Not many thousands of years ago our ancestors led what we would
now call a wild and savage life. They had no permanent homes, but
wandered here and there in search of food, and lived in caves or
constructed the rudest kind of shelter from the storms. Perhaps
we are right in feeling thankful that we were not born in those
primitive times, but are there not really many things to regret
about the way in which we have to live at the present day?

The utterly free outdoor life is not open to many. We have little
or no opportunity to become acquainted with Nature, the guardian
of our ancestors. The woods, the rocks, the mountains, and the
dashing streams are almost complete strangers to many of us.

Many men are now obliged to go every day to their work in office
or shop, and spend the hours shut in from the fresh air and bright
sunshine. At night they sleep in rooms into which they admit little
fresh air for fear of taking cold. To-day each man has to learn
to do one thing well to the exclusion of nearly everything else,
in order to make a living. For this very reason we are in danger
of becoming human machines and of losing the use of some of the
powers with which Nature has endowed us. Many things about our
present mode of life are not natural to us, but through successive
generations we have become somewhat adapted to them. The Indians,
if taken from a life in the open air and made to live as we do,
often sicken and die.

The farmer enjoys much more freedom and more of the sweet fresh
air than do the artisans and office workers; but of all the men in
civilized countries the trappers and prospectors live most out of
doors. To be sure, they have to endure many hardships and dangers,
and their beds are not always the softest nor their food the best,
but you will seldom find one who is willing to exchange his free
life for work in the town or city.

The trappers have nearly disappeared. Their occupation will be gone
with the passing of the wild animals which were once so abundant.
The prospectors are, however, becoming more numerous year by year
throughout the mountains of western America. To them we owe a great
debt, for had not their searching eyes brought to light the hidden
mineral deposits this portion of our country would be far more
thinly populated than it is to-day.

The discovery of gold in California was accidental. A man named
Marshall was building a mill for Sutter in the foot-hills of the
Sierra Nevada