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r OA, Ranger!" 



Everybody wants to know how deep is the fire that heats the water 

 for the geysers. Sometimes the inquiry is made with a note of appre 

 hension in the voice. Authorities can but guess at the answer to this 

 question, but most of them think that the heat is at least a mile below 

 the surface of the earth. In some spots the hot rocks may be even nearer 

 to the surface, so near in fact that vegetation cannot grow. On the other 

 hand, these hot rocks near the surface may be heated by steam from 

 farther down. 



"Where is the grasshopper glacier, Ranger ?" 



Many people have heard of these curiosities, of which there are sev 

 eral in the Yellowstone region. The best-known grasshopper glaciers 

 are in the Beartooth National Forest just outside the northeast corner 

 of Yellowstone. There are countless millions of grasshoppers imbedded 

 in the ice of these glaciers. They have been there for centuries, frozen 

 solid. When the sun melts the ice, the grasshoppers disintegrate and the 

 pools at the base of the walls of ice are dark brown in color from the 

 grasshopper "tobacco juice." How they came to be in these glaciers in 

 such quantities is but surmised. The supposed explanation is that year 

 after year great clouds of grasshoppers, passing like a scourge over these 

 mountains, were caught in snowstorms which forced them down. As 

 the snow froze to ice, the grasshoppers were imbedded in it. 



Another mystery that the rangers must clear up often for visitors is 

 that of the "red snow" of the park glaciers. This "red snow" is really not 

 snow at all, but a sort of lichen, scarlet in color, which lives in snow. It 

 is found in several of the parks on glaciers and old snow fields. 



Curiosities which rank with the grasshopper glaciers are the nests of 

 ladybug colonies found on the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada. 

 Climb Mount Lyell in Yosemite National Park at the end of summer, 

 and at the topmost peaks, beneath the rocks, far out of reach of food, 

 you will find millions and millions of ladybugs. Often they are so thick 

 in these mountainous hives that you can scoop them up with your hands. 



There are men in California who make a busi 

 ness of going to high Sierra peaks to gather 

 ladybugs by the bag full. They are sold by 

 the pint or quart at fancy prices to farmers 

 and orchardists of the valley, who prize the 

 little bugs for their voracious appetites for 

 certain pests, principally lice, that eat plants 

 and the leaves of trees. But what instinct 

 leads them to fly hundreds of miles to the highest 

 mountains on the continent to pass their winters 

 in zero weather, far from food, is still a mystery. 

 'Ranger, where is timberline ?" That always interests 



