USES OF NATURAL AREAS 



27 



Yosemite National Park 



A Yosemite Fora. Hall. 



Sketch of Yosemite National Park and 

 an Account of the Origin of Yose- 

 mite and Hetch Hetchy Valleys 

 F. E. Matthes. Gov. Pr. Office. 



Forests of Yosemite, Sequoia, and 

 General Grant National Parks. C 

 L. Hill. Gov. Pr. Office. 



The Secret of the Big Trees— Yosemite, 

 Sequoia, and General Grant National 

 Parks. Ellsworth Huntington. 



Mount Rainier National Park 



Features of the Flora of Mount Rainier 



5; i National Park. J. B. Flett. Gov 

 Pr. Office. 



Forests of Mount Rainier National 

 Park. G.F.Allen. Gov. Pr. Office. 



Mount Rainier and Its Glaciers. F. E 

 Matthes. Gov. Pr. Office. 



Mount Rainier, a Record of Explora- 

 tions. Edmond S. Meany. i^ 



Crater Lake National Park 



Geological History of Crater Lake. J. 



S. Diller. Gov. Pr. Office. 

 Forests of Crater Lake National Park. 



J. F. Pernot. Gov. Pr. Office. 



5. MUSEUMS AND NATURE 



By Frank Collins Baker 



Many well informed people have 

 thought that the elaborate habitat 

 groups in the modern museum can take 

 the place of first hand contact with the 

 animals in their natural environment. 

 These groups are indeed wonderfully 

 life-like, and in many cases faithfully 

 portray the life as it may be seen in 

 nature, and when scientifically accurate 

 and constructed with due regard to the 

 psychology of the museum visitor they 

 have both a value to ecology and an 

 interest for the visitor. But these 

 groups, good as they are, only interpret 

 certain phases of the life of the animals, 

 giving the average person a birds-eye 

 view of some of the phenomena which 

 go to make up the every-day occupation 

 of wild life. Such groups as the Vir- 

 ginia deer in the four seasons, on exhibi- 

 tion in the Field Museum of Natural 

 History, give the student a good idea 

 of the changes that take place in the 

 form and fur of these common animals: 



but this simply interprets these phe- 

 nomena and cannot take the place of the 

 wild deer in their native haunts. 



These museum groups, however, have 

 a real ecological value, not only in- 

 terpreting nature to those who may be 

 fortunate enough to be able to visit the 

 national parks and other wild places of 

 nature, and so make these visits of 

 more profit and pleasure, but they aLso 

 give to those individuals (who unfor- 

 tunately are in the majority) who cannot 

 leave the big centers of population and 

 enjoy wild life at first hand, a glimpse 

 of wild animal life as it is, or more 

 often, as it has been, before man took 

 complete possession of the land, lake, 

 and forest for his personal, and too often, 

 selfish use. 



The preservation of natural areas for 

 the maintenance of wild life is emphati- 

 cally desired by, and necessary for, 

 the modern museum, for only by a 

 study of these natural areas can these 

 wonderful groups be made. It is be- 

 coming increasingly difficult to find 

 places near the cities where even the 

 smaller life can be studied for such 

 purposes. Lakes and streams adjacent 

 to towns and small cities (to say nothing 

 of these near the large metropolitan 

 cities, where almost everything is de- 

 spoiled) are either heavily polluted and 

 the fauna and flora killed or so changed 

 by modern life of the suburbanite as to 

 completely destroy all vestiges of origi- 

 nal wild life. The preservation of small 

 natural, more or less virgin, areas near 

 small towns and cities is imperative 

 and must be accomplished soon, or all 

 such places will be lost forever. 



The large museums of the big cities 

 as well as the smaller nuiseums of towns, 

 small cities, and those connected with 

 universities, are in a position to aid 

 the movement for the preservation of 

 wild life sanctuaries by the intelligent 

 display of their material so that visitors 

 may become interested in wild life, and 

 thus be led to add their influence when 

 constructive legislation is urged by the 

 many societies fostering this subject. 



