grand spectacle, by far the grandest to be +seen in the Park. The President told us that once, when pressed for +meat, while returning through here from one of his hunting trips, he +had made his way down to the river that we saw rushing along beneath +us, and had caught some trout for dinner. Necessity alone could induce +him to fish. + +Across the head of the Falls there was a bridge of snow and ice, upon +which we were told that the coyotes passed. As the season progressed, +there would come a day when the bridge would not be safe. It would be +interesting to know if the coyotes knew when this time arrived. + +The only live thing we saw in the Canyon was an osprey perched upon a +rock opposite us. + + [Illustration: THE PRESIDENT ON A TRAIL + + From stereograph, copyright 1905, by Underwood & Underwood, + New York] + +Near the falls of the Yellowstone, as at other places we had visited, +a squad of soldiers had their winter quarters. The President called on +them, as he had called upon the others, looked over the books they had +to read, examined their housekeeping arrangements, and conversed +freely with them. + +In front of the hotel were some low hills separated by gentle valleys. +At the President's suggestion, he and I raced on our skis down those +inclines. We had only to stand up straight, and let gravity do the +rest. As we were going swiftly down the side of one of the hills, I +saw out of the corner of my eye the President taking a header into the +snow. The snow had given way beneath him, and nothing could save him +from taking the plunge. I don't know whether I called out, or only +thought, something about the downfall of the administration. At any +rate, the administration was down, and pretty well buried, but it was +quickly on its feet again, shaking off the snow with a boy's +laughter. I kept straight on, and very soon the laugh was on me, for +the treacherous snow sank beneath me, and I took a header, too. + +"Who is laughing now, Oom John?" called out the President. + +The spirit of the boy was in the air that day about the Canyon of the +Yellowstone, and the biggest boy of us all was President Roosevelt. + +The snow was getting so soft in the middle of the day that our return +to the Mammoth Hot Springs could no longer be delayed. Accordingly, we +were up in the morning, and ready to start on the home journey, a +distance of twenty miles, by four o'clock. The snow bore up the horses +well till mid-forenoon, when it began to give way beneath them. But by +very careful management we pulled through without serious delay, and +were back again at the house of Major Pitcher in time for luncheon, +being the only outsiders who had ever made the tour of the Park so +early in the season. + +A few days later I bade good-by to the President, who went on his way +to California, while I made a loop of travel to Spokane, and around +through Idaho and Montana, and had glimpses of the great, optimistic, +sunshiny West that I shall not soon forget. + + + + +PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AS A NATURE-LOVER AND OBSERVER + + + + +PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AS A NATURE-LOVER AND OBSERVER + + +Our many-sided President has a side to his nature of which the public +has heard but little, and which, in view of his recent criticism of +what he calls the nature fakirs, is of especial interest and +importance. I refer to his keenness and enthusiasm as a student of +animal life, and his extraordinary powers of observation. The charge +recently made against him that he is only a sportsman and has only a +sportsman's interest in nature is very wide of the mark. Why, I cannot +now recall that I have ever met a man with a keener and more +comprehensive interest in the wild life about us--an interest that is +at once scientific and thoroughly human. And by human I do not mean +anything akin to the sentimentalism that sicklies o'er so much of our +more recent natural history writing, and that inspires the founding of +hospitals for sick cats; but I mean his robust, manly love for all +open-air life, and his sympathetic insight into it. When I first read +his "Wilderness Hunter," many years ago, I was impressed by his rare +combination of the sportsman and the naturalist. When I accompanied +him on his trip to the Yellowstone Park in April, 1903, I got a fresh +impression of the extent of his natural history knowledge and of his +trained powers of observation. Nothing escaped him, from bears to +mice, from wild geese to chickadees, from elk to red squirrels; he +took it all in, and he took it in as only an alert, vigorous mind can +take it in. On that occasion I was able to help him identify only one +new bird, as I have related in the foregoing chapter. All the other +birds he recognized as quickly as I did. + +During a recent half-day spent with the President at Sagamore Hill I +got a still more vivid impression of his keenness and quickness in all +natural history matters. The one passion of his life seemed natural +history, and the appearance of a new warbler in his woods--new in the +breeding season on Long Island--seemed an event that threw the affairs +of state and of the presidential succession quite into the background. +Indeed, he fairly bubbled over with delight at the thought of