. My experience has been that
with the single exception mentioned, I have felt securer in the
buckskin.

[Illustration:

"Mountain on mountain towering high,
And a valley in between"]

[Sidenote: Ease]

As for ease to the feet, that is of course a matter of opinion.
Undoubtedly at first the moccasin novice is literally a tenderfoot. But
after astonishingly few days of practice a man no longer notices the
lack of a sole. I have always worn moccasins more or less in the woods,
and now can walk over pebbles or knife-edge stones without the slightest
discomfort. In fact the absence of rolling and slipping in that sort of
shifting footing turns the scale quite the other way.

[Sidenote: Wear]

The matter of wear is not so important. It would seem at first glance
that the one thin layer of buckskin would wear out before the several
thick layers of a shoe's sole. Such is not always the case. A good deal
depends on the sort of ground you cover. If you wet moccasins, and then
walk down hill with them over granite shale, you can get holes to order.
Boots wear rapidly in the same circumstances. On the other hand I have
on at this moment a pair of mooseskin moccasins purchased three years
ago at a Hudson's Bay Company's post, which have seen two summers' off
and on service in the Sierras. Barring extraordinary conditions, I
should say that each in its proper use, a pair of boots and a pair of
moccasins would last about the same length of time. The moccasin,
however, has this advantage: it can be readily patched, and even a half
dozen extra pairs take up little room in the pack.

[Sidenote: Waterproofing]

Absolute protection must remain a tentative term. No footwear I have
succeeded in discovering gives absolute protection. Where there is much
work to be done in the water, I think boots are the warmest and most
comfortable, though no leather is perfectly waterproof. Moccasins then
become slimpsy, stretched, and loathsome. So likewise moccasins are not
much good in damp snow, though in dry snow they are unexcelled.

In my own practice I wear boots on a horseback trip, and carry moccasins
in my pack for general walking. In the woods I pack four pair of
moccasins. In a canoe, moccasins of course.

[Sidenote: About Boots]

Do not make the common mistake of getting tremendously heavy boots.
They are clumsy to place, burdensome to carry, and stiff and unpliable
to the chafing point. The average amateur