Book Cards

The Book of the National Parks Flashcards

Robert Sterling Yard · Public domain edition · 301 cards · 80 chapters

Robert Sterling Yard argues that Americans must learn to read the natural world to truly enjoy their national parks, blending popular and scientific writing to serve both audiences. This deck covers his preface, his account of how scenery appreciation is acquired, and his observations of visitors at Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and Glacier.

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Chapter 1 · Question

What two principal objects does Yard state in his preface?

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Section 14 cards

What two principal objects does Yard state in his preface?
Yard states two objects: to describe and differentiate the national parks so readers appreciate their importance, scope, meaning, beauty, uses and value to individual and nation; and to use the parks as examples illustrating kinds of scenery and what each means in terms of world building, translating science into unscientific phrase for greater profit and pleasure.
Chapter 1
How does Yard structure the book so both popular and scientific readers are served?
Yard presents material so the "average reader" can have a popular book by omitting the note on the Appreciation of Scenery and the several notes explanatory of scenery interpolated between chapter groups. The inquiring reader gets the whole story by beginning with that note and reading consecutively, notes and all, adding less than a score of pages.
Chapter 1
Why did Yard reject putting his science in an appendix?
Yard rejected the suggestion to make his text "popular" and carry his "science" in an appendix, reasoning that if he cannot give the scientific aspects of nature their readable values in the text, he cannot make them worth an appendix. He also declines to share his advisers' poor opinion of the average reader's taste and intelligence.
Chapter 1
Whom does Yard credit for helping him acquire knowledge for the book?
Yard credits officials of the National Park Service, superintendents and several rangers in the national parks, certain zoologists of the United States Biological Survey, the Director and many geologists of the United States Geological Survey, scientific experts of the Smithsonian Institution, and professors in several distinguished universities, thanking them for their patient assistance and helpful criticism.
Chapter 1

Section 24 cards

According to the author, what must Americans learn before they can truly enjoy their scenery?
The author argues that scenery is "the written page of the History of Creation," and that Americans will not really enjoy their possession of the world's grandest scenery until they learn to read that page. He says the average educated American sees scenery as a meaningless "pleasing hodge-podge" and that the people have been content to wonder, not to know.
Chapter 2
What evidence does the author give that Americans love scenery and travel for it?
The author notes that the year before the world war, Americans spent $286,000,000 going to Europe. Switzerland earned $100,000,000 from foreign visitors seeing her scenery, over half reportedly from America. Canada's tourist travel became her fourth largest income source, exceeding fisheries, with most visitors from the United States and seven-tenths of Canadian Rockies hotel registrations from south of the border.
Chapter 2
What does the woman at Yosemite Falls represent, and how does the author judge her?
She is the average tourist, listing superlatives: tallest building, longest railroad, largest lake, highest monument, biggest department store, and now the highest waterfall. The author does not condemn wonder, calling it a legitimate pleasure and a condiment to beauty. He suggests she may secretly have felt suffocated by the spectacle despite conscious only of "cheap wonder of a superlative."
Chapter 2
What does the author observe about crowds at the Grand Canyon and their silence?
The author calls the Grand Canyon's rim "the stillest crowded place I know," recalling standing among a hundred people on a precipice and hearing the whir of a bird's wings in the abyss. He speculates that most silent gazers suffer something akin to pain at their inability to express the emotions bursting within them.
Chapter 2

Section 34 cards

According to the author, what equipment does the average intelligent traveler of today have for enjoying scenery?
The author argues that, as a people, our enjoyment of scenery is almost wholly emotional. The equipment of today's average intelligent traveler is love of beauty spiced by wonder. He proposes adding a roughly equal part of the intellectual pleasure of comprehension, which he says will be the equipment of the traveler of tomorrow, and hastening that tomorrow is one object of his book.
Chapter 3
What does the author say the geologic story adds to scenery like Crater Lake, Glacier, and Yellowstone?
The author argues that understanding the geologic story multiplies enjoyment. The geologic story written on Crater Lake's cliffs is more stupendous than the glory of its indigo bowl; the war of titanic forces on Glacier's rocks is unexcelled in sublimity; and the story of Yellowstone's making multiplies many times the thrill of its world-famed spectacle. Even small rock details tell thrilling incidents.
Chapter 3
What does the author say is required to understand the earth well enough to enrich park enjoyment?
The author argues no great study is required: one need not become a plodding geologist, learn to distinguish schists from granites, or call animals by Latin names. Geography, geology, physiography, mineralogy, botany, and zoology each contribute a small share, so the problem is solved by selecting essential parts—two or three popular books interpreting natural science in perspective should suffice.
Chapter 3
What did the coal fragment on Glacier's limestone slope reveal to the author?
The author describes finding a small, water-worn fragment of dull coal on a limestone slope—an impossible companionship, since coal comes from forest and limestone from submerged depths. He envisioned a Cretaceous forest at sea level above the spot, whose decayed foliage turned to coal, and pre-Cambrian ooze ten thousand feet below that hardened into the limestone, both now lying together in his palm.
Chapter 3

Section 43 cards

How does the chapter describe nature's work of wearing down the land?
The author argues that nature forever seeks a level. Frost expands water in the rocks' cracks, prying and chipping the surface; rains wash debris into rivulets, torrents, and rivers, which sweep it into oceans for the upbuilding of bottoms. The chapter claims sediments chiselled from Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah mountains built thousands of square miles of California, swept seaward through the Grand Canyon.
Chapter 4
Why do geologists measure the prehistoric past by accomplishment rather than years?
The chapter explains that years mean nothing in computing the prehistoric past, since no one can conceive a thousand centuries, let alone a million years, and either is inconsiderable against the total lapse since the Archean's close. So geologists devised an easier count measured not by units of time but by what each phase of progress accomplished, presented in a table with a conjectural estimate in years.
Chapter 4
What does the chapter say man's place in the Procession of the Ages is?
The author argues that man's colossal egotism is rudely shaken before the Procession of the Ages. Aghast, man discovers the billions of years that wrought the earth from star dust were not merely God's laborious preparation of a habitation for him; rather, man is nothing more than the present master tenant of earth, the highest type of hundreds of millions of years of succeeding tenants only because he is the latest in evolution.
Chapter 4

Section 53 cards

What does the chapter say about the Yellowstone's rank among the world's volcanic areas?
The author argues the Yellowstone outranks by far any similar volcanic area in the world. It contains more and greater geysers than all the rest of the world together, with Iceland and New Zealand next in rank. Its canyon is described as alone of its quality of beauty, and except for parts of the African jungle it is probably the most populated wild animal area in the world, with comparatively fearless animals.
Chapter 5
What does the chapter say about the number and location of the national parks?
The chapter states the national parks are areas of supreme scenic splendor or other unique quality set apart by Congress for the pleasure and benefit of the people. At this writing they number eighteen, sixteen within the boundaries of the United States and reached by rail and road. Outside the United States there are two national parks, one enclosing three celebrated volcanic craters, the other conserving the continent's loftiest mountain.
Chapter 5
How does the chapter answer the view that national parks are merely playgrounds?
The author argues this view misses the point. National parks are recreational, but so are state, county, and city parks, resorts, and open country everywhere. The author calls the present an open-air age, says a nation of outdoor livers is a nation of power, initiative, and sanity, and hopes available state lands, forest reserves, and even many private holdings become accessible to summer trampers and campers.
Chapter 5

Section 63 cards

According to the chapter, what effect do national parks have on visitors' spirits?
The author argues that the parks are more than recreational areas—they are the gallery of masterpieces and museums of the ages. The spirit of the great places, he says, brooks nothing short of silent reverence; even frivolous visitors shed their mood, and men unconsciously lift their hats. Visitors return to daily living with a springier step, keener vision, and broader horizon.
Chapter 6
What was the original motive behind early park-making, and what were the first three parks?
The author says the original motive was unalloyed conservation—Congress effectively locking land up as potentially valuable later. This instinct produced the Hot Springs of Arkansas in 1832, the first national park; Yellowstone forty years later after investigations confirmed its wonders; and Casa Grande Ruin in Arizona seventeen years after Yellowstone, though it enclosed less than a square mile. Casa Grande has since been re-classed a national monument.
Chapter 6
Why were areas in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Oklahoma added in 1903–1904?
The author explains that once 'national park' meant something locally, pride in neighboring states prompted the question 'Why should we not have national parks, too?' Congress, always reflecting popular will and therefore not always abreast of the moment, was unprepared with reasons. Thus areas better fitted for State parks were added in 1903 and 1904.
Chapter 6

Section 74 cards

How does the chapter distinguish national forests from national parks?
The author argues national forests are administered for commercial lumber output, handled scientifically to maximize annual yield while conserving the future, and their spirit is commercial. National park conservation is the opposite: it preserves only a few supreme spots, keeps nature exactly as made, cuts no tree except for roads, trails, or hotels, and protects animals as exhibits rather than game.
Chapter 7
What change in Congressional attitude toward park funding does the chapter describe?
Congress began appropriating yearly for Yellowstone's roads and geyser protection in 1879 because it appealed to the public sense of wonder. It took twenty years more to recognize the public sense of beauty as worth appropriations. Yosemite went nine years without a dollar until public demand for roads, trails, and accommodations became insistent.
Chapter 7
What did the growth of the park idea accomplish for park selection?
Press and magazine reports of newer parks fed public attention and helped discriminate between minor parks created in 1903 and 1904 and the greater ones before them. Realizing parks must be developed at public expense sharpened Congressional judgment. The author argues that from then on Congress made no mistakes in selecting parks, citing Mesa Verde through Lafayette and the Grand Canyon.
Chapter 7
Why does the chapter say forests and parks must be handled separately?
Because their spirits and purposes are opposite, even rangers and scientific experts have such different objects that one individual cannot efficiently serve both. High specialization in both services is essential to success. The author argues this separation follows necessarily from the commercial aim of forests versus the preservation aim of parks.
Chapter 7

Section 84 cards

How does the chapter distinguish a national park from a national monument?
A national park is an area of size created by Congress on the assumption that it is a supreme example of its kind, with the purpose of developing it for public occupancy and enjoyment. A national monument is made by presidential proclamation to conserve an area or object historically, ethnologically, or scientifically important; size is not considered and development is not contemplated.
Chapter 8
Which parks does the chapter classify as granite national parks?
The chapter lists Yosemite, Sequoia (including the proposed Roosevelt Park), General Grant, Rocky Mountain, and Mount McKinley as the granite national parks. It notes that granite is granular and crystalline, composed of quartz, feldspar, and mica in varying proportions, and that its coloring ranges from light gray to warm rose depending on the feldspar content.
Chapter 8
Why does the author argue mountain fame does not prove superior sublimity?
The author argues that publicity given to record-seeking climbers leads to the unwarranted assumption that mountains associated with such exploits necessarily excel others in sublimity. He contends that the accident of fashion has even more to do with the fame of mountains than of men, so celebrated ranges are not automatically finer than less publicized ones.
Chapter 8
What does the chapter say about Yosemite Valley in relation to the park?
The chapter states that a very large proportion of Yosemite's visitors see nothing more than the Valley, yet no consideration is tenable which conceives the Valley as other than a small part of the national park. The two are inseparable, compared to knowing the Louvre from only the Venus de Milo.
Chapter 8

Section 94 cards

What is the Yosemite Valley's secret to world supremacy, according to the chapter?
The author argues it is not the giant monoliths, towering walls, waterfalls, or vistas alone, since Hetch Hetchy and other valleys also have giants. Its supremacy lies in selection and combination—the inspired proportioning of carefully chosen elements, which the author says seems more like supreme artistry than chance.
Chapter 9
How does the park's life change from crest to lowlands?
Bare and gale-ridden near the crest, the park descends in thirty miles through Arctic-to-Transition zones. Above timber-line only inch-high willows and tiny arctic flowers grow; lower, twisted pines and spruces give way to Canadian-zone forests of pines, silver fir, and hemlock, then to Transition forests with sugar pine, yellow pine, Douglas fir, and deciduous growths.
Chapter 9
Why does the government fine visitors for picking snow-plants?
The Yosemite and Sequoia parks exclusively possess the showy, rare snow-plant, whose red pillar rises a foot or more above the shady mould. It is so luring and so easily destroyed that, to keep it from extinction, the government fines covetous visitors for every flower picked.
Chapter 9
What does the chapter say about the claim that Yosemite is birdless?
The author calls it a widespread fable, hard to account for after lingering to watch and listen. Happy, talkative tourist companies afoot and mounted likely drive birds to silent cover, then comment on lifeless forests. John Muir wrote that the whole range is shaken into song every summer, and the music never ceases.
Chapter 9

Section 104 cards

How does the chapter describe the dimensions and origin of Yosemite Valley?
The Valley is eight miles long and from half a mile to a mile wide, with a level floor because it was once prehistoric Lake Yosemite. Its altitude is 4,000 feet, and the granite walls rise from 2,000 to 6,000 feet higher, averaging a little more than 3,000 feet above the valley floor. Except for occasional meadows, the floor is grandly forested.
Chapter 10
What does the chapter say distinguishes the Yosemite from other features?
The author argues the waterfalls more than any other feature differentiate and distinguish the Yosemite. They are the highest in the world, each markedly individualized, yet except for Vernal Fall all share a common note: small streams dropping from great heights as wind-blown ribbons ending in clouds of mist. They are distributed so one or more are visible from most parts of the Valley and its rim.
Chapter 10
What are the measurements of Yosemite Falls given in the chapter?
The Upper Fall pours over the rim nearly 2,600 feet above the valley floor, with a sheer drop of 1,430 feet, described as the equal of nine Niagaras. Two-fifths of a mile south, the Lower Fall drops 320 feet more. From the crest of the Upper Fall to the foot of the Lower Fall lacks a little of half a mile.
Chapter 10
How does the chapter describe Bridal Veil Fall and the Ribbon Fall?
Bridal Veil is a small stream dropping 620 feet over a perpendicular wall into mist, the "bridal veil," reaching the river through a delta of five small brooks; a rainbow often gleams in it, and it is nearly four times the height of Niagara. Ribbon Fall, opposite Bridal Veil near El Capitan, drops 1,600 feet in early spring but is merely snow-field runoff that disappears in June, leaving a dark stain.
Chapter 10