his new +birds and at the prospect of showing them to his visitors. He said to +my friend who accompanied me, John Lewis Childs, of Floral Park, a +former State Senator, that he could not talk politics then, he wanted +to talk and to hunt birds. And it was not long before he was as hot +on the trail of that new warbler as he had recently been on the trail +of some of the great trusts. Fancy a President of the United States +stalking rapidly across bushy fields to the woods, eager as a boy and +filled with the one idea of showing to his visitors the black-throated +green warbler! We were presently in the edge of the woods and standing +under a locust tree, where the President had several times seen and +heard his rare visitant. "That's his note now," he said, and we all +three recognized it at the same instant. It came from across a little +valley fifty yards farther in the woods. We were soon standing under +the tree in which the bird was singing, and presently had our glasses +upon him. + + [Illustration: THE PRESIDENT'S HOME ON SAGAMORE HILL, SHOWING + ADDITION KNOWN AS THE TROPHY ROOM + + From stereograph, copyright 1907, by Underwood & Underwood, + New York] + +"There is no mistake about it, Mr. President," we both said; "it is +surely the black-throated green," and he laughed in glee. "I knew it +could be no other; there is no mistaking that song and those markings. +'Trees, trees, murmuring trees!' some one reports him as saying. Now +if we could only find the nest;" but we did not, though it was +doubtless not far off. + +Our warblers, both in color and in song, are bewildering even to the +experienced ornithologist, but the President had mastered most of +them. Not long before he had written me from Washington that he had +just come in from walking with Mrs. Roosevelt about the White House +grounds looking up arriving warblers. "Most of the warblers were up in +the tops of the trees, and I could not get a good glimpse of them; but +there was one with chestnut cheeks, with bright yellow behind the +cheeks, and a yellow breast thickly streaked with black, which has +puzzled me. Doubtless it is a very common kind which has for the +moment slipped my memory. I saw the Blackburnian, the summer +yellowbird, and the black-throated green." The next day he wrote me +that he had identified the puzzling warbler; it was the Cape May. +There is a tradition among newspaper men in Washington that a Cape May +warbler once broke up a Cabinet meeting; maybe this was that identical +bird. + +At luncheon he told us of some of his ornithological excursions in the +White House grounds, how people would stare at him as he stood gazing +up into the trees like one demented. "No doubt they thought me +insane." "Yes," said Mrs. Roosevelt, "and as I was always with him, +they no doubt thought I was the nurse that had him in charge." + +In his "Pastimes of an American Hunter" he tells of the owls that in +June sometimes came after nightfall about the White House. "Sometimes +they flew noiselessly to and fro, and seemingly caught big insects on +the wing. At other times they would perch on the iron awning bars +directly overhead. Once one of them perched over one of the windows +and sat motionless, looking exactly like an owl of Pallas Athene." + +He knew the vireos also, and had seen and heard the white-eyed at his +Virginia place, "Pine Knot," and he described its peculiar, emphatic +song. As I moved along with the thought of this bird in mind and its +snappy, incisive song, as I used to hear it in the old days near +Washington, I fancied I caught its note in a dense bushy place below +us. We paused to listen. "A catbird," said the President, and so we +all agreed. We saw and heard a chewink. "Out West the chewink calls +like a catbird," he observed. Continuing our walk, we skirted the edge +of an orchard. Here the President called our attention to a +high-hole's nest in a cavity of an old apple tree. He rapped on the +trunk of the tree that we might hear the smothered cry for food of the +young inside. A few days before he had found one of the half-fledged +young on the ground under the tree, and had managed to reach up and +drop it back into the nest. "What a boiling there was in there," he +said, "when the youngster dropped in!" + +A cuckoo called in a tree overhead, the first I had heard this season. +I feared the cold spring had cut them off. "The yellow-billed, +undoubtedly," the President observed, and was confirmed by Mr. Childs. +I was not certain that I knew the call of the yellow-billed from that +of the black-billed. "We have them both," said the President, "but the +yellow-billed is the more common." + +We continued our walk along a path that led down through a most +delightful wood to the bay. Everywhere the marks of the President's +axe were visible, as he had with his own hand thinned out and cleared +up a large section of the wood. + +A few days previous he had seen some birds in a group of tulip-trees +near the edge of the woods facing the water; he thought they were +rose-breasted grosbeaks, but could not quite make them out. He had +hoped to find them there now, and we looked and listened for some +moments, but no birds appeared. + +Then he led us to a little pond in the midst of the forest where the +night heron sometimes