The Yellowstone Park 



amount of trapping was carried on in early 

 days, and their numbers greatly reduced. Of 

 late years, special vigilance has been exer- 

 cised to prevent the trapping and molestation 

 of the Park beaver, but it has been by no 

 means easy to accomplish this, on account of 

 the remoteness of many of the best-stocked 

 streams, and the high price of the skins, which 

 tempts the cupidity of the trapper. Captain 

 George S. Anderson, the present superinten- 

 dent of the Park, believes the beaver are 

 steadily increasing, and this is no doubt the 

 fact, in view of the efforts that he has made 

 to stop all trapping. 



Innumerable streams flowing from the 

 mountains to the central plateau, magnificent 

 lakes, the sources of grand rivers, and a river 

 system divided into four drainage basins, 

 make the region singularly well suited for 

 fish life. Exploration soon developed the 

 fact that, while many of these rivers and 

 lakes abounded in trout, others, above the 

 waterfalls which form so characteristic a fea- 

 ture of the streams between the plateau and 

 the lowlands, were wholly destitute of fish. 

 In the spring of 1887 I addressed a letter to 

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