t as if I were the
sole survivor of the deluge. Only the melancholy murmur of the wind
ascended from that sepulchre of centuries. It seemed the requiem for
a vanished world.

[Illustration]

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

[Illustration]

On certain portions of our globe Almighty God has set a special
imprint of divinity. The Alps, the Pyrenees, the Mexican volcanoes,
the solemn grandeur of Norwegian fjords, the sacred Mountain of
Japan, and the sublimity of India's Himalayas--at different epochs in
a life of travel--had filled my soul with awe and admiration. But,
since the summer of 1896, there has been ranked with these in my
remembrance the country of the Yellowstone. Two-thirds across this
continent, hidden away in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, eight
thousand feet above the level of the sea, there lies a marvelous
section of our earth, about one-half as large as the State of
Connecticut. On three sides this is guarded by lofty, well-nigh
inaccessible mountains, as though the Infinite Himself would not
allow mankind to rashly enter its sublime enclosure. In this respect
our Government has wisely imitated the Creator. It has proclaimed to
all the world the sanctity of this peculiar area. It has received it
as a gift from God and, as His trustee, holds it for the welfare of
humanity. We, then, as citizens of the United States, are its
possessors and its guardians. It is our National Park. Yet, although
easy of access, most of us let the years go by without exploring it!
How little we realize what a treasure we possess is proven by the
fact that, until recently, the majority of tourists here were
foreigners! I thought my previous store of memories was rich, but to
have added to it the recollections of the Yellowstone will give a
greater happiness to life while life shall last. Day after day, yes,
hour after hour, within the girdle of its snow-capped peaks I looked
upon a constant series of stupendous sights--a blending of the
beautiful and terrible, the strange and the sublime--which were,
moreover, so peculiar that they stand out distinct and different from
those of every other portion of our earth.

[Illustration: LONE STAR GEYSER.]

[Illustration: THE GROTTO, GEYSER'S CONE.]

[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE PARK.]

To call our National Park the "Switzerland of America" would be
absurd. It is not Switzerland; it is not Iceland; it is not Norway;
it is unique; and the unique cannot be compared. I