nested. A pair of them had nested there in a big +water maple the year before, but the crows had broken them up. As we +reached the spot the cry of the heron was heard over the tree-tops. +"That is its alarm note," said the President. I remarked that it was +much like the cry of the little green heron. "Yes, it is, but if we +wait here till the heron returns, and we are not discovered, you would +hear his other more characteristic call, a hoarse quawk." + +Presently we moved on along another path through the woods toward the +house. A large, wide-spreading oak attracted my attention--a superb +tree. + +"You see by the branching of that oak," said the President, "that when +it grew up this wood was an open field and maybe under the plough; it +is only in fields that oaks take that form." I knew it was true, but +my mind did not take in the fact when I first saw the tree. His mind +acts with wonderful swiftness and completeness, as I had abundant +proof that day. + + [Illustration: A BIT OF WOODLAND ON THE SLOPE TOWARDS OYSTER + BAY + + From stereograph, copyright 1907, by Underwood & Underwood, + New York] + +As we walked along we discussed many questions, all bearing directly +or indirectly upon natural history. The conversation was perpetually +interrupted by some bird-note in the trees about us which we would +pause to identify--the President's ear, I thought, being the most +alert of the three. Continuing the talk, he dwelt upon the inaccuracy +of most persons' seeing, and upon the unreliability as natural history +of most of the stories told by guides and hunters. Sometimes writers +of repute were to be read with caution. He mentioned that excellent +hunting book of Colonel Dodge's, in which are described two species of +the puma, one in the West called the "mountain lion," very fierce and +dangerous; the other called in the East the "panther,"--a harmless and +cowardly animal. "Both the same species," said the President, "and +almost identical in disposition." + +Nothing is harder than to convince a person that he has seen wrongly. +The other day a doctor accosted me in the street of one of our inland +towns to tell me of a strange bird he had seen; the bird was +blood-red all over and was in some low bushes by the roadside. Of +course I thought of our scarlet tanager, which was then just arriving. +No, he knew that bird with black wings and tail; this bird had no +black upon it, but every quill and feather was vivid scarlet. The +doctor was very positive, so I had to tell him we had no such bird in +our state. There was the summer redbird common in the Southern States, +but this place is much beyond its northern limit, and, besides, this +bird is not scarlet, but is of a dull red. Of course he had seen a +tanager, but in the shade of the bushes the black of the wings and +tail had escaped him. + +This was simply a case of mis-seeing in an educated man; but in the +untrained minds of trappers and woodsmen generally there is an element +of the superstitious, and a love for the marvelous, which often +prevents them from seeing the wild life about them just as it is. They +possess the mythopoeic faculty, and they unconsciously give play to +it. + +Thus our talk wandered as we wandered along the woods and field paths. +The President brought us back by the corner of a clover meadow where +he was sure a pair of red-shouldered starlings had a nest. He knew it +was an unlikely place for starlings to nest, as they breed in marshes +and along streams and in the low bushes on lake borders, but this pair +had always shown great uneasiness when he had approached this plot of +tall clover. As we drew near, the male starling appeared and uttered +his alarm note. The President struck out to look for the nest, and for +a time the Administration was indeed in clover, with the alarmed +black-bird circling above it and showing great agitation. For my +part, I hesitated on the edge of the clover patch, having a farmer's +dread of seeing fine grass trampled down. I suggested to the President +that he was injuring his hay crop; that the nest was undoubtedly there +or near there; so he came out of the tall grass, and, after looking +into the old tumbled-down barn--a regular early settler's barn, with +huge timbers hewn from forest trees--that stood near by, and which the +President said he preserved for its picturesqueness and its savor of +old times, as well as for a place to romp in with his dogs and +children, we made our way to the house. + +The purple finch nested in the trees about the house, and the +President was greatly pleased that he was able to show us this bird +also. + + [Illustration: A PATH IN THE WOODS LEADING TO COLD SPRING + HARBOR + + From stereograph, copyright 1907, by Underwood & Underwood, + New York] + +A few days previous to our visit the children had found a bird's nest +on the ground, in the grass, a few yards below the front of the house. +There were young birds in it, and as the President had seen the +grasshopper sparrow about there, he concluded the nest belonged to it. +We went down to investigate it, and found the young gone and two +addled eggs in the nest. When the President saw those eggs, he said: +"That is not the nest of the grasshopper sparrow, after all; those are +the eggs of the song sparrow, though