![before coming down. My stand was a weathered stump beside the road, against
which I sat on a carpet of moss, without concealment of any kind. At a short distance
lay the grouse, a poor crumpled thing, just as he had wilted under the hawk’s swoop.
Thus a half-hour or more passed comfortably. A gorgeous cock-partridge sauntered
into the open, saw me when I nodded to him, and went slowly off with that graceful,
balancing motion which a grouse affects when he is well satisfied with himself. Then,
as the sun rose, there was a swift-moving shadow, a rustle of pinions; the goshawk
swept down the road in front of me and lit beside his game. He was a handsome
bandit, in full adult plumage; his gray breast was penciled in shadowy lines, while his
back was a foggy blue, as if in his northern home he had caught the sheen of the
heavens above and of rippling waters beneath his flight. His folded wings stood out
squarely from his shoulders with an impression of power, [219]like an eagle’s. There
was something noble in his poise, in his challenging eye, in the forward thrust of his
fierce head; but the spell was broken at the first step. He moved awkwardly,
unwillingly it seemed; his great curving talons interfered with his footing when he
touched the earth.
This time, instead of a rifle, there was a trim shotgun across my knees. The hawk
was mine whether he stood quiet or leaped into swift flight, and feeling sure of him
now I watched awhile, wondering whether he would break up his game with his
claws, as some owls do, or tear it to pieces with his hooked beak. For a moment he
did neither, but stood splendidly alert over his kill. Once he turned his head
completely around over either shoulder, sweeping his piercing glance over me, but
seeing nothing unusual. Then he seized his game in one foot and struck his beak into
the breast, making the feathers fly as he laid the delicate flesh open. When I found
myself weakening, growing sentimental at the thought that it was his last meal, his
last taste of freedom and the wild, I remembered the grouse and got quietly on my
feet. Though busy with his feast, he caught the first shadow of a motion; I can still
see the gleam in his wild eyes as he sprang aloft.
I thought him beyond all harm as he lay on his back, one outstretched wing among
the feathers [220]of his victim; but he struck like a flash when I reached down for him
carelessly. “Take that! and that! and remember me!” he said, driving his weapons up
with astonishing force, a force that kills or paralyzes his game at the first grip. Four of
his needle-pointed talons went to the bone, and the others were well buried in the
flesh of my arm. The old viking had been some time with his ancestors before I pried
him loose.
As for the sense of smell, on which most animals depend for accurate information, I
have tried numerous experiments with deer, moose, bear and other creatures to learn
how far they can wind a man, and how their powers compare one with another.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-20-320.jpg)
![There is no definite answer to the problem, so baffling are the conditions of observing
these shy beasts; but you are in for some surprises, at least, when you attempt to
solve it in the open. You will learn, for example, that when a gale is blowing the
animals are more at sea than in a dead calm; or that in a gusty wind you can
approach them about as easily from one side as from another. Such a wind rolls and
eddies violently, rebounding from every hill or point or shore in such erratic fashion
that the animals have no means of locating a danger when they catch a fleeting sniff
of it. It is for this reason, undoubtedly, that all game is uncommonly [221]wild on a
windy day: the constant motion of leaves or tossing boughs breeds confusion in their
eyes, and the woodsy smells are so broken by cross-currents that they cannot be
traced to their source. So it has happened more than once on a gusty day that a deer,
catching my scent on the rebound, has whirled and rushed straight at me, producing
the momentary illusion that he was charging.
With a steady but not strong wind blowing in their direction, I have seen deer
become alarmed while I was yet a quarter-mile away; this on a lake, where there was
nothing to interfere with the breeze or the scent. On the burnt lands or the open
barrens I have seen bear and caribou throw up their heads and break away while I
was even farther removed. In a light breeze the distance is much shorter, varying
from fifty to two hundred yards, according to the amount of moisture in the air. On
days that are still or very dry, or when the air is filled with smoke from a forest fire
(the latter soon inflames all sensitive nostrils), the animals are at sea again, and
depend less on their noses than on their eyes or ears.
Another surprising thing is, that the animal’s ability to detect you through his sense of
smell is largely governed by your own activity or bodily condition. Thus, when a man
is perspiring freely or moving quickly, his scent is stronger and [222]travels much wider
than when he is sauntering about. But if a man sits absolutely quiet, a clean man
especially, no animal can detect him beyond a few feet, I think, for the reason that a
resting man is like a resting bird or beast in that he gives off very little body scent,
which remains on the ground close about him instead of floating off on the air
currents. Even when the trees are tossing in a gale there is little stir on the ground,
not in the woods at least, and the closer you hold to Mother Earth the less likelihood
is there of any beast smelling you.
All ground-nesting birds depend for their lives on this curious provision of nature.
Were it not for the fact that practically no scent escapes while they are brooding their
eggs, very few of them would live to bring forth a family in a wood nightly traversed
by such keen-nosed enemies as the fox and the weasel. My old setter would wind a
running grouse or quail at an incredible distance, and would follow him by picking his
scent from the air; but I have taken that same dog on a leash near the same birds](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-21-320.jpg)
![when they were brooding their eggs, and he could not or would not detect them
unless he were brought within a few feet, or (a rare occurrence) unless a creeping
ground-breeze blew directly from the nest into his face. [223]
The same provision guards animals, such as deer and caribou, which build no dens
but leave their helpless young on the ground. Two or three times, after finding a fawn
in the woods, I have tested his concealment by means of my young dog’s nose; and I
may add that Rab will point a deer as stanchly as he points a grouse or woodcock, for
he is still in the happy, irresponsible stage when everything that lives in the woods is
game to him. So long as the fawn remains motionless where his mother hid him, the
dog must be almost on top of him before pointing or showing any sign of game. But
if the little fellow runs or even rises to his feet at our approach (fawns are apt to do
this as they grow older), the dog seems to catch the scent after the first motion; he
begins to cat-foot, his nose up as in following an air trail, and steadies to a point
while he is still many yards away from where the fawn was hiding.
The nose of a wolf is keener than that of any dog I ever knew; yet I once trailed a
pack of wolves that passed within sixteen measured feet of where two deer were
sleeping in a hole in the snow. The wolves were hunting, too, for they killed and
partially ate a buck a little farther on; but the trail said that they had passed close to
these sleeping deer without detecting them. [224]
As for the man-scent, you may judge of that by the violent start or the headlong rush
when an animal catches the first alarming whiff of it. If he passes quietly on his way,
therefore, you may be reasonably sure he has not smelled you. To the latter
conclusion I have been forced many times when I have been watching in the woods,
sitting quiet for hours at a stretch, and a deer or bear or fox, or some other beast
with nose as keen as a brier, has passed at a dozen yards’ distance without a sign to
indicate that he was aware of me. Some of these animals came much nearer; so near,
in fact, that I was scary of a closer approach until I had called their attention to what
lay ahead of them.
So long as you are seen or suspected, you need have little fear of any wild beast
(only the tame or half-tame are dangerous), but a brute that stumbles upon you in an
unexpected place or moment is always a problem. Nine times out of ten he will fall all
over himself in his haste to get away; but the tenth time he may fall upon you and
give you a mauling. Moose, for example, are apt to strike a terrible blow with their
fore feet, or to upset a canoe when the jack-light approaches them; not to attack, I
think, at least not consciously, but in blind panic or to ward off a fancied enemy. So
when I have watched from the shore of a lake [225]and a moose came swinging along
without noticing me, I have risen to my feet or thrown my hat at the big brute when
he was as near as I cared to have him. And more than once, after a tremendous start](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-22-320.jpg)
![of surprise, he has come nearer with his hackles up as soon as he got over the first
effect of my demonstration. Yet when I am roaming the woods that same brute will
catch my scent at from two to five hundred yards, and rush away before I can get
even a glimpse of him.
That the same surprising sense-limitation is upon deer and other game animals may
be inferred from the following experience, which is typical of many others. I was
perched among some cedar roots on the shore of a pond, one September day,
watching a buck with the largest antlers I have ever seen on one of his kind. I had
been some time quiet when he glided out to feed in a little bay, on my right; and my
heart was with him in the wish that he might keep his noble crown through the
hunting season, for his own pleasure and the adornment of the woods and the
confusion of all head-hunters. There was no breeze; but a moistened finger told of a
faint drift of air from the lake to the woods.
As I watched the buck, there came to my ears a crunching of gravel from the
opposite direction, and two deer appeared on the point at my left, [226]heading briskly
down into the bay. They passed between my outstretched feet and the water’s edge,
where the strip of shore was perhaps three yards wide; then they turned in my
direction, seeing or smelling nothing, went slowly up the bank and halted at the edge
of the woods to the right and a little behind me, so close that I dared not move even
my eyes to follow them. I measured the distance afterward, and found that from their
hoof-marks to the cedar root against which I rested was less than eight feet.
Imperceptibly I turned for another look, and saw both deer at attention, their heads
luckily pointed away from me. They were regarding the big buck intently, as if to
question him. They showed no alarm as yet; but they were plainly uneasy, searching
the forest on all sides and at times turning to look over my head upon the breathless
lake. Every nervous action said that they found something wrong in the air, some hint
or taint or warning which they could not define. So they moved alertly into the
woods, halting, listening, testing the air, using all their senses to locate a danger
which they had passed and left behind them.
From such experiences one might reasonably conclude that, like the brooding grouse
or the hidden fawn, a motionless man gives off so little scent that the keenest nose is
at fault until it [227]comes almost within touching distance. If any further proof is
needed, you may find it when you sleep in the open, and shy creatures draw near
without any fear of you. By daylight deer, bear and moose are extremely timid; they
rarely come within eyeshot of your camp, and they vanish at the first sniff which tells
them that you have invaded their feeding-grounds. But when you are well asleep the
same animals will pass boldly through your camp-yard; or they will awaken you, as
they have many times awakened me, when you are tenting or sleeping under the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-23-320.jpg)
![stars by some outlying pond. If you lie quiet, content to listen, the invading animal
will move freely here or there without concern; but no sooner do you begin to stir,
however quietly, than he catches the warning scent, and a thudding of earth or a
smashing of brush tells the rest of the story.
I recall one night, cloudy and very still, when I slept under my canoe on a strip of
sand beside a wilderness lake. The movement of an animal near at hand awoke me.
In the black darkness I could see nothing; but somehow I knew he was big, and
aside from the crepitation of the sand, which I plainly heard, I seemed to feel the
brute near me. For a moment there was a pause, a dead silence; then came a thump,
a rattlety-bang; the canoe shook as something hit the lower end of [228]it, and the
creature moved away. There was nothing to be done without eyes, so I snuggled the
blanket closer and went to sleep again. In the morning there were the tracks of a
moose, a bull as I judged from the shape of his feet, to say that he had come down
the shore at a fast walk, halted, stepped over the stern of the canoe, and went on
without hastening his pace.
That was odd enough; but more surprising were some tracks on the other side,
between the bow of the canoe and the woods. Very faint and dainty tracks they were,
as if a soft pad had touched the sand here and there in an uneven line; but they told
of a fox who had come trotting along under the bank, and who had passed in the
night without awakening me. That neither he nor the moose had smelled the sleeping
man, or nothing alarming in him at least, is about as near to certainty as you will
come in interpreting animal action.
There is another and not wholly unreasonable hypothesis which may help to explain
such phenomena; namely, that it is not the scent of man but of excitement, anger,
blood-lust or some other abnormal quality which alarms a wild animal. It sounds
queer, I know, to say that anger can be smelled; but it is more than probable that
anger or fierce excitement of any kind distils in the body [229]a kind of poison which is
physical and sensible. Such excitement certainly weakens a man, clogging his system
with the ashes of its hot fires; and there is no reason why it should not smell to earth
as well as to high heaven.
You have but to open your eyes and expand your nostrils for some evidence of this
matter. Bees when angered give off a pungent odor, which is so different from the
ordinary smell of the hive that even your dull nose may detect the change of temper.
The same is true of even cold-blooded reptiles. When you find a rattler or a black-
snake squirming in the sun, you can smell him faintly at a few yards’ distance. Now
stir him up with a pole, or pin him to the earth by pressing a forked stick with short](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-24-320.jpg)
![prongs over his neck. As the snake becomes enraged he pours off a rank odor, very
different from the musky smell that first attracted your notice, and it travels much
wider, and clings to your clothes for an hour afterward. It is not only possible but very
likely, therefore, that strong emotions affect the bodies of all creatures in a way
perceptible to senses other than sight. If so, one man who is peaceable and another
who is angry or highly excited may give off such different odors that a brute with
sensitive nostrils may be merely curious about the one and properly afraid of the
other. [230]
That wild animals instinctively fear the scent of humanity, as such, is probably not
true. The notion arises, I think, from judging the natural animal by those we have
made unnatural by abuse or persecution. Whenever man penetrates a wild region for
the first time he finds, as a rule, that the animals have little fear of him, the tameness
of wild game having been noted with surprise by almost every explorer. It has been
noted also, but without surprise, by saints and ascetics who “for the greater glory of
God” have adopted a life of solitude and meditation, and who have often found the
birds or beasts about their hermitage to be quite fearless of them, and receptive of
their kindness. Not till the abundant flocks and herds of a new region have been
harried and decimated by senseless slaughter do the survivors begin to be fearful and
unapproachable, as we unfortunately know them. Yet even now, no sooner do we
drop our persecution and assume a rational or humane attitude than the wild ducks
come to the boat landing of a winter hotel, deer feed at our haystacks, and bears
come in broad daylight to comfort themselves at our garbage-cans. Such things could
hardly be if the fear of man were an age-old or instinctive inheritance.
Nearer home, on any farm bordering the wilderness, you may see wild deer feeding
quite tamely [231]about the edges of the cleared fields all summer. I recall one such
farm in Maine, where the owner had fifteen acres of green oats waving over virgin
soil—a glorious crop for me, but for him an occasion of lamentation. You could go
through that field at any hour before six in the morning or after six at night and find a
dozen deer with a moose or two making themselves at home. The owner’s cattle
were kept out by a rail fence; but the moose simply leaned against the fence and
went through, while the nimble deer sailed over the obstruction like grasshoppers. On
all such farms the deer have the scent of man almost constantly in their nostrils, and
they are simply watchful, running when you approach too near, but turning after a
short flight to have a look at you. At times you may see them feeding when the scent
of laborers or fishermen blows fairly over them. But when October comes, and the
law is “off,” and wild-eyed hunters appear with guns in their hands and death in their
thoughts, then the same deer quickly become as other and wilder creatures, rushing
off in alarm at the first sniff of an enemy. The fact and the changed action are](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-25-320.jpg)
![evident enough; the only interesting question is, To what extent does the smell of
man change when he changes his peaceable ways?
