OUR NATIONAL PARKS. 17 



crimson through all the brick shades to the softest pink, from black 

 through all the grays and pearls to glistening white. The greens are 

 furnished by the dark pines above, the lighter shades of growth 

 caught here and there in soft masses on the gentler slopes and the 

 foaming green of the plunging river so far below. The blues, ever 

 changing, are found in the dome of the sky overhead. 



It is a spectacle which one looks upon in silence. 



There are several spots from which fine partial views may be had, 

 but no person can say he has seen the canyon who has not stood upon 

 Inspiration Point. Remember this when you visit the Yellowstone. 



WILD ANIMALS LIVING NATURALLY 



Another interesting feature of the Yellowstone National Park is its 

 wild animal life. It is the largest and most successful preserve in the 

 world. Its 3,300 square miles of mountains and valleys remain 

 nearly as nature made them, for the two hundred miles of roads and 

 the seven hotels and many camps are as nothing in this immense 

 wilderness. No tree has been cut except when absolutely necessary 

 for road or trail or camp. No herds invade its valleys. No rifle has 

 been fired except by an occasional poacher along the borders since 

 the park was established in 1872. 



Visitors for the most part keep to the beaten road, and the wild 

 animals have learned in the years that they mean them no harm. 

 To be sure they are seldom seen by the people filling the long trains 

 of stages which travel from point to point daily during the season; 

 but the quiet watcher on the trails may see deer and bear and elk 

 and antelope to his heart's content, and he may even see mountain 

 sheep, moose, and bison by journeying on foot or by horseback into 

 their distant retreats. In the fall and spring when the crowds are 

 absent, wild deer gather in great numbers at the hotel clearings to 

 erop the grass, and the officers' children feed them flowers. One of 

 the diversions at the road builders' camps in the wilderness is cul- 

 tivating the acquaintance of the animals. There are photographs 

 in the War Department at Washington of men feeding sugar to bear 

 cubs while mother bear looks idly on at a distance. 



Thus one of the most interesting lessons from the Yellowstone is, 

 that wild animals are fearful and dangerous only when men treat 

 them as game or as enemies. 



BEARS, ELK, MOOSE, DEER, ANTELOPE, AND BISON 



Even the big grizzlies which are generally believed to be ferocious 

 are proved by our national parks experience to be entirely inoffensive 

 if not attacked. Even when attacked they make every possible 

 effort to escape, and only turn upon men when finally driven into 



17849°— 16 3 