the nest is more like that of the +vesper sparrow. The eggs of the grasshopper sparrow are much lighter +in color--almost white, with brown specks." For my part, I had quite +forgotten for the moment how the eggs of the little sparrow looked or +differed in color from those of the song sparrow. But the President +has so little to remember that he forgets none of these minor things! +His bird-lore and wood-lore seem as fresh as if just learned. + +I asked him if he ever heard that rare piece of bird music, the flight +song of the oven-bird. "Yes," he replied, "we frequently hear it of an +evening, while we are sitting on the porch, right down there at the +corner of the woods." Now, this flight song of the oven-bird was +unknown to the older ornithologists, and Thoreau, with all his years +of patient and tireless watching of birds and plants, never identified +it; but the President had caught it quickly and easily, sitting on his +porch at Sagamore Hill. I believe I may take the credit of being the +first to identify and describe this song--back in the old "Wake Robin" +days. + +In an inscription in a book the President had just given me he had +referred to himself as my pupil. Now I was to be his pupil. In dealing +with the birds I could keep pace with him pretty easily, and, maybe, +occasionally lead him; but when we came to consider big game and the +animal life of the globe, I was nowhere. His experience with the big +game has been very extensive, and his acquaintance with the literature +of the subject is far beyond my own; and he forgets nothing, while my +memory is a sieve. In his study he set before me a small bronze +elephant in action, made by the famous French sculptor Barye. He asked +me if I saw anything wrong with it. I looked it over carefully, and +was obliged to confess that, so far as I could see, it was all right. +Then he placed before me another, by a Japanese artist. Instantly I +saw what was wrong with the Frenchman's elephant. Its action was like +that of a horse or a cow, or any trotting animal--a hind and a front +foot on opposite sides moving together. The Japanese had caught the +real movement of the animal, which is that of a pacer--both legs on +the same side at a time. What different effects the two actions gave +the statuettes! The free swing of the Japanese elephant you at once +recognize as the real thing. The President laughed, and said he had +never seen any criticism of Barye's elephant on this ground, or any +allusion to his mistake; it was his own discovery. I was fairly beaten +at my own game of observation. + +He then took down a copy of his "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail," +and pointed out to me the mistakes the artist had made in some of his +drawings of big Western game. + +"Do you see anything wrong in the head of the pronghorn?" he asked, +referring to the animal which the hunter is bringing in on the saddle +behind him. Again I had to confess that I could not. Then he showed me +the mounted head of a pronghorn over the mantel in one of his rooms, +and called my attention to the fact that the eye was close under the +root of the horn, whereas in the picture the artist had placed it +about two inches too low. And in the artist's picture of the +pronghorn, which heads Chapter IX, he had made the tail much too long, +as he had the tail of the elk on the opposite page. + +I had heard of Mr. Roosevelt's attending a fair in Orange County, +while he was Governor, where a group of mounted deer were exhibited. +It seems the group had had rough usage, and one of the deer had lost +its tail and a new one had been supplied. No one had noticed anything +wrong with it till Mr. Roosevelt came along. "But the minute he +clapped his eyes on that group," says the exhibitor, "he called out, +'Here, Gunther, what do you mean by putting a white-tail deer's tail +on a black-tail deer?" Such closeness and accuracy of observation even +few naturalists can lay claim to. I mentioned the incident to him, +and he recalled it laughingly. He then took down a volume on the deer +family which he had himself had a share in writing, and pointed out +two mistakes in the naming of the pictures which had been overlooked. +The picture of the "white-tail in flight" was the black-tail of +Colorado, and the picture of the black-tail of Colorado showed the +black-tail of Columbia--the difference this time being seen in the +branching of the horns. + +The President took us through his house and showed us his trophies of +the chase--bearskins of all sorts and sizes on the floors, panther and +lynx skins on the chairs, and elk heads and deer heads on the walls, +and one very large skin of the gray timber wolf. We examined the teeth +of the wolf, barely more than an inch long, and we all laughed at the +idea of its reaching the heart of a caribou through the breast by a +snap, or any number of snaps, as it has been reported to do. I doubt +if it could have reached the heart of a gobbler turkey in that way at +a single snap. + + [Illustration: A YEARLING IN THE APPLE ORCHARD + + From stereograph, copyright 1907, by Underwood & Underwood, + New York] + +The President's interest in birds, and in natural history generally, +dates from his youth. While yet in his teens he published a list of +the birds