d by
the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space--all mean egoism
vanishes. . . . I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty."

So, to make my life-dream come true, to contemplate in all its
thrilling action and undying splendour the drama of the forests, I
travelled twenty-three times through various parts of the vast northern
woods, between Maine and Alaska, and covered thousands upon thousands
of miles by canoe, pack-train, snowshoes, _bateau_, dog-train,
buck-board, timber-raft, prairie-schooner, lumber-wagon, and
"alligator." No one trip ever satisfied me, or afforded me the
knowledge or the experience I sought, for traversing a single section
of the forest was not unlike making one's way along a single street of
a metropolis and then trying to persuade oneself that one knew all
about the city's life. So back again I went at all seasons of the year
to encamp in that great timber-land that sweeps from the Atlantic to
the Pacific. Thus it has taken me thirty-three years to gather the
information this volume contains, and my only hope in writing it is
that perhaps others may have had the same day-dream, and that in this
book they may find a reliable and satisfactory answer to all their
wonderings. But making my dream come true--what delight it gave me!
What sport and travel it afforded me! What toil and sweat it caused
me! What food and rest it brought me! What charming places it led me
through! What interesting people it ranged beside me! What romance it
unfolded before me! and into what thrilling adventures it plunged me!

But before we paddle down the winding wilderness aisle toward the great
stage upon which Diana and all her attendant huntsmen and forest
creatures may appear, I wish to explain that in compliance with the
wishes of the leading actors--who actually lived their parts of this
story--fictitious names have been given to the principal characters and
to the principal trading posts, lakes, and rivers herein depicted.
Furthermore, in order to give the reader a more interesting, complete,
and faithful description of the daily and the yearly life of the forest
dwellers as I have observed it, I have taken the liberty of weaving
together the more interesting facts I have gathered--both first- and
second-hand--into one continuous narrative as though it all happened in
a single year. And in order to retain all the primitive local colour,
the unique costumes, and the fascinating romance of