American Big Game in its Haunts 



ingly what he had seen, would make a contribution 

 of permanent value to our nature literature. 



In May, after leaving the Yellowstone, I visited 

 the Grand Canon of the Colorado, and spent three 

 days camping in the Yosemite Park with John 

 Muir. It is hard to make comparisons among 

 different kinds of scenery, all of them very grand 

 and very beautiful ; yet personally to me the Grand 

 Cafion of the Colorado, strange and desolate, ter- 

 rible and awful in its sublimity, stands alone and 

 unequaled. I very earnestly wish that Congress 

 would make it a national park, and I am sure that 

 such course would meet the approbation of the 

 people of Arizona. As to the Yosemite Valley, If 

 the people of California desire it, as many of them 

 certainly do, it also should be taken by the 

 National Government to be kept as a national 

 park, just as the surrounding country, including 

 some of the groves of giant trees, is now kept. 



John Muir and I, with two packers and three 

 pack mules, spent a delightful three days in the 

 Yosemite. The first night was clear, and we lay 

 in the open on beds of soft fir boughs among the 

 giant sequoias. It was like lying in a great and 

 solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful 

 than any built by hand of man. Just at nightfall 

 I heard, among other birds, thrushes which I think 



50 