of Franklin County, New York. He showed me a bird journal +which he kept in Egypt when he was a lad of fourteen, and a case of +three African plovers which he had set up at that time; and they were +well done. + +Evidently one of his chief sources of pleasure at Sagamore Hill is the +companionship of the birds. He missed the bobolink, the seaside finch, +and the marsh wren, but his woods and grounds abounded in other +species. He knew and enjoyed not only all the more common birds, but +many rarer and shyer ones that few country people ever take note +of--such as the Maryland yellow-throat, the black and white creeper, +the yellow-breasted chat, the oven-bird, the prairie warbler, the +great crested flycatcher, the wood pewee, and the sharp-tailed finch. +He enjoyed the little owls, too. "It is a pity the little-eared owl is +called a screech owl. Its tremulous, quavering cry is not a screech at +all, and has an attraction of its own. These little owls come up to +the house after dark, and are fond of sitting on the elk's antlers +over the gable. When the moon is up, by choosing one's position, the +little owl appears in sharp outline against the bright disk, seated on +his many-tined perch." + +A few days after my visit he wrote me that he had identified the +yellow-throated or Dominican warbler in his woods, the first he had +ever seen. I had to confess to him that I had never seen the bird. It +is very rare north of Maryland. The same letter records several +interesting little incidents in the wild life about him: + +"The other night I took out the boys in rowboats for a camping-out +expedition. We camped on the beach under a low bluff near the grove +where a few years ago on a similar expedition we saw a red fox. This +time two young foxes, evidently this year's cubs, came around the camp +half a dozen times during the night, coming up within ten yards of the +fire to pick up scraps and seeming to be very little bothered by our +presence. Yesterday on the tennis ground I found a mole shrew. He was +near the side lines first. I picked him up in my handkerchief, for he +bit my hand, and after we had all looked at him I let him go; but in a +few minutes he came back and deliberately crossed the tennis grounds +by the net. As he ran over the level floor of the court, his motion +reminded all of us of the motion of those mechanical mice that run +around on wheels when wound up. A chipmunk that lives near the tennis +court continually crosses it when the game is in progress. He has done +it two or three times this year, and either he or his predecessor has +had the same habit for several years. I am really puzzled to know why +he should go across this perfectly bare surface, with the players +jumping about on it, when he is not frightened and has no reason that +I can see for going. Apparently he grows accustomed to the players and +moves about among them as he would move about, for instance, among a +herd of cattle." + +The President is a born nature-lover, and he has what does not always +go with this passion--remarkable powers of observation. He sees +quickly and surely, not less so with the corporeal eye than with the +mental. His exceptional vitality, his awareness all around, gives the +clue to his powers of seeing. The chief qualification of a born +observer is an alert, sensitive, objective type of mind, and this +Roosevelt has in a preeminent degree. + +You may know the true observer, not by the big things he sees, but by +the little things; and then not by the things he sees with effort and +premeditation, but by his effortless, unpremeditated seeing--the +quick, spontaneous action of his mind in the presence of natural +objects. Everybody sees the big things, and anybody can go out with +note-book and opera-glass and make a dead set at the birds, or can go +into the northern forests and interview guides and trappers and +Indians, and stare in at the door of the "school of the woods." None +of these things evince powers of observation; they only evince +industry and intention. In fact, born observers are about as rare as +born poets. Plenty of men can see straight and report straight what +they see; but the men who see what others miss, who see quickly and +surely, who have the detective eye, like Sherlock Holmes, who "get the +drop," so to speak, on every object, who see minutely and who see +whole, are rare indeed. + +President Roosevelt comes as near fulfilling this ideal as any man I +have known. His mind moves with wonderful celerity, and yet as an +observer he is very cautious, jumps to no hasty conclusions. + +He had written me, toward the end of May, that while at Pine Knot in +Virginia he had seen a small flock of passenger pigeons. As I had been +following up the reports of wild pigeons from various parts of our +own state during the past two or three years, this statement of the +President's made me prick up my ears. In my reply I said, "I hope you +are sure about those pigeons," and I told him of my interest in the +subject, and also how all reports of pigeons in the East had been +discredited by a man in Michigan who was writing a book on the +subject. This made him prick up his ears, and he replied that while he +felt very certain he had seen a small band of the old wild pigeons, +yet he might have