a horseman fleeing for his life. To guard against so serious
a calamity, soldiers patrol the Park continually to see that all the
camp-fires have been extinguished. Thanks to their watchful care,
only one notable conflagration has occurred here in the last eight
years, and that the soldiers fought with energy for twenty days, till
the last vestige of it was subdued.

The tourist comprehends the great importance of this work when he
beholds the rivers of the Park threading, like avenues of silver, the
sombre frame-work of the trees, and recollects that just such forests
as adjoin these streams cover no less than eighty-four per cent. of
its entire area. In a treeless country like Wyoming these forests are
of priceless value, because of their utility in holding back, in
spring, the melting snow. Some of the largest rivers of our continent
are fed from the well-timbered area of the Yellowstone; and if the
trees were destroyed, the enormous snowfall in the Park, unsheltered
from the sun, would melt so rapidly that the swollen torrents would
quickly wash away roads, bridges, and productive farms, even, far out
in the adjacent country, and, subsequently, cause a serious drought
for many months.

[Illustration: FIRE-HOLE RIVER.]

Another very important labor of the United States soldiers here is to
preserve the game within the Park. It is the purpose of our
Government to make this area a place of refuge for those animals
which man's insatiate greed has now almost destroyed. The remoteness
of this lofty region, together with its mountain fastnesses, deep
forests, and sequestered glens, makes it an almost perfect
game-preserve. There are at present thirty thousand elk within the
Park; its deer and antelopes are steadily increasing; and bears,
foxes, and small game roam unmolested here. Buffaloes, however, are
still few in number. They have become too valuable. A buffalo head,
which formerly could be bought for a mere trifle, commands, to-day,
a price of five hundred dollars. Hence, daring poachers sometimes run
the risk of entering the Park in winter and destroying them.

[Illustration: MOUNTAIN SHEEP.]

It is sad to reflect how the buffaloes of this continent have been
almost exterminated. As late as thirty years ago, trains often had to
halt upon the prairies; and even steamboats were, occasionally,
obliged to wait an hour or two in the Missouri River until enormous
herds of buffalo had crossed their path. Now only abou