12 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



and rivers to the eastward through Canada, 

 tracing the old romantic ways of the Hudson 

 Bay traders ; others by Bering Sea and the Yu- 

 kon, sailing all the way, getting glimpses per- 

 haps of the famous fur-seals, the ice-floes, and 

 the innumerable islands and bars of the great 

 Alaska river. In spite of frowning hardships 

 and the frozen ground, the Klondike gold will 

 increase the crusading crowds for years to come, 

 but comparatively little harm will be done. 

 Holes will be burned and dug into the hard 

 ground here and there, and into the quartz-ribbed 

 mountains and hills ; ragged towns like beaver 

 and muskrat villages will be built, and mills and 

 locomotives will make rumbling, screeching, dis- 

 enchanting noises ; but the miner's pick will not 

 be followed far by the plough, at least not until 

 Nature is ready to unlock the frozen soil-beds 

 with her slow-turning climate key. On the other 

 hand, the roads of the pioneer miners will lead 

 many a lover of wildness into the heart of the 

 reserve, who without them would never see it. 



In the meantime, the wildest health and plea- 

 sure grounds accessible and available to tourists 

 seeking escape from care and dust and early 

 death are the parks and reservations of the West. 

 There are four national parks, 1 — the Yellow- 

 stone, Yosemite, General Grant, and Sequoia, — 

 all within easy reach, and thirty forest reserva- 



1 There are now five parks and thirty-eight reservations. 



