Creek Cañon, from Squaw Valley to “Glacier Camp,” has been made. This trail follows the route on which four members of my party were the pioneers, as explained in the article mentioned. Messrs. August Schick and George E. Bogue did the work, fired to the required enthusiasm by the OVERLAND'S presentation of the idea.

To reach “Glacier Camp" from Sisson, it has heretofore been necessary to travel about twenty-five miles on horseback, over the Stewart trail, crossing Mud Creek Cañon at a somewhat dangerous point. Now intending mountain climbers can go by stage or private conveyance, via Elk Lawn, to August Schick's place, and thence horseback, up the new and easy trail, gradually ascending to camp at ten thousand feet elevation, much of the grandest scenery of Shasta before them all the way. The whole trip from Sisson to the summit and return can be made in from two to three days.

I have already fully described the trail from “Glacier Camp” to the monument.

The only natural route up Shasta being now easily available, the trip should be placed within the reach of many who have heretofore been deterred from attempting the ascent on account of the great difficulties to be overcome. You may now ride to within a mile and a half of the top of Mt. Shasta, finding yourself thus comparatively fresh for the climbing to follow.

Yours truly,

Geo. S. Meredith.

eminent American statesman (deceased), born under the shadow of the Blue Ridge, in Fauquier County, Virginia, and who lived to honor many important positions,-among which were Governor of Mississippi and Senator in Congress,fought four duels,—the first with Edmund Winston, at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1827, with pistols, both combatants being wounded at the first fire, Governor Foote in the shoulder and Mr. Winston in the hip. This affair grew out of a personal encounter between Mr. Foote and Stark and Pratt Washington on one side, and Edmund Winston and others of that celebrated family on the other, during which all the participants were more or less injured, the two Washingtons severely. Some few years later Governor Foote and the celebrated S. S. Prentiss had an encounter in the court-house at Vicksburg, Mississippi, arising out of a dispute over a law case, when Foote threw an inkstand at Prentiss.

A challenge to fight a duel followed, of course, and the parties met in Louisiana, on the opposite side of the Mississippi River, and Foote was wounded in the shoulder at the first fire. Shortly afterwards indiscreet friends of Mr. Prentiss said things which angered Governor Foote, and the latter challenged Prentiss to another encounter. The challenge was accepted, and the parties met, as before, with pistols, at ten paces, and Foote fell with a severe wound in the right leg, just above the knee, from which he narrowly escaped death. From this time on, until the death of Mr. Prentiss, these former foes, became intimate and affectionate friends, neither ceasing to regret that, as young and impulsive men, they had twice met in deadly conflict over a trivial quarrel, in obedience to the then pretty general public sentiment of that country (now happily obsolete) that an insulted man must vindicate his honor by endeavoring to take the life of the offender. The Governor's fourth affair, a few years later, was with Osman Claiborne (a retired naval officer), near Columbus, Miss. The parties fired at each other five times with pistols, Governor Foote wounding his antagonist slightly three times. This affair, like all the other of his combats of this character, occurred when Governor Foote was a man much below middle age. It is a curious fact, too, that he knew almost nothing of the use of dueling weapons and was really a miserable shot, and would have regretted in bitter agony to the day of his death had it ever been his misfortune to have slain a fellow man. He was often heard by his intimates to say that the bravest and most lovable as well as the most solidly and brilliantly intellectual man he had

Henry S. Foote's Duels.

To the Editor :

In the December, 1894, number of the OVERLAND MONTHLY Mr. J. J. Peatfield in his article on “Famous Californians of other Days” refers briefly to the several duels in which Henry S. Foote took part. In the August, 1895, number Mr. George Baber also touches lightly on this phase of Foote's character in his remarkably interesting “Personal Recollections of Senator H. S. Foote." In spite of the fact that the day of the duello is past, there is still a sentiment of romance connected with the famous encounters of history, and we cannot but admire the superb courage of the participants while we deprecate the spirit of their times. Major Ben C. Truman in his well known work, “The Field of Honor, » devotes a chapter to “Henry S. Foote's many duels.”

He says:

Henry S. Foote, an I The Field of Honor, By B. C. Truman. Fords, Howard and Hulbert: 1834.

New York:

Ah 't is then the wild clematis, sweet as any

myrrh or thyme, Broods by the shaded pasture marsh, in black

berry time. In my dreams. I watch you coming down the

lane and through the door, Your dear familiar footstep sounds across the

rude pine floor; There is sunshine on your glossy braids and in

your eyes so true, On your basket heaped with berries and quaint

gown of faded blue. Oh! fern-kissed brooklets murmuring weave, in

ripple and in rhyme, A requiem low and tender for that blackberry time.

Nella H. Chapman.

Balfour on "The Foundations of Belief”

SUCH a book as this, prepared in the midst of an exceedingly busy and exacting life, coming from one engaged ceaselessly in the strife of England's politics, is a remarkable evidence of what constitutes the real power, on the hustings, on the platform, and on the floor of the senate chamber, of so many of the great men of every age. Here is a philosopher, a profound student of Cause and Effect, a careful delineator of Mind, one who with ease and accuracy plays with terms which by the multitude are supposed to be within the range of the specialist alone; and yet all along he has been before his fellows simply as a strong leader in the everyday affairs of men. Little wonder it is that when they turn their attention to the nation's needs and the

crises of the days that call for prompt action, such thinkers show a mastery of situations and a capability as to handling affairs which fairly astound their adversaries.

The book itself is not, as might be surmised from its title, a theological work; but certain essays and lectures, some of them long time prepared, now thrown together to serve as an introduction to the study of theology. The writer lays no claim to being a theologian, but declares that theology has had of late years to enlarge its borders until it has included subjects both scientific and philosophical. Purely theological doctrine sought for in this book, will mean disappointment to the seeker. The object of the writer is, “to recommend a particular way of looking at the world-problems, which, whether we like it or not, we are compelled to face; to lead the reader up to a point of view whence the small fragments of the Infinite Whole of which

"The Foundations of Belief. By the Right Hon. A J. Balfour. Longmans, Green and Co.: London and New York: 1895.

Mary and Other Poems.

Mary is a blank verse tale, dramatic in form, of the last days of Mary, the scriptural “ She that hath loved much,” in prison, condemned to die on the morrow for murder. She tells to the one faithful friend left to her the story of her life, of her father, one of the Wise Men of the East, of her loves, and of the strange One that spoke the strange words of forgiveness to her. The dramatic force is there and many fine lines, but the conception is perhaps too new and striking, to be entirely pleasing.

In the lyrics that follow, the mood is much the same, it is the poetry of doubt, of sorrow, of mournful strivings against the inevitable, with a “dumb, chained, immortal, hopeless, hoping God.” The somber meanings are clothed in musical words and the play of the imagination is often to be commended for a fine and original figure. Perhaps the best is the final quatrain:

God thought, and the thought was Man,

And Form gleamed out of strife,
And as æons of ages ran,

God dreamed, and the dream was Life.

Briefer Notice.

a

PROFESSOR PAINTER has presented to the students of literature a work which he styles an Introduction to English Literature that is a decided advance on the usual manual used in our schools. The author has done more than compile, he has embodied his own ripe ideas and expressed them in well chosen English. He leads up to each of the great authors with a sketch of the times, showing clearly the main springs of their work. Like Taine's great work, Painter's less pretentious one is as interesting as a novel and prepares one naturally for the classic selections illustrative of the masters. It does more, it ex