Transcription:
2 ing a night in the midst of a forest fire, or seeking in the earthquake to assist at the birth of a mountain illegible
s. So much the greater joy is yours,-to love Nature, body and soul together and not merely the soul without the body. For
my part I pity the man who has never slept out of doors and him who has never felt a savage joy in doing without the conveniences
of cities. (There is more religion in your book than in all the theological treatieses I have read in a twelve month, or for
that matter, in many years. The reading had another effect upon me also. It woke all the old wild yearning for the mountains.
They call me and draw me to them. I wake at night and plan how I may visit them this summer. Especially does my heart turn
to the Yellowstone, which I have never seen. And because I am also a humble fellow craftsman and love the mountains I make
bold to ask your counsel with regard to the trip. I hope to spend four weeks in the Park. By necessity I must make the expenses
light; by preference I shall camp out and seek the less frequented portions of the Park. But it is now twelve years since
I climbed Rainier with Ingraham and Piper, and ten since I was an Old Baldy in Colorado without a companion and my more recent
camping has been of a wilder type. What I need to know is whether storms are frequent in August; whether the temperature demands
blankets; and chiefly about bases of food supply. Are these frequent enough to make it safe to proceed on foot from the Hot
Springs , or