Section 114 cards

Why does Upper Yosemite Fall appear to fall slower than ordinary waterfalls?
The author explains that the water actually falls normally; the appearance of leisureliness is an illusion. Because the fall is extremely high, the eye applies standards formed from viewing falls of ordinary size, making the descent seem slower than it is. He notes that the solid inner body drops no faster than the outer spray, dispelling the idea that air retards the water.
Chapter 11
How does the author compare the Lower Fall to the Upper Fall and Niagara?
The author calls the Lower Fall a smug and steady pigmy beside the lofty, temperamental Upper Fall, noting the two are always seen together. Yet he stresses it is hard to realize the Lower Fall is twice the height of Niagara. He also says Yosemite's gigantic falls appeal more to the imagination than to the sense of beauty.
Chapter 11
What does the author say about the three most conspicuous features of Yosemite?
The author argues the gigantic falls appeal even more to the imagination than to the sense of beauty. El Capitan suggests majesty, order, proportion, and power, and has many devotees. Half Dome suggests mystery and symbolizes worship to many. Of these three, the author states Half Dome easily is the most popular.
Chapter 11
What is the history of the Tioga Road and its present role?
The Tioga Road was built in 1881 on the site of the Mono Trail to connect a gold mine west of the future national park with roads east of the Sierra. The mine soon failed and the road was impassable for years. In 1915 patriotic lovers of Yosemite purchased it and gave it to the Government; repaired with government money, it became the park's principal highway and key to future development.
Chapter 11

Section 123 cards

What does the chapter say about the trails and trail travel in Yosemite?
The author argues the trails are the best in the country and as good as the best in the world, serving as models for the national system. Competent guides, horses, supplies, and equipment are easy to hire at regulated prices in the village. The High Sierra offers dozens of divides, scores of peaks, hundreds of valleys and lakes, and thousands of streams with trout.
Chapter 12
Why was Hetch Hetchy dammed, and how does the author assess the outcome?
Hetch Hetchy is being dammed below Kolana Rock to supply water for San Francisco. The author notes the dam will be hidden from common observation and the flooded timber cut to avoid unsightliness, but the reservoir will cover one of America's most beautiful bottoms and destroy luxuriant forests. He takes some comfort that Hetch Hetchy was once a natural lake, so the change may not prove as inappropriate as feared.
Chapter 12
How does the Grizzly Giant compare with other sequoias?
The Grizzly Giant, largest tree of the Mariposa Grove, has a diameter of twenty-nine feet, a circumference of sixty-four feet, and a height of two hundred and four feet. Its age is guessed at three thousand to thirty-two hundred years. It ranks third in size and age among living sequoias; General Sherman, the largest and oldest, has a diameter of thirty-six and a half feet, and General Grant thirty-five feet.
Chapter 12

Section 134 cards

How did Captain Boling's 1851 expedition lead to the Yosemite Valley's discovery?
Captain Boling of the Mariposa Battalion, a volunteer force protecting settlers, entered the valley from the west on March 21, 1851, pursuing Yosemite or Grizzly Bear Indians who had raided mining settlements in the foothills. Chief Tenaya met the pursuers on the uplands and asked them to come no further, but Boling pushed through heavy snows. The valley proved to be the Indians' final stronghold, though their villages were deserted.
Chapter 13
What did Congress grant California in 1864 regarding Yosemite?
In 1864 Congress granted the State of California "the Cleft or Gorge of the Granite Peak of the Sierra Nevada Mountains" known as the Yosemite Valley, on the understanding that all income derived from it should be spent improving the reservation or building a road to it. The Mariposa Big Tree Grove was granted at the same time. California carefully fulfilled her charge, and in 1890 the Yosemite National Park was created.
Chapter 13
What was Professor Whitney's theory of how the Yosemite Valley formed?
Professor Whitney of the University of California first studied the problem and maintained that glaciers never entered the valley; he did not even consider water erosion. At one time he held the valley was simply a cleft or rent in the earth's crust; at another he imagined it formed by the sudden dropping back of a large block during the convulsions that uplifted the Sierra Nevada.
Chapter 13
According to Matthes, how did the Merced River and glaciers shape Yosemite Valley?
The author, drawing on F.E. Matthes's studies, states that the Merced River cut the valley from solid granite nearly to its present depth before the glaciers arrived: twenty-four hundred feet deep opposite El Capitan and three thousand feet opposite Eagle Peak, then V-shaped with cascades. Later glaciers of several epochs greatly widened and measurably deepened it, making it U-shaped, and the cascades became waterfalls.
Chapter 13

Section 144 cards

Why does the chapter say the Merced kept cutting its channel steeply for millions of years?
The author explains that repeated uplift of the Sierra crest tilted the whole granite block, keeping the Merced and Tenaya channels steeply inclined. Each rising of the crest sharpened the tilt and hastened the torrents, so the streams stayed swift enough to keep sandpapering their beds rather than slowing and depositing sediment.
Chapter 14
How did the sinking of the Great Basin relate to the Sierra's shape?
The chapter states the central section of a broad plateau settled several thousand feet lower than its edges, forming the Great Basin. The remaining eastern edge became the Wasatch Mountains and the western edge the Sierra. This explains why the Sierra's eastern front rises precipitously from the desert while its western side slopes gradually toward the Pacific.
Chapter 14
What did the Quaternary uplift accomplish for Yosemite Valley before the glaciers?
The author reports that about the beginning of the Quaternary Period the Sierra crest was raised as much as eight thousand feet in one series of movements, tilting the whole block enormously. This deepened the valley from eighteen hundred feet at its lower end to twenty-four hundred at its upper end, creating a landscape suggesting the modern aspect but still requiring completion by the glaciers.
Chapter 14
What did the glaciers do to Yosemite Valley, according to the chapter?
The chapter says a glacier three or four thousand feet thick filled the Valley for unknown thousands of years, with only Cloud's Rest, Half Dome, Sentinel Dome, and the crown of El Capitan emerging above the ice. It greatly widened and considerably deepened the valley, turned slopes into perpendiculars, and changed side cascades into waterfalls. When it receded it left the Valley almost completed.
Chapter 14

Section 154 cards

What area and boundaries did Congress consider for Roosevelt National Park?
The proposed park covers sixteen hundred square miles, bounded on the west by seventy-five miles of the Sierra crest at its climax—sixty-five miles north of Mount Whitney and ten south. It would enclose the existing Sequoia National Park, including the General Sherman Tree and its million sequoias. The author says Congress was considering the designation.
Chapter 15
How does the author compare Roosevelt and Yosemite National Parks?
The author argues Roosevelt is similar in kind to Yosemite but far more rugged and masterful—the national park of superlatives. Yosemite, defined by its incomparable Valley, will never be equaled for sheer beauty and remains Mecca for tourists; Roosevelt knows no peer for exuberance and grandeur and will draw campers and high-trail lovers. Each is a complete unit of striking individuality.
Chapter 15
What zones lie between the Sierra crest and the western boundary?
The region divides into parallel zones. The High Sierra, a strip ten miles or more wide west of the crest, holds jagged peaks, cirques, snowfields, and turquoise lakes in chains. West of it is a knobbed, bouldered zone including timber-line and wind-twisted pines, crossed by lesser ranges and rivers. Finally, along the western boundary, is the warm forest with a million sequoias, reserved in 1890 as Sequoia National Park.
Chapter 15
Which river systems originate in the proposed Roosevelt region?
Four river systems originate there. In the north, a lake over eleven thousand feet high at the western foot of Mount Goddard begins the South Fork of the San Joaquin River. The northern middle area is drained by the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River, whose basins cover nearly half the park and include the Tehipite Valley and Kings River Canyon, which the author says are destined for world celebrity.
Chapter 15

Section 164 cards

Which streams drain the southwestern area of the park, and what grows on their banks?
Five forks of the Kaweah River drain the southwestern area, originating in the divide of the South Fork of the Kings River to the north and the Great Western Divide to the east. They wind through the wooded valleys of Sequoia National Park, and on their banks grow the monsters of the American forest.
Chapter 16
What is the golden trout's scientific name and what does the chapter say about its color?
The golden trout is scientifically named Salmo Rooseveltii. The chapter says it appears carved from gold when fresh caught, and that its color no doubt originally evolved from the golden hues of the rocks through which its waters flow. Transplanted into other Sierra streams, notably the Middle Fork of the Kings, it has thrived and kept its hue; in sheltered waters it has apparently disappeared, which may merely mean its color changed with environment.
Chapter 16
What are the four principal entrance gates to the park described in the chapter?
The chapter names four principal gates: the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park and the General Grant National Park (both reached by road), the Yosemite National Park on the north, and Kearsarge Pass on the crest of the Sierra a few miles north of Mount Whitney on the east. Each opens from points where parties can secure horses, equipment, and guides.
Chapter 16
What does the author say about the John Muir Trail and the ascent of Mount Whitney?
The author argues the John Muir Trail is destined to a fame and use perhaps many times greater than its conceivers imagined, and will play a distinguished part in educating the nation in the love of mountains. He says no thrilling Alpine feat is the ascent of Whitney's summit, but that harder problems than those offered abroad may be found among Whitney's neighboring peaks.
Chapter 16

Section 174 cards

How does the author compare Tehipite Valley to Yosemite Valley?
The author argues Tehipite Valley is less beautiful than Yosemite in the way that silences an observer, but far excels it in bigness, power, and majesty. From Lookout Point, three thousand feet above the river, he calls the view the grandest valley view he has seen, judging the Yosemite rim view more beautiful but not so grand.
Chapter 17
How does Tehipite Dome compare with El Capitan and Half Dome?
The author calls Tehipite Dome a true Yosemite feature, comparing in height and prominence with El Capitan. It stands higher above the valley floor and occupies a similar position at the valley's western gate, but is less massive and so less impressive. He compares it with Half Dome too, and argues that in Yosemite it would share the valley's highest honors.
Chapter 17
What changes when the party descends to the Tehipite Valley floor?
On the floor, all comparison with Yosemite vanishes for the author. The heights tower more hugely, the sky-line is carved into spires and domes, and the floor offers rugged spaciousness rather than exquisiteness: tangled thickets, broken talus, and a surging, roaring torrent several times the Merced's volume. He calls the keynote wild exuberance, which thrills where Yosemite enervates, though the temperature is equally mild.
Chapter 17
What does the author say about fishing the Middle Fork for trout?
The author says the Middle Fork holds more trout than any stream he has fished, found in pools and riffles, running eight to fourteen inches, with larger ones probably below. He describes stopping a fly's motion so the pursuing fish stops, backs, circles the lure, and disappears, while a pause and swift start often tempt a strike. He calls these rainbows hard fighters.
Chapter 17

Section 183 cards

How does the chapter contrast Kings River Canyon with Tehipite Valley?
The author argues that Kings River Canyon's keynote is wild beauty, while Tehipite Valley's is wild exuberance. Tehipite excites; Kings River Canyon lulls. Both share a distinction with Yosemite: Tehipite has extraordinary outline, and Kings River Canyon has extraordinary charm. The author says the outlines at Kings River seem softer, the valley floor broader, and the river less turbulent.
Chapter 18
Which trees does the chapter rank as the chief courtiers of King Sequoia?
The author ranks the sugar pine first: up to two hundred feet tall, sometimes eight feet thick, reaching six hundred years, with trunks clear of branches a hundred feet up. Next is the white fir, up to two hundred feet, with a six-foot furrowed trunk and a limit of three hundred fifty years. Last of the trio is the western yellow pine, a hundred sixty feet in natural height.
Chapter 18
What ages and ancestry does the chapter give for the sequoias?
The author says the King of Trees' ancestry traces to the forests of the Cretaceous Period, from Viking stock in arctic zones. John Muir counted four thousand rings in one fallen giant. The General Sherman Tree, probably thirty-six hundred years old, is the oldest living thing the author could ascertain, and he suggests it may remain so a thousand years hence.
Chapter 18

Section 194 cards

How does the Giant Forest's sequoia population compare with other groves?
The Giant Forest contains several thousand large sequoia trees plus many young ones, making it the largest grove of greatest trees. The General Grant Grove, in its own small national park nearby, ranks second in size and importance. Its central figure, the General Grant Tree, is second in size and age to the General Sherman Tree.
Chapter 19
What are the dimensions of the General Sherman Tree, and how does the author suggest imagining them?
The General Sherman Tree stands 279.9 feet tall with a base diameter of 36.5 feet. The author suggests marking that diameter against a church wall, measuring 280 feet away on the ground, then imagining the tapering trunk rising against the building and sky, with lower branches thicker than eastern elm trunks pushing out 150 feet up.
Chapter 19
Why does the author call Rocky Mountain National Park the only true example of its mountain system?
The author argues the Rocky Mountains have three national parks, but only Rocky Mountain National Park represents the system in kind. Yellowstone is an exceptional volcanic interlude, and Glacier is an upheaval of shales and limestones predating the granite Rockies by millions of years. Neither exhibits the nature and scenic quality of the continental backbone.
Chapter 19
How do Colorado's high peaks compare in number and height with the rest of the United States?
Colorado holds forty-two of the fifty-five named U.S. peaks above fourteen thousand feet, plus at least three unnamed ones. Twelve are in California's Sierra and one, Mount Rainier, in Washington. Mount Elbert, the second highest U.S. peak, rises within eighty-two feet of Mount Whitney, the first. Colorado also has 350 peaks above eleven thousand feet.
Chapter 19