Two or three times I have had opportunity to [232]test the effect of the human scent
in another way, the first time being when I had the good luck to see a natural child
and a natural animal together. The child, a baby girl just beginning to toddle, was
making a journey by means of a comfortable Indian paukee on my back, and I had
left her in an opening beside a portage trail while I went back to my canoe for a thing
I had forgotten. While I was gone, three deer sauntered into the opening. They saw
the baby, and were instantly as curious about her as so many gossips, a little spotted
fawn especially. The baby saw them, and began creeping eagerly forward, calling or
“crowing” as she went. The deer saw and heard and smelled her every moment; yet
they walked around her with springy steps, now on this side, now on that, showing a
world of curiosity in their bright eyes, but never a sign of fear.
From a distance I watched the lovely scene, kindling at the beauty of it, or feeling a
bit anxious when I saw the sharp feet of the old doe a little too near the sunny head
or the outstretched hands. Then an eddy of wind from the mountain got behind me
and whirled over the deer. They caught the scent and were away with a wild alarm-
call, their white flags flying, and the baby waving by-by as they vanished in the
woods.
Quite naturally, therefore, when a sensitive [233]animal runs away from me, I find
myself thinking that perhaps it is not the smell of humanity but of some evil trait or
quality which frightens him. I first laid down this hypothesis after meeting a strange,
childlike man, who had a passion for roaming by himself in the fields or woods. White
men, after a puzzling acquaintance, would tap their heads or call him crazy; an Indian
would look once in his eyes and say, very softly, “The Great Spirit has touched him.”
He was all gentleness, without a thought or possibility of harm in his nature. He was
also without fear, and perhaps for this reason he inspired no fear in others. When he
appeared in the woods, singing to himself, the animals would watch him for a
moment, and then go their ways quietly, as if they understood him. What would
happen if a race of such men lived near the wood folk must be left to the
imagination.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-26-320.jpg)
![[235]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-27-320.jpg)
![[237]
[Contents]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-29-320.jpg)
![The Trail
To reach my pond you must leave your canoe on the shore of Sungeegamook, the
home lake, and go eastward through the big woods. Yonder is the landing, that bank
of green topped by “everlasting” and blue asters, with a cleft like an arched doorway
in the forest behind it. A rugged jack-pine leans out over a bit of shingle, as if to
indicate a good place to beach your canoe, and there is something curiously alive,
almost sentient, in its attitude. The old tree seems to watch your approach; through
its leaves runs a low murmur of welcome as you step ashore.
Entering the woods (and because you are alone, and therefore natural, something in
their dim [238]aisles, their mysterious depths, their breathing silence, makes you go
gently) you find yourself in an old logging-road, once a garish symbol of man’s
destructiveness, but growing yearly more subdued, more beautiful, since Nature
began her work of healing. The earth beneath your feet, the restful earth which the
lumbermen left torn by iron tools or rent by dynamite, has again put on her soft-
colored garments. Feathery beds of fern push boldly into the road from shadowy
places; wild grasses fill all its sunny openings with their bloom and fragrance; and
winding down through shade or sunshine comes a trail made by the feet of deer and
moose. Already these timid animals have adopted the forgotten road as a runway;
you may meet them here when you return in the evening twilight.
Everywhere beside the trail are old marks of the destroyer. Noble maples or cedars
that were centuries growing have been slashed down, dismembered, thrust aside to
decay, and all because they stood in the way of a lumber-boss who thought only of
getting his cut of spruce down to the lake. To look upon such trees, dead and shorn
of their beauty, is to feel pity or indignation; but Nature does not share your feeling,
being too abundant of life and resource to waste any moment in regret. Already she
is upbuilding what man [239]has torn down. Glaring ax-wounds have all disappeared
under bandages of living moss; every fallen log has hidden its loss under a mantle of
lichen, soft and gray, which speaks not of death but of life renewed.
Where the sun touches these prostrate giants a blush of delicate color spreads over
them. See, it deepens as you look upon it curiously, and you examine it to find a
multitude of “fairy-cups” on slender stems, each lifting its scarlet chalice to the light.
Very soft and inviting seats they offer, yielding to your weight, sending up an odor as
of crushed herbs; but do not accept the invitation. If you must halt to rest or to enjoy
the stillness, sit not down on one of these mossy logs, but before it at a little
distance, and let its blended colors be to your eye what the wind in the pine is to](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-32-320.jpg)
![your ear, or the smell of hemlock to your nostrils. Then will all your senses delight in
harmony, their natural birthright, while you rest by the way.
Where the old road winds about the end of a ridge, avoiding every steep pitch, young
balsams are crowding thickly into it; where it turns downward to the lowlands, quick-
growing alders claim it as their own; and as you leave the lake far behind it begins to
divide interminably, each branch breaking into smaller branches, like the twigs of a
tree as you trace them outward. The [240]twig ends with a bud in clear space; but the
farther or landward end of a logging-road dwindles to a deer-path, the path to a
rabbit-run, and the run vanishes in some gloomy cedar swamp or trackless thicket
where is no outlook on any side.
It is in such places, while you puzzle over another man’s road instead of keeping your
own trail straight, that you are most apt to get lost. Coming back you need have no
fear of going astray, since all these trails lead to the main road, and thence downhill
to the lake; but going forward it is well to steer clear of all branch roads, which lead
nowhere and confuse the sense of direction.
Leaving the road behind, therefore, and heading still eastward, you cross a ridge
where the hardwoods stand, as their ancestors stood, untouched by the tools of men.
Immense trunks of beech or sugar-maple or yellow birch tower upward wide apart,
the moss of centuries upon them; far overhead is a delicate tracery of leaves, a dance
of light against the blue, and over all is the blessed silence.
Beyond the ridge the ground slopes downward to a uniform level. Soon the moss
grows deeper underfoot, with a coolness that speaks of perpetual moisture. The
forest becomes dense, almost bewildering; here a “black growth” of spruce or fir,
there a tangle of moosewood, yonder a swale [241]where impenetrable alder-thickets
make it impossible to hold a straight course. Because all this growth is useless to the
lumberman, there is no cutting to be seen; but because I have passed this way
before, instinctively following the same course like an animal, a faint winding trail
begins to appear, with a bent twig or a blazed tree at every turn to give direction.
As you move forward more confidently, learning the woodsman’s way of looking far
ahead to pick up the guiding signs before you come to them, the dim forest suddenly
brightens; a wave of light runs in, saying as it passes overhead that you are near an
opening. As if to confirm the message, the trail runs into a well-worn deer-path,
which looks as if the animals that used it knew well where they were going. Clumps
of delicate young larches spring up ahead; between them open filmy vistas, like
windows draped in lace, and across one vista stretches a ribbon of silver. A few more
steps and—there! my little pond is smiling at you, reflecting the blue deeps of heaven](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-33-320.jpg)
![or the white of passing clouds from its setting of pale-green larch-trees and crimson
mosses.
And now, if you are responsive, you shall have a new impression of this old world, the
wonderful impression which a wilderness lake gives at the moment of discovery, but
never again afterward. [242]As you emerge from cover of the woods, the pond seems
to awaken like a sleeper. See, it returns your gaze, and on its quiet face is a look of
surprise that you are here. Enjoy that first awakening look; for there is more of
wisdom and pleasure in it, believe me, than in hurrying forth blindly intent on making
a map or catching a trout, or doing something else that calls for sight to the neglect
of insight. All sciences, including chartography and angling, can easily be learned by
any man; but understanding is a gift of God, and it comes only to those who keep
their hearts open.
Your own nature is here your best guide, and it shows you a surprising thing: that
your old habitual impressions of the world have suddenly become novel and strange,
as if this smiling landscape were but just created, and you were the first to look with
seeing eyes upon the glory of it. It tells you, further, if you listen to its voice, that
creation is all like this, under necessity to be beautiful, and that the beauty is still as
delightful as when the evening and the morning were the first day. This dance of
water, this rain of light, this shimmer of air, this upspringing of trees, this blue heaven
bending over all—no artist ever painted such things; no poet ever sang or could sing
them. Like a mother’s infinite tenderness, they await your appreciation, your silence,
your [243]love; but they hide from your description in words or pigments.
Finally, in the lowest of whispers, your nature tells you that the most impressive and
still most natural thing in this quiet scene is the conscious life that broods silently
over it. As the little pond seems to awaken, to be alive and sentient, so also does that
noble tree yonder when you view it for the first time, or that delicate orchid wafting
its fragrance over the lonely bog. Each reflects something greater than itself, and it is
that greater “something” which appeals to you when you enter the solitude. Your
impressions here are those of the first man, a man who found many beautiful things
in a garden, and God walking among them in the cool of the day. Call the brooding
life God or the Infinite or the Unknown or the Great Spirit or the Great Mystery—what
you will; the simple fact is that you have an impression of a living Being, who first
speaks to you in terms of personality that you understand.
So much, and more, of eternal understanding you may have if you but tarry a
moment under these larches with an open mind. Then, when you have honored your
first impression, which will abide with you always, you may trace out the physical
features of my pond at leisure. Just here it is not very wide; your eye easily overlooks
it to rest [244]with pleasure on a great mound of moss, colored as no garden of](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-34-320.jpg)
![flowers was ever colored, swelling above the bog on the farther shore. On either
hand the water sparkles wider away, disappearing around a bend with an invitation to
come and see. To the left it ends in velvety shadow under a bank of evergreen; to the
right it seems to merge into the level shore, where shadow melts with substance in a
belt of blended colors. A few yards back from the shore groups of young larches lift
their misty-green foliage above the caribou moss; they seem not to be rooted deep in
the earth, but to be all standing on tiptoe, as if to look over the brim of my pond and
see their own reflections. Everywhere between these larch groups are shadowy
corridors; and in one of them your eye is caught by a spot of bright orange. The spot
moves, disappears, flashes out again from the misty green, and a deer steps forth to
complete the wilderness picture with the grace of life.
Such is my pond, hidden away in the heart of a caribou bog, which is itself well
hidden in dense forest. Before I found it the wild ducks had made it a summer home
from time immemorial; and now, since I disturb it no more, it is possessed in peace
by a family of beavers; yet I still think of it as mine, not by grace of any artificial law
or deed, but by the more ancient right of possession [245]and enjoyment. A hundred
lakes by which I have tented are greater or more splendid; but the first charm of any
wilderness scene is its solitude, and on these greater lakes the impression of solitude
may be broken by the flash of a paddle-blade in the sun, or the chuck of an ax under
the twilight, or the gleam of a camp-fire through the darkness. But here on my pond
you may know how Adam felt when he looked abroad: no raft has ever ruffled its
surface; no ax-stroke or moan of smitten tree has ever disturbed its quiet; no camp-
fire has ever gleamed on its waters. Its solitude is still that of the first day; and it has
no name, save for the Indian word that came unbidden at the moment of finding it,
like another Sleeping Beauty, in the woods.
Do you ask how I came to find my pond? Not by searching, but rather by the odd
chance of being myself lost. I had gone astray one afternoon, and was pushing
through some black growth when an alarm rose near at hand. A deer whistled loudly,
crying “Heu! heu! heu!” as he jumped away, and on the heels of his cry came a
quacking of flushed ducks.
Till that moment I thought I knew where I was; but the quacking brought doubt, and
then bewilderment. If a duck tells you anything in the woods, he tells you of water,
plenty of it; but the [246]map showed no body of water nearer than Big Pine Pond,
which I had fished that day, and which should be three or four miles behind me.
Turning in the direction of the alarm, I soon broke out of the cover upon a caribou
bog, a mysterious expanse never before suspected in that region, and before me was
the gleam of water in the sunshine. “A pond, a new one, and what a beauty!” I
thought with elation, as I caught its awakening look and feasted my eyes on its glory](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-35-320.jpg)
![of color. Then I gave it an Indian name and hurried away; for I was surely off my
course, and the hour was late for lingering in strange woods. Somewhere to the west
of me was the home lake; so westward I headed, making a return-compass of bent
twigs, till I set my feet in a branch of the old logging-road. And that chance trail is
the one I have ever since followed.
[247]
[Contents]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-36-320.jpg)
![Woodsy Impressions
Next morning I returned to explore my find at leisure. One part of that exploration
was to go completely around the bog, to learn its guiding landmarks and compass-
bearings; but an earlier and better part was to sit quietly beside my pond to hear
whatever it might have to say to me. If that last sounds fanciful, remember that
many things are voiceless in this world, but few are wholly dumb. Of the numberless
ponds that brighten the northern wilderness, some were made by beavers, others by
flood or glacier or earthquake, and no two of them tell the same story or make the
same impression. They are like so [248]many unspoiled Indians, whom we regard from
a distance as being mysteriously alike, but who have different traditions, ideals,
personalities, and even different languages.
I know not what the spell of any lonely place may be when you make yourself part of
it; I only know that it stirs one strangely, like the flute note of a wood-thrush or a
song without words. Though I never met with an adventure on my little pond, never
cast a fly to learn whether any trout lurked in its waters, never thought of firing a
shot at its abundant game, yet season after season I returned to it expectantly, and
went away satisfied. Such a pond has a charm of its own, a spell which our forebears
sought to express in terms of nymphs or puckwudgies or water-sprites. It grows a
better crop than trout, attracts a finer game than deer or water-fowl, and you can
seldom visit it without learning something new about your natural self or the wood
folk or the friendly universe.
Thus, it happens on a day when you are waiting beside your pond, or wending your
way to it, that a moose or a fox or a dainty grouse appears unexpectedly near you;
and instantly, without thought or motive, you “freeze” in your tracks or, if you are not
seen, shrink deeper into the shadow for concealment. The action is natural,
involuntary, instinctive, precisely like the action of a [249]young deer under similar
circumstances; but when it is over you understand it, and smile at finding yourself
becoming more and more like other natural creatures,—going softly, that is, making
yourself inconspicuous without trying or knowing how, and having no thought of
harm to any bird or beast, but only of watching him or gauging his course while
remaining yourself unseen. Only by some such method can you learn anything worth
knowing about a wild animal: books describe, naturalists classify and sportsmen kill
him; but to understand him you must be a sharer of his quiet ways.
