1. JASPER PARK

ILLECILLEWAET VALLEYILLECILLEWAET VALLEYMount Sir Donald in distance. Glacier Park, Canada

Jasper Park, the continent's largest national playground, was created in 1907. It contains forty-four hundred square miles and comprises all the ranges east of the Divide in northern Alberta. It is reached by two transcontinental railroads.

This part of the Great North country suggests adventure, romance, and history, and brings back to mind the power, the strangeness, and the picturesqueness of the earlier days of the Hudson's Bay Company. The storied Athabasca flows through it, a band of silver in a flower-strewn valleyof meadow and park land, hemmed in by glistening mountains. An important fur district a century ago, its trading-posts now are tourist resorts with railroads and hotels.

Yellowhead Pass, of historic associations, is the western entrance. Two grim peaks guard the eastern portal. Roche Miette, which dominates the surrounding country, was formerly a favorite Indian hunting-ground for mountain sheep. Perdrix or Folding Mountain has strange folds and angles in its strata.

Many roads and trails reach the beauty spots of this park. Fiddle Creek Cañon is in places only twenty feet wide, but the roaring, rushing waters are two hundred feet below. On the same road are the celebrated Miette Springs and Punch-Bowl Falls, a geological curiosity. Maligne Lake is a scenic jewel, and its river cañon displays wonderful erosion. The Park abounds in minerals. Administration headquarters are at Jasper.

Indian stories of remarkable and curative hot springs probably led to the creation of the Rocky Mountains Park, the oldest and best-developed of the Dominion's national playgrounds. With statesmanlike foresight, the Government determined to retain the springs region in a National Park as a permanent health and pleasure ground for all the people. In 1889, two hundred and sixty square miles were thus set aside, and the Park has since been enlarged to eighteen hundred square miles. It lies on the east slope of the Rockies in Alberta, adjoining Yoho Park.

The springs rise in Sulphur Mountain, near Banff, the geographic and chief tourist center. On this mountain-side the Government conducts public baths. The region is a winter as well as a summer resort.

The Banff district also possesses notable scenery. It has an invigorating atmosphere and the peaceful serenity of a lovely mountain valley, with bare, rocky summits and dark, forest slopes. This was a celebrated Indian hunting-ground, and the legends and traditions of the aborigines will ever touch it with the spell of adventure and romance. Here is beautiful Lake Minnewanka. Beyond lies the strange valley of the Ghost River. It is a limestone cañon, into which a number of streams fall, but from which none are known to flow. An undiscovered subterranean outlet is supposed to account for this phenomenon.

Banff has an excellent Government museum, containing complete collections of the mountain flora and fauna, also a zoo, buffalo-corral, and moose-pasture. The town-site is owned and controlled by the Government, which makes regulations, leases ground, and issues permits for competitive business.

Laggan, another railway station in the Park, is the center for the celebrated LakeLouise district. Near are snow-capped peaks standing thickly together, with countless tumbling streams and leaping waterfalls.

High among the mountains are exquisite blue or emerald lakes, set like sparkling gems in the bold surroundings of peaks and glaciers. Chief of these is the famous Lake Louise.

Brilliant wild flowers in luxuriant profusion and of many varieties are one of the Park's chief charms. Delicate twin-flowers, adder's-tongue, false heather, and dainty blossoms of every hue are included in these wild alpine meadow displays.

A transmountain automobile road from Calgary runs through the Rocky Mountains Park and into the Yoho Park. Its route includes points of great scenic interest. This road will be extended to the Pacific.

Scenic allurements are numerous in Yoho Park, which embraces five hundred and sixty square miles of the west slope ofthe picturesque Rocky Mountains, in eastern British Columbia. Fantastic shapes and sharp points characterize it. The vegetation is rich and verdant. Many wonderful views and interesting districts in it are easily reached.

Yoho Valley in this Park was not discovered until 1897, but its unusual beauty at once attracted numerous visitors. Takakkaw Fall is the thunderous spray-shrouded leap of eleven hundred feet of a glacier torrent. The Indian name means "It is Wonderful." This valley also possesses other beautiful falls, a remarkable ice region, and other interesting alpine features.

Emerald Lake, admired by artists and nature-lovers, is said to have twenty shades of green, but never one of blue, in its crystalline mirror depths. It is reached by a straight road through dark fragrant firs that meet overhead. A dazzling white mountain at the end of the vista gave rise to the name Snowpeak Avenue.