Section 204 cards

Why does the author regret the southern boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park?
The author argues the straight southern boundary was arbitrarily drawn through the range at a point of sublimity, excluding the St. Vrain Glaciers, described as one of the region's wildest and noblest spectacles, and Arapaho Peak with its glaciers, which in several respects constitute a climax in Rocky Mountain scenery. He calls the park carelessly cropped and despoiled of the completeness Nature meant it to possess.
Chapter 20
How does the continental divide shape the park's two sides?
The park straddles the continental divide, which bisects it lengthwise north and south. The western slopes rise gently to the divide, while at the divide the eastern front drops in a precipice several thousand feet deep, out of which frosts, rains, glaciers and streams have gouged gigantic gulfs, granite-bound vales and canyons whose intervening cliffs are battlemented walls and monoliths.
Chapter 20
Why were Estes Park and Grand Lake left outside the park boundaries?
Estes Park and Allen's Park on the east side and Grand Lake on the west side lie just outside the park boundaries, purposely excluded because of their considerable areas of privately owned land. Estes Park, the principal village and distributing centre of incoming routes from the east, is the Eastern Gateway; Grand Lake is the Western Gateway.
Chapter 20
What does the author say causes visitors to settle for lesser pleasures in the parks?
The author argues he ceased criticizing the popular point of view when he realized its principal cause was ignorance of the wealth within grasp rather than deliberate choice of the more commonplace. He writes the book hoping to help the cause of the greater pleasure, especially in Rocky Mountain National Park, where accessibility makes its inmost sanctuaries easy to enter, examine and appreciate.
Chapter 20

Section 214 cards

What two mountain groupings does the chapter identify within the park?
The chapter says the park's mountains fall into two groupings. The Front Range cuts the southern boundary midway and runs north to Longs Peak, then swings westerly carrying the continental divide out at the northwestern corner. The Mummy Range occupies the park's entire north end. A ridge 11,500 feet high joins the two, over which the Fall River Road is being built to connect the park's east and west sides.
Chapter 21
Which peaks form the Mummy Range's arc of gray monsters, and what notable features do they hold?
The chapter describes an arc around Mummy Mountain (13,413 feet): Ypsilon Mountain at 13,507 feet, Mount Fairchild at 13,502 feet, Hagues Peak at 13,562 feet, and Mount Dunraven at 12,326 feet. Ypsilon's big Greek letter outlined in perpetual snow is a famous northern landmark. Hagues Peak supports Hallett Glacier, called the park's most interesting, while Dunraven's slender outline contrasts with Mummy's sprawling bulk.
Chapter 21
What does the author say about climbing mountains by horse, and what caution does he give?
The author argues that fear of hardship keeps many people, including most women, from venturing up, and that while rarefied air makes temperance and discretion important for those unused to altitude, a well-trained mountain horse's lungs and muscles are always obtainable. He claims the rider need only sit the saddle limply and leave everything to the horse, boasting he can climb any mountain his horse can carry him up.
Chapter 21
What view does the author describe from the summit of Hallett Peak?
From Hallett Peak, 12,725 feet, reached by skirting the top of Tyndall Glacier, the author describes the sheer abyss of Tyndall Gorge with Dream Lake below, and a moraine six miles long, over a mile wide and nearly a thousand feet high holding Bierstadt Lake on its crown. Southerly lie the Wild Gardens and the entrances to Loch Vale and Glacier Gorge, with Longs Peak's squared summit outlined against the sky.
Chapter 21

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Why does the author consider the Flattop Trail the most satisfying vegetation route?
The author argues the Flattop Trail is in many respects the most satisfying because it reveals the vegetation zones in order without the flaws of other routes: Fall River Road and Forest Canyon have too long a forest approach and too short a Hudsonian climb, while the Ute Trail reaches the arctic summit too quickly. Taking time for Hallett Peak's summit and hunting arctic flowerets adds to it.
Chapter 22
How does the chapter describe timber-line vegetation in Rocky Mountain National Park?
The author argues the park gives timber-line its most satisfying popular expression, condensing the struggle between climbing forests and summit gales. Conifers thin and shrink, bend eastward, curve in semicircles, or grow prostrate like a rug. Near the summit trees shrink to shrub size, then give way to wiry deciduous shrubs and finally to willow forests only two or three inches tall but acres in extent.
Chapter 22
How were Longs Peak, Mount Lady Washington, and Mount Meeker formed?
The chapter states the three were once one monster mountain. Frosts and rains carried off the crust strata, bared the granite core, and chipped it into three summits, while a large glacier gouged out the abyss dividing them and carved the precipice dropping 2,400 feet from Longs Peak's summit to Chasm Lake. Longs Peak rises 14,255 feet; Lady Washington 13,269; Meeker 13,911.
Chapter 22
What does the chapter say about the difficulty and risk of climbing Longs Peak?
The author says the ascent is no particular matter for the experienced, since the trail is well worn and horseback travel reaches the boulder field less than 2,000 feet from the summit, though it appears a first-magnitude undertaking to the inexperienced. Several hundred people ascend each summer without accident, including women and children. The one risk is accidental snow obscuring the trail; a guide is usual.
Chapter 22

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According to the chapter, what is a peneplain and where can one see it?
The author describes a peneplain as a nearly-a-plain, a stage in the reduction of mountains by erosion. It can be seen along the continental divide reached by the Flattop Trail, where for many miles the divide is a lofty, bare, undulating plain with summits, sloping gently west before breaking into cliffs and canyons. Geologists trace long-vanished ranges from fragmentary peneplain remains.
Chapter 23
How did glaciers shape the eastern front of the Front Range?
The author argues glaciers began in stream beds from accumulated snow turned to ice, then plucked granite blocks from their starting points and settled into cirques. Plucking downward and backward undermined cirque walls, and ice armed with imprisoned rocks gouged and scraped beds. Repeated over thousands of centuries, these processes produced the gorges, precipices, and rounded granite valleys of the eastern elevation.
Chapter 23
What does the chapter say about Iceberg Lake and its formation?
Iceberg Lake, near Trail Ridge on the Ute Trail, was originally an ice-filled hollow in the ridge's high surface. When the Fall River Glacier moved eastward, ice in the hollow slipped down to join it and by that motion became a glacier. Downward and backward plucking and falling walls produced the well, cut eighteen hundred feet deep, where visitors see floating ice cakes.
Chapter 23
Which glaciers formed the main glacial streams of the park, and how thick were they?
The author states the Wild Basin Glacier formed from scores of cirques and swept through St. Vrain valley. Four glaciers headed at Longs Peak, including those hollowing Loch Vale, Glacier Gorge, and the Chasm. Loch Vale and Glacier Gorge joined as far north as Tyndall Gorge to form the Bartholf Glacier; the Thompson and Fall River glaciers drained other areas. The greater glaciers reached two thousand feet thick.
Chapter 23

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Who made the first successful climb of Longs Peak, and when?
William N. Byers, founder of the Rocky Mountain News, first attempted Longs Peak in 1864 but failed. Four years later, in 1868, he reached the summit with a party that included Major J.W. Powell, who explored the Grand Canyon the following year. In 1871 the Reverend E.J. Lamb, the first regular guide on the peak, made the first descent by the east precipice.
Chapter 24
Why did Congress create Mount McKinley National Park in 1917?
The chapter states that Congress set aside about 2,200 square miles as Mount McKinley National Park in 1917 primarily to safeguard the enormous game herds from the hordes of hunters the new railroad was expected to bring, rather than to conserve an alpine region scenically unequalled. The government had begun the Seward-to-Fairbanks railroad in 1915.
Chapter 24
Why is Mount McKinley described as scenically the highest mountain in the world?
The author argues McKinley is scenically the highest mountain in the world. Though Andean and Himalayan summits are loftier above sea level, they can be viewed closely only from valleys at 10,000 to 15,000 feet. McKinley rises 20,300 feet above tidewater and 17,000 feet above a viewer on the plateau at its base, with perpetual snow two-thirds down.
Chapter 24
How did Mount McKinley get its name?
W.A. Dickey and his partner Monks, two young Princeton graduates, recognized the mountain's commanding proportions while exploring north from the Cook Inlet gold fields in 1896 and named it Mount McKinley. Dickey later told Belmore Browne he chose the name because he was disgusted with the free-silver arguments of men travelling with him, so he named it after the most ardent gold-standard man he knew.
Chapter 24

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How do McKinley's glaciers drain east, south, north, and west?
Glaciers descending from McKinley and its neighbors drain east and south through the Susitna River and its tributaries into the Pacific, and north and west through tributaries of the Yukon and Kuskokwim into Bering Sea. The chapter notes that the Denali Glacier, though tremendous and perhaps the greatest on the north side, does not compare with the giants flowing from the southern front.
Chapter 25
What did the Parker-Browne expedition of 1910 accomplish regarding Cook's claim?
The 1910 Parker-Browne expedition probably aimed both to check Cook's claim and to reach the summit. It photographed Herman L. Tucker on the identical crag where Cook had photographed Barrill, and found that crag miles south of McKinley with higher peaks intervening. The party then advanced up a huge glacier but was stopped by snow walls.
Chapter 25
What did Charles Sheldon and Stephen R. Capps report about park wildlife?
Charles Sheldon counted more than five hundred mountain sheep in one ordinary day's foot journey through the valleys. Stephen R. Capps of the U.S. Geological Survey reported that probably no part of America outside reserves was so well supplied with wild game as the north slope of the Alaska Range west of the Nanana River, listing abundant sheep, caribou in bands of many hundreds, moose, black and grizzly bears, rabbits, and ptarmigan.
Chapter 25
What happened to the Kantishna mining settlements after the 1906 stampede?
In 1906 there was a wild stampede to the Kantishna district along the park's northern edge. Diamond City, Bearpaw City, Glacier City, McKinley City, Roosevelt, and other rude settlements sprang up rapidly, but results did not reward the thousands who came, and the cities were abandoned. A hundred or two miners remain scattered over a large area that in places grows cultivated fruits and vegetables well.
Chapter 25

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How did Parker and Browne's first summit attempt on McKinley end?
They reached the level summit on July 1 but a blizzard blinded them five minutes' walk from the supreme summit. Waiting meant death by freezing, so they returned with extreme difficulty. A second attempt two days later was stopped by an ice storm, and exhausted supplies prevented a third try.
Chapter 26
What did Archdeacon Stuck describe as the actual summit of McKinley?
Stuck describes the actual summit as a little crater-like snow basin sixty or sixty-five feet long and twenty to twenty-five feet wide, with a hay-cock of snow at either end, the south one a little higher than the north. He also wrote that Denali's Wife (Foraker) is hidden until the South Peak is surmounted.
Chapter 26
How did the Lloyd party of prospectors reach the North Peak?
Four Kantishna prospectors organized by Tom Lloyd used May's hard ice and an idle dog team. They carried no ropes, alpenstocks, or scientific equipment, and only one camera. Lloyd stayed at the eleven-thousand-foot camp while Anderson, Taylor, and McGonagall attempted the summit; McGonagall was overcome by mountain sickness, and Anderson and Taylor planted the pole.
Chapter 26
Why does the chapter say McKinley's climbing conditions are unusually strenuous?
The chapter argues McKinley's isolation lowers its snow line thousands of feet below those of the Himalayas and Andes, multiplying ascent difficulties. Climbers sounded glaciers for crevasses, hauled outfits to each new camp, detoured around icy barriers, and faced continuous avalanche roar, temperatures rarely above zero, stifling sun glare, and daily snow.
Chapter 26

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Why are nearly all US national parks located in the West, according to the chapter?
The author explains that Congress has created national parks only from public lands whose title costs nothing to acquire. The East passed into private possession before the national park idea became important nationally, so eastern areas of supreme scenery would require purchase, which Congress has been unwilling to fund.
Chapter 27
How did Lafayette National Park come to exist despite Congress refusing to buy parkland?
Private citizens led by George B. Dorr and Charles W. Eliot formed a holding association, donated their own properties, and spent years persuading others to contribute holdings and raising subscriptions to buy plots locked in estates. In 1916 they gave five thousand acres to the government; President Wilson proclaimed it Sieur de Monts National Monument, and in February 1919 Congress made it Lafayette National Park.
Chapter 27
What does the author argue about eastern mountain land and national parks?
The author argues that areas of supreme scenery, historical association, or scientific significance are worth conserving even if that requires purchase, and criticizes Congress for buying eastern mountain land for national forest while refusing to buy parkland. He contends the mountain topography and rich deciduous forests of the eastern United States should be represented in the park system by several fine examples.
Chapter 27

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Why was the new national park named after Lafayette?
The author explains that the naming impulse arose from wartime warmth toward France, an ally in the recent war. The region already had French associations: early French exploration, de Monts's colony at the St. Croix, and Champlain's naming of Mount Desert Island in 1604. The park also commemorates Acadia and the allied cause of world freedom.
Chapter 28
How did Mount Desert Island get its name, and what did it mean to Champlain?
Champlain named it in 1604 after the mountains rising from the shore. To him, L'Isle des Monts Deserts meant the Island of the Lonely Mountains, not the barren meaning the name suggests to us. The name became a landmark for later voyagers; Winthrop recorded seeing the mountains in 1630 and catching sixty-seven great cod nearby.
Chapter 28
How did the eastern half of Mount Desert Island pass to Madame de Gregoire?
George B. Dorr explains that Louis XIV granted the island to Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, later founder of Detroit and Governor of Louisiana. Ownership passed through English occupation to the Province and then the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Commonwealth later gave the island's eastern half to Cadillac's granddaughter, Madame de Gregoire, and her husband, moved by France's part in the War of Independence and their letters from Lafayette.
Chapter 28