Comes another day, a day when you are in love with solitude itself, when you learn
with surprise that a man is never lonely when alone in the woods; that ideals may be](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-39-320.jpg)
![quite as companionable as folks; and that around you in a goodly company are
beauty, peace, spacious freedom and harmonious thoughts, with a hint also, to some
minds, of angels and ministers of grace. The Attendant Spirit of “Comus,” the Ariel of
“The Tempest,” the good fairies of all folk,—these are never understood in the town,
nor in the woods unless you enter them alone.
At a later time, and with a thrill of great wonder, you may discover the meaning of
silence, and of the ancient myth of a lovely goddess of silence; not the dead silence
of a dungeon, which may roar [250]in a man’s ears till it deafens him or drives him
mad, but the exquisite living silence of nature, a silence which at any moment may
break into an elfin ringing of bells, or into a faintly echoing sound of melody, as if
stars or unseen beings were singing far away.
This impression of melody is often real, not illusory, and may be explained by the
impact of air-currents on resonant shells of wood, hundreds of which fall to humming
with the voice of ’cellos and wind-harps; but there is another experience of the
solitude, more subtle but none the less real, for which only the psychologist will
venture to give an accounting. Once in a season, perhaps, comes an hour when, no
matter what your plans or desires may be, your mind seems intent on some unrelated
affair of its own. As you hurry over the trail, you may be thinking of catching a trout
or stalking a buck or building a camp or getting to windward of a corporation;
meanwhile your subconscious mind, disdaining your will or your worry, is busily
making pictures of whatever attractive thing it sees,—radiant little pictures, sunshiny
or wind-swept, which shall be reproduced for your pleasure long after the important
matters which then occupied you are clean forgotten.
Here is the story of one such picture, a reflection, no doubt, of the primitive trait or
quality called [251]place-memory, which enables certain animals or savages to
recognize any spot on which their eyes have once rested.
One late afternoon, years after I had found my pond, I crossed the mountain from
distant Ragged Lake, heading for the home lake by a new route. There was no trail;
but near the foot of the western slope of the hills I picked up an old lumber road
which seemed to lead in the right direction. For a time all went well, and confidently;
but when the road dipped into an immense hollow, and there showed signs of
petering out, I followed it with increasing doubt, not knowing where I might come out
of the woods or be forced to spend the night. As I circled through a swale, having left
the road to avoid a press of alders that filled it, an ash-tree lifted its glossy head
above a thicket with a cheery “Well met again, pilgrim! Whither away now?”
It was a surprising hail in that wild place, suggestive of dreams or sleep-walking; but
under the illusion was a grain of reality which brought me to an instant halt. After](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-40-320.jpg)
![passing under thousands of silent trees all day, suddenly here was one speaking to
me. And not only that, but wearing a familiar look, like a face which smiles its
recognition of you while you try in vain to place it. Where, when had I seen that tree
before? No, [252]impossible! I had never before entered this part of the vast forest.
Yet I must have seen it somewhere, or it could not now stir a familiar memory.
Nonsense! just a trick of the imagination. I must hurry on. Thus my thoughts ran, like
a circling hare; and all the while the ash-tree seemed to be smiling at my perplexity.
The man who ignores such a hint has much to learn about woodcraft, which is largely
a subconscious art; so I sat down to smoke a council-pipe with myself and the ash-
tree over the matter. No sooner was the mind left to its own unhampered way than it
began to piece bits of a puzzle-picture deftly together; and when the picture was
complete I knew exactly where I was, and where I might quickly find a familiar trail.
Eight years before, in an idle hour when nothing stirred on my pond, I had explored a
mile or so beyond the bog to the south, only to find a swampy, desolate country
without a trail or conspicuous landmark of any kind. It was while I passed through
this waste, seeking nothing in particular and returning to my pond, that the mind
took its snapshot of a certain tree, and preserved the picture so carefully, so minutely,
that years later the original was instantly recognized. Many similar ash-trees grew on
that flat, each with its glossy crown and its gray shaft flecked by dark-green moss;
what [253]there was in this one to attract me, what outward grace or inward tree-
sprite, I have not yet found out.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-41-320.jpg)
![His massive head thrust forward as he tried to penetrate the far
distance with his near-sighted eyes.
[253]
Another subconscious record seems to have been made for beauty alone, with its
consequent pleasure, rather than for utility. As I watched my pond one summer
morning, intent on learning what attracted so many deer to its shores, the mind](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-42-320.jpg)
![apparently chose its own moment for making a perfect picture, a masterpiece, which
should hang in its woodsy frame on my mental wall forever. The sky was wondrously
clear, the water dancing, the air laden with the fragrance of peat and sweet-scented
grass. Deer were slow in coming that morning, and meanwhile nothing of
consequence stirred on my pond; but there was still abundant satisfaction in the
brilliant dragon-flies that balanced on bending reeds, or in the brood of wild ducks
that came bobbing out like young mischief—makers from a hidden bogan, or even in
the face of the pond itself, as it brightened under a gleam of sunshine or frowned at a
passing cloud or broke into a laugh at the touch of a cat’s-paw wind. Suddenly all
these pleasant minor matters were brushed aside when a bush quivered and held still
on the farther shore.
All morning the bushes had been quivering, showing the silvery side of their leaves to
every [254]breeze; but now their motion spoke of life, and spoke truly, for out from
under the smitten bilberries came a bear to stand alert in the open. The fore part of
his body was lifted up as he planted his paws on a tussock; his massive head was
thrust forward as he tried to penetrate the far distance with his near-sighted eyes. He
was not suspicious, not a bit; his nose held steady as a pointing dog’s, instead of
rocking up and down, as it does when a bear tries to steal a message from the air. A
moment he poised there, a statue of ebony against the crimson moss; then he leaped
a bogan with surprising agility, and came at his easy, shuffling gait around a bend of
the shore. Opposite me he sat down to cock his nose at the sky, twisting his head as
he followed the motion of something above him, which I could not see,—a hornet,
perhaps, or a troublesome fly that persisted in buzzing about his ears. Twice he
struck quickly with a paw, apparently missing the lively thing overhead; for he
jumped up, rushed ahead violently and spun around on the pivot of his toes. Then he
settled soberly to his flat-footed shuffle once more, and disappeared in a clump of
larches, which seemed to open a door for him as he drew near.
For me that little comedy was never repeated, though I saw many another on dark
days or bright; [255]and the last time I visited my pond I beheld it sadly altered, its
beauty vanished, its shores flooded, its green trees stark and dead. Unknown to me,
however, the mind had made its photographic record, and always I see my pond, as
on that perfect day, in its setting of misty-green larches and crimson bog. Again its
quiet face changes, like a human face at pleasant thoughts, and over it comes to me
the odor of sweet-scented grass. The sunshine brightens it; the clouds shadow it;
brilliant dragon-flies play among its bending reeds; the same brood of ducklings
glides in or out from bogan to grassy bogan; and forever the bear, big and glossy
black, goes shuffling along the farther shore.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-43-320.jpg)
![[256]
[Contents]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-44-320.jpg)
![Larch-trees and Deer
One of the subtler charms of my pond, a thing felt rather than seen, was a certain air
of secrecy which seldom left it. In every wilderness lake lurks a mystery of some kind,
which you cannot hope to penetrate,—a sense of measureless years, of primal far-off
things, of uncouth creatures dead and gone that haunted its banks before the infancy
of man; but on this little pond, with its sunny waters and open shore, the mystery
was always pleasant, and at times provoking, as if it might be the place where an end
of the rainbow rested.
Though small enough to give one a sense of possession (one can never feel that he
owns a big [257]lake, or anything else which gives an impression of grandeur or
sublimity), my pond had a mischievous way of hinting, when you were most
comfortable, that it was hiding a secret; that it might show you, if it would, a much
better scene than that you looked upon. It was shaped somewhat like an immense
pair of spectacles, having two lobes that were flashing bright, with a narrow band of
darker water between; and, what with its bending shores or intervening larches, you
could never see the whole of it from any one place. So, like eyes that hide their
subtlest lights of whim or fancy under glasses, it often seemed to be holding
something in reserve, something which it would not reveal unless you searched for it.
After watching awhile from one beautiful or restful spot, you began to feel or imagine
that some comedy was passing unseen on the other half of the pond; and though
you resisted the feeling at first, sooner or later you crept through the screen of
larches to know if it were true.
On every side of the pond save one, where a bank of evergreen made velvet shadows
intermingled with spots of heavenly blue, the shores were thickly spread with mosses,
which began to color gloriously in midsummer, the colors deepening as the season
waned, till the reflecting water appeared as the glimmering center of a gorgeous
[258]Oriental rug. Along the edges of this rug, as a ragged fringe, stood groups of
larches in irregular order,—little fairylike larches that bore their crown of leaves not as
other trees bear them, heavily, but as a floating mist or nebula of sage green. Like
New England ladies of a past age they seemed, each wearing a precious lace shawl
which gave an air of daintiness to their sterling worth. When the time came for the
leaves to fall, instead of rustling down to earth with a sound of winter, mournfully,
they would scamper away on a merry wind, mingling their fragrance with that of the
ripened grass; and then the twigs appeared plainly for the first time, with a little knot
or twist in every twig, like toil-worn fingers that the lace had concealed.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-47-320.jpg)
![Here or there amid this delicate new growth towered the ruin of a mighty tamarack,
or ship-knee larch, such as men sought in the old clipper-ship days when they needed
timbers lighter than oak, and even tougher to resist the pressure of the gale or the
waves’ buffeting. Once, before the shipmen penetrated thus far into the wilderness,
the tamaracks stood here in noble array, their heads under clouds, beckoning hungry
caribou to feed from the lichens that streamed from their broad arms above the
drifted snow; now most of them are under the moss, which covered them
[259]tenderly when they fell. The few remaining ones stand as watch-towers for the
hawks and eagles; their broken branches make strange sepia drawings of dragon-
knots and hooked beaks on the blue sky. A tiny moth killed all these great larches;
the caribou moved northward, leaving the country, and the deer moved in to take
possession.
This and many other stories of the past my little pond told me, as I watched from its
shores or followed the game-trails that were spread like a net about its edges. Back
in the woods these trails wandered about in devious fashion, seeking good browse or
easy traveling; while here or there a faint outgoing branch offered to lead you, if your
eyes were keen, to the distant ridge where a big buck had his daily loafing-place. On
the bog the trails went more circumspectly, uniting at certain places in a single deep
path, a veritable path of ages, which was the only path that might safely be followed
by any creature with more weight than a fox. The moment you ventured away from it
the ground began to shiver, to quake alarmingly, to sink down beneath your feet.
Only a thin mat of roots kept you afloat; the roots might anywhere part and drop you
into black bottomless ooze, and close forever over your head. A queer place, one
might think, for heavy beasts to gather, and so it was; but the old caribou-trails
[260]or new deer-paths offered every one of them safe footing.
At first these game-trails puzzled me completely, being so many and so pointless.
That they were in constant use was evident from the footprints in them, which were
renewed almost every morning; yet I never once saw a deer approach the water to
drink or feed. Something else attracted them; a highway from one feeding-ground to
another, it might be, or the wider outlook which brings deer and caribou out of their
dim woods to sightly places; but there was no certainty in the matter until the
animals themselves revealed the secret. One day, when a young buck passed my
hiding-place as if he were going somewhere, I followed him to the upper or southern
end of the pond. There he joined four other deer, which were very busy about a
certain spot, half hidden by low bushes, a couple of hundred yards back from the
shore. And there they stayed, apparently eating or drinking, for a full half-hour or
more.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-48-320.jpg)
![When the deer were gone away, I went over and found a huge spring, to which
converged a dozen deep trails. Like the hub of an immense wheel it seemed: the
radiating paths were the spokes, and somewhere beyond the horizon was the unseen
rim. From the depths of the spring came a surprising [261]volume of clear, coffee-
colored water, bubbling over joyously as it leaped from the dark earth into the light,
and then stealing quietly away under bending grasses to keep my pond brim full.
Around the spring the earth was pitted by the feet of deer, and everywhere about its
edges were holes lapped in the peat by eager tongues. Here, beyond a doubt, was
what called so many animals to my pond,—a mineral spring or salt-lick, such as we
read about in stories of pioneer days, when game was everywhere abundant, but
such as one now rarely finds.
After that happy discovery I shifted my blind to another larch with low-drooping
branches, beneath which one might rest comfortably and look out through a screen
of lace upon a gathering of the deer. They are creatures of habit as well as of
freedom; and one of their habits is to rest at regular intervals, the hours being hard
to forecast, since they vary not only with the season of lengthening or shortening
days, but also each month with the changes of the moon. Thus, when the moon fulls
and weather is clear, deer are abroad most of the night. At dawn they seek their day-
beds, instinctively removing far from where they have left their scent in feeding; and
during the day they are apt to remain hidden save for one brief hour, when they take
a comforting [262]bite here or there, giving the impression that they eat now from
habit rather than from hunger. As the moon wanes they change their hours to take
advantage of its shining; and on the “dark of the moon” they browse only in the early
part of the night, then rest many hours, and have two periods of feeding or roaming
the next day.
Such seems to be the rule in the North, with plenty of exceptions to keep one
guessing,—as in the November mating-season, when bucks are afoot at all hours; or
during a severe storm, which keeps deer and all other wild animals close in their
coverts.
Because of this regularity of habit at irregular hours, the only certainty about the salt-
lick was that the animals would come if one waited long enough. As I watched
expectantly from my larch bower, the morning shadows might creep up to me, halt,
and lengthen away on the other side, while not a deer showed himself in the open.
