That Dark Laboratory We Call The Soil.

The Elemental Simplicities Of Wilderness Travel Were Thrills. They Represented Complete Freedom To Make Mistakes. The Wilderness Gave Those Rewards And Penalties, For Wise And Foolish Acts Against Which Civilization Has Built A Thousand Buffers.

A Land Ethic...reflects The Existence Of An Ecological Conscience, And This In Turn Reflects A Conviction Of Individual Responsibility For The Health Of The Land. Health Is The Capacity Of The Land For Self-renewal. Conservation Is Our Effort To Understand And Preserve This Capacity.

The Real Jewel Of My Disease-ridden Woodlot Is The Prothonotary Warbler. ... The Flash Of His Gold-and-blue Plumage Amid The Dank Decay Of The June Woods Is In Itself Proof That Dead Trees Are Transmuted Into Living Animals, And Vice Versa.

Twenty Centuries Of 'progress' Have Brought The Average Citizen A Vote, A National Anthem, A Ford, A Bank Account, And A High Opinion Of Himself, But Not The Capacity To Live In High Density Without Befouling And Denuding His Environment, Nor A Conviction That Such Capacity, Rather Than Such Density, Is The True Test Of Whether He Is Civilized.

A Peculiar Virtue In Wildlife Ethics Is That The Hunter Ordinarily Has No Gallery To Applaud Or Disapprove Of His Conduct