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Which five national parks does the chapter classify as volcanic?
The volcanic national parks are Lassen Volcanic, Crater Lake, Mount Rainier, Yellowstone, and Hawaii. The author says their scenic ensemble differs in almost all respects from that of the granite parks, tending toward broad elevated surfaces and rolling hills from which rise sharp cones or massive mountains with irregular bulging knobs formed by lava outbreaks on the sides of original central vents.
Chapter 29
What examples illustrate the three basic volcanic mountain forms?
The author cites Fujiyama as the familiar example of the single-cone volcanic peak, Vesuvius as the simple complication or double-cone volcano, and Mauna Loa in Hawaii — including Kilauea, which it has almost engulfed in its swollen bulk — as the volcano built up by lava outpourings from vents broken through its sides. Flat, rolling Yellowstone exemplifies a dead, much-eroded volcanic region.
Chapter 29
Why does the author find volcanism more thrilling than erosion?
The author argues that of all world-making processes, none is so thrilling as volcanism because it concentrates action into terms of human grasp. Lassen Peak's eruption of a thousand cubic yards of lava in a few hours thrills us more than the Mississippi's erosion of an average foot of its vast valley in a hundred thousand years — yet the author notes the latter is enormously the greater.
Chapter 29
How does the chapter explain the wide distribution of volcanoes?
The author argues volcanoes occur in all latitudes, not merely the tropics, resulting from earth masses seeking equilibrium beneath the crust, with molten rock working up from isolated pockets under pressure. The volcano map shows them congregating in a broad equatorial band, but also bordering the Pacific from Patagonia to Alaska, crossing the Aleutian Islands, extending down the Asian coast, and appearing inland, isolated and in series.
Chapter 29

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How did the many northwest volcanoes come to be reduced to a surviving few?
The author describes many hundreds of volcanoes, big and little, most of which perished under the growing slopes of larger neighbors. As smaller vents choked with ash, lava sought escape through the larger volcanoes instead. By this natural selection, there survived a company of monsters now uniformed in ice, including Mount Baker, Rainier, Adams, St. Helens, Hood, vanished Mazama, Shasta, and Lassen Peak.
Chapter 30
What events led Congress to create Lassen Volcanic National Park in 1916?
President Taft created the Lassen Peak and Cinder Cone National Monuments in 1906 to conserve two examples of recent volcanism. Lassen Peak then broke a long sleep in spring 1914 with eruptions lasting nineteen months, centering attention on the region. In August 1916 Congress created the park, 124 square miles, including both monuments, other notable cones, and nearly all the hot springs.
Chapter 30
What did the May 22, 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak involve, according to Doctor Diller?
The author reports Doctor J.S. Diller's account: a mushroom-shaped smoke cloud burst four miles upward, visible even from the Sacramento Valley. At night observers saw flashes of light, rocket-like flying bodies, and cloud-glows from incandescent lava below. A blast of superheated gas swept down Lost Creek and Hot Creek Valleys for ten miles, withering every living thing, uprooting large trees, scorching forests, and melting snow-fields into floods.
Chapter 30
What is the volcanic belt described in the Katmai section, and when was the monument created?
A remarkable volcanic belt begins in southern Alaska at the head of Cook Inlet and follows the coast southwest fifteen hundred miles through the Alaskan Peninsula to the end of the Aleutian Islands, nearly enclosing Behring Sea. It is very ancient, with mainland peaks classed active or latent and many island volcanoes. Informed by four National Geographic Society expeditions, President Wilson created the Mount Katmai National Monument in 1918.
Chapter 30

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What did the 1912 Katmai eruption produce, and how far were its effects observed?
The blast was heard 750 miles away at Juneau; earthquakes followed, then smoke and dust brought 60 hours of darkness at Kodiak, 100 miles away. Dust fell at Ketchikan, 900 miles away, fumes reached Vancouver Island, 1,500 miles away, and haziness was noted as far as Virginia and, per Doctor C.S. Abbott, in Europe the following summer.
Chapter 31
How does Katmai's ash output compare with other great eruptions?
The chapter states Katmai's eruption was by no means the greatest; its ash output was about five cubic miles. Tomboro, on Sumbawa near Java, in 1815 flung more than twenty-eight cubic miles of ash to the winds. The author notes comparison with eruptions whose output was principally lava is impossible.
Chapter 31
What are the dimensions of Katmai's crater as reported by Griggs?
Robert F. Griggs, who headed the exploring expeditions, states the crater area is 8.4 square miles measured along the highest point of the rim. The abyss is 2.6 miles long, 7.6 miles in circumference, and 4.2 square miles in area. A lake 1.4 miles long and nine-tenths of a mile wide has formed within it, of unknown depth.
Chapter 31

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How does Mount Rainier's isolation affect its scenic standing, per the chapter?
The chapter argues Rainier's isolation gives it enormous scenic advantage: it towers nearly eight thousand feet above surrounding mountains, whereas Mount Whitney, though ninety-three feet loftier, is merely the climax of a tempestuous ocean of snowy neighbors only slightly lower. The author says Rainier springs so powerfully into the air that one looks for signs of life, though no smoke rises from its broken top.
Chapter 32
According to the chapter, what makes Rainier's setting unique among large single-peaked glacial systems?
The author argues that while the Alaskan Range and Himalayas may hold many single-peaked glacial systems of Rainier's size, he has not heard of another mountain of approximate height and magnitude whose glacier system rises eight thousand feet above a parkland of lakes, forests, and wild-flower gardens seemingly made for pleasuring, with its heart reached in four hours from a large city on transatlantic railway lines.
Chapter 32
How did Mount Rainier become a national park, and what is the principal entrance?
A century after Vancouver's discovery, the Geological Society of America started the movement; within a year the American Association for the Advancement of Science, National Geographic Society, Appalachian Mountain Club, and Sierra Club joined in memorializing Congress, and the park was created in 1899. The principal entrance is up the Nisqually River at the south, following pioneer James Longmire's roads to Paradise Park.
Chapter 32

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What activities does the chapter say Mount Rainier Park offers visitors?
The chapter lists a wide variety of pleasures: a leisurely week's horseback ride around the mountain, month-long wilderness exploration, long camping tramps or short walks, loafing with occasional walks and rides, glacier exploration, climbing in the Tatoosh Range, short climbs onto snowfields for sledless coasting, and July tobogganing and skiing near the Inn before valley snows melt.
Chapter 33
What does the chapter say about the difficulty of climbing Mount Rainier's summit?
The chapter says the ascent is the climber's ultimate objective, but comparatively few attempt it. It is a feat of endurance requiring physical fitness, with little rock-climbing but taxing snow and ice slopes, starting at midnight and returning before sundown. Face and hands are painted against sunburn and colored glasses avert snow-blindness. Many tourists are advised to practice on the Tatoosh Range first.
Chapter 33
According to the chapter, what does the view from Rainier's summit depend on?
The chapter states the summit view depends on conditions of the moment. Often the summit is lost in mists and clouds with no view; very often clouds gather and dissipate on clear days; frequently there are partial views; occasionally every condition favors and the reward is great. S.F. Emmons, who made the second ascent, described a fortunate moment with the entire mountain visible.
Chapter 33
Who made the first successful ascent of Mount Rainier, and when?
General Hazard Stevens and P.B. Van Trump, both Washington residents, made the first successful ascent on August 17, 1870. Starting from James Longmire's with Longmire as guide up the Nisqually Valley, they found the Indian Sluiskin to lead them. Sluiskin protested the climb, warning of a demon and fiery lake, and waited to report their deaths.
Chapter 33

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What four volcanic states do the four volcanic national parks exemplify?
The author states that Lassen Peak is semi-active, Mount Rainier is dormant, Yellowstone is dead, and Crater Lake marks the spot where a volcano collapsed and disappeared. He adds that Rainier's value as a volcanic example is overshadowed by its supreme usefulness as a glacial exhibit.
Chapter 34
Where do Rainier's glaciers actually originate, and what feeds them?
Although the summit ice-fields feed several glaciers, the glaciers really originate about four thousand feet below the top in cirques or pockets. These are fed mainly by heavy winter snows from moisture-laden Pacific winds, plus wind sweepings and avalanches from the summit. The glaciers have a combined surface of forty-five square miles.
Chapter 34
How does a glacier pluck rock and shape its cirque?
The glacier freezes to the back wall of its cirque and, moving forward, plucks out masses of rock. Cavities fill with ice that freezes and plucks more rock, and the undermined wall falls onto the ice. This leaves a precipice that moves backward as the process repeats, while downward plucking forms shelves where harder strata resist cutting.
Chapter 34
Why are the Emmons and Winthrop Glaciers the largest on Rainier?
They lie in the quarter farthest from the sun, where rays strike at the flattest angle, so melting is least. A more potent reason is their position on the lee quarter of the peak, where prevailing winds whirl in snow from both sides. Together they form the greatest unbroken glacial mass, extending northeasterly from the summit.
Chapter 34

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Why is Nisqually Glacier the most celebrated at Mount Rainier?
The author argues it is celebrated not for scenic superiority but because it is the neighbor and playground of visiting thousands. He notes its beauty is not in excess of many others and it is much smaller than many; the nearby Cowlitz Glacier exceeds it in size. The point emphasizes that many other sights would be as celebrated if as well known.
Chapter 35
What causes the extraordinary forest luxuriance at the base of Mount Rainier?
The author attributes it to moisture and climate. The same heavy snowfalls that feed the glaciers store water-supplies for forest and meadow, and winters at the base are mild. Dense fir, hemlock, and cedar compete for sunlight, attaining great heights; protection from winter severity and damp soil from fire assure great age and thick trunks. Douglas fir reaches two hundred feet, occasionally 250 to 270 feet.
Chapter 35
What is the extreme limit of tree growth on Mount Rainier, and why is there no well-defined timber-line?
The extreme limit of tree growth is about seven thousand feet of altitude, above which only occasional distorted, wind-tortured mountain-hemlocks are found. The author states there is no well-defined timber-line as on other lofty mountains because avalanches and snow-slides keep the upper levels swept and bare. Below that, forests thin with altitude; Englemann spruce appears around four thousand feet.
Chapter 35
What does the chapter say about pink snow and its flavor?
Pink snow is caused by a microscopic plant, Protococcus nivalis, growing in occasional patches beneath the surface of old snow and gradually emerging with a pink glow that sometimes covers acres. On the tongue its flavor suggests watermelon. The author adds that many other microscopic plants likely thrive in snow-fields and glaciers but remain invisible for lack of color.
Chapter 35

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What does the treasure-seeker find beneath the flat rock, and how is it arranged?
He lifts a flat rock that sounds hollow and finds a cavity filled to the brim with pure-white hiaqua. Every shell is large, unbroken and beautiful, and all are hung neatly on strings. The otters draw near and gaze into the hole, breathing excitedly, recognizing him as the favorite of Tamanoues.
Chapter 36
How does the miser respond to his treasure, and what does the narrator say he fails to do?
The narrator writes that the miser never dreamed of gratitude and never thought to hang a string from the buried treasure about the salmon and camas tamanoues stones, nor two strings around the elk's head. Instead, all must be his own, all he could carry now and the rest for the future. He greedily loads himself with the booty.
Chapter 36
How does the treasure-seeker lose his hiaqua, and what happens when he wakes?
A terrible storm arises with the taunting voice of Tamanoues. Each time he throws back strings of hiaqua there is a momentary lull, then worse outbreak, until he has parted with all his gains and sinks insensible. Waking under an arbutus-tree, he is stiff, bent, feeble, with long matted hair, and finds his home altered and his wife old.
Chapter 36
What does the government circular claim about Crater Lake, and how does the author describe the tourist's reaction?
The government information circular calls Crater Lake 'the deepest and bluest lake in the world,' and advertising circulars praise its beauty as exceeding any other lake. The author says the traveller finds it all as promised, in fact far better, and that the tourist on the crater rim is silenced as much by astonishment as by admiration.
Chapter 36

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How did Crater Lake and its surrounding rim come to exist, according to the chapter?
The author describes Mount Mazama collapsing into the molten gulf below when a foundation gave way, leaving a clean-cut rim. Eruptive forces pushed the mass back up but it was too heavy, and three small craters burst deep in the vent. Centuries later, spring water seeped through, creating Crater Lake.
Chapter 37
What does the chapter say about the outer versus inner walls of the rim?
The outer walls slope gently upward at about fifteen degrees and, if carried on, would converge in a peak higher than Shasta. The inner walls converge steeply downward, suggesting a deep funnel. The author says this strong contrast tells a plainly read story of the volcano's collapse.
Chapter 37
What physical features does the chapter describe along the inner rim and at the water's edge?
The inner slope is a diversified succession of strata, including volcanic conglomerate and lava, with strata dipping away from the lake. Glacier Peak rises almost two thousand feet above the water, with Dutton Cliff, Vidae Cliff, Garfield Peak, Llao Rock, and the Watchman close behind. At the water's edge lie talus slopes; nowhere is there a beach.
Chapter 37