The Natural Bridge is not far fromField, the main-line railway town that serves as a center for this national playground. The Kickinghorse River forces its way through a narrow gap in a solid wall of rock. Rocks remaining above this boiling, seething mass of water and cloud spray make a natural passageway across and give the formation its name.

Millions of trilobites have been found in the extensive fossil-bed of Mount Stephen. This probably was once the bed of an ocean. This massive, round-topped mountain, 10,523 feet high and with curiously marked sides, is probably the most frequently climbed peak in Canada. It seems to rise directly over the town, is not difficult to ascend, and affords wonderful views of the "frozen sea" of snow peaks to the north and west.

Waterton Lakes Park, in southern Alberta, is notable chiefly for its glacier lakes. Although one of the smallest, it is one ofthe most beautiful of the Canadian scenic reservations. Since sixteen square miles were set aside in 1895, it has been enlarged to four hundred and twenty-three square miles.

For about twenty miles this Dominion playground adjoins the Glacier National Park of the United States. The two will be linked by a motor road, so that visitors to one may also enjoy the other. An enlargement of the Waterton River forms the main chain of lakes. The upper one, nine and a half miles long, extends three miles into the United States.

Prehistoric glaciers gouged out the main valleys, leaving them carved in massive proportions. Beautiful streams rush down cañons, plunge in shining cascades, or remain dammed up as superb lakes. The lower valleys are clothed with forests. Columnar peaks, fantastic rock formations, and unscalable precipices complete the imposing effects.

Fishing is a leading attraction. ThePark contains many Rocky Mountain goats and bighorn sheep. Grizzly and black bears and mountain lions also are frequently found.

Revelstoke Park is a natural park on Mount Revelstoke's summit, near the city of Revelstoke in British Columbia. This mountain's rolling uplands are studded with beautiful groves, dainty flowers, and exquisite lakes. The wonderful views include unnamed and unclimbed peaks, wild forests, streams and falls, and a great ice-field. A motor road to reach this summit panorama is being completed. The Park has an area of ninety-five square miles. It is well adapted to ski-jumping and kindred sports.

To protect its large wild animals and prevent their threatened extinction, the Canadian Government has gone to enormous expense and trouble. Two animal parks have been established: Elk Island Park of sixteen square miles, near Lamont, Alberta; and Buffalo Park of one hundred and sixty square miles, near Wainwright, Alberta. The former contains many elk and deer, as well as moose, buffaloes, birds, wild-fowl, and water-folk. Buffalo Park makes a natural home for over two thousand wild bisons, the largest pure-blooded herd in the world. The original seven hundred of these were bought from a Montana Indian. Both parks produce their own forage, and are well fenced and fire-guarded. They have many scenic lakes, woods, hills, and valleys. Visitors are admitted to study the wild life under natural conditions.

As a National Park for summer use by fishermen, campers, picnickers, and excursionists, the Dominion Government has a dozen islands among the Thousand Islandsof the St. Lawrence River. Eleven of these were purchased from Indians and the twelfth was donated for park purposes. (Other islands in the vicinity are part of the New York State park system.)

Fort Howe National Park is the first of a new kind of Canadian parks that will preserve historic places. An old British fort site at St. John, New Brunswick, comprises the first of these historic parks. It covers nineteen acres. Here a resort will be established, and memorials of important events connected with the spot will be erected.

Responsibility for the creation and the administration of Canadian National Parks rests upon the Minister of the Interior. Under his direction is a Commissioner of Dominion Parks, with a staff. This is absolutely separate from the Canadian Forest Service. This bureau is chargedwith responsibility for the administration of all park matters, under one head. The head office plans the work and the several superintendents carry it out under the inspection of the chief superintendent. Park appropriations are voted each year by Parliament in one lump sum, on estimates prepared by the Parks Bureau. Each superintendent is furnished every month with an amount sufficient to cover the cost of the work planned for the month ensuing. This system means uniformity of administration; expenditure based on a proper perspective of the needs of the several Parks; a comprehensive scheme of development; and flexibility to meet changed conditions.

Further information concerning these Parks may be had from the Commissioner of Dominion Parks, Ottawa, Canada.