been deceived; the eye sometimes plays one tricks. +He said that in his old ranch days he and a cowboy companion thought +one day that they had discovered a colony of _black_ prairie dogs, +thanks entirely to the peculiar angle at which the light struck them. +He said that while he was President he did not want to make any +statement, even about pigeons, for the truth of which he did not have +good evidence. He would have the matter looked into by a friend at +Pine Knot upon whom he could depend. He did so, and convinced himself +and me also that he had really seen wild pigeons. I had the pleasure +of telling him that in the same mail with his letter came the news to +me of a large flock of wild pigeons having been seen near the +Beaverkill in Sullivan County, New York. While he was verifying his +observation I was in Sullivan County verifying this report. I saw and +questioned persons who had seen the pigeons, and I came away fully +convinced that a flock of probably a thousand birds had been seen +there late in the afternoon of May 23. "You need have no doubt about +it," said the most competent witness, an old farmer. "I lived here +when the pigeons nested here in countless numbers forty years ago. I +know pigeons as I know folks, and these were pigeons." + + [Illustration: HALLWAY, SAGAMORE HILL + + From stereograph, copyright 1907, by Underwood & Underwood, + New York] + +I mention this incident of the pigeons because I know that the fact +that they have been lately seen in considerable numbers will be good +news to a large number of readers. + +The President's nature-love is deep and abiding. Not every bird +student succeeds in making the birds a part of his life. Not till you +have long and sympathetic intercourse with them, in fact, not till you +have loved them for their own sake, do they enter into and become a +part of your life. I could quote many passages from President +Roosevelt's books which show how he has felt and loved the birds, and +how discriminating his ear is with regard to their songs. Here is +one:-- + +"The meadow-lark is a singer of a higher order [than the plains +skylark], deserving to rank with the best. Its song has length, +variety, power, and rich melody, and there is in it sometimes a +cadence of wild sadness inexpressibly touching. Yet I cannot say that +either song would appeal to others as it appeals to me; for to me it +comes forever laden with a hundred memories and associations--with the +sight of dim hills reddening in the dawn, with the breath of cool +morning winds blowing across lonely plains, with the scent of flowers +on the sunlit prairie, with the motion of fiery horses, with all the +strong thrill of eager and buoyant life. I doubt if any man can judge +dispassionately the bird-songs of his own country; he cannot +disassociate them from the sights and sounds of the land that is so +dear to him." + +Here is another, touching upon some European song-birds as compared +with some of our own: "No one can help liking the lark; it is such a +brave, honest, cheery bird, and moreover its song is uttered in the +air, and is very long-sustained. But it is by no means a musician of +the first rank. The nightingale is a performer of a very different and +far higher order; yet though it is indeed a notable and admirable +singer, it is an exaggeration to call it unequaled. In melody, and +above all in that finer, higher melody where the chords vibrate with +the touch of eternal sorrow, it cannot rank with such singers as the +wood-thrush and the hermit-thrush. The serene ethereal beauty of the +hermit's song, rising and falling through the still evening, under the +archways of hoary mountain forests that have endured from time +everlasting; the golden, leisurely chiming of the wood-thrush, +sounding on June afternoons, stanza by stanza, through the +sun-flecked groves of tall hickories, oaks, and chestnuts; with these +there is nothing in the nightingale's song to compare. But in volume +and continuity, in tuneful, voluble, rapid outpouring and ardor, above +all in skillful and intricate variation of theme, its song far +surpasses that of either of the thrushes. In all these respects it is +more just to compare it with the mocking-bird's, which, as a rule, +likewise falls short precisely on those points where the songs of the +two thrushes excel." + +In his "Pastimes of an American Hunter" he says: "It is an +incalculable added pleasure to any one's sense of happiness if he or +she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and +enjoy the wonder-book of nature. All hunters should be nature-lovers. +It is to be hoped that the days of mere wasteful, boastful slaughter +are past, and that from now on the hunter will stand foremost in +working for the preservation and perpetuation of the wild life, +whether big or little." Surely this man is the rarest kind of a +sportsman. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Camping & Tramping with Roosevelt, by +John Burroughs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPING & TRAMPING WITH ROOSEVELT *** + +***** This file should be named 33053.txt or 33053.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/0/5/33053/ + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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