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What does the chapter say causes the Phantom Ship's ghostly disappearances?
The Phantom Ship is a sail-like rock near Dutton Cliff whose apparent vanishing and reappearing is not truly mysterious. The chapter explains it occurs only when the heated atmosphere lends itself readily to mirage; in certain lights from two miles away the illusion of tilted masts and sunlit sails is excellent.
Chapter 38
Who was the first white man to see Crater Lake, and how did he find it?
John W. Hillman was the first white man to see Crater Lake. He was part of a combined search party formed when rival Californian miners and Oregonians united; the party found no gold-mine but found the lake. Hillman, riding the best saddle mule in southern Oregon, came upon it by accident.
Chapter 38
What does the chapter say about Mount Mazama's height and end?
The author argues Mazama probably rose sixteen thousand feet above the sea at its climax, ten thousand feet above the present lake, and that it likely collapsed during violent eruption rather than simply eroding. The chapter calls this a cataclysm, suggesting death came at the supreme climax of its career.
Chapter 38
How did rainbow trout come to Crater Lake, and how are they caught?
The lake is well stocked with rainbow trout, some descended from youngsters Will G. Steel laboriously carried across country from Gordon's Ranch, forty-nine miles away, in 1888. They are caught with the fly from shore and boat; a pound trout is small there, and occasionally a monster of eight or ten pounds is carried up the trail.
Chapter 38

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Who first urged that Crater Lake be saved from private exploitation, and when?
In 1885, standing on the rim, Steel suggested to Professor Joseph Le Conte that the national government be asked to save the lake from defacement and private exploitation. They prepared a petition to President Cleveland, who withdrew ten townships from settlement pending a bill in Congress. Congress refused, arguing Oregon should protect her own lake.
Chapter 39
How did Steel finally secure Crater Lake's national park status, and when?
After Congress refused the bill on the ground that Oregon should protect her own lake, Steel conducted an unbroken succession of efforts for seventeen years—speaking across the State winter and summer and deluging Washington with letters and circulars. The bill finally passed, and Crater Lake became a national park on May 22, 1902.
Chapter 39
What did Steel campaign for after the park was established?
Steel next ran a vigorous campaign to have the lake properly stocked with trout, which took years but succeeded. He then campaigned for funds to build a road to the lake—a stubborn struggle that carried him to Washington for a winter before it succeeded. During most of this time he was a country school-teacher whose only income was his salary.
Chapter 39
According to Klamath legend, how did Wizard Island come to be?
In O.C. Applegate's 'Klamath Legend of La-o,' the spirit La-o ruled Crater Lake until Skell's followers bore away Skell's heart, restoring him to life. La-o was finally slain, and his body was thrown over the cliff in quarters, which his monsters devoured—until his head was thrown in and they refused it. That head remains as Wizard Island.
Chapter 39

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What finally established public credence in the Yellowstone geyser tales?
Earlier accounts by Coulter, Bridger, and Ferris were dismissed as lies, and later explorers kept findings private because publications refused them and lecturers were stoned as impostors. The author states it required the authority of the semiofficial Washburn-Langford expedition of 1869 to establish credence in the tales.
Chapter 40
What two non-volcanic distinctions did the author say warranted Yellowstone's reservation?
The author argues that besides the geysers, Yellowstone held two elements of equal distinction: the valley of the Yellowstone River with its waterfalls and colorful canyon, and its population of wild animals, probably as large in 1872 as today. Either alone, the author says, would have warranted reserving so striking a region.
Chapter 40
Why does the author call Yellowstone a volcanic interlude?
The Rockies are essentially granite, forced molten from the depths and folded by lateral pressures. The Yellowstone, by contrast, belongs to later volcanic agitation that lit beacons over three hundred thousand square miles of the northwest, grouping it with Mount Rainier, Crater Lake, and Lassen Volcanic. Its rock is lava, its soil ash, and leftover subterranean heat boils the geyser water.
Chapter 40
What evidence does the author cite that glaciers once visited Yellowstone?
Though the landscape shows soft, waving outlines rather than pinnacled heights or glacier-shrouded peaks, the author states glaciers did visit. The proof is a large granite boulder brought from afar and left near the west rim of the Grand Canyon, resting above thousands of feet of rhyolite and other volcanic products.
Chapter 40

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What three important watersheds does the Yellowstone contain, and where do they flow?
The park contains three watersheds of importance: those of the Yellowstone, Madison, and Snake Rivers, flowing respectively north, west, and south. The Yellowstone and Madison waters make the park an important source of the Missouri. The chapter also notes minor rivers and innumerable lesser streams, calling the park a network of waterways, with many waterfalls (two large and important) and many lakes, several large.
Chapter 41
How did automobile access in 1915 change the Yellowstone's public usefulness?
The author argues the automobile began a new conception of the park's usefulness: it ceased to be a museum of wonders and became a summer pleasure-ground. Rather than shortening visits, the new idea lengthened them, as people came really to see the park and stayed weeks at camps. The first private car entered on August 1, 1915, loaded with tenting and cooking utensils.
Chapter 41
What causes the vivid colors of the terrace-building hot springs?
The vivid yellows, pinks, and blues result from minute vegetable algae that thrive in the hot saturated lime-water but quickly die and fade to gray and shining white on drying. The terrace material itself is precipitated by water emerging from the earth's hot interior. Basins rise tier upon tier, each destined to clog and dry and merge into the mass while new basins form on the outer flank.
Chapter 41
What was the stage-coach tour of Yellowstone like before 1915?
Before 1915 a tour meant six and a half days of slow, dusty travel, starting early and arriving late, with only minutes or hours at each sight for the soiled and exhausted traveller to gape in ignorant wonder, watch in hand. The chapter says the passing of the horse-drawn stage-coach was lamented by the romantic as its last stand in the United States.
Chapter 41

Section 424 cards

What causes the bubbling in the shallow hot pools on the terraces?
The bubbling is caused by escaping gases, not by boiling. The pools are irregularly circular and very shallow, and their waters are extremely hot. The author notes that the intense color of some pools varies or disappears with the changing angle of vision, while the water itself remains limpid.
Chapter 42
How does Old Faithful's eruption interval vary with winter snow?
Old Faithful's period ranges from about fifty-five minutes in seasons following winters of heavy snow to eighty or eighty-five minutes after winters of light snow. Its eruptions are announced a few minutes in advance at the Old Faithful Inn, and at night a searchlight is thrown on the gushing flood. The author argues it is the most satisfactory of geysers.
Chapter 42
What happened to the Excelsior Geyser, and why did it stop playing?
The Excelsior, the greatest of known geysers, ceased playing in 1888. According to photographer F. Jay Haynes, each eruption threw out pieces of formation, enlarging the crater. The author explains that this enlargement eventually gave unrestrained passage to the imprisoned steam, and the geyser became one of the largest hot springs in Yellowstone and the world.
Chapter 42
According to Bunsen's accepted theory, what causes a geyser to erupt?
Surface waters seep through porous lavas and gather in a deep pocket kept hot by internal pressures. They boil as they gather, filling the vent to the surface. Steam accumulating in the pocket is held down by the water's weight and compresses until its expansive power overcomes the weight above. Explosion follows, driving the water up and out until the vent is emptied.
Chapter 42

Section 434 cards

What determines whether a hot spring or a geyser forms?
The chapter explains that the outcome depends on whether steam can escape upward as fast as it forms in the deep pocket. If steam escapes as fast as it is made, the result is a hot spring. If steam is produced faster than it can escape, the result is a geyser. The interval between eruptions depends on the water reaching the pocket, the pocket's size, and the vent-hole's length and shape.
Chapter 43
How does the author compare the Upper and Great Falls of the Yellowstone?
The author argues the Upper Fall, plunging 109 feet within narrow bounds, expresses might in action more eloquently than any cataract he knows, seeming hurled from the brink. The Great Fall, more than double its height, he calls the King of Falls, with majesty but less gushing personality. He notes comparison with Yosemite's falls is impossible, though the Great Fall may carry a greater bulk of water than all Yosemite Valley's falls combined.
Chapter 43
What distinguishes the views from Artists' Point and Inspiration Point?
Artists' Point, reached from the east side, displays the Great Fall as the center of a noble composition and was Moran's choice; from it the eye loses detail in the overmastering glory of the whole. Inspiration Point, jutting far in from the west side, shows a deeper, more comprehensive view of the canyon with only a glimpse of the Great Fall, revealing its sublime form and color. The author argues both views are essential.
Chapter 43
What is the geological origin of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone's colors and shapes?
The chapter states the canyon is carved out of the products of volcanism. Its promontories and pinnacles are knobbed, gnarled decomposition products of lava rocks left after erosion; its sides are gashed and fluted lava cliffs flanked by long straight slopes of coarse volcanic sand-like grains. Its colors have the distinctness and occasional luridness natural to fused and oxidized disintegrations. Geologically, it is a young canyon, still digging deeper.
Chapter 43

Section 444 cards

What colors does the author say dye the canyon rocks and sands?
The author says yellow prevails, as Moran painted it, but closer looks reveal reds and grays, and Inspiration Point shows nearly every gray from white to black, every yellow from lemon to deep orange, and every red, pink, and brown. Greens and blues are missing from the rock dyes but come from lodge-pole forests, lighter green growths, the emerald-and-pearl river, and the blue sky.
Chapter 44
How did Sulphur Creek 'steal' Yellowstone Lake and create the canyon?
The author recounts that Yellowstone Lake was once 160 feet higher and larger, held by the Continental Divide, with Sulphur Creek draining just across a low divide. Slight volcanic disturbance, rising lake levels, or storm stress—perhaps the creek sapping back through soft lava—joined the waters. The lake then cut a channel northward, becoming the Yellowstone River, which carved the canyon.
Chapter 44
How did two rhyolite dikes produce the Upper and Great Falls?
Two rhyolite dikes, harder upright walls over half a mile apart, lay hidden under the lake. As the lake level fell, the nearer dike emerged and split the water into two lakes, the upper emptying over it into the lower—the beginning of the Great Fall. As that fall cut deeper, the upper lake dropped until the second dike emerged, starting the Upper Fall.
Chapter 44
Why does the author say few Yellowstone visitors see many animals?
The author argues it is the fault of visitors' haste, temperament, or inexperience with nature, since one must seek in sympathy to find animals. He notes elk and deer grew indifferent to automobiles once they learned they were harmless, and that walkers or horseback riders on trails see animals often and intimately. He cites seeing abundant wildlife in 1914 while quietly driving with Superintendent Brett.
Chapter 44

Section 454 cards

According to the Biological Survey, when have bears attacked humans?
The United States Biological Survey, after fullest investigation of every assault case with complete evidence, exonerated the bear each time: the bear had always been attacked or had reason to believe itself attacked. The author argues grizzlies will not attack except in self-defense, and that kindly treated wild bears are harmless and even friendly, making man's immunity from predatory beasts Yellowstone's surprising message.
Chapter 45
What evidence does the chapter give that wolves and mountain-lions rarely attack humans?
The author states there are reports but no records of human beings killed by wolves or mountain-lions in America, and that for years all reports susceptible of proof have been officially investigated. He adds that Vernon Bailey of the Biological Survey slept on the ground without fires for more than thirty summers and often found tracks of investigating predatory beasts in the morning.
Chapter 45
Why did Congress create the Hawaii National Park in 1917?
The author argues Congress was not moved by the islands' gentle poetic aspects, though these form the park's romantic setting. It was the extraordinary volcanic exhibit that led to the park: the summits of Haleakala on Maui and Mauna Loa and Kilauea on Hawaii, including the fourth largest volcanic crater in the world and the largest active volcano in the world.
Chapter 45
How did Captain Cook's discovery of Hawaii end, and who unified the islands afterward?
Spain claims Juan Gaetano discovered the islands in 1555, but formal discovery and exploration fell to Captain James Cook in 1778. The Hawaiians thought him a god, but his illness and his crew's conduct ashore disillusioned them; they killed him and burned his flesh, though priests deified his bones. Civil wars followed until Kamehameha conquered all the tribes and became king at the end of the eighteenth century.
Chapter 45

Section 464 cards

Which three volcanic summits are included in the Hawaiian national park?
The park includes the summits of Mauna Loa and Kilauea on the island of Hawaii, and the summit and crater of Haleakala on Maui. Mauna Kea, though a beautiful volcanic cone on Hawaii, is explicitly not part of the park. No portions of the other habited islands are included.
Chapter 46
How does Haleakala's crater compare in size to other known craters?
Haleakala's crater is seven and a half miles long by two and a third miles wide, and only three known craters exceed it. Aso san in Japan is largest at fourteen by ten miles and contains farms; Lago di Bolseno in Italy measures eight and a half by seven and a half; Monte Albano, also Italy, eight by seven.
Chapter 46
What two causes does the chapter give for the crater's pristine condition?
The author attributes the crater's extraordinary perfection to two causes: vents tapping it far down the volcano's flanks prevented it from filling with molten lava, and the absence of rain preserved its walls intact, saving its beauty from erosion. The floor is described as a rainless rolling plain rising with thirteen volcanic cones.
Chapter 46
What is the Hawaiian legend of Maui and the sun, as told via Jack London?
Maui, son of Hina, saw his mother struggle to dry kapas because days were short. He roped the sun with a coconut-fibre lariat as it crossed Haleakala, breaking off its beams until it agreed to travel more slowly. Thus Hina had time to dry her kapas and days grew longer.
Chapter 46