A platform for park-promoters:—

1. Immediate appropriations for every National Park.2. Early enlargement of a few of the Parks.3. Prompt creation of a number of new Parks.4. The National Park Service needs the help of your eternal vigilance and sympathy. Keep the National Park Service absolutely separate from the Forest Service or any other organization.5. Concessions are a bad feature in any Park. The Palisades Inter-State Park is run without concessions. Why should private concerns reap profits by exploiting the visitors to National Parks?6. A Board of National Park Commissioners is needed. These commissioners should act as a Board of Directors, as do the Inter-State Park Commissioners, and have absolute control over the National Parks.

1. Immediate appropriations for every National Park.

2. Early enlargement of a few of the Parks.

3. Prompt creation of a number of new Parks.

4. The National Park Service needs the help of your eternal vigilance and sympathy. Keep the National Park Service absolutely separate from the Forest Service or any other organization.

5. Concessions are a bad feature in any Park. The Palisades Inter-State Park is run without concessions. Why should private concerns reap profits by exploiting the visitors to National Parks?

6. A Board of National Park Commissioners is needed. These commissioners should act as a Board of Directors, as do the Inter-State Park Commissioners, and have absolute control over the National Parks.

No nation has ever fallen through having too many parks. We may have toomany soldiers, too many indoor functions, too many exclusive social sets, but the United States Government, or any other, will never fall for having too many national parks.

Nearly all the large nations of the earth now have national parks or are planning to create them. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are especially thoughtful in park matters. Switzerland has a number, and is planning new ones. A number of South American countries are making investigations with the view of establishing national parks.

National parks are an institution intimately allied with the general welfare. You need this institution, and it needs your help. Every one ought to be glad to help better and beautify our land. Whittier was once asked by a young man for advice as to how best to succeed. The poet told him to attach himself to a noble and neglected cause and to stay with it till he won. The Park field greatly needsthe help of young men and young women who are willing to serve a noble cause. In connection with National Parks you can be exceedingly helpful in furthering the following work:—

TETON MOUNTAIN REGION, PROPOSED ADDITION TO YELLOWSTONE PARKTETON MOUNTAIN REGION, PROPOSED ADDITION TO YELLOWSTONE PARK

A number of new Parks should be at once created. A number of the old Parks need to be enlarged. Appropriations are greatly needed for the development of all. You can help the National Park Service. It is in danger of being crippled by the lack of appropriations. A number of the National Monuments should at once be made National Parks. Among these are the Grand Cañon, the Olympic, the Mukuntuweap Cañon, and others. The Sequoia and other National Parks need enlargement; and the Mount St. Elias and other scenic regions, especially the Mount McKinley region, are most worthy of early consideration for park purposes.

The Yellowstone Park needs to have the Grand Teton region added; Rainier, about twenty square miles at the southwestcorner; Crater Lake, a few square miles on the west and north; Yosemite, mountainous country on the east and southeast; Rocky Mountain, small areas—east, west, north, and south; and the Sequoia, Mount Whitney and the King's-Kern region.

One of the most deserving of National Park projects, as well as one of the most unique, is that which centers about the Jamez Plateau, in New Mexico. Upon this plateau in prehistoric times stood a metropolis of Indian civilization, and the magnificent ruins which remain make this place priceless, and throw over it one of the most fascinating mysteries in the realm of archæology. A number of the buildings were stone structures of excellent and artistic architecture, and contained hundreds of rooms. The pottery and other records left by this vanished people indicate that they were a people of culture and refinement.

While the opposition is delaying themaking of this Park, the despoilment of the region goes on. In this connection Dr. Jesse W. Fewkes makes this significant statement:—

Too strong language cannot be used in deprecation of the butchering of the architectural features of our Southwestern ruins by pot-hunters, either private individuals for gain or representatives of institutions under the name of scientific research.

The Cook Forest in western Pennsylvania, the greatest existing primeval growth of white pine; a splendid redwood forest near Eureka, California; the Dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan in northern Indiana; the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky; the Luray Caverns in Virginia; and a stretch of the seashore in eastern North Carolina,—all ought to be public property, though now privately owned. These places might be saved for the people for all time in State Parks, but their unique and splendid characteristics justify their becoming National Parks.

Nearly all proposed National Park areas are of territory in the public domain—still owned by the Government. The privately owned areas that are proposed for National Parks are places admirably fitted for park purposes, and are located close to millions of people.

It is important that the remaining scenic areas in the country be at once made into State or National Parks. Fortunately there still are a number of these wild places, but it will require effort to save them. Each Park proposed will have powerful and insidious opposition. The insidious opposition to National Parks will say, "There is a feeling in Congress that we should not have any more National Parks at this time"; or, "We should wait until present ones are improved."

