1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



MAGPIES. 



the wing, soaring over a great canon. 

 The dippers are, to my mind, well-nigh 

 the most attractive of all our birds. 

 They stay through the winter in the 

 Yellowstone because the w r aters are in 

 many places open. We heard them 

 singing cheerfully, their ringing melody 

 having a certain suggestion of the win- 

 ter wren's. Usually they sang while 

 perched on some rock on the edge or in 

 the middle of the stream, but some- 

 times on the wing. In the open places 

 the western meadow larks w r ere also 

 uttering their singular, beautiful songs. 

 No bird escaped John Burroughs' eye ; 

 no bird note escaped his ear. 



On the last day of my stay it was ar- 

 ranged that I should ride do\vn from 

 Mammoth Hot Springs to the town of 

 Gardiner, just outside the park limits, 

 and there make an address at the laying 

 of the corner-stone of the arch by which 

 the main road is to enter the park. 

 Some three thousand people had gath- 

 ered to attend the ceremonies. A little 

 over a mile from Gardiner we came 

 down out of the hills to the flat plain. 



From the hills we could see the crowd 

 gathered around the arch waiting for 

 me to come. We put spurs to our horses 

 and cantered rapidly toward the ap- 

 pointed place, and on the way we passed 

 within forty yards of a score of black- 

 tails, which merely moved to one side 

 and looked at us, and within a hundred 

 yards of half a dozen antelope. To any 

 lover of nature it could not help being 

 a delightful thing to see the wild and 

 timid creatures of the wilderness ren- 

 dered so tame, and their tameness in the 

 immediate neighborhood of Gardiner, 

 on the very edge of the park, spoke 

 volumes for the patriotic good sense of 

 the citizens of Montana. Major Pitcher 

 informed me that both the Montana and 

 Wyoming people were cooperating with 

 him in zealous fashion to preserve the 

 game and put a stop to poaching. For 

 their attitude in this regard they deserve 

 the cordial thanks of all Americans in- 

 terested in these great popular play- 

 grounds, where bits of old wilderness 

 scenery and the old wilderness life are 

 to be kept unspoiled for the benefit of 