Section 473 cards

Which two volcanoes make up Hawaii National Park, and which is older?
The park contains Mauna Loa and Kilauea; Mauna Kea, though higher and snow-crowned, is not part of the park. Kilauea is much the older volcano, but it has been largely absorbed by the immense swelling bulk of the younger Mauna Loa, which sprang up nearby and sprawled over many miles, so Kilauea's pit seems almost to lie on Mauna Loa's slope.
Chapter 47
How has Kilauea's behavior changed since 1790?
Kilauea is unusual among volcanoes: only four thousand feet high, its lavas found vents through its flanks, broadening and flattening it, and it is no longer explosive. Since 1790, when it destroyed a native army, it has ejected neither rocks nor ashes. Its crater is no longer bowl-shaped; from a broad flat plain drops a pit with vertical sides within which its lavas boil.
Chapter 47
What is Halemaumau, and what does its name actually mean?
Halemaumau is the pit, the lake of fire, commonly translated 'The House of Everlasting Fire.' The chapter says the correct translation is 'The House of the Maumau Fern,' whose leaf is twisted and contorted like some forms of lava. The pit is irregular, a thousand feet long with perpendicular sides, its depth varying as lavas rise or overrun the top.
Chapter 47

Section 484 cards

What temperature does the chapter give for Halemaumau's flaming surface?
The chapter states that the temperature of Halemaumau's flaming surface is 1750 degrees Fahrenheit. It adds that one can descend the sides and approach surprisingly close to the flaming surface. Mark Twain's description of the pit's boiling lava, fire cataracts, and bursting crust precedes this figure.
Chapter 48
How does the chapter define sedimentary rock, and how does it differ from igneous rock and lava?
The chapter says sedimentary rocks form by solidification of precipitations in water, like limestone, or from material from rock disintegration washed down by streams, like sandstone and shale. Igneous rocks form under pressure in the earth's hot interior; lava results from volcanic eruption when fluid igneous rocks are released from pressure.
Chapter 48
Which national parks does the chapter list as wrought in sedimentary rock?
The chapter lists Glacier, Mesa Verde, Hot Springs, Platt, Wind Cave, Sully's Hill, and Grand Canyon as the national parks wrought in sedimentary rocks. It also notes that Zion National Monument is carved from sedimentary rock, along with several distinguished southwestern reservations conserving natural bridges and petrified forests.
Chapter 48
How does the chapter explain the formation of limestone, conglomerate, sandstone, and shale?
Limestone is calcium carbonate from sea or fresh water, mainly via microscopic organisms' shells or direct precipitation; it collects as ooze and hardens when lifted above water. Land erosion products swept into seas or lakes deposit by coarseness: gravels become conglomerate when cemented, finer sands become sandstone, and fine mud hardens into shale.
Chapter 48

Section 494 cards

How does the chapter contrast Glacier with the Canadian Rockies scenically?
The author argues both belong to the same geological and scenic development, but Glacier is scenically, though not geologically, completed while the Canadian Rockies are still in the making. Glacier has less ice and snow, being nearer the end of its glacial era, yet its cirques and painted, lake-studded valleys are comfortably accessible for over two months each summer, unlike the Canadian Rockies' noblest spectacles.
Chapter 49
What unique feature does the chapter say makes Glacier incomparable?
The author argues Glacier's unique and incomparable feature is its cirques and painted, lake-studded valleys left by the ancient glaciers. He states that in respect to what these glaciers left behind when they shrank to shelved trifles, there is no other place in America or the world to match it. Its mountains are carved into shapes, cirques, and lakes found nowhere else.
Chapter 49
How are Glacier's remaining glaciers described, and which are elongated?
The chapter describes sixty or more small glaciers perched on high rocky shelves, nearly always wider than long. The author says he has seen only three with elongated lobes: Blackfeet Glacier, with a west lobe south of Gunsight Lake, and Agassiz Glacier in the far northwest, whose ice-currents converge in a tongue dropping to its snout. These miniatures exhibit caves and ice-falls within about half a mile.
Chapter 49
What boundaries and access does the chapter give for Glacier National Park?
Glacier hangs down from the Canadian boundary in northwestern Montana, straddling the continental divide, covering 1,534 square miles. Waterton Lakes Park adjoins it north, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation borders east, Marias Pass and the Great Northern Railway mark the south, and the North Fork of the Flathead River the west. East-west communication within the park is only by trail across passes over the divide.
Chapter 49

Section 514 cards

What did the faulting west of the continental divide create, and how was it later filled?
The overthrust edge cracked lengthwise west of the continental divide from the Canadian line south to near Marias Pass. The strata west of the crack sank perhaps thousands of feet, leaving great precipices. Unlike the east side, the elongated gulf or ditch thus formed became filled with deposits of later geologic periods, which the author says explains the west side's different conformation and scenery.
Chapter 51
How does the west side of the park differ scenically from the east side?
On the west side, the great limestone ranges—glaciered, cirqued, and precipiced as on the east—suddenly give way to broad, undulating plains covered with splendid forests. These plains make up practically the whole west side from the mountain base east to the Flathead valley, the park's western boundary. Glacier-built cross ranges stretch west and subside rapidly, and long winding forest-edged lakes between them drain westward into the Flathead.
Chapter 51
Why does the author say these geologic processes lack dramatic quality?
The author argues that the inconceivable lapse of time and excessive slowness rob the operations of much dramatic quality. Perhaps an inch was an extraordinary advance for the Lewis Overthrust in a year, with lapses of centuries showing no measurable movement. Yet he notes sudden settlings with earthquakes must sometimes have visibly altered local landscapes, and imagines how overwhelming the spectacle would be if hastened by mental foreshortening.
Chapter 51
What three classes of visitors does the author describe, and what can the vehicle-bound see?
Visitors fall into three classes: the largest travels only in vehicles and stays in good hotels; an intermediate class rides ten or twelve miles on horses at two or three miles an hour and accepts chalets; and a small, growing class camps with tent and outfit in the wilderness. The vehicle-bound may miss nothing if they take trouble to understand, drawing knowledge from six vehicle-reachable places, at least three world-class.
Chapter 51

Section 524 cards

What does the author claim makes Two Medicine Lake's beauty distinctive?
The author argues that nothing elsewhere equals the Two Medicine canvas in perfection of delicacy, calling it "the Meissonier of Glacier." He notes few casual visitors see more than a midday view, since the stage returns in the afternoon; the sunset and pre-sunrise glory belong to those who stay overnight at the chalet.
Chapter 52
How does St. Mary Lake's scenery compare with Two Medicine's?
The author says the two are similar in kind, like canvases by the same hand, but differ widely in composition and magnificence: Two Medicine's preciousness yields to St. Mary's elemental grandeur. St. Mary is framed by deep-red argillite mountains and a central picture of pyramids, snow-fields, hanging glaciers, and silvery ridges merging into sky.
Chapter 52
Why does the author call McDermott Lake Glacier's scenic centre?
The author argues McDermott deserves its reputation because it has something of everything—a composite, a mosaic masterpiece with every stone a gem. Unlike other lakes, there is no single background from which one looks forward to "the view"; its horizon contains three hundred and sixty degrees of panorama, from Mount Gould around the circle.
Chapter 52
What does the author say about Mount Rockwell's apparent shape?
The author notes that a side view reveals Mount Rockwell's apparent cone is merely the smaller eastern end of a ridge two miles long culminating in a towering summit on the divide. Similarly, Pumpelly Piller, monument-like from near the lake, becomes another long and beautiful ridge seen sideways—striking examples of the leavings of converging glaciers.
Chapter 52

Section 534 cards

How does the chapter contrast Swiftcurrent's enclosure with Yosemite Valley?
The author contrasts them without comparing, since the scenes differ. Yosemite is a gray, shining valley with rounded, polished walls; Swiftcurrent is an enclosure, richer in color, with toothed, torn, crumbling walls. Yosemite guards its entrances with granite shafts and domes; Swiftcurrent's colored strata rocks ring its central lake, and it has lakes and glaciers instead of a winding river and waterfalls.
Chapter 53
What does the chapter say McDermott Lake is illustrative of, and why?
The author argues McDermott Lake, meaning the Swiftcurrent enclosure seen from Many Glacier Hotel, is illustrative of all of Glacier. Though wilder and nobler places exist, McDermott contains all of Glacier's elements, charm, and practically all her combinations. He calls it the place of places to study Glacier, and also a place to dream away idle weeks.
Chapter 53
What does the chapter claim is Iceberg Lake's highest purpose?
Though the author calls Iceberg Lake stupendous as a spectacle and perhaps Glacier's supreme wild spot, he argues its highest purpose is illustrative: it explains Glacier. Standing by the lakeside before the glacier's floating edge and the jagged walls, one comprehends at last, and the appalling story of the past seems real.
Chapter 53
What scenic features ring the Swiftcurrent enclosure around McDermott Lake?
From the bridge below the upper fall, Allen Mountain rises to the left, then Mount Gould with its gray limestone gable, the hanging Grinnell Glacier, Mount Grinnell's parti-colored pyramid, hanging glaciers on Swiftcurrent Mountain, Mount Wilbur's pyramid, and sections of the Garden Wall, with red Mount Henkel swinging back to complete the circle.
Chapter 53

Section 544 cards

From Granite Park, which two ranges form the walls of the forested canyon?
The western wall is the Livingston Range and the eastern wall is the Lewis Range. Both in turn carry the continental divide, which crosses the avenue from Livingston to Lewis by way of Flattop Mountain a few miles north, and back to Livingston by way of Clements Mountain a few miles south.
Chapter 54
What does the summit of Swiftcurrent Mountain reveal about Glacier?
A half-hour's climb from the chalet, which is most of the way up, brings all of Glacier before you like a model in relief. You see the Iceberg Cirque from without and above, the Belly River chasm, Mount Cleveland, and the Avenue of the Giants splitting the northern half, while the Canadian Rockies, Montana plains, and American Rockies frame the view.
Chapter 54
Why is Glacier's west side less developed than its east side, and what destiny does the author predict?
The author explains it was settled earlier but is less developed because its scenery is mostly less sensational, though no less gorgeously beautiful. Its five long lakes head toward the snowy divide and wind westward among forested slopes. The author argues its destiny is to become Glacier's vacation playground, a land of bear, moose, deer, trout, and summer leisure.
Chapter 54
What makes Gunsight Pass a 'pass of many sensations'?
The view from the foot of Gunsight Lake includes Mount Jackson's glaciered uplift, Gunsight Mountain's whitened sides dropping to red shale, the pass perched above a dark precipice, and the trail's corkscrew up Jackson's flank across a snowbank. Looking back shows St. Mary's valley and Going-to-the-Sun Mountain; looking west reveals Lake Ellen Wilson, then the Sperry Glacier and Lake McDonald.
Chapter 54

Section 554 cards

Why does the author think the name 'Belly' may derive from 'Belle'?
The author suggests 'Belly' may be the Anglo-Saxon frontier's pronunciation of the Frenchman's original 'Belle.' He notes the river is mainly Canadian and argues that in all its forks and tributaries it was and is the Beautiful River. This is offered as a natural explanation for a name that arouses curiosity.
Chapter 55
What does the Avenue of the Giants consist of, and what future does the author predict?
It consists of two valleys joined end on at their beginnings on Flattop Mountain: McDonald Creek flowing south and Little Kootenai flowing north. The author predicts a road replacing the present trail, reaching the Belly valleys via Ahern Pass and the Bowman and Kintla valleys via Brown Pass, terminating at a tourist settlement at Waterton Lake.
Chapter 55
Which valleys does the author call Glacier's ultimate expression, and how does he distinguish them?
The author argues the Bowman and Kintla regions are Glacier's ultimate expression: Bowman of her beauty, Kintla of her majesty. He cites the cascades of Mount Peabody, Hole-in-the-Wall Fall, the Guardhouse from Brown Pass, and Kintla Peak rising five thousand feet above the lake with the Kintla and Agassiz glaciers spread like wings.
Chapter 55
Who discovered Cliff Palace, when, and what did they name it?
Richard and Alfred Wetherill discovered Cliff Palace in December 1888 while hunting lost cattle on a mesa northwest of the Mancos River. They named it Cliff Palace, which the author calls inappropriate since it was actually a democratic community dwelling. They also found Spruce Tree House, named for a spruce growing in front of it.
Chapter 55

Section 564 cards

Why was Mesa Verde conserved as a national park, according to the chapter?
The author argues it was not the rarity of prehistoric dwellings, nor only that these are the best preserved of all North American ruins, but because the Mesa Verde cliff villages disclose a type of this culture in advance of all others.
Chapter 56
What conditions does the chapter credit for the Mesa Verde dwellers' good fortune?
The author says the forested mesas had constant moisture and fertile soil; grasses lured deer within capture and the Mancos River provided fish. Above all, remoteness from raider and trader trails and ease of defense made for long generations of peace, and innate human enterprise did the rest.
Chapter 56
How were the canyons and mesas of Mesa Verde formed, per the chapter?
The region was repeatedly submerged in an intercontinental sea, accumulating sands and gravels that largely hardened into stone after a slow great uplifting made it a lofty plateau. For a million years or more spring floods have washed sands and gravels down and rivers carried them to the sea, leaving canyons, cliffs, and mesas as stages in eternal levelling.
Chapter 56
What does the chapter say about Ute beliefs and claims regarding the cliff-dwellings?
Reservation Indians frequently enter the park but cannot be persuaded to approach the cliff-dwellings, saying the 'little people' live there and will injure intruders. Some allege their own ancestors built them, but the chapter says neither record nor tradition supports this; the Utes were apparently ancient enemies of that people, with a tradition of victory at Battle Rock in McElmo Canyon.
Chapter 56

