THE PRESIDENT ON GLACIER POINT, YOSEMITE VALLEY _Frontispiece_ ARRIVAL AT GARDINER, MONTANA 10 THE PRESIDENT, MR. BURROUGHS AND SECRETARY LOEB 24 THE PRESIDENT IN THE BEAR COUNTRY 38 MR. BURROUGHS'S FAVORITE PASTIME 50 SUNRISE IN THE YELLOWSTONE 64 THE PRESIDENT ON A TRAIL 72 THE PRESIDENT'S HOME ON SAGAMORE HILL, SHOWING ADDITION KNOWN AS THE TROPHY ROOM 82 A BIT OF WOODLAND ON THE SLOPE TOWARDS OYSTER BAY 88 A PATH IN THE WOODS LEADING TO COLD SPRING HARBOR 92 A YEARLING IN THE APPLE ORCHARD 98 HALLWAY, SAGAMORE HILL 106 INTRODUCTION This little volume really needs no introduction; the two sketches of which it is made explain and, I hope, justify themselves. But there is one phase of the President's many-sided character upon which I should like to lay especial emphasis, namely, his natural history bent and knowledge. Amid all his absorbing interests and masterful activities in other fields, his interest and his authority in practical natural history are by no means the least. I long ago had very direct proof of this statement. In some of my English sketches, following a visit to that island in 1882, I had, rather by implication than by positive statement, inclined to the opinion that the European forms of animal life were, as a rule, larger and more hardy and prolific than the corresponding forms in this country. Roosevelt could not let this statement or suggestion go unchallenged, and the letter which I received from him in 1892, touching these things, is of double interest at this time, as showing one phase of his radical Americanism, while it exhibits him as a thoroughgoing naturalist. I am sure my readers will welcome the gist of this letter. After some preliminary remarks he says:-- "The point of which I am speaking is where you say that the Old World forms of animal life are coarser, stronger, fiercer, and more fertile than those of the New World." (My statement was not quite so sweeping as this.) "Now I don't think that this is so; at least, comparing the forms which are typical of North America and of northern Asia and Europe, which together form but one province of animal life.