236 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



whose newly acquired basin of the Kern is bounded 

 by the loftiest and most impressive peaks of the 

 High Sierra; Rocky Mountain National Park, Col- 

 orado, characterizing in best expression the vast 

 mountain backbone of the continent; and Mount Mc- 

 Kinley National Park, Alaska, whose ice-clad peak 

 rises 17,000 feet above its adjoining plains. 



Sequoia is also distinguished for its gorgeous 

 forests of gigantic trees, and Mount McKinley dis- 

 plays also some of the world's largest and finest gla- 

 ciers, and examples of the exuberant wild life of the 

 far North. 



Of sedimentary landscape, marvellously carved 

 by erosion and glowingly colored, the System pre- 

 sents three unequalled examples : Grand Canyon Na- 

 tional Park, Arizona, world spectacle of sublimity 

 carrying the story of life from its near beginning up 

 through highly colored strata disclosing a hundred 

 million years at least of world building, a library in 

 brilliant bindings; Zion National Park of the gor- 

 geously colored plateau country of Utah, "rainbow 

 of the desert," majestic in architecture and ornate in 

 decoration, carrying Grand Canyon's story on into 

 relatively late geologic times; and Glacier National 

 Park, northern Montana, recording an extraordi- 

 nary event in the history of the earth's surface, lit- 

 erally a Romance of Creation, with a wealth of de- 

 tail, magnificence of exposition, and exquisite quality 

 of beauty unequalled of its kind. 



Of volcanic landscape, the System offers a wide 