Scenery is perishable—is easily ruined. The better parts of scenery are birds, flowers, and trees. These are easily despoiled. No work, no public service, is more noble than that of the Park extension and improvement which now presses us. Every National Park needs appropriations. It is the duty of every one to ask and urge Congress at once to make adequate appropriations.

MOUNT BAKER FROM THE WESTCopyright, 1900, by W. H. Wilcox, Port Townsend, Wash.MOUNT BAKER FROM THE WESTMount Baker is likely to be a National Park

Much is to be gained and nothing to be lost in acting promptly. It is important that new Parks be created now, a working plan made for all, and the development pushed. When all our National Parks are ready for travelers, we shall not need to shout, "See America First."

The phrase "See America First" may have done a little good, but it is now obsolete. A plain condition now confronts us. Scenic America is to be made ready to be seen. Only a small percentage of the area of our National Parks is really ready for the traveler.

Congress should not be blamed for this condition; neither should we severely blame ourselves. But we ought promptly to see that these Parks receive adequate appropriations. If we do this, in a short timethe National Park Service, through its Director, will say, "Your National Parks—our matchless wonderlands—are now entirely ready for millions of travelers."

The plan for the development of National Parks includes three types of hotels, the luxurious, the popular-priced, and inns or shelter cabins that are clean and comfortable, and that give simple entertainment at the lowest possible cost. And all buildings should be of an architecture that harmonizes with the landscape.

Guides in Parks should be of the highest type of culture and refinement, naturalists who can impart information. Of course they must be masters of woodcraft. The wilderness is destined to have a large and helpful place in the lives of the people. This is to be partly brought about by guides and Park rangers. There should be guides of both sexes.

The ultimate development should embrace a scenic road-system, roads built so as to command scenery and to be for themost part on mountain-sides and summits. They should touch the greatest and most beautiful spots, and should follow, not the lines of least resistance, but those of greatest attraction. In places along the forested roads, openings might be cleared so as to expose near scenes and to enable travelers to see the game which may come to these openings.

Many roads should be paralleled by trails for people afoot or on horseback. Of course trails should be made to numerous high or wild places not reached by roads.

Many persons do not realize the difference between a forest reserve and a National Park. A forest reserve is primarily used for cattle-grazing and saw-mills, while a National Park is a region wholly educational and recreational for your children and yourselves. A forest reserve is a commercial proposition, while a National Park must be estimated by higher values. In a paper on the conservation ofscenery, in "The Rocky Mountain Wonderland," I have said:—

We need the forest reserve, and we need the National Park. Each of these serves in a distinct way, and it is of utmost importance that each be in charge of its specialist. The forester is always the lumberman, the park man is a practical poet.... The forester must cut trees before they are over-ripe or his crop will waste, while the park man wants the groves to become aged and picturesque. The forester pastures cattle in his meadows, while the park man has only people and romping children among his wild flowers. The park needs the charm of primeval nature, and should be free from ugliness, artificiality, and commercialism. For the perpetuation of scenery, a landscape artist is absolutely necessary. It would be folly to put a park man in charge of a forest reserve, a lumbering proposition. On the other hand, what a blunder to put a tree-cutting forester in charge of a park! We need both these men; each is important in his place; but it would be a double misfortune to put one in charge of the work of the other.

In this connection Stewart Edward White recently wrote:—

If the public in general understood the difference between a National Park and a National Forest, there could be no doubt as to the opinion of any intelligent citizen. The distinction is so simple that it seems that it should be easy to get it within the comprehension of anybody. A National Park is an open-air museum set apart by Congress either to preserve from commercial development beautiful scenery, trees, natural monuments, or some of the forests that are being cut commercially both in private and national forests. The idea is not commercial development along even conservative and constructive lines, but absolute preservation in a state of nature. Once this distinction is grasped, no one can doubt that these two institutions demand entirely different management. It would be as sensible to put men with the same training in charge of both National Park and National Forest, as it would be to place the same men with the same training in charge of a busy shoe factory and a museum of archæology.

