english

Student number 1

Sigurd Olson was yet another popular writer when it comes to nature. Many of his writings had similar connections to those we have already written about. The biggest connection, though in my opinion, can be drawn between Muir and Olson. While they write about different areas and things in nature, reading their two works shows just how similar their thoughts are. The biggest point they share is the idea of finding peace of enlightenment in nature. Both Muir and Olson are very distinct on this idea, and it is very easy to point out in their writing. In Olson's case he believed that the wilderness played an impactful role in humans spiritual and intellectual wellbeing. “In the wilderness, harmony is the natural way of life as it has always been, but we must  not destroy it by overcrowding or by an exploitative use that might change it.”(The dream of the Hudson Bay) This is just one of many quotes that explains the importance of preserving nature. As mentioned, Muir and Olson have very similar thinking patterns when it comes to nature, and a lot of what they have to say has great meaning and importance. Both men worked to share their feelings through their work, and that is why i draw much connection between them.

Student number 2

I think Sigurd Olson Compares with John Burroughs the most. Sigurd Olson was a traveler, writer, and advocate for the preservation of the wilderness. He had a strong belief in saving the wilderness, and I think his drive to preserve the wilderness so people could visit and be inspired is similar to John Muir; however, I think his writing style and his inspiration are most like John Burrough's. He spent much of his time in his cabin finding inspiration from the wilderness to write his essays and books. John Burrough was an American naturalist, writer, and was active in US conservation. I think both writers compare also to David Thoreau. Those writers all had a small cabin built in a special place where they were able to get away and find inspiration from the wilderness to write.   

“Not long after the bluebird comes the Robin, sometimes in March, but in most of the northern states, April is a month of the Robin. In large numbers, they scour the fields in Groves. You hear their piping in the meadow, in the pasture, on the hillside. Walk into the woods, and the dry leaves Rush song with the word of their wings, the air is vocal with their cherry call. An excess of joy and diversity, they run, leap, scream, chase each other through the air, diving and sweeping among the trees with Perlis rapidity” (pg. 5 - Return of the Birds, John Burrough).  

“Normally I forget my first sight of the enormous riches of great slave lake with his countless islands, the gateway to the Coppermine River, the Phelan, and Great Bear Lake farther north, of the great Bear River with its 90-mile plunge to join the McKenzie, the enormous waterway to the Arctic Sea, which the explorer certain Alexandra McKenzie had thought was the way to the northwest passage and the orient” (pg. 54 - The Dream of Hudson Bay, Sigurd Olson).   

Although both writers write about different things in the wilderness, their passion and knowledge of these different topics and the way they describe them are very similar, I think. Burroughs descriptions of the Robin knowing when they come to their activities in the woods how they interact with each other just seems so similar to how Olson describes the lakes and the travels of all the connecting waterways and his views while looking out onto these great lakes or rivers.