458 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



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Phctohy afford fnr \orlln-rn Pari/K Railn.ad 



ONE OF THE BIG FEATURES OF YELLOWSTONE PARK 



The terraces of the Mammoth Hot Springs change in color from time to time. Nature seems here to be possessed of that character of restlessness that 

 prompts the housewife to rearrange the living-room furniture and the sea-shcUs on the what-not from time to time. At least, she does it with the brush of 

 a master artist. 



Yellowstone National Park 



Bv M.VRK Daniels 

 Former Superintendent of National Parks 



LIKE the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, the Yel- 

 lowstone National Park has occupied the spotlight 

 of public attention to such an extent that any 

 attempt to add to the public knowledge of its wonders 

 and fascinations is like carrying coals to Newcastle. 

 However, in consideration of the fact that the public has 

 been more or less submerged with a flood of literature 

 and lithographs, colored by hand with hues selected from 

 paint-pot bom of a printer's imagination, further com- 

 ments upon the Park based upon actual knowledge may 

 appear less like heaping coals of fire upon the head of the 

 long-suffering tourist. As a matter of fact, the sky over 

 Yellowstone National Park is not shell pink, the trees are 

 not blue, the waters of the great lake in no wise resemble 

 red ink and the geysers do not spout streams of molten 

 metal, as one might be led to believe from some of the 

 railroad literature colored in the way above described. 

 Further than this, it is quite possible to traverse the 

 woodland trails and pass many trees without seeing a 

 single grizzly poking his inquisitive nose from behind the 

 tree trunk, nor do the buffaloes and antelopes crowd the 

 tourists and stages from the highways. In fact it is 

 quite possible to spend a delightful week in the Park- 

 without being seriously molested by " denizens of the 

 woods," as the pseudo nature lovers delight in calling the 

 hapless bears and other animals of the Park. 



It is true that buffalo, antelope and bear abound in 

 this largest of our National Parks, and that they may be 

 seen without serious inconvenience or difficulty, but that 

 they are so numerous as to interrupt one in the pursuit of 

 insouciant pleasures, is purely a figment of the publicity 

 expert's imagination. I remember that for years, as a 

 boy, it was the ambition of my young life to spend a few 

 weeks in Yellowstone National Park where a natural 

 fleetness of foot would be greatly augmented by the ex- 

 citing pleasure of dodging silver-tipped grizzlies and 

 climbing trees to elude the vicious horns of the man-eat- 

 ing buffalo, and I have no doubt that there are many 

 young boys in the United States whose sleep is filled with 

 dreams of canyons and forests in Yellowstone National 

 Park, over-crowded with beasts of prey. 



Undoubtedly there are more natural phenomena to be 

 seen in Yellowstone National Park than in any other 

 equal area in the United States. Add to this the fact 

 that there is a great lake fifteen miles wide at its widest 

 point, and twenty miles long, the placid surface of which 

 is seventy-eight hundred feet above the sea level, a great 

 gorge of rainbow hues through which a mighty river 

 roars on its way to the sea, hundreds of square miles of 

 great forests and broken, saw-toothed crests silhouetted 

 against the sparkling skies, and you have a combination 

 which will inspire almost anyone to an unrestricted and 