MOUNT ST. ELIAS FROM EAST SIDE OF AGASSIZ GLACIER, ALASKAMOUNT ST. ELIAS FROM EAST SIDE OF AGASSIZ GLACIER, ALASKA

Says Frederick Law Olmsted:—

Why should there be a distinction between National Forests and National Parks? If the public is at liberty to use both as recreation grounds, why should they not all be under one management, in the interest of a more economical administration?The NationalForestsare set apart foreconomic ends, and their use for recreation is a by-product properly to be secured only in so far as it does not interfere with the economic efficiency of the forest management. The NationalParksare set apart primarily in order to preserve to the people for all time the opportunity of a peculiar kind of enjoyment and recreation, not measurable in economic terms and to be obtained only from the remarkable scenery which they contain—scenery of these primeval types which are in most parts of the world rapidly vanishing for all eternity before the increased thoroughness of the economic use of land. In the National Parks direct economic returns, if any, are properly the by-products; and even rapidity and efficiency in making them accessible to the people, although of great importance, are wholly secondary to the one dominant purpose of preserving essential esthetic qualities of their scenery unimpaired as a heritage to the infinite numbers of the generations to come.Because of the very fact that in the Parks, as well as in the Forest, considerations of economics and of direct human enjoyment must both be carefully weighed in reaching decisions, and because the physical problems are much the same in both, the fundamental difference in the points of view which shouldcontrol the management of the National Parks and that of the National Forests can be safely maintained only by keeping them under separate administration.

The NationalForestsare set apart foreconomic ends, and their use for recreation is a by-product properly to be secured only in so far as it does not interfere with the economic efficiency of the forest management. The NationalParksare set apart primarily in order to preserve to the people for all time the opportunity of a peculiar kind of enjoyment and recreation, not measurable in economic terms and to be obtained only from the remarkable scenery which they contain—scenery of these primeval types which are in most parts of the world rapidly vanishing for all eternity before the increased thoroughness of the economic use of land. In the National Parks direct economic returns, if any, are properly the by-products; and even rapidity and efficiency in making them accessible to the people, although of great importance, are wholly secondary to the one dominant purpose of preserving essential esthetic qualities of their scenery unimpaired as a heritage to the infinite numbers of the generations to come.

Because of the very fact that in the Parks, as well as in the Forest, considerations of economics and of direct human enjoyment must both be carefully weighed in reaching decisions, and because the physical problems are much the same in both, the fundamental difference in the points of view which shouldcontrol the management of the National Parks and that of the National Forests can be safely maintained only by keeping them under separate administration.

John Nolen says:—

The minor purposes of forests may correspond somewhat with the major purposes of parks, andvice versa; but the main and essential purposes of each are altogether different from the main and essential purposes of the other and any confusion of them is sure to lead to waste and disappointment.

Scenery is our most valuable and our noblest resource.

It is of utmost importance that each of these reservations be managed separately. Those who have distinguished themselves by appreciating the importance of National Parks and by helping them in every way, have been clear and emphatic in urging that National Park management be utterly separate from the management of National Forests. Among those who have taken this stand are John Muir, J. Horace McFarland, John Nolen, Mrs.John D. Sherman, and in fact every one that I know of who is an authority on parks. The National Academy of Science also made a similar recommendation in 1897.

A Park should stand alone, and stand high. If we think of the Parks separately, keep them free from the dominion of commercialism, of interests, and of organizations, we may hope in a short time to receive the best use of them.

The courts have recently made a number of excellent decisions concerning the conservation of scenery, and have gone definitely on record recognizing its higher values. In a decision concerning a waterfall, Judge Robert E. Lewis said in part:—

It is a beneficial use to the weary that they, ailing and feeble, can have the wild beauties of Nature placed at their convenient disposal. Is a piece of canvas valuable only for a tent-fly, but worthless as a painting? Is a block of stone beneficially used when put into the walls of a dam, and not beneficially used when carved into a piece of statuary? Is the testdollars, or has beauty of scenery, rest, recreation, health and enjoyment something to do with it? Is there no beneficial use except that which is purely commercial?

This decision is epoch-marking. It emphasizes the importance to the Parks of having a management that is in no way tied up with any other work.

From the time of the creation of the Yellowstone Park till 1914 there was no official head to the National Parks, but that year Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane used his right and appointed the first Superintendent, Mark Daniels.

The year 1915 was memorable in National Park history. In that year Secretary Lane appointed Stephen T. Mather Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior, with authority to do all that he could for Parks. Mr. Mather, a business man, sympathetic, well acquainted with the Parks, saw their extraordinary possibilities. Having the administrative charge of these National Parks, he at once set to workupon the extremely difficult task of bringing them out of chaos into order. In the short time that he has had charge of them, he has made a remarkable advance in securing for them a working plan of development, and a simplified and businesslike management.