Section 574 cards

What evidence supports the Hopi being descendants of the Mesa Verde people?
The author notes that investigators found similarities between Mesa Verde and modern Hopi architecture, utensils, art forms, and customs. Doctor Fewkes cites a Hopi tradition: a Hopi courier visited prehistoric ruins in Navajo National Monument to fetch water from an ancestral spring for a religious ceremonial. The author argues that if these traditions are true, the Mesa Verde civilization has sadly retrograded, since Hopi masonry shows marked decline from Mesa Verde's splendid types.
Chapter 57
What did Ute Indians tell the superintendent about the telephone line?
When the telephone line connecting the park to the outside world was under construction, Ute Indians from the adjoining reservation grew suspicious and restless. They begged the superintendent not to continue, saying 'the little people' would not like it and would not let the wires talk. The line was completed and the wires talked.
Chapter 57
What were kivas at Cliff Palace and what features did they have?
Kivas were circular ceremonial rooms, centers of religious activity where men gathered monthly to worship their gods. Some floors had small holes symbolizing the entrance to the underworld, where priests performed ceremonies and communicated with the dead. Each family or clan supposedly had its own kiva. Walls show some of the finest prehistoric masonry in America; all are subterranean, with fireplaces, ventilators, and ladder entrance from the roof.
Chapter 57
What does the chapter say about the Round Tower and Square Tower at Cliff Palace?
The Round Tower is two stories high and was an observatory, as indicated by its peep-holes, and also served purposes in religious festivals; its masonry belongs to the finest north of Mexico, with beautifully fitted and dressed stones. The Square Tower, at the southern end of the village, is four stories high, reaching the cave roof. Its third-story inner walls are painted with red and white symbols, triangles, zigzags, and parallels whose significance is unknown.
Chapter 57

Section 584 cards

What did Doctor Fewkes suggest about Spruce Tree House's circular room with openings?
Doctor Fewkes rejected the idea that the openings were port-holes for defense, since the room's position does not suggest a fortress. Instead he suggested a more probable purpose: through these openings the sun-priest may have watched the setting sun to determine the time for ceremonies. The room was entered from above, like a kiva.
Chapter 58
How was Balcony House's only entrance defended?
At the top of a steep trail, a cave-like passage between rocks was walled so as to leave a door capable of admitting only one person at a time. Behind this door two or three men could strike down, one by one, an attacking army. The author notes this ingenuity of defense as a special interest of Balcony House, apart from its location, workmanship, and beauty.
Chapter 58
What does Far View House's single large central kiva suggest about social organization?
The decrease in the number of kivas and construction of one very large kiva in the middle of the building suggests that the individual clan organization of cliff-dwelling days had given place to a single priestly fraternity. The author calls this sociologically a marked advance, and infers that primitive communism was slowly developing into something akin to organized society.
Chapter 58
What features of Far View House indicate progress over the cliff-dwellings?
The author cites the modern regularity of the ground-plan: partitions separating secular rooms are continuous through the building and angles are generally accurate right angles. The pueblo had three stories, was oriented approximately to the cardinal points, and was terraced southward for sunny exposure. The people worked out solstices and planned later buildings by cardinal points without compasses.
Chapter 58

Section 594 cards

What did Doctor Fewkes expect to find when he excavated the mound in 1915?
He supposed the mound covered a ruined pueblo, though its shape and other indications prepared him for something out of the usual. The actual find was so wholly without parallel that he did not venture a public conjecture about its significance until it was entirely uncovered.
Chapter 59
How is Sun Temple's ground plan arranged?
The ground-plan is shaped like the letter D and encloses another D-shaped structure occupying nearly two-thirds of its total area, containing two large kivas. Between the outer and inner D are passages and rooms, and at one end a third kiva is surrounded by rooms, one of them circular.
Chapter 59
What evidence shows Sun Temple was unfinished?
Walls had risen higher in some places than others, there was as yet no roofing, no rooms had been plastered, and little internal finishing was completed. Of contents there was none. The builders' stone hammers and other utensils lay about as if thrown down at day's close.
Chapter 59
What did the shrine on the outer wall's corner-stone contain, and what does the author argue it proves?
The shrine frames in solid stone walls a large fossil palm-leaf whose rays strongly suggest the sun. The author argues the building's religious purposes are clear to the archaeologist from its form, and this shrine makes conjecture certainty that it was a temple to the sun.
Chapter 59

Section 604 cards

What did the author claim explains the curative potency of Hot Springs water?
The author argues the water's potency lies not in chemical solution but in the newly discovered principle of radioactivity, charging the waters deep in Nature's laboratory with an uplifting power imparted to bathers who follow rules prescribed by years of experience. He notes many physicians refuse to verify the waters' virtues and some openly scoff, yet reports cripples walking and thousands of rheumatic sufferers restored.
Chapter 60
How does the author describe the layout and setting of Hot Springs, Arkansas?
The author describes a Southern mountain resort of quiet charm on the edge of hills, ravines, and pines, with a long row of handsome modern bath-houses opposite the brick city, concentrating the business of bath and cure. Behind them rise the forested Ozark hills. Visitors may live with the sick or spend weeks in holiday mood with baths, without any suggestion of the sanitarium or spa.
Chapter 60
When was Platt National Park established, and what springs does it contain?
Congress set apart a group of thirty healing springs in southern Oklahoma near the Texas boundary in 1904 as Platt National Park. Most are sulphur springs; others are impregnated with bromides and other mineral salts. Thousands visit the bordering city of Sulphur to drink the waters, many camp nearby, and bottled waters bring relief to thousands at home. The springs were known to Indians for generations.
Chapter 60
What explanation does Colonel R.A. Sneed offer for the Chimney Hills?
Sneed recounts an old negro at an Ardmore hearing who said his Chickasaw master lived at Big Sulphur Springs; Kiowa and Comanche raids were so frequent the Chickasaws never occupied lands west of Rock Creek. The Comanches marked springs by building rock chimneys on nearby hills: one chimney if the spring flowed beneath the same hill, two if distant, sighting along them to indicate the spring's course.
Chapter 60

Section 614 cards

Why did the Chickasaw master leave the Comanche chimneys undisturbed?
According to the old man quoted in the chapter, every hill in their pasture had a Comanche chimney on it, and his master would not disturb them because he did not want to make the wild Indians mad. The chapter adds that there never was open war between the Chickasaws and Comanches, though individual Chickasaws often had trouble with Comanche hunting-parties.
Chapter 61
What happened to the town of Sulphur to make room for Platt National Park?
The Big Sulphur Springs on Rock Creek in the Chickasaw Nation became the centre around which the city of Sulphur was built. After the town grew to a population of two thousand or more, it was removed bodily to make room for the Platt National Park. The new city of Sulphur was built around the park and now has a population of forty-five hundred.
Chapter 61
How does the chapter describe the Osage Indians' wealth and status in Oklahoma?
The chapter states that the Osage Reservation is the only Indian reservation remaining in the State. Oil was found on their land, and the author says they are the wealthiest people in the world to-day, with the average cash income of each exceeding five thousand dollars a year. The state's population of two and a quarter millions includes 336,000 Indians of twenty-three tribes.
Chapter 61
What does the author argue about the desert as scenery?
The author argues that popular conception of the desert as the negative of beauty, richness, and sublimity, a synonym of poverty and death, is wrong. He contends that the desert is as positive a factor in scenery as the mountain, with its own glowing beauty, intense personality, and occasionally a sublimity as gorgeous, compelling, and emotion-provoking as the most stupendous snow-capped range.
Chapter 61

Section 624 cards

What does the chapter say makes the southwest's geologic history easier to read than other regions?
The author argues that although other parts of the continent underwent as many changes, nowhere else left evidence so plain and interesting to the unscientific observer. Earth's history page is more easily read on the bare deserts of the southwest than on the grass-concealed prairies of the Mississippi Valley or the eroded, forested ranges of the Appalachians.
Chapter 62
How did the Great Basin form, and what are its dimensions?
A mountain-building impulse spread east from the Sierra to the Wasatch, but the granite-cored tableland's central sections kept caving and falling. So the Sierra's eastern edge and the Wasatch's western edge became precipitous edges thousands of feet high of a mountain-studded desert. The Great Basin spans 880 miles north-south and 572 miles wide, at about five thousand feet elevation, over two hundred thousand square miles.
Chapter 62
What was Lake Bonneville, and what remains of it today?
The Great Basin had no outlet to the sea, so rivers from its mountainous borders created a prehistoric lake of fifty-four thousand square miles, named for the army officer whose 1833 adventures Washington Irving narrated; Fremont first clearly described it. It evaporated, leaving many salty lakes, the greatest being Great Salt Lake in Utah. Its prehistoric beaches still exist, and rail passengers cross its ancient bed unknowingly.
Chapter 62
According to the chapter, how did the petrified forests and Zion Canyon's sandstones form?
Before the Rockies and Sierra existed, ooze in a shallow sea became the Grand Canyon's limestones, and muds became colored shales. Erosion spread gravels and sands into a graded plain; trees washed down by floods were buried and turned to stone, forming today's petrified forests. Later, in the Jurassic, mountains squeezed moisture from Pacific winds, making desert sands thousands of feet deep that are now Zion Canyon's giant walls.
Chapter 62

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What are the dimensions and location of the Grand Canyon according to the chapter?
The Grand Canyon lies in northern Arizona, with the Colorado River flowing through its inner gorge. It is 217 miles long, 8 to 12 miles wide at the rim, and more than a mile deep. The author calls it the Colossus of canyons and by far the hugest example of stream erosion in the world. It was made a national park in 1919.
Chapter 63
How does the chapter explain past visitors' feelings of repulsion toward the Grand Canyon?
The author argues this horror was born of the conventions of an earlier generation, which bound ideas of taste and beauty in shackles that no longer exist. He cites Clarence E. Dutton's 1880 observation that a lover of nature trained in the Alps or Appalachians would enter with shock and perhaps horror, finding its colors tawdry and its forms grotesque.
Chapter 63
What did geologist Marius R. Campbell tell the author about his first view of the Grand Canyon?
Campbell told the author that his first day on the rim left him emotionally cold; only after living with the spectacle did realization slowly dawn. The author thinks this is the experience of very many, a fact that makes more tragic the prevailing public assumption that the Grand Canyon is a one-day stop in a transcontinental journey.
Chapter 63
How was the Grand Canyon carved, and how does it relate to Glacier National Park's formation?
The Colorado River cut the canyon, flowing through more than five hundred miles of canyons it dug through slowly upheaving sandstone plateaus to maintain access to the sea. Progressively it scored deeper, breaking through Paleozoic limestone into Archean gneiss. The chapter notes the Colorado was carving the Grand Canyon while northern glaciers were carving Glacier National Park's cirques and valleys.
Chapter 63

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How does the chapter compare the Grand Canyon's formation to a roadside ditch?
The author argues the two are identical in process: both were cut by a stream trenching downward, while the broader sides were eroded by countless side streamlets from melting snow or local rainfall. These streamlets cut side canyons, left promontories standing, and isolated mesas that erosion later carved into temples and towers.
Chapter 64
Does the chapter claim the canyon once held a much larger river?
No. The author argues it is not necessary to conceive that either the ditch or the Grand Canyon was once brimful of madly dashing waters; neither may ever have held much greater streams than today. The stream's power was applied to downward trenching, with the wider sides cut by side streamlets.
Chapter 64
What are the Colorado River's dimensions and current activity within the canyon?
Seen from the rim it looks like a narrow brown ribbon, but at its edge, six thousand feet below, it is a rushing turbulent torrent of muddy water. Its average width is three hundred feet and average depth thirty feet, and it is still digging the canyon deeper, perhaps as rapidly as since it entered the granite.
Chapter 64
How does the chapter describe the naming and sequence of canyon strata?
The names are Indian and local, with no scientific significance beyond identity. Because the colored strata were once continuous across the canyon, their sequence is practically identical on both sides. The rim is the gray Kaibab Limestone, about seven hundred feet thick; below its talus lies the light yellowish-gray Coconino sandstone, usually about four hundred feet thick.
Chapter 64

Section 654 cards

What is the Redwall, and why does it appear crimson?
The Redwall is a perpendicular wall of intense red, five hundred feet high, running the canyon's length. It is actually gray limestone stained crimson by the drip of Supai dye from above. Harder than the sloping sandstone above and the shale below, it pushes aggressively into the picture, squared and glowing, winding in and out of every bay and gulf and roofing many a palace with overhanging eaves.
Chapter 65
What is the Supai formation's thickness and role in the canyon's color?
The Supai formation lies immediately below the Coconino and consists of red shales and sandstones in many strata of varying shades, qualities, and thicknesses. It measures eleven hundred feet in perpendicular thickness, though seen in slopes it appears several times as broad. It is the most prominent single mass of color in the canyon, forming the broadest feature of the opposite wall and the main bodies of Buddha, Zoroaster, and other fantastic temples.
Chapter 65
What does the Tonto formation contribute to the Grand Canyon's spectacle?
The Tonto is a deep, broad, shallow slant of dull-green and yellow shale which, with the thin broad sandstone base beneath it, forms the floor of the outer canyon, described as the tessellated pavement of the city of flame. The chapter states that without the Tonto's green the spectacle of the Grand Canyon would have missed its contrast and its fulness.
Chapter 65
What are the Unkar group rocks, and what do they reveal about the canyon's age?
The Unkar group is the name geologists give to patches of gleaming quartzites and brilliant red shales showing against the dark granite deep in the canyon, the largest lying opposite El Tovar. They are all that remains visible of ancient Algonkian strata once thirteen thousand feet thick, more than twice the canyon's present depth, worn away by erosion long before the current canyon rocks were deposited, emphasizing the canyon's enormous age.
Chapter 65

