Project Gutenberg's The Book of the National Parks, by Robert Sterling Yard

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Book of the National Parks

Author: Robert Sterling Yard

Release Date: December 12, 2008 [EBook #27513]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF THE NATIONAL PARKS ***

Produced by Greg Bergquist and The Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

Transcriber's Note

The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully
preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

The photograph "The Rainbow Natural Bridge, Utah", facing page 8, is
missing from the source document even though presented in the List of
Illustrations.

[Illustration: Map]

[Illustration: Map]

THE BOOK OF

THE NATIONAL PARKS

[Illustration: _From the painting by Chris Jorgenson_

ZOROASTER FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE GRAND CANYON

Nature's greatest example of stream erosion]

THE BOOK OF
THE NATIONAL PARKS

BY

ROBERT STERLING YARD

CHIEF, EDUCATIONAL DIVISION, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT
OF THE INTERIOR
AUTHOR OF "THE NATIONAL PARKS PORTFOLIO"
"THE TOP OF THE CONTINENT," ETC.

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1919

PREFACE

In offering the American public a carefully studied outline of its
national park system, I have two principal objects. The one is to
describe and differentiate the national parks in a manner which will
enable the reader to appreciate their importance, scope, meaning,
beauty, manifold uses and enormous value to individual and nation. The
other is to use these parks, in which Nature is writing in large plain
lines the story of America's making, as examples illustrating the
several kinds of scenery, and what each kind means in terms of world
building; in other words, to translate the practical findings of science
into unscientific phrase for the reader's increased profit and pleasure,
not only in his national parks but in all other scenic places great