Then there would be a stir in the distant larches, a flash of bright color; a doe would
emerge from one of the game-trails, hastening her springy steps as she neared the
spring. As my eyes followed her, noting with pleasure her graceful poses, her
unwearied alertness, her frequent turning of the head to one distant spot in the
woods where she had left her fawn, there would come another [263]flash of color from](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1308-241009022207-f8e4b1ca/85/Download-full-ebook-of-instant-download-pdf-49-320.jpg)
Download full ebook of instant download pdf
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- 4. 1 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Instructor Manual For The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography (11th Edition) by James M. Rubenstein Download full chapter at: https://testbankbell.com/product/instructor-manual-for-the- cultural-landscape-an-introduction-to-human-geography-11th-edition-by-james-m- rubenstein/ Basic Concepts 1 Learning Outcomes After reading, studying, and discussing the chapter, students should be able to: Learning Outcome 1.1.1: Summarize differences between geography and history. Learning Outcome 1.1.2: Understand how cartography developed as science. Learning Outcome 1.1.3: Identify geography’s contemporary analytic mapping tools. Learning Outcome 1.1.4: Understand the role of map scale and projection in reading maps. Learning Outcome 1.1.5: Explain how latitude and longitude are used to locate points on Earth’s surface. Learning Outcome 1.2.1: Identify the distinctive features of a place, including toponym, site, and situation. Learning Outcome 1.2.2: Identify the three types of regions. Learning Outcome 1.2.3: Describe two geographic definitions of culture. Learning Outcome 1.3.1: Understand global- and local-scale changes in economy and culture. Learning Outcome 1.3.2: Identify the three properties of distribution across space. Learning Outcome 1.3.3: Describe different ways in which geographers approach aspects of cultural identity such as gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. Learning Outcome 1.3.4: Summarize geographic thought, with application to the geography of inequality. Learning Outcome 1.3.5: Describe the various ways that features can spread through diffusion.
- 5. 2 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Learning Outcome 1.3.6: Explain how places are connected through networks, though inequality can hinder connections. Learning Outcome 1.4.1: Describe the three pillars of sustainability. Learning Outcome 1.4.2: Describe Earth’s three abiotic physical systems. Learning Outcome 1.4.3: Explain how the biosphere interacts with abiotic systems. Learning Outcome 1.4.4: Compare ecosystems in the Netherlands and California.
- 6. 3 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography Chapter Outline Introduction Geography is more than rote memorization: Geographers ask where things are and why they are where they are. What are the defining elements of geography, and how have they developed over the course of human history? Cartography is the science of map making, and has evolved from prehistoric humans making rudimentary maps of their local environment, to today’s societies utilizing electronic devices to make high-quality, precise maps. Geographers use the concepts of space, place, and region to describe unique characteristics of locations on Earth as they happen across different scales. They study of the connections between human activities and the physical environment, the how these connections impact sustainability, are integral to the discipline of Geography. Key Issue 1: Why Is Geography a Science? Although the earliest humans were practicing Geography, it wasn’t until the ancient Greek philosopher Eratosthenes that the discipline was bestowed the name it is known by today—geo, from the Greek, meaning “Earth,” and the Greek word graphy, meaning “to write,” were combined to describe the study of where things are found on Earth’s surface and the reasons for the locations. To contrast history with geography, one could view history as posing questions of when and why, while geographers ask questions of where and why. Two features of human activity encompass the field of human geography as it is covered in this text: culture and economy. Two basic concepts are used by geographers to explain what makes a certain place unique: place and region. A place is a specific point on Earth, distinguished by a set of particular traits. Every place occupies a unique geographic location, or position, on Earth’s surface. A region is an area of Earth defined by one or more defining features. The Earth is partitioned into a number of regions by Geographers, such as the Midwest and Latin America. To explain the relationships between places, geographers employ three basic concepts: scale, space, and connection. Scale is the relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole. Geographers study a variety of scales, from local to global. Space refers to the physical gap or interval between two objects. Connection refers to relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space. A map is a two-dimensional or flat-scale model of the real world, made small enough to work with on a desk or computer. Cartography is the science of making maps. Maps are used for reference (where things are located) and for communication of the distribution of some feature or features. Geography in the Ancient World Maps have been created for thousands of years. The earliest maps were used as reference tools—simple navigation devices designed to show a traveler how to get from Point A to Point B. Following the mapmakers of the ancient eastern Mediterranean world, European mapmaking and geographic thought became less mathematical and more fanciful, displaying Earth as a flat disk surrounded by mythical figures and fierce animals.
- 7. 4 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 1: Basic Concepts Geography’s Revival Mapmaking as a reference tool was revived during the Age of Exploration and Discovery. Explorers who sailed across the oceans in search of trade routes and resources in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries required accurate maps to reach their desired destinations without wrecking their ships. Contemporary Mapping Maps are used by geographers primarily for displaying geographic information and for offering geographic explanation. Maps are the geographer’s most essential tool. Pinpointing Location: GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) uses satellites to reference locations on the ground. GPS is most commonly used for navigation. Pilots of aircraft and ships stay on course with GPS. On land, GPS detects a vehicle’s current position, the motorist programs the desired destination into a GPS device, and the device provides instructions on how to reach the destination. GPS can also be used to find the precise location of a vehicle or person. Geographers find GPS to be particularly useful in coding the precise location of objects collected in fieldwork. Analyzing Data: GI-Science Geographic Information Science (GIScience) is the examination of data relating to Earth acquired through satellite and other electronic information technologies. A geographic information system (GIS) is a complex computer system which stores and presents geographically referenced data. GIS is more efficient than pen and ink for making a map: Objects can be added or removed, colors brightened or toned town, and mistakes corrected without having to tear up the paper and start from scratch. Each type of information can be stored in a layer. Separate layers could be created for boundaries of countries, bodies of water, roads, and names of places. Most maps combine several layers and GIS maps permits construction of much more complex maps than can be drawn by hand. The acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting Earth or from airplanes is known as remote sensing. At any moment a satellite sensor records the image of a tiny area called a picture element, or pixel. A map created by remote sensing is essentially a grid that contains many rows of pixels. Geographers use remote sensing to map the changing distribution of a wide variety of features, such as agriculture, drought, and sprawl. Collecting and Sharing Data: VGI Electronic devices such as smart phones, tablets, and computers are ubiquitous parts of culture the world over today. These electronic devices allow individuals to produce maps and share them with others. Volunteered geographic information (VGI) is the creation and dissemination of geographic data contributed voluntarily and for free by individuals utilizing these electronic devices. VGI is part of the wider trends of citizen science, which is scientific research conducted by amateur scientists, and participatory GIS (PGIS), which is community-based mapping. The term mashup refers to the practice of overlaying data from one source on top of one of the mapping services. Computer users have the ability to do their own GIS because mapping services provide access to the application programming interface, which is the language that links a database such as an address list with software such as mapping. A mashup map can show the locations of businesses and activities within a neighborhood in a city. The requested information could be all pizza parlors within a mile of a certain address. Mapping software can also show the precise locations of gas stations with the lowest prices or current traffic tie-ups on highways.
- 8. 5 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography Map Scale The map’s scale is the relationship between map units and the actual distance on Earth. Ratio or fraction scale gives the relationship as a ratio, for example, 1:100,000 is that 1 unit on the map equals 100,000 units on the ground. In a written scale units are expressed in a convenient way, for example, “1 centimeter equals 1 kilometer.” A graphic scale is given by a scale bar showing the distance represented on Earth’s surface. Projection Maps are a planar (flat) representation of Earth’s curved surface. Earth is nearly a sphere and is therefore only accurately represented on a globe. Thus, some distortion must result when using maps, especially at small scales (continental or whole-Earth maps). Cartographers must choose a projection that results in some set of distortions between shape, distance, relative size, and direction. Latitude and Longitude Mathematical location describes a place’s location using a coordinate system such as latitude and longitude. Longitude is culturally defined as starting at Greenwich, England, and measures degrees of east and west of that line of longitude, or meridian. The zero degree longitude line in Greenwich, England, is known as the prime meridian. Latitude measures north and south distance with the equator (0° latitude) being the line of latitude halfway between the North Pole (90° north latitude) and the South Pole (90° south latitude). A latitude line is known as a parallel because all latitude lines are parallel to the equator. The equator is the parallel with the greatest circumference and is the baseline for measuring latitude. Telling Time Longitude plays an important role in calculating time. If we let every fifteenth degree of longitude represent one time zone, and divide 360 degrees by 15 degrees, we get 24 time zones. As the Earth rotates eastward, any place to the east of you always passes under the Sun earlier. Thus as you travel eastward from the prime meridian you are catching up with the Sun, so you must turn your clock ahead 1 hour by each 15 degrees. If you travel westward from the prime meridian, you are falling behind the Sun, so you turn your clock back by 1 hour for each 15 degrees. During the summer, many places in the world, including most of North America, move the clocks ahead 1 hour. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or Universal Time (UT), is the master reference time for all points on Earth. When you cross the International Date Line you move the clock back one entire day, if you are heading eastward, toward America. You turn the clock ahead 24 hours if you are heading westward, toward Asia. The International Date Line for the most part follows 180 degrees longitude. However, several islands in the Pacific Ocean belonging to the countries of Kiribati and Samoa, as well as to New Zealand’s Tokelau territory, moved the International Date Line several thousand kilometers to the east. Key Issue 2: Why Is Each Point on Earth Unique? Place: A Unique Location An essential aspect of geography is the process of describing the features of a place. Through these descriptions, similarities, differences, and changes across Earth may be explained by geographers. The component parts, or features, that make each place on Earth distinct may be examined to assist in these descriptions. A feature’s place on the Earth may be identified by its location, the position that something occupies on Earth’s surface.
- 9. 6 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 1: Basic Concepts Place Names A place name, or toponym, is the most common way of describing a location. Many uninhabited places are even named. Place names sometimes reflect the cultural history of a place, and a change in place name is often culturally motivated. Examining changes in place name geography is a useful insight into the changing cultural context of a place. The Board of Geographical Names was established in the late nineteenth century to be the final arbiter of names on U.S. maps. In recent years the board has been especially concerned with removing offensive place names. Site The term site makes reference to the physical characteristics of a place. Important site characteristics include climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation. The combination of physical features gives each place a distinctive character. People disagree on the attributes of a good location for settlement. What is considered a good site depends on cultural values. Situation The term situation describes a place in terms of its location relative to other places. Understanding situation can help locate an unfamiliar place in terms of known places, or it can help explain the significance of a place. We give directions to people by referring to the situation of a place. We identify important buildings, streets, and other landmarks to direct people to the desired location. Region: A Unique Area An area of Earth defined by one or more distinctive characteristics is a region. A particular place can be included in more than one region, depending on how the region is defined. A region gains uniqueness from possessing not a single human or environmental characteristic but a combination of them. The cultural landscape is a recurrent theme throughout this text. It represents the total sum of cultural, economic, and environmental forces combining to make distinctive landscapes across Earth. Formal Region A formal region, also called a uniform region, is a region with a predominant or universal characteristic. Formal regions commonly have well-defined boundaries. The shared feature could be a cultural value such as a common language or an environmental property such as climate. In a formal region, the selected characteristic is present throughout the region. Some formal regions are easy to identify, such as countries or local government units. A characteristic may just be predominant rather than universal. For example, the North American wheat belt is a formal region in which wheat is the most commonly grown crop, but other crops are grown there as well. Functional Region A functional region, also known as a nodal region, is defined by an area of use or influence of some feature. Often used in economic geography, functional regions have “fuzzy” boundaries as the influence of the central feature decreases over distance. The functional region is organized around a focal point. A good example of a functional region is the reception area of a television station. A television station’s signal is strongest at the center of its service area and becomes weaker at the edge and eventually can no longer be distinguished. At some distance from the center, more people are watching a station originating in another city. That place is the boundary between functional regions of two TV market areas. Vernacular Region A vernacular region, or perceptual region, is the most ambiguously defined as they rely on a mental conception of a place as belonging to a common region for complex cultural reasons. Such regions emerge from people’s informal sense of place rather than scientific models
- 10. 7 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography developed through geographic thought. A vernacular region is an individual’s mental map, which is an internal representation of a portion of Earth’s surface. A mental map depicts what an individual knows about a place, containing personal impressions of what is in the place and where the place is located. Culture Regions One of the defining characteristics of a region that helps geographers identify regions is culture. Culture is a body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that together constitutes the distinct tradition of a group of people. The word culture originates from the Latin cultus, meaning “to care for.” Culture is a complex concept, comprising two different meanings: to care about (to adore or worship something) and to take care of (to nurse or look after something). Region is analyzed by geographers using both of these aspects of the concept of culture. Culture: What People Care About Important cultural values derive from a group’s language, religion, and ethnicity. These three cultural traits are both an excellent way of identifying the location of a culture and the principle means by which cultural values become distributed around the world. These cultural traits are covered in detail in chapters 5, 6, and 7. Culture: What People Take Care Of Another element of culture of interest to geographers is production of material wealth—the food, clothing, and shelter that humans need to survive and thrive. All people consume food, wear clothing, and build shelter, but different cultural groups obtain their wealth in different ways. Various characteristics—such as per capita income, literacy rates, and TVs per capita— distinguish developed regions and developing ones. Most people in developing countries are engaged in agriculture, whereas most people in developed countries earn their living through performing services in exchange for wages. These concepts are discussed in chapters 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. Spatial Association Different levels of regional analysis can demonstrate dramatically different characteristics. Geographers attempt to explain regional differences by looking for factors with similar distributions. Spatial association arises if the distribution of one feature located in a region is related to the distribution of another feature. Key Issue 3: Why Are Different Places Similar? Scale: Global and Local Scale is an integral element of geographical analysis, especially as it concerns issues of globalization. Globalization is a force or process that engages the world as a whole and results in making something worldwide in scope. Economic Globalization and Local Diversity The globalization of economic activities has come as a result of increasing connections between places and the rapid movement of goods and information around the world. Every place in the world is part of the global economy. Transnational corporations are often seen as emblematic of this globalization. Transnational corporations conduct research, operate factories, and sell products in many countries, not just where its headquarters and principle shareholders are located. Each place in the world plays a distinctive role in the global economy based on its local assets, as assessed by transnational corporations.