In 1915 Superintendent Daniels was superseded by Robert B. Marshall, former Chief Geographer of the United States Geological Survey. Mr. Marshall worked enthusiastically but resigned in December, 1916. Mr. Mather became Director of the National Park Service in March, 1917.

Automobiles were first admitted to all National Parks in 1915, and that year, too, a number of educative publications concerning them were issued.

In September, 1911, what may be called the first National Park Conference was held in the Yellowstone Park. This was called by Secretary of the Interior Walter L. Fisher. In his opening remarks at thisconference Mr. Fisher said that the purpose of the conference was to "discuss the matter of the present condition of the National Parks and what can best be done to promote the welfare of the Parks and make them better for the purpose for which they were created." This brought together a large gathering of men of affairs and distinctly furthered the creation of the National Park Service.

The National Park Service is one of the subdivisions of the Department of the Interior. The Service was created by an act of Congress in 1916, after a campaign that lasted for seven years. At its head is a Director. It gives the Parks an official standing and the care and development and administration needed.

All National Parks and twenty-one of the National Monuments are in charge of the National Park Service. As Monuments are scenic and educational reservations, it is plain that all these Monuments might well be in charge of the NationalPark Service. Then, too, the name "Monument" might well be changed to "Park."

Considering the far-reaching influence of the Parks on the general welfare, in a few years they might be placed under a cabinet officer who could appropriately be called the Secretary of National Parks.

The supreme forest of the world is in the Sequoia National Park. The Big Trees have attained here their greatest size and their grandest development. Here is the forest's most impressive assemblage. In these groves at the southern end of the splendid Sierra is all the eloquence of wooded wilds—the silence of centuries and the eternal spirit of the forest. This forest is to be guarded and saved forever.

ON THE ROAD TO SHERMAN TREEON THE ROAD TO SHERMAN TREEGIANT FOREST, SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK

How happily trees have mingled with our lives! Ever since our lowly ancestors crawled from gloomy caves, stood erect in the sunlight, wondered at this calm, mysterious world, and at last made homes beneath the hemlock and the pine—ever since then, down through the ages, through the dim, sad centuries, all the way from cave to cottage, the forest has beena mother to our good race. How different our history had this wooded and beautiful world been treeless and lonely! Groves stand peaceful and prominent on every hill, in every dale of history that encourages or inspires. If we should lose the hospitality of the trees and the friendship of the forest, our race too would be lost, and the desert's pale, sad sky would come to hover above a rounded, lifeless world. The trees are friends of mankind.

The forest that you see on the heights across the valley, that stands so steadfast upon the billowed and broken slopes, that drapes the dales and distances with peaceful, purple folds, and makes complete with grace and grandeur a hanging garden of the hills—this is the forest that sheltered our ancestors through the past's slow-changing years.

The trees have wandered over the earth and prepared it for our race. Their low green ranks encircle the cold white realm of Farthest North; they grow in luxuriancebeneath the equatorial sun; they have climbed and held the heights though beaten and crushed with storm and snow; they have dared the desert's hot and deadly sand; they stand ankle-deep in bayous wrapped in tangled vines; they have breasted the surf and pushed out into the surges of the ocean; they have conquered and reclaimed the rocks on continents and islands; they have plumed with palms the white reefs of the blue and billowed sea; their triumphant masses stand where the Ice King rules; and in volcanoes' throats they have given beauty for ashes. Their banners wave under every sun and sky. Wherever our race has gone to live, the trees have given welcome and shelter.

The picturesque woodsman with his axe has helped to build nations and to improve and sustain them after they were built. He will play his part in the future. An axeman at work in the woods makes even a more stirring and romantic picture thandoes the reaper in his harvest home on autumn's golden fields. It is good to hear the sounds of the axe as they echo and reëcho among wooded wilds and then fade away, a melody amid the forested hills. The echoes of the axe suggest the old, old story—tell of a love-touched dream come true, of another home to be. When under the axe an old tree falls, it is the end of a life well lived, the end of a work well done. But this tree may rise, helped and shaped by happy hands, and become the most sacred place in all this world of ours—a home where lovers live—a cottage with hollyhocks and roses by the door.

But we are leaving the low-vaulted past. These trees are not to fall. They are to stand. In parks, we have provided for trees a refuge with ourselves. They are to live on, and with them we shall build more stately mansions for the soul.

