OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



CHAPTER I 



THE WILD PARKS AND FOREST RESERVATIONS 

 OF THE WEST 



" Keep not standing 1 fix'd and rooted, 



Briskly venture, briskly roam ; 

 Head and hand, where'er thou foot it, 



And stout heart are still at home. 

 In each land the sun does visit 



We are gay, whate'er betide : 

 To give room for wandering is it 



That the world was made so wide." 



The tendency nowadays to wander in wilder- 

 nesses is delightful to see. Thousands of tired, 

 nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning 

 to find out that going to the mountains is going 

 home ; that wildness is a necessity ; and that 

 mountain parks and reservations are useful not 

 only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, 

 but as fountains of life. Awakening- from the 

 stupefying effects of the vice of over-industry 

 and the deadly apathy of luxury, they are trying 

 as best they can to mix and enrich their own 

 little ongoings with those of Nature, and to get 

 rid of rust and disease. Briskly venturing and 



