72 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



Think of this mighty stream springing in the 

 first place in vapor from the sea, flying on the 

 wind, alighting on the mountains in hail and 

 snow and rain, lingering in many a fountain 

 feeding the trees and grass ; then gathering its 

 scattered waters, gliding from its noble lake, and 

 going back home to the sea, singing all the way ! 

 On it sweeps, through the gates of the mountains, 

 across the vast prairies and plains, through many 

 a wild, gloomy forest, cane-brake, and sunny 

 savanna ; from glaciers and snowbanks and pine 

 woods to warm groves of magnolia and palm ; 

 geysers dancing at its head keeping time with 

 the sea-waves at its mouth ; roaring and gray in 

 rapids, booming in broad, bossy falls, murmuring, 

 gleaming in long, silvery reaches, swaying now 

 hither, now thither, whirling, bending in huge 

 doubling, eddying folds, serene, majestic, ungov- 

 ernable, overflowing all its metes and bounds, 

 frightening the dwellers upon its banks ; build- 

 ing, wasting, uprooting, planting ; engulfing old 

 islands and making new ones, taking away fields 

 and towns as if in sport, carrying canoes and 

 ships of 5 commerce in the midst of its spoils and 

 drift, fertilizing the continent as one vast farm. 

 Then, its work done, it gladly vanishes in its 

 ocean home, welcomed by the waiting waves. 



Thus naturally, standing here in the midst of 

 its fountains, we trace the fortunes of the great 

 river. And how much more comes to mind as 