Trees have trials. They know what it is to struggle and grow strong. With hardship they build history, adventure, pathos,and poetry. Every tree has a life full of incident. Aged trees are stored with the lore of generations, carry the character of centuries, have biographies, stirring life-stories. A sequoia is an impressive wonder. As the oldest settler upon the earth—the pioneer of pioneers—it knows the stories of centuries. At the dead lips of the Sphinx you listen in vain, but beneath a Big Tree the ages speak and the centuries shift their scenes. The Big Trees carry within their untranslated scrolls that which may enrich the literature of the world. Within a Big Tree's brave breast are more materials of fact and fancy than in the ocean's coral cove, or in the murmuring sea-shell on the shore.

In the forest, around the foot of a tree, rages an endless and ever-changing struggle for existence. Here from season unto season a thousand forms of life feed and frolic, live and love, fight and die. Here Nature's stirring drama is playing on and always on. Here are trials and triumphs,activity and repose, and all the woodland scenes upon the wild world's stage amid the splendors and the shadows of the pines. At this place Nature smiles and sings, and here, at times, the lonely echo seems to search and seek in vain.

I never see a little tree bursting from the earth, peeping confidingly up among the withered leaves, without wondering how long it will live, what trials or triumphs it will have. I always hope that it will be a home for the birds. I always hope that it will find life worth living, and that it will live long to better and to beautify the earth.

In spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the broadleaf forest is a picture gallery, a fine-arts hall. In winter, abloom with snow flowers or in penciled tracery against the sky, how trustfully it sleeps! Confidently and in perfect faith, it awaits the supreme day of spring, when, amid the buzzing of bees, the songs of mating birds, and the unfolding of green and crumpledleaves, comes the glory-burst of bloom. In leaf-filled summer the woodlands are a realm of rich content. But in reflective autumn, when the plaintive note of the bluebird has Southland in its tones, when the hills are golden, then the work of the leaves is done and they come out in garments of glory to die—to die like the sunset of a splendid day. Color is triumphant when autumn, the artist, touches the trees, for then the entire temperate zone encircling this rounded world is a wreath of glory. This wreath fades or falls away; and the little golden leaf that casts its lot upon the breeze and floats off in the midst of mysteries is upon a journey just as dear as when, amid the mists of sun and spring, it did appear.

The woodland world of the mountains in National Parks is a grand commingling of groves and grass-plots, crags and cañons, and rounded lakes with forest frames and shadow-matted shores that rest in peace within the purple forest. Here, in Nature's mirrors, pond-lilies, all green and gold, rise and fall on gentle swells, or repose with reflected clouds and stars. Here, too, are drifts of fringed gentians, blue flakes from summer's bluest sky. Here young and eager streams leap in white cascades between crowding crags and pines. In these pictured scenes the birds sing, the useful beaver builds his picturesque home; here the cheerful chipmunk frolics and never grows up; and here the world stays young. Forests give poetry to the prose of life and enable us to have and to hold high ideals.

In almost every forest is the quaking aspen, the most widely distributed tree in the world. In autumn its golden banners encircle the globe and adorn nearly one half the earth. Though this tree has a constitution so tender that it is easily killed by fire or injury, it is one of the greatest pioneer trees in the forest world. Through the ages the restless aspen leaves appear to have attracted the attentionof mankind. Unfortunately the old myths and legends concerning this merry, childlike tree told of fear or sorrow, but now every one catches the hopeful spirit of the aspen. Aspens are youth, eternal youth. Endlessly their dancing leaves proclaim youth. They are romping children. Their bare legs, their mud- and water-wading habits, their dancing out of one thing into another, are charmingly, faithfully childlike.

Every tree has the ways of its race. The willow in its appointed place is ever leaning over watching the endless procession of waters. Does it wonder whence and whither? The birches are maidens, slender, white, and fair. The maple has its own excuse for being. The elms arch the woodland world with cathedral art. Beautiful is the lone silver spruce lingering among the grand golden lichened crags. The sturdy pines stand in ever green contentment. The straight spruces and stately firs point ever upward and never cease tocall "Excelsior!" nor to climb toward their ideal. The oak, full of character, welcomes all seasons and all weathers. Within the forest, up toward the heights, stands a tree that wins and holds the heart like a hollyhock. This tree, the hemlock, is a poem all alone. It is the heroine, the mother spirit of the woodland world, handsome, richly robed, symmetrical, graceful, sensitive, and steadfast. She, more than any other tree, appeals to the eye and the heart. In her upcurving arms and entire expression there is a yearning. When the world was young she may have been the first tree to shelter our homeless, wandering race. To-day, when the wild folk of the outdoors are most beset with cold or storm, they go trustingly and confidingly to nestle in the hemlock's arms. And rightly the sequoia is the nobleman of all the forest world.