- 11. 8 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 1: Basic Concepts Cultural Globalization and Local Diversity Economic globalization is matched with an increasing global influence and spread of some cultures, resulting in more uniform cultural landscapes across the world. Groups with distinctive local cultures may feel threatened by the globalization of culture, causing conflict or a sense of loss. The survival of a local culture’s distinctive beliefs, forms, and traits may be threatened by interaction with social customs as wearing jeans and Nike shoes, consuming Coca-Cola and McDonald’s hamburgers, and communicating using cell phones and computers. Yet despite globalization, cultural differences among places not only persist but actually flourish in many places. Space: Distribution of Features Geographers think about the arrangement of people and activities found in space and try to understand why those people and activities are distributed across space as they are. Geographers use the concept of distribution to describe the spatial arrangement of objects across Earth’s surface. Three aspects of spatial arrangement may be used to further describe distribution: density, concentration, and pattern. Distribution Properties: Density Density measures the number of features per area of land. Other measures, such as physiological or agricultural density, are based on a subgroup of people or a subtype of land. Distribution Properties: Concentration The extent of a feature’s spread over space is its concentration. If the objects in an area are close together, they are clustered; if they are far apart they are dispersed. Geographers use concentration to explain distribution. In a dispersed neighborhood, each house has a large private yard, whereas in a clustered neighborhood, the houses are close together and open space is shared as a community park. Distribution Properties: Pattern The term pattern describes whether features are arranged along geometric or other predictable arrangements. Geographers observe that many objects form a linear distribution, such as the arrangement of houses along a street or stations along a subway line. Many American cities contain a regular pattern of streets, known as a grid pattern, which intersect at right angles at uniform intervals to form square or rectangular blocks. Cultural Identity and Distribution across Space Humans often arrange their activities in space according to gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. Most concepts of difference among humans are culturally constructed and changes in cultural concepts of difference are sometimes reflected in changing arrangements. People sharing a common ethnic identity tend to cluster in urban areas. Openly homosexual men and lesbian women may be attracted to some locations to reinforce spatial interactions with other LGBTQQIAAP (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questions, Intersex, Asexual, Allies, and Pansexual)-identifying people. Inequality remains a focus for geographers studying distribution by gender. Space: Inequality Cultural traits, such as gender, ethnicity, and sexuality, impact the distribution and movement of people across space. Cultural Identity and Contemporary Geography Thought The experiences of women differ from those of men, blacks from whites, gays from straights, and boys from girls. Geographers employ a variety
- 12. 9 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography of methods to understand cultural identity and space, including those of poststructuralist, humanistic, and behavioral geography. Poststructuralist geography examines how the powerful in a society dominate, or seek to control, less powerful group, how the dominated groups occupy space, and confrontations that result from the domination. Poststructuralist geographers conceptualize space as the product of ideologies or value systems of ruling elites. Humanistic geography is a branch of human geography that emphasizes the different ways that individuals perceive their surrounding environment. Behavioral geography emphasizes the importance of understanding the psychological basis for individual human actions in space. Distinctive spatial patterns by gender, race, and sexual orientation are constructed by the attitudes and actions of others. Although it is illegal to discriminate against people of color, spatial segregation persists. In many places in the world, it is legal to discriminate against gays. For geographers, concern for cultural diversity in not merely a political expediency; it lies at the heart of geography’s spatial tradition. Unequal Access In the modern world, barriers to interaction are more likely to derive from unequal access to electronics. Internet access depends on availability of electricity to power the computer and a service provider. A person must be able to afford to pay for the communications equipment and service. Countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America find themselves on a periphery with respect to wealthier core regions of North America, Europe, and Japan. The increasing gap in economic conditions between regions in the core and periphery that results from globalization is known as uneven development. In a global culture and economy, every area of the world plays some role intertwined with the roles played by other regions. Connections: Diffusion Recalling the concept of connections from the beginning of the chapter, geographers may analyze three different outcomes of these relationships between people and objects that cross the barrier of space: assimilation, acculturation, and syncretism. Assimilation is the process by which a group’s cultural features are altered to resemble those of another group. The cultural features of one group may come to dominate the culture of the assimilated group. Acculturation is the process of changes in culture that result from the meeting of two groups. Changes may be experienced by both of the interacting cultural groups, but the two groups retain two distinct culture features. Syncretism is the combination of elements of two groups into a new cultural feature. The two cultural groups come together to form a new culture. Diffusion Diffusion is the process by which a feature spreads across space from one place to another over time. A feature originates at a hearth and diffuses from there to other places. A hearth is a place from which an innovation emerges. Relocation Diffusion The term connection refers to the relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space. Diffusion refers to the spread of anything from a cultural trait, people, things, or ideas from some point of origin (a hearth). Geographers document the location of hearths and the processes by
- 13. 10 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 1: Basic Concepts which diffusion carries things elsewhere over time. The spread of an idea through the physical movement of people from one place to another is termed relocation diffusion. When people move, they carry with them their culture, including language, religion, and ethnicity. Expansion Diffusion The spread of a feature from one place to another in an additive process is expansion diffusion. Expansion diffusion refers to the growth of an idea to new areas through a hierarchy (hierarchical diffusion), popular notions or even contact (contagious diffusion), or the spread of an underlying idea divorced from its original context (stimulus diffusion). Connections: Spatial Interaction Some places are well-connected by communications or transportation networks, other are not as much. Contact diminishes with increasing distance and eventually disappears. This trailing-off phenomenon is called distance decay. In the contemporary world, distance decay is much less severe because connection between places takes less time. Geographers apply the term space- time compression to describe the reduction in time it takes for something to reach another place. Interaction takes place through a network, which is a chain of communication that connects places. Ideas that originate in a hearth are now able to diffuse rapidly to other areas through communication networks. Distant places seem less remote and more accessible to us. Key Issue 4: Why Are Some Actions Not Sustainable? A resource is a substance in the environment that is useful to people, economically and technologically feasible to access, and socially acceptable to use. A renewable resource is produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans. A nonrenewable resource is produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans. The use of Earth’s renewable and nonrenewable natural resources in ways that ensure resource availability in the future is sustainability. Three Pillars of Sustainability According to the United Nations, sustainability rests on three pillars: environment, economy, and society. Sustainability requires curtailing the use of nonrenewable resources and limiting the use of renewable resources to the level at which the environment can continue to supply them indefinitely. The sustainable use and management of Earth’s natural resources to meet human needs such as food, medicine, and recreation is conservation. Conservation differs from preservation, which is the maintenance of resources in their present condition, with as little human impact as possible. Preservation does not regard nature as a resource for human use. Sustainability’s Critics Biologically productive land is defined as the amount of land required to produce the resources currently consumed and handle the wastes currently generated by the world’s 7 billion people at current levels of technology. The Earth has only 11.4 billion hectares of biologically productive land, so humans are already using all of the productive land and none is left for future growth. Others have said that resource availability has no maximum, and Earth’s resources have no absolute limit because the definition of resources changes drastically and unpredictably over time. Sustainability and Earth’s Physical Systems A biotic system is composed of living organisms. An abiotic system is composed of nonliving or inorganic matter. Three of Earth’s four systems are abiotic. The atmosphere is a thin layer of gases surrounding Earth. The hydrosphere is all the water on Earth or
- 14. 11 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography near Earth’s surface. The lithosphere is Earth’s crust and a portion of upper mantle directly above the crust. Only one of Earth’s systems is biotic. The biosphere is all living organisms on Earth, including plants and animals, as well as microorganisms. The long-term average weather condition at a particular location is climate. Climate may be classified into one of five main climate regions, devised by the German climatologist Wladimir Köppen: A: Humid low-latitude climates. B: Dry climates. C: Warm mid-latitude climates. D: Cold mid-latitude climates. E: Polar climates. These five main climate regions may be further subdivided, based on the amount of precipitation and the season in which it falls. Ecology and the Biosphere A group of living organisms and abiotic spheres with which they interact is an ecosystem. The scientific study of ecosystems is ecology. Living organisms in the biosphere interact with each of the three abiotic systems. Human geographers are especially interested in ecosystems involving the interaction of humans with the rest of the biosphere and the three abiotic spheres. If the atmosphere contains pollutants or its oxygen level is reduced, humans have trouble breathing. Without water, humans waste away and die. A stable lithosphere provides humans with materials for buildings and fuel for energy. The rest of the biosphere provides humans with food. Cultural Ecology: Integrating Culture and Ecology Human geographers are especially interested in the fact that different cultural groups modify the natural environment in distinctive ways. The geographic study of human-environmental relationships is known as cultural ecology. Environmental determinism, largely dismissed by modern geographers, states that physical factors cause cultures to develop and behave as they do. Environmental determinists believe that human geographers should apply laws from the natural sciences to understanding relationships between the physical environment and human actions. Possibilism recognizes the constraints of the physical environment while also crediting human cultures with the ability to adapt to the environment in many ways—including by changing it. Sustainable Ecosystem: The Netherlands A polder is a piece of land that is created by draining water from an area. All together, the Netherlands has 2600 square miles of polders. The Dutch government has reserved most of the polders for agriculture to reduce the country’s dependence on imported food. The Dutch have also constructed massive dikes to prevent the North Sea from flooding much of the country. A second ambitious project in the Netherlands is the Delta Plan. The low-lying delta in the southwestern part of the country is very vulnerable to flooding. The Delta Plan called for the construction of several dams to close off most of the waterways from the North Sea. The lowlands in South Florida are environmentally sensitive areas, but have been modified less sensitively than those in the Netherlands. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a levee around Lake Okeechobee during the 1930s, drained the northern one-third of the Everglades during the 1940s, and
- 15. 12 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 1: Basic Concepts diverted the Kissimmee River into canals during the 1950s. These modifications opened up hundreds of thousands of hectares of land for growing sugarcane and protecting farmland as well as the land occupied by the growing South Florida population from flooding. Polluted water, mainly from cattle grazing along the banks on the canals, flowed into Lake Okeechobee. The modification of barrier islands along South Florida’s coast by humans has caused a lot of damage. Icebreaker This chapter may seem superficial to many instructors, but keep in mind it is new ground for many students. For example, a 2006 National Geographic/Roper poll of Americans aged 18–24 found the following: “48% of young Americans believe the majority population in India is Muslim. . . . Half of young Americans can’t find New York on a map.” This illustrates the challenge you face as a geography educator. Instead of calling attention to these statistics to your students, consider being positive in your introduction, as introducing this chapter will set the tone for the remainder of the course. This is your chance to emphasize the importance of geographic knowledge of all of your students, regardless of their eventual fields of study. What is geography? Why is it important? A class discussion of what geography is, and why it is important, is always a useful place to start with any geography course. Reasons for the importance of geography will vary by instructor, but a useful example of inquiry is provided in this chapter’s presentation of the ways in which the Dutch have altered their environment. Here are some other events to use as examples of geographic relevance at your own discretion: The Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011. This example is another great one, like the Netherlands, to show the interrelatedness of human and physical geography. The September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center (and other targets). Ask your students where their footwear, clothing, or cars come from. Is there anything geographic about this? What is the name of your town? Where is that? What is it like? The terminology associated with place and region may be difficult for students to grasp. Explaining how we describe places every day will help build an understanding of how geographers think about place. Try this method in class: Ask the students individually where they are from until a place name not in the immediate area is encountered. If you are not familiar with the place (or even if you are), ask, “Where is that?” Explain that the students are using place names, or toponyms, to describe where they are from, but the place name is only useful as long as everyone knows where the place name is referring to.
- 16. 13 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography When a place name is unfamiliar, we need to refer to situation factors (and sometimes site factors) to tell people where a place is. Mathematical location might seem quite abstract to students, but ask how many can list their addresses and zip codes. While not mathematical in the same way as latitude and longitude or UTM coordinates, the street address does represent a unique description of a discrete place. An Internet mapping program (e.g., Google Maps) can be used to demonstrate these concepts. Challenges to Comprehension Scale Many, including professional geographers, confuse large and small scales. The smaller the scale, the larger the area covered. For example a globe is a very small-scale representation of Earth. Yet many persist in referring to global issues as occurring at a “large scale.” To avoid confusion, consider referring to scales as “local”, “regional”, or “global.” This also helps emphasize the text’s themes of global vs. local contrasts. These concepts are reinforced in Chapter 1’s Key Issue 3, Why Are Different Places Similar? Understanding Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Students often confuse a geographic information system (GIS) with the Global Positioning System (GPS). Students rarely understand the importance of GIS to many processes that we take for granted in society. However, there are a variety of Internet resources which demonstrate how much a part of our everyday lives GIS are becoming. Some online examples include: Zillow (see “Resources” section) Real property databases managed by county or city governments (e.g., the King County parcel viewer at www.kingcounty.gov/operations/GIS/PropResearch/ParcelViewer.aspx Numerous “mashups” available on an ever-changing basis (try googlemapsmania.blogspot.com) Vernacular Regions Some have a difficult time with the idea of a vernacular region. The example in the textbook uses a number of overlapping formal regions in an attempt to describe the vernacular region of the South. Consider using another example, especially one without a direction, as these examples can be confusing (students think that a vernacular region must contain compass direction).
- 17. 14 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 1: Basic Concepts Cultural Landscapes The concept of a cultural landscape can be misunderstood as a principally environmental landscape. Help students learn about how pervasive cultural landscapes are by showing them some examples from around the world. Note that an Internet search for “cultural landscape” returns a number of results about extraordinary, famous, or unique landscapes; but cultural landscapes are pervasive and students will benefit from being able to interpret the cultural landscape of everyday places like their home towns. The Great Mirror: Dr. Bret Wallach of the University of Oklahoma has posted a remarkable collection of photographs for the purpose of displaying cultural landscapes at his website The Great Mirror, www.greatmirror.com. Another great option is the user-generated content featured on Panoramio (www.panoramio.com), which is also on Google Maps (maps.google.com), indexed under the “More . . . Photos” option. These photos are usually “scenic” features, but it’s possible to find more mundane cultural landscapes, too. Assignments Review/Reflection Questions These questions can be used in addition to the “thinking geographically” questions at the end of each chapter. Students can be assigned these questions as homework, they can be given as essay questions on exams, or they can serve as focus questions for in-class discussions. Describe the site, situation, and mathematical location of our school (alternative—your hometown). Name three formal regions that this school is located within and give a reason for each. Do the same for functional and vernacular regions. Describe an element of your culture that appears to be environmentally determined (caused by the natural environment). Can you now provide evidence that this cultural element is only one of many possibilities in the given environment? Give a local example of not-so-sensitive environmental modification, as demonstrated in the book’s discussion of the Everglades. Are there multiple ways to achieve the desired result of an environmental modification? Discuss. For additional review and test prep materials, have your students visit MasteringGeography™ to access a variety of resources, including interactive maps, videos, GoogleEarth activities, RSS feeds, flashcards, web links, and self-study quizzes. Thinking Geographically Questions 1. Using geographic tools such as maps and GIS is not simply a mechanical exercise. Nor are decisions confined to scale, projection, and layers. For example, should the European country be labeled Czech Republic or Czechia? Czech authorities and citizens do not agree on the proper translation of the country’s Czech name Česky into English.
