6 OUR NATIONAL PAEKS. 



trees are cut down for lumber, as in the national forests outside 

 the parks, but are allowed to reach their utmost size and age. No 

 animals are killed except mountain lions and other predatory beasts 

 which destroy the deer and young elk. No herds of sheep or cattle 

 are permitted to destroy the beautiful carpeting of luxuriant grasses 

 and gorgeous wild flowers in glades and valleys of noblest beauty. 

 Here, then, the student and the lover of nature may study nature 

 in her pristine beauty and under conditions which elsewhere exist 

 only in the few remote lands not yet invaded by man. 



To these national parks, then, the Department of the Interior in- 

 vites the student, amateur and professional alike. 



One must not confuse the national forests with the national parks. 

 The national forests aggregate many times the area of the national 

 parks. They were created to administer lumbering and grazing in- 

 terests for the people; the lumbering, instead of being done by pri- 

 vate interests for private profit, as in the past, is now done in the 

 public interest. The trees are cut in accordance with the principles 

 of scientific forestry, which conserves the smaller trees until they grow 

 to a certain size, thus perpetuating the forests. Sheep or cattle 

 graze in all pastures under governmental regulations, and regu- 

 lated hunting is permitted in season. The national parks, on the 

 other hand, are not properties in even the least commercial sense, 

 but natural preserves for the rest, recreation, and education of the 

 people. They remain under nature's own chosen conditions. They 

 alone maintain "the forest primeval." 



Lovers of sport also find their national parks rich fields of pleasure, 

 provided they do their hunting only with the camera. This is en- 

 couraged; and there are no other places in the world where wild 

 animals may be approached so closely. In the Yellowstone, where 

 shooting has been strictly prohibited since 1872, one may with rea- 

 sonable care and precaution photograph deer at close quarters, ap- 

 proach elk and antelope and even moose and bison near enough for 

 good pictures, and occasionally coax bears even to take sugar from 

 one's fingers. 



BIRDS AND WILD ANIMALS 



The lesson of the Yellowstone is that wild animals greatly fear man 

 only when man is cruel and murderous. Another lesson from national 

 parks experience is that no wild animal will injure human beings 

 except in self-defense. Even the grizzly bear, which we were brought 

 up to believe an aggressive, ferocious animal, is found to be entirely 

 shy and harmless except when violently assaulted. The monster 

 cat of our rock fastnesses — the mountain lion — big enough and pow- 

 erful enough to drag down a full-grown elk, is the most timid of all 

 the beasts in the national parks, flying at great speed at the first sight 