That sweet singer, the solitaire, is the chorister of the forest. He puts the woods in song. Hear his woodnotes wild and theSpirit of the Forest will thrill you! Meditations and memories will throng you. His matchless melody carries echoes of Orpheus and good tidings from distant lands where dreams come true. Far away, soft and low, the wood itself seems to be singing a hopeful song, a rhythm of ages, that you have heard before. Pictured fairyland unfolds as you listen. In it is the peace, the poetry, the majesty, and the mystery of the forest.

Go to the trees and get their good tidings. Have an autumn day in the woods, and beneath the airy arches of limbs and leaves linger in paths of peace. Speak to the jostling little trees that are so pretty and so eager. Stand beneath the monarchs, rugged and rich in character. Lie down upon the brown leaves, and look far away through the slowly vanishing vistas full of forest, of columns that are filled with kindest light. Leaves of red, bronze, and gold will rest in the sunlight, or be falling back to earth without a fear.

The brook will murmur on; around, the falling nuts may patter upon the fallen leaves; the woodpecker may be tip-tapping; the birds will be passing for the Southland; the squirrels will be planting for the ages. Though there are stirring activities and endless fancies, your repose will be complete. Here where the lichen-tinted columns of gray and brown are rich and beautiful in the mellow light, you will be at your best—your own will come to you—with the Infinite you will be in tune. Stay till night, and from the edge of the woods see the sun go down in triumph. While all is hushed, watch the castled crag and the gnarled pine on the hilltop blacken against the golden afterglow. In the reflective twilight hour you may catch the murmur and the music of the wind-touched trees.

I wish that every one might have a night by a camp-fire at Mother Nature's hearth-stone. Culture began by a camp-fire in the forest. Ages and ages ago, lightning one rainy evening set fire to a dead tree nearthe entrance to a cave. The flames lured some of our frightened ancestors from their cheerless lair, and as they stared at the burning wood, they pushed back their long tangled hair, the better to watch the movements of the mysterious flames. Around this fire these primitive people gathered for the first social evening on the earth. When in the forest one sits within the camp-fire's magic tent of light, amid the silent, sculptured trees, thrilling through one's blood go all the trials and triumphs of our race. A camp-fire in the forest marks the most enchanting place on life's highway wherein to have a lodging for the night.

Weird and strange are the feelings that flow as winds sweep and sound through the trees. Now the Storm King puts a bugle to his lips, and a deep, elemental hymn is sung while the blast surges wild through the pines. Soon Mother Nature is quietly singing, singing soft and low, while the breezes pause and play in the pines. From the past one has been ever coming, with the futureis destined ever to go, when with centuries of worshipful silence one waits for a wind in the pines. Ever the good old world grows better, both with songs and with silence, in the pines.

One touch of forest nature makes the whole world kin. A tree is the flag of Nature, and forests give a universal feeling of good will. In the boundless forest the boundary-lines of nations are forgotten. Some time an immortal pine may be the flag of a united and peaceful world. In the forests' fairyland are still heard "the horns of Elfland faintly blowing." There—

"Echoes roll from soul to soul,And grow forever and forever."

Kinship is the spirit of the forest.

Hunters are excluded from National Parks, and within these wonderlands all shooting is prohibited. All National Parks are wild-life sanctuaries, places of refuge for birds and animals. There the wild folk are not pursued, trapped, or shot. Nearly all the principal birds and beasts of North America are to be found in these Parks. Here may be seen the lively, merry play-pranks of young bears, young birds, and young beavers. Each Park is thus a wild-life paradise where the animals are safe, free from the fear of being killed by man. These Parks are ideal places in which to enjoy the animals and to study their character; and they are a happy hunting-ground for the hunter who carries the camera. Recreation in these wonderlands is thus absolutely separated from the butchering business. Whata glorious exchange! All this should help the good old world to grow better. Making a wild-animal place of refuge is equivalent to making a park-place of refuge for ourselves.

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