owners who very strongly object to the presence of the gentleman who comes in with a spade and proposes to till them. They are also very likely to be tenanted by more or less unpleasant wild beasts, snakes and other such fauna, while they are also likely to be encumbered with thick forests which have to be cleared before tillage is possible. Such are the dangers which the original pioneer has, as a matter of fact, in most cases to face; but even if we follow Mr. Shaw's example, and leave all these unpleasantnesses out of account, the fact remains that the Adam who settles down on the best patch in the country is the pioneer who leads the way into the wilderness, forsaking the pleasant companionship of man. In Mr. Shaw's example, his arrival is followed by a large number of other people who very quickly cure this defect in his surroundings, but this by no means always happens, and it is quite possible that the original pioneer is either killed with or without torture by the natives who resent his intrusion, or is eaten by wild beasts, or, after years of struggle with the natural difficulties of his position, dies of starvation owing to the failure of his crops. If, on the contrary, things turn out as Mr. Shaw describes them, the fortunate prospector who has by a
