Adirondack wilderness

A few weeks ago, we found a neat little book about the Adirondacks: Murray's Adventures in the Wilderness, subtitled Camp-life in the Adirondacks (Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co. successors to Tuchman and Fields, 1869). William H. H. Murray, author of this book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._H._Murray), "dedicated to O. H. Platt, of Meriden Connecticut...in memory of many a tramp and midnight bivouac."

Today, we took another look at this book, which begins with "Why I go to the Wilderness." Magnificent scenery is one of Murray's reasons and another is "to restore impaired health." In expounding on the second reason, Murray writes on page 12:

The spruce, hemlock, balsam, and pine, which largely compose this Wilderness,

yield upon the air, and especially at night, all their curative qualities.

Murray also lists the cost of the trip:

Guide - $2.50 per day

Board for self and guide while in the woods - $2.00 each per week

Miscellanies, "here is where the ten-dollar green-backs come in" $25.00

$50 pays one's traveling expenses both ways from Boston to Lower Saranac Lake

(from New York the expense is about the same)

"It's safe to say that $125 will pay all the expense of a trip of a month's duration in the Wilderness."

Murray adds, "I know of no other excursion in which such a small sum of money will return such percent of health, pleasure, and profit."

Ahhh, those good ole days. We can't bring them back but, thanks to authors like William H. H. Murray, we can still enjoy them through books.