e colored, which indicated that they belonged to private
parties. All the rest was State or Government land. He carried in his
hand a repeating rifle. The pack, if opened, would have been found to
contain a woolen and a rubber blanket, fishing tackle, twenty pounds or
so of flour, a package of tea, sugar, a slab of bacon carefully wrapped
in oiled cloth, salt, a suit of underwear, and several extra pairs of
thick stockings. To the outside of the pack had been strapped a frying
pan, a tin pail, and a cup.

For more than a week Thorpe had journeyed through the forest without
meeting a human being, or seeing any indications of man, excepting
always the old blaze of the government survey. Many years before,
officials had run careless lines through the country along the
section-boundaries. At this time the blazes were so weather-beaten that
Thorpe often found difficulty in deciphering the indications marked
on them. These latter stated always the section, the township, and the
range east or west by number. All Thorpe had to do was to find the same
figures on his map. He knew just where he was. By means of his compass
he could lay his course to any point that suited his convenience.

The map he had procured at the United States Land Office in Detroit. He
had set out with the scanty equipment just described for the purpose of
"looking" a suitable bunch of pine in the northern peninsula, which, at
that time, was practically untouched. Access to its interior could be
obtained only on foot or by river. The South Shore Railroad was already
engaged in pushing a way through the virgin forest, but it had as yet
penetrated only as far as Seney; and after all, had been projected more
with the idea of establishing a direct route to Duluth and the copper
districts than to aid the lumber industry. Marquette, Menominee, and a
few smaller places along the coast were lumbering near at home; but they
shipped entirely by water. Although the rest of the peninsula also was
finely wooded, a general impression obtained among the craft that it
would prove too inaccessible for successful operation.

Furthermore, at that period, a great deal of talk was believed as to the
inexhaustibility of Michigan pine. Men in a position to know what they
were talking about stated dogmatically that the forests of the southern
peninsula would be adequate for a great many years to come. Furthermore,
the magnificent timber of the Saginaw, Muskegon, and Grand River v