March 21, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



447 



steam which are condensed near the surface 

 of the rock and the condensed water collects 

 in small pools from which it flows in a small 

 stream. The hot springs at the lower levels 

 may be genuine streams of water flowing from 

 great depths, but it is inconceivable that they 

 should originate in one connected body or 

 stream of water. 



Tourists who camp in the Park are called 

 " sagebrushers," and if you wish to excite the 

 indignation of a " sagebrusher " talk to him 

 about Yellowstone Park bears ! One or two 

 bears feeding at each hotel garbage dump 

 would be sufficient for tourists; but at present 

 bears congregate at the various hotel garbage 

 dumps to the number of fifteen or twenty at 

 a time, and the cleaning out of sagebrushers' 

 camps by marauding bears is a nightly occur- 

 rence. The one all-absorbing topic of con- 

 versation among sagebrushers is marauding 

 bears; and it is by no means a joke, for three 

 or four sagebrushers are killed nearly every 

 summer in attempting to drive bears out of 

 their camps ! The Yellowstone Park bears are 

 an unmitigated and intolerable nuisance, and 

 nine tenths of them should be killed at once. 

 The only alternative is for the Park authori- 

 ties to establish a vigilant all-night watch 

 around every camping ground. 



One of the points of interest at Mammoth 

 Hot Springs is a grotto, a cavity in the hot- 

 springs formation, and tourists are taken into 

 this grotto in parties of twenty or thirty at a 

 time. Only one hundred yards or so from the 

 grotto is an opening through which carbon 

 dioxide issues, filling a small depression at the 

 bottom of which two or three dead birds are 

 usually seen. If a crevice should be opened 

 up from the grotto to any of the old hot-water 

 channels, the grotto would in all probability 

 be filled with carbon dioxide, and the next 

 party of tourists would be left at the bottom 

 of the grotto like the birds in the little valley 

 near by. It would be wise on the part of the 

 park management to provide for a test of the 

 air of the grotto every morning during the 

 tourist season. If this is not done a disaster 

 is likely to occur at any time. 



At Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel I wished 



to purchase a number of large colored views 

 and I naturally went to the " ofiicial photog- 

 rapher of the park." The next day, however, 

 I found a better grade of pictures for sale at 

 an outside place and at a cheaper price, and 

 to my disgust I found that the colored views 

 I had purchased from the ofiicial photographer 

 were of foreign manufacture, whereas the 

 cheaper and better ones which were sold by 

 the unofl5cial photographer were of American 

 manufacture! Surely the position of official 

 photographer should be done away with in the 

 Yellowstone Park. Very certainly it is not 

 right for the public to be led by the term 

 " official photographer " to purchase foreign- 

 made colored views which are more expensive 

 than American-made views and at the same 

 time distinctly inferior. 



Any one who has traveled through the re- 

 gion to the south and east of the Yellowstone 

 Park must realize what a splendid game pre- 

 serve we could have if the Yellowstone Park 

 were extended to the east so as to include the 

 Absaroka Mountains and to the south so as 

 to include Jackson's Hole and Teton Moun- 

 tains and Gros Ventre Mountains. The pri- 

 vate holdings of land in Jackson's Hole could 

 be purchased for a very moderate sum and the 

 entire surrounding mountain region is already 

 included in the National Forest Eeserves. It 

 would be a very easy matter for the national 

 government to greatly extend the boundaries 

 of the Yellowstone Park and create what 

 would be perhaps the most magnificent asylum 

 for wild animals in the whole world. 



W. S. Pranklin 



ALLEGHANY VALLEY EROSION 



To THE Editor of Science: In the recent 

 issue of the Bulletin of the Geological Society 

 of America, Vol. XXIIL, p. 295, is the paper 

 of G. F. Wright on " Postglacial Erosion and 

 Oxidation." In the summary of the discus- 

 sion which followed, the reporter states that 

 Mr. Leverett oifered as disproof of the con- 

 clusions of Professor Wright the " great ero- 

 sion in the upper Alleghany region which 

 occurred between the deposition of the old 

 drift and of the young or Wisconsin drift." 