- 18. 15 © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography Well, I can see how Czech Republic is a sensible solution, as it is a compromise between both parties on the translation of Česky into English. It would also depend on the language used in the rendering of a map – for English maps, Czech Republic may make sense, whereas Czechia or Česky may be better suited for other languages. 2. What criteria should geographers use to label maps? Geographers must use critical thinking skills to best label features on a map. For example, geographers must consider the origin of place names (toponyms), and examine whether the site of a place played a role in it receiving its name, or if cultural factors impacted its naming. 3. What are elements of the site and situation of your hometown? A couple elements of site of my hometown, Chicago, IL, are the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. The Chicago River runs through the city and is dyed green every year for St. Patrick’s Day. Chicago is located on the banks of Lake Michigan and significantly influences local weather patterns, producing lake-effect wind and snow. Relative to the rest of Illinois, the situation of my hometown is unique – it is the largest city in the state and is a major hub of economic, political, and cultural activity. 4. Can you name another place to which your hometown has strong connections? My hometown has strong connections to Northwest Indiana, known affectionately as ‘The Region.’ The South Shore Line runs into another town that I lived in in the area, Chesterton, Indiana, providing public rail access to Chicago. It was also a neat place, as Chesterton was also located on the banks of Lake Michigan, and the skyline of the city was visible from the beach on clear days. 5. What is an example of a feature that connects your town to another? Site: My hometown is located in the northern and western hemisphere. It is located in the midlatitudes. My hometown is in the Mediterranean climatic zone dominated by chaparral vegetation. My hometown borders the Pacific Ocean. I live on a coastal plain with alfisol soils. Situation: My hometown is about 45 miles from Disneyland and 75 miles from Downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood. Interstate 5 and Pacific Coast Highway run through my hometown and these are very important roads on the West Coast of the United States. My hometown is 5 miles from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which is one of the major sources of electricity in Southern California. The Camp Pendleton Marine Base is located two miles away from my hometown and is one of the largest military bases on the West Coast of the United States. 6. If you could live anyplace on Earth, where would it be? Why? If I could live any place on Earth, I would live in Talkeetna, Alaska. I first learned of Talkeetna after reading that it was based on Cicely, Alaska, the town featured in the 1990s television drama Northern Exposure. After researching more about the town, I learned that they have a vibrant community, with an excellent public radio affiliate. I worked in a radio station for 6 years; ideally, I would have a job at their affiliate and explore the surrounding outdoors during my free time.
- 19. Another random document with no related content on Scribd:
- 20. before coming down. My stand was a weathered stump beside the road, against which I sat on a carpet of moss, without concealment of any kind. At a short distance lay the grouse, a poor crumpled thing, just as he had wilted under the hawk’s swoop. Thus a half-hour or more passed comfortably. A gorgeous cock-partridge sauntered into the open, saw me when I nodded to him, and went slowly off with that graceful, balancing motion which a grouse affects when he is well satisfied with himself. Then, as the sun rose, there was a swift-moving shadow, a rustle of pinions; the goshawk swept down the road in front of me and lit beside his game. He was a handsome bandit, in full adult plumage; his gray breast was penciled in shadowy lines, while his back was a foggy blue, as if in his northern home he had caught the sheen of the heavens above and of rippling waters beneath his flight. His folded wings stood out squarely from his shoulders with an impression of power, [219]like an eagle’s. There was something noble in his poise, in his challenging eye, in the forward thrust of his fierce head; but the spell was broken at the first step. He moved awkwardly, unwillingly it seemed; his great curving talons interfered with his footing when he touched the earth. This time, instead of a rifle, there was a trim shotgun across my knees. The hawk was mine whether he stood quiet or leaped into swift flight, and feeling sure of him now I watched awhile, wondering whether he would break up his game with his claws, as some owls do, or tear it to pieces with his hooked beak. For a moment he did neither, but stood splendidly alert over his kill. Once he turned his head completely around over either shoulder, sweeping his piercing glance over me, but seeing nothing unusual. Then he seized his game in one foot and struck his beak into the breast, making the feathers fly as he laid the delicate flesh open. When I found myself weakening, growing sentimental at the thought that it was his last meal, his last taste of freedom and the wild, I remembered the grouse and got quietly on my feet. Though busy with his feast, he caught the first shadow of a motion; I can still see the gleam in his wild eyes as he sprang aloft. I thought him beyond all harm as he lay on his back, one outstretched wing among the feathers [220]of his victim; but he struck like a flash when I reached down for him carelessly. “Take that! and that! and remember me!” he said, driving his weapons up with astonishing force, a force that kills or paralyzes his game at the first grip. Four of his needle-pointed talons went to the bone, and the others were well buried in the flesh of my arm. The old viking had been some time with his ancestors before I pried him loose. As for the sense of smell, on which most animals depend for accurate information, I have tried numerous experiments with deer, moose, bear and other creatures to learn how far they can wind a man, and how their powers compare one with another.
- 21. There is no definite answer to the problem, so baffling are the conditions of observing these shy beasts; but you are in for some surprises, at least, when you attempt to solve it in the open. You will learn, for example, that when a gale is blowing the animals are more at sea than in a dead calm; or that in a gusty wind you can approach them about as easily from one side as from another. Such a wind rolls and eddies violently, rebounding from every hill or point or shore in such erratic fashion that the animals have no means of locating a danger when they catch a fleeting sniff of it. It is for this reason, undoubtedly, that all game is uncommonly [221]wild on a windy day: the constant motion of leaves or tossing boughs breeds confusion in their eyes, and the woodsy smells are so broken by cross-currents that they cannot be traced to their source. So it has happened more than once on a gusty day that a deer, catching my scent on the rebound, has whirled and rushed straight at me, producing the momentary illusion that he was charging. With a steady but not strong wind blowing in their direction, I have seen deer become alarmed while I was yet a quarter-mile away; this on a lake, where there was nothing to interfere with the breeze or the scent. On the burnt lands or the open barrens I have seen bear and caribou throw up their heads and break away while I was even farther removed. In a light breeze the distance is much shorter, varying from fifty to two hundred yards, according to the amount of moisture in the air. On days that are still or very dry, or when the air is filled with smoke from a forest fire (the latter soon inflames all sensitive nostrils), the animals are at sea again, and depend less on their noses than on their eyes or ears. Another surprising thing is, that the animal’s ability to detect you through his sense of smell is largely governed by your own activity or bodily condition. Thus, when a man is perspiring freely or moving quickly, his scent is stronger and [222]travels much wider than when he is sauntering about. But if a man sits absolutely quiet, a clean man especially, no animal can detect him beyond a few feet, I think, for the reason that a resting man is like a resting bird or beast in that he gives off very little body scent, which remains on the ground close about him instead of floating off on the air currents. Even when the trees are tossing in a gale there is little stir on the ground, not in the woods at least, and the closer you hold to Mother Earth the less likelihood is there of any beast smelling you. All ground-nesting birds depend for their lives on this curious provision of nature. Were it not for the fact that practically no scent escapes while they are brooding their eggs, very few of them would live to bring forth a family in a wood nightly traversed by such keen-nosed enemies as the fox and the weasel. My old setter would wind a running grouse or quail at an incredible distance, and would follow him by picking his scent from the air; but I have taken that same dog on a leash near the same birds
- 22. when they were brooding their eggs, and he could not or would not detect them unless he were brought within a few feet, or (a rare occurrence) unless a creeping ground-breeze blew directly from the nest into his face. [223] The same provision guards animals, such as deer and caribou, which build no dens but leave their helpless young on the ground. Two or three times, after finding a fawn in the woods, I have tested his concealment by means of my young dog’s nose; and I may add that Rab will point a deer as stanchly as he points a grouse or woodcock, for he is still in the happy, irresponsible stage when everything that lives in the woods is game to him. So long as the fawn remains motionless where his mother hid him, the dog must be almost on top of him before pointing or showing any sign of game. But if the little fellow runs or even rises to his feet at our approach (fawns are apt to do this as they grow older), the dog seems to catch the scent after the first motion; he begins to cat-foot, his nose up as in following an air trail, and steadies to a point while he is still many yards away from where the fawn was hiding. The nose of a wolf is keener than that of any dog I ever knew; yet I once trailed a pack of wolves that passed within sixteen measured feet of where two deer were sleeping in a hole in the snow. The wolves were hunting, too, for they killed and partially ate a buck a little farther on; but the trail said that they had passed close to these sleeping deer without detecting them. [224] As for the man-scent, you may judge of that by the violent start or the headlong rush when an animal catches the first alarming whiff of it. If he passes quietly on his way, therefore, you may be reasonably sure he has not smelled you. To the latter conclusion I have been forced many times when I have been watching in the woods, sitting quiet for hours at a stretch, and a deer or bear or fox, or some other beast with nose as keen as a brier, has passed at a dozen yards’ distance without a sign to indicate that he was aware of me. Some of these animals came much nearer; so near, in fact, that I was scary of a closer approach until I had called their attention to what lay ahead of them. So long as you are seen or suspected, you need have little fear of any wild beast (only the tame or half-tame are dangerous), but a brute that stumbles upon you in an unexpected place or moment is always a problem. Nine times out of ten he will fall all over himself in his haste to get away; but the tenth time he may fall upon you and give you a mauling. Moose, for example, are apt to strike a terrible blow with their fore feet, or to upset a canoe when the jack-light approaches them; not to attack, I think, at least not consciously, but in blind panic or to ward off a fancied enemy. So when I have watched from the shore of a lake [225]and a moose came swinging along without noticing me, I have risen to my feet or thrown my hat at the big brute when he was as near as I cared to have him. And more than once, after a tremendous start
- 23. of surprise, he has come nearer with his hackles up as soon as he got over the first effect of my demonstration. Yet when I am roaming the woods that same brute will catch my scent at from two to five hundred yards, and rush away before I can get even a glimpse of him. That the same surprising sense-limitation is upon deer and other game animals may be inferred from the following experience, which is typical of many others. I was perched among some cedar roots on the shore of a pond, one September day, watching a buck with the largest antlers I have ever seen on one of his kind. I had been some time quiet when he glided out to feed in a little bay, on my right; and my heart was with him in the wish that he might keep his noble crown through the hunting season, for his own pleasure and the adornment of the woods and the confusion of all head-hunters. There was no breeze; but a moistened finger told of a faint drift of air from the lake to the woods. As I watched the buck, there came to my ears a crunching of gravel from the opposite direction, and two deer appeared on the point at my left, [226]heading briskly down into the bay. They passed between my outstretched feet and the water’s edge, where the strip of shore was perhaps three yards wide; then they turned in my direction, seeing or smelling nothing, went slowly up the bank and halted at the edge of the woods to the right and a little behind me, so close that I dared not move even my eyes to follow them. I measured the distance afterward, and found that from their hoof-marks to the cedar root against which I rested was less than eight feet. Imperceptibly I turned for another look, and saw both deer at attention, their heads luckily pointed away from me. They were regarding the big buck intently, as if to question him. They showed no alarm as yet; but they were plainly uneasy, searching the forest on all sides and at times turning to look over my head upon the breathless lake. Every nervous action said that they found something wrong in the air, some hint or taint or warning which they could not define. So they moved alertly into the woods, halting, listening, testing the air, using all their senses to locate a danger which they had passed and left behind them. From such experiences one might reasonably conclude that, like the brooding grouse or the hidden fawn, a motionless man gives off so little scent that the keenest nose is at fault until it [227]comes almost within touching distance. If any further proof is needed, you may find it when you sleep in the open, and shy creatures draw near without any fear of you. By daylight deer, bear and moose are extremely timid; they rarely come within eyeshot of your camp, and they vanish at the first sniff which tells them that you have invaded their feeding-grounds. But when you are well asleep the same animals will pass boldly through your camp-yard; or they will awaken you, as they have many times awakened me, when you are tenting or sleeping under the
- 24. stars by some outlying pond. If you lie quiet, content to listen, the invading animal will move freely here or there without concern; but no sooner do you begin to stir, however quietly, than he catches the warning scent, and a thudding of earth or a smashing of brush tells the rest of the story. I recall one night, cloudy and very still, when I slept under my canoe on a strip of sand beside a wilderness lake. The movement of an animal near at hand awoke me. In the black darkness I could see nothing; but somehow I knew he was big, and aside from the crepitation of the sand, which I plainly heard, I seemed to feel the brute near me. For a moment there was a pause, a dead silence; then came a thump, a rattlety-bang; the canoe shook as something hit the lower end of [228]it, and the creature moved away. There was nothing to be done without eyes, so I snuggled the blanket closer and went to sleep again. In the morning there were the tracks of a moose, a bull as I judged from the shape of his feet, to say that he had come down the shore at a fast walk, halted, stepped over the stern of the canoe, and went on without hastening his pace. That was odd enough; but more surprising were some tracks on the other side, between the bow of the canoe and the woods. Very faint and dainty tracks they were, as if a soft pad had touched the sand here and there in an uneven line; but they told of a fox who had come trotting along under the bank, and who had passed in the night without awakening me. That neither he nor the moose had smelled the sleeping man, or nothing alarming in him at least, is about as near to certainty as you will come in interpreting animal action. There is another and not wholly unreasonable hypothesis which may help to explain such phenomena; namely, that it is not the scent of man but of excitement, anger, blood-lust or some other abnormal quality which alarms a wild animal. It sounds queer, I know, to say that anger can be smelled; but it is more than probable that anger or fierce excitement of any kind distils in the body [229]a kind of poison which is physical and sensible. Such excitement certainly weakens a man, clogging his system with the ashes of its hot fires; and there is no reason why it should not smell to earth as well as to high heaven. You have but to open your eyes and expand your nostrils for some evidence of this matter. Bees when angered give off a pungent odor, which is so different from the ordinary smell of the hive that even your dull nose may detect the change of temper. The same is true of even cold-blooded reptiles. When you find a rattler or a black- snake squirming in the sun, you can smell him faintly at a few yards’ distance. Now stir him up with a pole, or pin him to the earth by pressing a forked stick with short
- 25. prongs over his neck. As the snake becomes enraged he pours off a rank odor, very different from the musky smell that first attracted your notice, and it travels much wider, and clings to your clothes for an hour afterward. It is not only possible but very likely, therefore, that strong emotions affect the bodies of all creatures in a way perceptible to senses other than sight. If so, one man who is peaceable and another who is angry or highly excited may give off such different odors that a brute with sensitive nostrils may be merely curious about the one and properly afraid of the other. [230] That wild animals instinctively fear the scent of humanity, as such, is probably not true. The notion arises, I think, from judging the natural animal by those we have made unnatural by abuse or persecution. Whenever man penetrates a wild region for the first time he finds, as a rule, that the animals have little fear of him, the tameness of wild game having been noted with surprise by almost every explorer. It has been noted also, but without surprise, by saints and ascetics who “for the greater glory of God” have adopted a life of solitude and meditation, and who have often found the birds or beasts about their hermitage to be quite fearless of them, and receptive of their kindness. Not till the abundant flocks and herds of a new region have been harried and decimated by senseless slaughter do the survivors begin to be fearful and unapproachable, as we unfortunately know them. Yet even now, no sooner do we drop our persecution and assume a rational or humane attitude than the wild ducks come to the boat landing of a winter hotel, deer feed at our haystacks, and bears come in broad daylight to comfort themselves at our garbage-cans. Such things could hardly be if the fear of man were an age-old or instinctive inheritance. Nearer home, on any farm bordering the wilderness, you may see wild deer feeding quite tamely [231]about the edges of the cleared fields all summer. I recall one such farm in Maine, where the owner had fifteen acres of green oats waving over virgin soil—a glorious crop for me, but for him an occasion of lamentation. You could go through that field at any hour before six in the morning or after six at night and find a dozen deer with a moose or two making themselves at home. The owner’s cattle were kept out by a rail fence; but the moose simply leaned against the fence and went through, while the nimble deer sailed over the obstruction like grasshoppers. On all such farms the deer have the scent of man almost constantly in their nostrils, and they are simply watchful, running when you approach too near, but turning after a short flight to have a look at you. At times you may see them feeding when the scent of laborers or fishermen blows fairly over them. But when October comes, and the law is “off,” and wild-eyed hunters appear with guns in their hands and death in their thoughts, then the same deer quickly become as other and wilder creatures, rushing off in alarm at the first sniff of an enemy. The fact and the changed action are
- 26. evident enough; the only interesting question is, To what extent does the smell of man change when he changes his peaceable ways? Two or three times I have had opportunity to [232]test the effect of the human scent in another way, the first time being when I had the good luck to see a natural child and a natural animal together. The child, a baby girl just beginning to toddle, was making a journey by means of a comfortable Indian paukee on my back, and I had left her in an opening beside a portage trail while I went back to my canoe for a thing I had forgotten. While I was gone, three deer sauntered into the opening. They saw the baby, and were instantly as curious about her as so many gossips, a little spotted fawn especially. The baby saw them, and began creeping eagerly forward, calling or “crowing” as she went. The deer saw and heard and smelled her every moment; yet they walked around her with springy steps, now on this side, now on that, showing a world of curiosity in their bright eyes, but never a sign of fear. From a distance I watched the lovely scene, kindling at the beauty of it, or feeling a bit anxious when I saw the sharp feet of the old doe a little too near the sunny head or the outstretched hands. Then an eddy of wind from the mountain got behind me and whirled over the deer. They caught the scent and were away with a wild alarm- call, their white flags flying, and the baby waving by-by as they vanished in the woods. Quite naturally, therefore, when a sensitive [233]animal runs away from me, I find myself thinking that perhaps it is not the smell of humanity but of some evil trait or quality which frightens him. I first laid down this hypothesis after meeting a strange, childlike man, who had a passion for roaming by himself in the fields or woods. White men, after a puzzling acquaintance, would tap their heads or call him crazy; an Indian would look once in his eyes and say, very softly, “The Great Spirit has touched him.” He was all gentleness, without a thought or possibility of harm in his nature. He was also without fear, and perhaps for this reason he inspired no fear in others. When he appeared in the woods, singing to himself, the animals would watch him for a moment, and then go their ways quietly, as if they understood him. What would happen if a race of such men lived near the wood folk must be left to the imagination.
