Book Reviews 



109 



Last, but not least, the volume is a valuable manual for the con- 

 servationist. Several important species of California game birds are 

 approaching extinction. One is already gone. Nowhere is the necessity 

 of wise conservation set forth more clearly and convincingly. Such 

 work is of great practical service to the State, and for this reason we 

 hope that the book will have a wide distribution and reading. Through 

 every citizen whom it arouses to action something will be done for the 

 welfare and happiness of our future generations of Americans. 



W. F. B. 



The Book of One can imagine the pleasure of the traveler to the 

 THE National west last summer in finding a book which contains in- 

 Parks* formation about all the national parks and monuments 



he might see on his journey. Complete and up-to-date 

 information on the parks, interestingly presented, adequately supplied 

 with maps and illustrations, has hitherto been impossible to obtain. 

 Perhaps it is because Mr. Yard's style is indicative of the indoor man's 

 occasional feasting on scenery rather than the outdoor man consider- 

 ing it almost as much a part of life as his daily bread, that one thinks 

 of The Book of the National Parks as distinctively a book for the 

 eastern traveler. 



This is as it should be, for the larger part of the United States has 

 still to be introduced to the national parks, and it is well that the 

 presentation should be made by one who pleads the cause of "a higher 

 understanding of Nature's method" to take the place of that "love of 

 beauty spiced by wonder which is the equipment for enjoyment of the 

 average traveler of today." Mr. Yard has made an interesting group- 

 ing of his chapters by describing the parks in geological rather than 

 geographical sequence — sedimentary parks, granite parks, volcanic parks, 

 etc. — a device which draws attention to their dominant characteristics. 



The stupendous quality of the mountains is dwelt on to greater ex- 

 tent than their more elusive charm. The mountaineer feels a sense of 

 kinship with the stern high country, is at home there, while the dweller 

 in cities is awed but chilled by them. Nature to him is best described 

 in terms of art as a masterpiece, a composition; to the mountaineer it 

 is best interpreted in terms of life. In still another way Mr. Yard pro- 

 claims himself to western mountaineers as with us but not yet of us — in 

 his unfortunate conjunction of the names of Galen Clark, Clarence 

 King, and John Muir as geologists of equal claim to consideration. It 

 is not for the layman to question the findings of Mr, Yard's science. 

 But to note within the limits of a page the "speculations" of a Muir 

 overridden by the "minute investigations" and "final solution" of later 

 geologists leads even the most unbelligerent of laymen to remind Mr. 

 Yard that the final solution of today is not always that of tomorrow. 



Having thus taken our fling at the effete east, we acknowledge with 



* The Book of the National Parks. By Robert Sterling Yard. With maps and 

 illustrations. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 191 9. Pages, 420. Price, $3.00 

 net. 