- 27. [235]
- 28. My Pond: a Symphony of the Woods
- 29. [237] [Contents]
- 31. X
- 32. The Trail To reach my pond you must leave your canoe on the shore of Sungeegamook, the home lake, and go eastward through the big woods. Yonder is the landing, that bank of green topped by “everlasting” and blue asters, with a cleft like an arched doorway in the forest behind it. A rugged jack-pine leans out over a bit of shingle, as if to indicate a good place to beach your canoe, and there is something curiously alive, almost sentient, in its attitude. The old tree seems to watch your approach; through its leaves runs a low murmur of welcome as you step ashore. Entering the woods (and because you are alone, and therefore natural, something in their dim [238]aisles, their mysterious depths, their breathing silence, makes you go gently) you find yourself in an old logging-road, once a garish symbol of man’s destructiveness, but growing yearly more subdued, more beautiful, since Nature began her work of healing. The earth beneath your feet, the restful earth which the lumbermen left torn by iron tools or rent by dynamite, has again put on her soft- colored garments. Feathery beds of fern push boldly into the road from shadowy places; wild grasses fill all its sunny openings with their bloom and fragrance; and winding down through shade or sunshine comes a trail made by the feet of deer and moose. Already these timid animals have adopted the forgotten road as a runway; you may meet them here when you return in the evening twilight. Everywhere beside the trail are old marks of the destroyer. Noble maples or cedars that were centuries growing have been slashed down, dismembered, thrust aside to decay, and all because they stood in the way of a lumber-boss who thought only of getting his cut of spruce down to the lake. To look upon such trees, dead and shorn of their beauty, is to feel pity or indignation; but Nature does not share your feeling, being too abundant of life and resource to waste any moment in regret. Already she is upbuilding what man [239]has torn down. Glaring ax-wounds have all disappeared under bandages of living moss; every fallen log has hidden its loss under a mantle of lichen, soft and gray, which speaks not of death but of life renewed. Where the sun touches these prostrate giants a blush of delicate color spreads over them. See, it deepens as you look upon it curiously, and you examine it to find a multitude of “fairy-cups” on slender stems, each lifting its scarlet chalice to the light. Very soft and inviting seats they offer, yielding to your weight, sending up an odor as of crushed herbs; but do not accept the invitation. If you must halt to rest or to enjoy the stillness, sit not down on one of these mossy logs, but before it at a little distance, and let its blended colors be to your eye what the wind in the pine is to
- 33. your ear, or the smell of hemlock to your nostrils. Then will all your senses delight in harmony, their natural birthright, while you rest by the way. Where the old road winds about the end of a ridge, avoiding every steep pitch, young balsams are crowding thickly into it; where it turns downward to the lowlands, quick- growing alders claim it as their own; and as you leave the lake far behind it begins to divide interminably, each branch breaking into smaller branches, like the twigs of a tree as you trace them outward. The [240]twig ends with a bud in clear space; but the farther or landward end of a logging-road dwindles to a deer-path, the path to a rabbit-run, and the run vanishes in some gloomy cedar swamp or trackless thicket where is no outlook on any side. It is in such places, while you puzzle over another man’s road instead of keeping your own trail straight, that you are most apt to get lost. Coming back you need have no fear of going astray, since all these trails lead to the main road, and thence downhill to the lake; but going forward it is well to steer clear of all branch roads, which lead nowhere and confuse the sense of direction. Leaving the road behind, therefore, and heading still eastward, you cross a ridge where the hardwoods stand, as their ancestors stood, untouched by the tools of men. Immense trunks of beech or sugar-maple or yellow birch tower upward wide apart, the moss of centuries upon them; far overhead is a delicate tracery of leaves, a dance of light against the blue, and over all is the blessed silence. Beyond the ridge the ground slopes downward to a uniform level. Soon the moss grows deeper underfoot, with a coolness that speaks of perpetual moisture. The forest becomes dense, almost bewildering; here a “black growth” of spruce or fir, there a tangle of moosewood, yonder a swale [241]where impenetrable alder-thickets make it impossible to hold a straight course. Because all this growth is useless to the lumberman, there is no cutting to be seen; but because I have passed this way before, instinctively following the same course like an animal, a faint winding trail begins to appear, with a bent twig or a blazed tree at every turn to give direction. As you move forward more confidently, learning the woodsman’s way of looking far ahead to pick up the guiding signs before you come to them, the dim forest suddenly brightens; a wave of light runs in, saying as it passes overhead that you are near an opening. As if to confirm the message, the trail runs into a well-worn deer-path, which looks as if the animals that used it knew well where they were going. Clumps of delicate young larches spring up ahead; between them open filmy vistas, like windows draped in lace, and across one vista stretches a ribbon of silver. A few more steps and—there! my little pond is smiling at you, reflecting the blue deeps of heaven
- 34. or the white of passing clouds from its setting of pale-green larch-trees and crimson mosses. And now, if you are responsive, you shall have a new impression of this old world, the wonderful impression which a wilderness lake gives at the moment of discovery, but never again afterward. [242]As you emerge from cover of the woods, the pond seems to awaken like a sleeper. See, it returns your gaze, and on its quiet face is a look of surprise that you are here. Enjoy that first awakening look; for there is more of wisdom and pleasure in it, believe me, than in hurrying forth blindly intent on making a map or catching a trout, or doing something else that calls for sight to the neglect of insight. All sciences, including chartography and angling, can easily be learned by any man; but understanding is a gift of God, and it comes only to those who keep their hearts open. Your own nature is here your best guide, and it shows you a surprising thing: that your old habitual impressions of the world have suddenly become novel and strange, as if this smiling landscape were but just created, and you were the first to look with seeing eyes upon the glory of it. It tells you, further, if you listen to its voice, that creation is all like this, under necessity to be beautiful, and that the beauty is still as delightful as when the evening and the morning were the first day. This dance of water, this rain of light, this shimmer of air, this upspringing of trees, this blue heaven bending over all—no artist ever painted such things; no poet ever sang or could sing them. Like a mother’s infinite tenderness, they await your appreciation, your silence, your [243]love; but they hide from your description in words or pigments. Finally, in the lowest of whispers, your nature tells you that the most impressive and still most natural thing in this quiet scene is the conscious life that broods silently over it. As the little pond seems to awaken, to be alive and sentient, so also does that noble tree yonder when you view it for the first time, or that delicate orchid wafting its fragrance over the lonely bog. Each reflects something greater than itself, and it is that greater “something” which appeals to you when you enter the solitude. Your impressions here are those of the first man, a man who found many beautiful things in a garden, and God walking among them in the cool of the day. Call the brooding life God or the Infinite or the Unknown or the Great Spirit or the Great Mystery—what you will; the simple fact is that you have an impression of a living Being, who first speaks to you in terms of personality that you understand. So much, and more, of eternal understanding you may have if you but tarry a moment under these larches with an open mind. Then, when you have honored your first impression, which will abide with you always, you may trace out the physical features of my pond at leisure. Just here it is not very wide; your eye easily overlooks it to rest [244]with pleasure on a great mound of moss, colored as no garden of
- 35. flowers was ever colored, swelling above the bog on the farther shore. On either hand the water sparkles wider away, disappearing around a bend with an invitation to come and see. To the left it ends in velvety shadow under a bank of evergreen; to the right it seems to merge into the level shore, where shadow melts with substance in a belt of blended colors. A few yards back from the shore groups of young larches lift their misty-green foliage above the caribou moss; they seem not to be rooted deep in the earth, but to be all standing on tiptoe, as if to look over the brim of my pond and see their own reflections. Everywhere between these larch groups are shadowy corridors; and in one of them your eye is caught by a spot of bright orange. The spot moves, disappears, flashes out again from the misty green, and a deer steps forth to complete the wilderness picture with the grace of life. Such is my pond, hidden away in the heart of a caribou bog, which is itself well hidden in dense forest. Before I found it the wild ducks had made it a summer home from time immemorial; and now, since I disturb it no more, it is possessed in peace by a family of beavers; yet I still think of it as mine, not by grace of any artificial law or deed, but by the more ancient right of possession [245]and enjoyment. A hundred lakes by which I have tented are greater or more splendid; but the first charm of any wilderness scene is its solitude, and on these greater lakes the impression of solitude may be broken by the flash of a paddle-blade in the sun, or the chuck of an ax under the twilight, or the gleam of a camp-fire through the darkness. But here on my pond you may know how Adam felt when he looked abroad: no raft has ever ruffled its surface; no ax-stroke or moan of smitten tree has ever disturbed its quiet; no camp- fire has ever gleamed on its waters. Its solitude is still that of the first day; and it has no name, save for the Indian word that came unbidden at the moment of finding it, like another Sleeping Beauty, in the woods. Do you ask how I came to find my pond? Not by searching, but rather by the odd chance of being myself lost. I had gone astray one afternoon, and was pushing through some black growth when an alarm rose near at hand. A deer whistled loudly, crying “Heu! heu! heu!” as he jumped away, and on the heels of his cry came a quacking of flushed ducks. Till that moment I thought I knew where I was; but the quacking brought doubt, and then bewilderment. If a duck tells you anything in the woods, he tells you of water, plenty of it; but the [246]map showed no body of water nearer than Big Pine Pond, which I had fished that day, and which should be three or four miles behind me. Turning in the direction of the alarm, I soon broke out of the cover upon a caribou bog, a mysterious expanse never before suspected in that region, and before me was the gleam of water in the sunshine. “A pond, a new one, and what a beauty!” I thought with elation, as I caught its awakening look and feasted my eyes on its glory
- 36. of color. Then I gave it an Indian name and hurried away; for I was surely off my course, and the hour was late for lingering in strange woods. Somewhere to the west of me was the home lake; so westward I headed, making a return-compass of bent twigs, till I set my feet in a branch of the old logging-road. And that chance trail is the one I have ever since followed. [247] [Contents]
- 38. XI
- 39. Woodsy Impressions Next morning I returned to explore my find at leisure. One part of that exploration was to go completely around the bog, to learn its guiding landmarks and compass- bearings; but an earlier and better part was to sit quietly beside my pond to hear whatever it might have to say to me. If that last sounds fanciful, remember that many things are voiceless in this world, but few are wholly dumb. Of the numberless ponds that brighten the northern wilderness, some were made by beavers, others by flood or glacier or earthquake, and no two of them tell the same story or make the same impression. They are like so [248]many unspoiled Indians, whom we regard from a distance as being mysteriously alike, but who have different traditions, ideals, personalities, and even different languages. I know not what the spell of any lonely place may be when you make yourself part of it; I only know that it stirs one strangely, like the flute note of a wood-thrush or a song without words. Though I never met with an adventure on my little pond, never cast a fly to learn whether any trout lurked in its waters, never thought of firing a shot at its abundant game, yet season after season I returned to it expectantly, and went away satisfied. Such a pond has a charm of its own, a spell which our forebears sought to express in terms of nymphs or puckwudgies or water-sprites. It grows a better crop than trout, attracts a finer game than deer or water-fowl, and you can seldom visit it without learning something new about your natural self or the wood folk or the friendly universe. Thus, it happens on a day when you are waiting beside your pond, or wending your way to it, that a moose or a fox or a dainty grouse appears unexpectedly near you; and instantly, without thought or motive, you “freeze” in your tracks or, if you are not seen, shrink deeper into the shadow for concealment. The action is natural, involuntary, instinctive, precisely like the action of a [249]young deer under similar circumstances; but when it is over you understand it, and smile at finding yourself becoming more and more like other natural creatures,—going softly, that is, making yourself inconspicuous without trying or knowing how, and having no thought of harm to any bird or beast, but only of watching him or gauging his course while remaining yourself unseen. Only by some such method can you learn anything worth knowing about a wild animal: books describe, naturalists classify and sportsmen kill him; but to understand him you must be a sharer of his quiet ways. Comes another day, a day when you are in love with solitude itself, when you learn with surprise that a man is never lonely when alone in the woods; that ideals may be
- 40. quite as companionable as folks; and that around you in a goodly company are beauty, peace, spacious freedom and harmonious thoughts, with a hint also, to some minds, of angels and ministers of grace. The Attendant Spirit of “Comus,” the Ariel of “The Tempest,” the good fairies of all folk,—these are never understood in the town, nor in the woods unless you enter them alone. At a later time, and with a thrill of great wonder, you may discover the meaning of silence, and of the ancient myth of a lovely goddess of silence; not the dead silence of a dungeon, which may roar [250]in a man’s ears till it deafens him or drives him mad, but the exquisite living silence of nature, a silence which at any moment may break into an elfin ringing of bells, or into a faintly echoing sound of melody, as if stars or unseen beings were singing far away. This impression of melody is often real, not illusory, and may be explained by the impact of air-currents on resonant shells of wood, hundreds of which fall to humming with the voice of ’cellos and wind-harps; but there is another experience of the solitude, more subtle but none the less real, for which only the psychologist will venture to give an accounting. Once in a season, perhaps, comes an hour when, no matter what your plans or desires may be, your mind seems intent on some unrelated affair of its own. As you hurry over the trail, you may be thinking of catching a trout or stalking a buck or building a camp or getting to windward of a corporation; meanwhile your subconscious mind, disdaining your will or your worry, is busily making pictures of whatever attractive thing it sees,—radiant little pictures, sunshiny or wind-swept, which shall be reproduced for your pleasure long after the important matters which then occupied you are clean forgotten. Here is the story of one such picture, a reflection, no doubt, of the primitive trait or quality called [251]place-memory, which enables certain animals or savages to recognize any spot on which their eyes have once rested. One late afternoon, years after I had found my pond, I crossed the mountain from distant Ragged Lake, heading for the home lake by a new route. There was no trail; but near the foot of the western slope of the hills I picked up an old lumber road which seemed to lead in the right direction. For a time all went well, and confidently; but when the road dipped into an immense hollow, and there showed signs of petering out, I followed it with increasing doubt, not knowing where I might come out of the woods or be forced to spend the night. As I circled through a swale, having left the road to avoid a press of alders that filled it, an ash-tree lifted its glossy head above a thicket with a cheery “Well met again, pilgrim! Whither away now?” It was a surprising hail in that wild place, suggestive of dreams or sleep-walking; but under the illusion was a grain of reality which brought me to an instant halt. After
- 41. passing under thousands of silent trees all day, suddenly here was one speaking to me. And not only that, but wearing a familiar look, like a face which smiles its recognition of you while you try in vain to place it. Where, when had I seen that tree before? No, [252]impossible! I had never before entered this part of the vast forest. Yet I must have seen it somewhere, or it could not now stir a familiar memory. Nonsense! just a trick of the imagination. I must hurry on. Thus my thoughts ran, like a circling hare; and all the while the ash-tree seemed to be smiling at my perplexity. The man who ignores such a hint has much to learn about woodcraft, which is largely a subconscious art; so I sat down to smoke a council-pipe with myself and the ash- tree over the matter. No sooner was the mind left to its own unhampered way than it began to piece bits of a puzzle-picture deftly together; and when the picture was complete I knew exactly where I was, and where I might quickly find a familiar trail. Eight years before, in an idle hour when nothing stirred on my pond, I had explored a mile or so beyond the bog to the south, only to find a swampy, desolate country without a trail or conspicuous landmark of any kind. It was while I passed through this waste, seeking nothing in particular and returning to my pond, that the mind took its snapshot of a certain tree, and preserved the picture so carefully, so minutely, that years later the original was instantly recognized. Many similar ash-trees grew on that flat, each with its glossy crown and its gray shaft flecked by dark-green moss; what [253]there was in this one to attract me, what outward grace or inward tree- sprite, I have not yet found out.
- 42. His massive head thrust forward as he tried to penetrate the far distance with his near-sighted eyes. [253] Another subconscious record seems to have been made for beauty alone, with its consequent pleasure, rather than for utility. As I watched my pond one summer morning, intent on learning what attracted so many deer to its shores, the mind
- 43. apparently chose its own moment for making a perfect picture, a masterpiece, which should hang in its woodsy frame on my mental wall forever. The sky was wondrously clear, the water dancing, the air laden with the fragrance of peat and sweet-scented grass. Deer were slow in coming that morning, and meanwhile nothing of consequence stirred on my pond; but there was still abundant satisfaction in the brilliant dragon-flies that balanced on bending reeds, or in the brood of wild ducks that came bobbing out like young mischief—makers from a hidden bogan, or even in the face of the pond itself, as it brightened under a gleam of sunshine or frowned at a passing cloud or broke into a laugh at the touch of a cat’s-paw wind. Suddenly all these pleasant minor matters were brushed aside when a bush quivered and held still on the farther shore. All morning the bushes had been quivering, showing the silvery side of their leaves to every [254]breeze; but now their motion spoke of life, and spoke truly, for out from under the smitten bilberries came a bear to stand alert in the open. The fore part of his body was lifted up as he planted his paws on a tussock; his massive head was thrust forward as he tried to penetrate the far distance with his near-sighted eyes. He was not suspicious, not a bit; his nose held steady as a pointing dog’s, instead of rocking up and down, as it does when a bear tries to steal a message from the air. A moment he poised there, a statue of ebony against the crimson moss; then he leaped a bogan with surprising agility, and came at his easy, shuffling gait around a bend of the shore. Opposite me he sat down to cock his nose at the sky, twisting his head as he followed the motion of something above him, which I could not see,—a hornet, perhaps, or a troublesome fly that persisted in buzzing about his ears. Twice he struck quickly with a paw, apparently missing the lively thing overhead; for he jumped up, rushed ahead violently and spun around on the pivot of his toes. Then he settled soberly to his flat-footed shuffle once more, and disappeared in a clump of larches, which seemed to open a door for him as he drew near. For me that little comedy was never repeated, though I saw many another on dark days or bright; [255]and the last time I visited my pond I beheld it sadly altered, its beauty vanished, its shores flooded, its green trees stark and dead. Unknown to me, however, the mind had made its photographic record, and always I see my pond, as on that perfect day, in its setting of misty-green larches and crimson bog. Again its quiet face changes, like a human face at pleasant thoughts, and over it comes to me the odor of sweet-scented grass. The sunshine brightens it; the clouds shadow it; brilliant dragon-flies play among its bending reeds; the same brood of ducklings glides in or out from bogan to grassy bogan; and forever the bear, big and glossy black, goes shuffling along the farther shore.
- 44. [256] [Contents]
- 46. XII
- 47. Larch-trees and Deer One of the subtler charms of my pond, a thing felt rather than seen, was a certain air of secrecy which seldom left it. In every wilderness lake lurks a mystery of some kind, which you cannot hope to penetrate,—a sense of measureless years, of primal far-off things, of uncouth creatures dead and gone that haunted its banks before the infancy of man; but on this little pond, with its sunny waters and open shore, the mystery was always pleasant, and at times provoking, as if it might be the place where an end of the rainbow rested. Though small enough to give one a sense of possession (one can never feel that he owns a big [257]lake, or anything else which gives an impression of grandeur or sublimity), my pond had a mischievous way of hinting, when you were most comfortable, that it was hiding a secret; that it might show you, if it would, a much better scene than that you looked upon. It was shaped somewhat like an immense pair of spectacles, having two lobes that were flashing bright, with a narrow band of darker water between; and, what with its bending shores or intervening larches, you could never see the whole of it from any one place. So, like eyes that hide their subtlest lights of whim or fancy under glasses, it often seemed to be holding something in reserve, something which it would not reveal unless you searched for it. After watching awhile from one beautiful or restful spot, you began to feel or imagine that some comedy was passing unseen on the other half of the pond; and though you resisted the feeling at first, sooner or later you crept through the screen of larches to know if it were true. On every side of the pond save one, where a bank of evergreen made velvet shadows intermingled with spots of heavenly blue, the shores were thickly spread with mosses, which began to color gloriously in midsummer, the colors deepening as the season waned, till the reflecting water appeared as the glimmering center of a gorgeous [258]Oriental rug. Along the edges of this rug, as a ragged fringe, stood groups of larches in irregular order,—little fairylike larches that bore their crown of leaves not as other trees bear them, heavily, but as a floating mist or nebula of sage green. Like New England ladies of a past age they seemed, each wearing a precious lace shawl which gave an air of daintiness to their sterling worth. When the time came for the leaves to fall, instead of rustling down to earth with a sound of winter, mournfully, they would scamper away on a merry wind, mingling their fragrance with that of the ripened grass; and then the twigs appeared plainly for the first time, with a little knot or twist in every twig, like toil-worn fingers that the lace had concealed.
- 48. Here or there amid this delicate new growth towered the ruin of a mighty tamarack, or ship-knee larch, such as men sought in the old clipper-ship days when they needed timbers lighter than oak, and even tougher to resist the pressure of the gale or the waves’ buffeting. Once, before the shipmen penetrated thus far into the wilderness, the tamaracks stood here in noble array, their heads under clouds, beckoning hungry caribou to feed from the lichens that streamed from their broad arms above the drifted snow; now most of them are under the moss, which covered them [259]tenderly when they fell. The few remaining ones stand as watch-towers for the hawks and eagles; their broken branches make strange sepia drawings of dragon- knots and hooked beaks on the blue sky. A tiny moth killed all these great larches; the caribou moved northward, leaving the country, and the deer moved in to take possession. This and many other stories of the past my little pond told me, as I watched from its shores or followed the game-trails that were spread like a net about its edges. Back in the woods these trails wandered about in devious fashion, seeking good browse or easy traveling; while here or there a faint outgoing branch offered to lead you, if your eyes were keen, to the distant ridge where a big buck had his daily loafing-place. On the bog the trails went more circumspectly, uniting at certain places in a single deep path, a veritable path of ages, which was the only path that might safely be followed by any creature with more weight than a fox. The moment you ventured away from it the ground began to shiver, to quake alarmingly, to sink down beneath your feet. Only a thin mat of roots kept you afloat; the roots might anywhere part and drop you into black bottomless ooze, and close forever over your head. A queer place, one might think, for heavy beasts to gather, and so it was; but the old caribou-trails [260]or new deer-paths offered every one of them safe footing. At first these game-trails puzzled me completely, being so many and so pointless. That they were in constant use was evident from the footprints in them, which were renewed almost every morning; yet I never once saw a deer approach the water to drink or feed. Something else attracted them; a highway from one feeding-ground to another, it might be, or the wider outlook which brings deer and caribou out of their dim woods to sightly places; but there was no certainty in the matter until the animals themselves revealed the secret. One day, when a young buck passed my hiding-place as if he were going somewhere, I followed him to the upper or southern end of the pond. There he joined four other deer, which were very busy about a certain spot, half hidden by low bushes, a couple of hundred yards back from the shore. And there they stayed, apparently eating or drinking, for a full half-hour or more.
- 49. When the deer were gone away, I went over and found a huge spring, to which converged a dozen deep trails. Like the hub of an immense wheel it seemed: the radiating paths were the spokes, and somewhere beyond the horizon was the unseen rim. From the depths of the spring came a surprising [261]volume of clear, coffee- colored water, bubbling over joyously as it leaped from the dark earth into the light, and then stealing quietly away under bending grasses to keep my pond brim full. Around the spring the earth was pitted by the feet of deer, and everywhere about its edges were holes lapped in the peat by eager tongues. Here, beyond a doubt, was what called so many animals to my pond,—a mineral spring or salt-lick, such as we read about in stories of pioneer days, when game was everywhere abundant, but such as one now rarely finds. After that happy discovery I shifted my blind to another larch with low-drooping branches, beneath which one might rest comfortably and look out through a screen of lace upon a gathering of the deer. They are creatures of habit as well as of freedom; and one of their habits is to rest at regular intervals, the hours being hard to forecast, since they vary not only with the season of lengthening or shortening days, but also each month with the changes of the moon. Thus, when the moon fulls and weather is clear, deer are abroad most of the night. At dawn they seek their day- beds, instinctively removing far from where they have left their scent in feeding; and during the day they are apt to remain hidden save for one brief hour, when they take a comforting [262]bite here or there, giving the impression that they eat now from habit rather than from hunger. As the moon wanes they change their hours to take advantage of its shining; and on the “dark of the moon” they browse only in the early part of the night, then rest many hours, and have two periods of feeding or roaming the next day. Such seems to be the rule in the North, with plenty of exceptions to keep one guessing,—as in the November mating-season, when bucks are afoot at all hours; or during a severe storm, which keeps deer and all other wild animals close in their coverts. Because of this regularity of habit at irregular hours, the only certainty about the salt- lick was that the animals would come if one waited long enough. As I watched expectantly from my larch bower, the morning shadows might creep up to me, halt, and lengthen away on the other side, while not a deer showed himself in the open. Then there would be a stir in the distant larches, a flash of bright color; a doe would emerge from one of the game-trails, hastening her springy steps as she neared the spring. As my eyes followed her, noting with pleasure her graceful poses, her unwearied alertness, her frequent turning of the head to one distant spot in the woods where she had left her fawn, there would come another [263]flash of color from