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How does the Grand Canyon's appearance change from morning to midday?
In early morning, light from the east makes promontories gleam in vivid color against dark shadows, with the inner gorge brilliantly outlined. As day advances, prominences shift, fade, or appear. Near midday shadows fade, promontories flatten, and towering edifices merge into the opposite rim, leaving a solid wall of mismatched strata that baffles comprehension.
Chapter 66
What trails descend into the Grand Canyon, and what trips do they offer?
Descent is usually made from El Tovar down the Bright Angel Trail, which faces Bright Angel Canyon on the north side, or by the newer Hermit Trail a few miles west. Trails also exist at Grand View and Bass Camp, now seldom used. All reach the Granite Gorge bottom; the finest trip descends Hermit Trail, camps overnight, and returns via Bright Angel.
Chapter 66
How did Powell's 1869 expedition enter the Grand Canyon, and in what condition?
Powell started May 24, 1869, above the Green River canyons with ten men, four open boats, ten months' provisions, and scientific instruments, backed by Illinois institutions and the Chicago Academy of Science. By August 17, upsets had left musty flour for ten days, coffee, and dried apples; bacon spoiled, instruments were lost, one boat destroyed, and the men wet and unable to make fire.
Chapter 66
Who discovered the Grand Canyon, and what were early explorers seeking?
The canyon was discovered in 1540 by El Tovar, a captain under Cardenas in an expedition of the Spanish explorer Diaz, who was hunting seven fabled cities of wealth. A Spanish priest saw it in 1776 seeking a crossing, found one far above, still called Vado de los Padres. Later explorers included Whipple (1850) and Ives (1857).
Chapter 66

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What happened to the three men who deserted Powell's party?
The two Howland brothers and William Dunn determined to desert, believing they could climb the canyon walls and fare better with the Indians than with the canyon. Powell tried to dissuade them and offered to divide his flour, but they refused. They climbed the walls and were killed by Indians. Two or three days later Powell and the rest emerged below the Grand Canyon and found food and safety.
Chapter 67
How did the Grand Canyon National Park finally become law in 1919?
A bill introduced by Senator Ashurst in February 1917 failed in a House committee because of Arizona opposition. The same bill, reintroduced by Ashurst in the new Congress two months later, passed the House and became law in 1919, signed by President Wilson on February 26. It also required a favoring resolution by the Arizona legislature to pave the way.
Chapter 67
What Indian legend of the canyon's origin does Powell quote?
Powell quotes the story of a great and wise chief mourning his wife's death. The god Tavwoats told him she was in a happier land and offered to lead him there if he would cease mourning on return. Tavwoats made a trail through the mountains — the canyon gorge of the Colorado. Afterward the deity exacted a promise of silence and rolled a raging river into the gorge to engulf any who entered.
Chapter 67
What private interests opposed making the Grand Canyon a national park?
The chapter says many schemes sought to use the canyon for private gain: it was thickly plastered with mining claims, though the Geological Survey showed no minerals worth mining; schemers sought capital to use its waters for power; railroads were projected; and plans were drawn to run sightseeing cars across it on wire cables. These interests, among many others, opposed the park.
Chapter 67

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What did geologists Dellenbaugh, Dutton, and Gilbert say about Little Zion Canyon?
F.S. Dellenbaugh called the valley's beauty of outline without equal, doubting even the Grand Canyon offered a more varied spectacle. C.E. Dutton said nothing could exceed Little Zion's wondrous beauty, judging it about equal to Yosemite in proportions but incomparable in its sculptures. Doctor G.K. Gilbert declared it the most wonderful defile he had ever beheld.
Chapter 68
How did Little Zion Canyon become known to the public, and when was it conserved?
Its importance led to its conservation as a national monument in 1909, but its fame as a first-order spectacle took six or seven years more to spread. Technical literature hid its glory in incomprehensible pages, and explorers' tales were discounted. Only when agencies seeking new tourist attractions sent parties to verify reports was public attention centered on the canyon.
Chapter 68
How does the chapter explain the formation of Zion's canyons and colored cliffs?
The plateau was once enormously higher; erosion over hundreds of thousands or millions of years cut it down and still is. The 'Cyclopean steps' mark progressive stages of decomposition, each step a stratum's thickness. Little Zion is an early stage of levelling another sandstone step of many hues, carved by trickling water and tireless winds, with the Virgin River cutting a vertical section through the layers.
Chapter 68
What colors and rock layers make up Zion's cliffs, according to the chapter?
The Vermilion Cliff, over a hundred miles of vivid red, combines with the White Cliff—two thousand feet of red surmounted by a thousand feet of white. Below lie the Painted Desert stratum of red relieved by mauve and purple shale, then brown conglomerate with reptile bones, then the Belted Shales' greens, grays, and yellows. Above the White Cliff rise drab shales and chocolate limestones streaked with crimson.
Chapter 68

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What does John R. Wallis say Mukuntuweap and Parunuweap mean?
Wallis traced the names to their original Indian source: Mukuntuweap means "Land of the Springs" and Parunuweap means "Land of the Birds." The chapter notes that "Land of God" was the popular but incorrect accepted meaning for Mukuntuweap, which gave the national monument its original name.
Chapter 69
How do the West Temple and East Temple of the Virgin differ?
The West Temple springs abruptly four thousand feet from a stairway of many-colored rock, its body brilliant red and upper third white, capped with a low squared cap of deepest red. The East Temple rises directly opposite, two miles back from the rim, and is a thousand feet higher, with a steep truncated cone capped like the West Temple and wings of an elongated pyramid and a true cone.
Chapter 69
According to the chapter, what happened to the rock that once joined the West and East Temples?
The lofty structures once joined across the canyon, stratum for stratum and color for color. The connecting rock, disintegrated by frosts and rains, passed down the muddy Virgin, down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon, and into the Pacific. The chapter suggests some of those sands may have helped build the peninsula of Lower California.
Chapter 69
What does Professor Willis T. Lee say about trying to grasp the Belted Shales?
Lee writes that "the eye tires and the mind flags in their presence," and compares trying to realize the beauty and variety of detail in an hour to trying to grasp the thoughts in whole rows of volumes by walking through a library. The shales show greenish-grays, brownish-yellows, and many shades of bright red in horizontal bands.
Chapter 69

Section 704 cards

How did lumber reach the villages of the Virgin River below Zion?
The chapter states that sawn timbers were cabled twenty-five hundred feet down into the valley from a forest on the mesa's top, crossing a break in the wall, and then carted to the villages of the Virgin River. Lumber is described as Dixie's most hardly furnished need, and the cable had long been used for this purpose.
Chapter 70
According to Doctor G.K. Gilbert, how did sand-bearing water cut the Zion chasm?
Gilbert, of the U.S. Geological Survey, describes the chasm as a monument of denudation cut by downward erosion by sand-bearing water. The principle resembles a marble saw, but the sand grains are carried by a flexible stream of water rather than embedded in rigid iron. Gravity holds the grains against the bottom, while the current pushes them against the sides, so the cut undulates vertically and horizontally.
Chapter 70
What did President Wilson do regarding Mukuntuweap in 1918?
In 1918 President Wilson changed the name from Mukuntuweap to Zion and at the same time greatly enlarged the reservation. Zion National Monument then included a large area of varied desert magnificence, including the sources and canyons of two other streams besides Mukuntuweap. The chapter notes the Indian name Mukuntuweap meant Land of the Springs.
Chapter 70
Why is the added beauty of spring waterfalls not for the tourist?
The chapter explains that rains and melting snows of early spring produce mesa-top torrents that pour into the valley, hastening the decoration of the walls and levelling of the plateau, so waterfalls of power and beauty then enrich the spectacle. But this added beauty is not for the tourist, who may come in comfort only after its disappearance.
Chapter 70

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What did Coronado find when searching for Quivira, and what did he bring back?
Coronado crossed Colorado seeking Quivira and found it in Kansas, which he described as a wretched habitation of a shiftless tribe with straw houses and clothing made of bison hides. He also sought the seven cities in Arizona and New Mexico and the gold-lined river in Nebraska. The only treasure he brought back, the chapter states, was his record of exploration.
Chapter 71
How did the Quivira myth persist and where did it finally settle?
Fifty years after Coronado, the myth of Quivira was reborn and wandered homeless, inspiring constant search. It finally settled in the ruins of the ancient pueblo of Tabira, or Teypana, New Mexico, according to Bandelier. The chapter notes the myth of the seven cities never wholly perished, and the name Tabira appeared on official New Mexico maps into the late eighteenth century.
Chapter 71
What were the key features and fate of the pueblo of Tabira and its mission?
Tabira was chosen as the site of an important early Spanish mission. Its greater limestone church had outer walls six feet thick, measured 140 by 48 feet, and was never fully finished. The adjoining three-story pueblo probably held 1,500 people. The mission was founded about 1628 by Francisco de Acevedo; between 1670 and 1675 Apaches wiped out all three native cities and their Spanish churches.
Chapter 71
Why was El Morro National Monument significant to explorers and historians?
El Morro, also called Inscription Rock, has cliffs graven with inscriptions cut by Spanish and American explorers over more than two centuries. The chapter calls it a historical record of unique value and the only extant memoranda of several expeditions, helping trace obscure courses and establish important departures. A spring there, touched by the old Zuni trail, explains its popularity in a semidesert region. The oldest inscription is dated February 18, 1526.
Chapter 71

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What did Kino identify Casa Grande as, and when did he visit it?
Kino identified Casa Grande as the ruin Fray Marcos saw in 1539 and called Chichilticalli, which Coronado passed in 1540. In November 1694, after hearing Mange's report of native rumors, Kino searched for the ruins, found them, and said mass within the walls of the Casa Grande.
Chapter 72
What does Doctor Fewkes say about the holes in Casa Grande's walls?
Fewkes calls the astronomical hypothesis unwarranted, tracing it to Father Font's 1775 manuscript claiming the chief watched the sun through east and west openings. Fewkes notes the openings should not be confused with smaller holes made by contractors who placed iron rods to support the walls during repairs.
Chapter 72
Who built Tumacacori mission, and what happened to it?
Father Eusebio Francisco Kino founded and built it about 1688 as Mission San Cayetano de Tumacacori. About 1769 the Franciscans took charge, repaired and elaborated it, and maintained it for about sixty years until the Apache laid siege and captured it, driving out the priests and dispersing the Papagos. Americans found it in its present condition about 1850.
Chapter 72
Why does the chapter say so many pueblos were deserted?
The chapter calls the desertions one of the mysteries of this prehistoric civilization. It says some communities likely moved when water supplies failed or physical conditions changed, but it is certain that many desertions resulted from raids by wandering predatory tribes, the Querechos in Bandelier's records, usually called Apaches, who sought the pueblos' stores of food and clothing.
Chapter 72

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How were the cave rooms at Bandelier constructed and arranged?
The people enlarged erosional openings in soft volcanic cliffs, creating apartments with small entrances, sometimes from the valley floor and sometimes reached by ladder. Apartments often had several connecting rooms, set in tiers of two or three stories like a modern flat-house, grouped probably by families or clans, some groups numbering hundreds. The author compares the cliff-side to a gigantic pigeon-house.
Chapter 73
What does Douglass say about modern Indians and their shrines?
William Boone Douglass writes that the Indians of today guard the secrets of their shrines with great tenacity. Even when locations have been found, they will deny their existence, plead ignorance of their meaning, or refuse to discuss the subject in any form. Nevertheless, they claim direct descent from the prehistoric shrine-builders, many of whose shrines are found here.
Chapter 73
What is notable about Pueblo Bonito and Chaco Canyon's population?
Chaco Canyon's ruins line both sides of the canyon for fourteen miles. Most buildings were pueblos, many containing fifty to a hundred rooms; Pueblo Bonito must have contained twelve hundred rooms. The ruins lie in original desolation, with little excavation and no restoration. The canyon must have been the centre of a very large population, with pueblos grouped like suburbs for miles around.
Chapter 73
Why is Montezuma Castle considered celebrated and well preserved?
The author calls it justly one of the most celebrated prehistoric ruins in America, citing its charming proportions and commanding position in a lofty precipice. The communal house originally held twenty-five rooms; most are in good condition, preserved by the dry climate and shallow cave. It is crescent-shaped, sixty feet wide and about fifty feet high, five stories tall, with the fifth hidden by the facade wall.
Chapter 73

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What did Jim, the Paiute informant, do to describe Rainbow Bridge to Douglass?
Jim bent a twig of willow into a rainbow shape with its ends stuck in the ground to show what the bridge looked like. He told Douglass of a greater bridge known only to himself and one other Indian, located on the north side of Navajo Mountain in the Paiute reservation.
Chapter 74
How does the chapter explain the erosion that created natural bridges like Rainbow Bridge?
The author states all natural bridges are created wholly by erosion. A stream struck a sandstone spur crosswise of the canyon, swung around its free outer edge, and sand-laden floodwater wore an ever-deepening hollow until it cut through. Meanwhile wind and temperature detached curved plates above, thinning the wall until the bridge evolved.
Chapter 74
When and by whom was Rainbow Bridge discovered, according to the government report?
The chapter says Rainbow Bridge was discovered in 1909 by William Boone Douglass, Examiner of Surveys in the General Land Office, Santa Fe. The report describes a second party organized at Bluff, Utah, guided by Jim, arriving at 11 A.M. on August 14, 1909, after travel became almost impossible.
Chapter 74
How does the chapter convey the size of Rainbow Bridge's span and height?
The author says dimensions mean little before such spectacles. The span is 278 feet, exceeding a block of Fifth Avenue in New York. The apex is 309 feet above the viewer, comparable to the Flatiron Building built three stories higher. The government report gives a span of 270 feet and a stream 310 feet below the crest.
Chapter 74

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How did Douglass and his assistants first reach the crest of Rainbow Bridge?
Douglass and his three assistants—John R. English, Jean F. Rogerson, and Daniel Perkins—reached the crest by lowering themselves with ropes to the south abutment and climbing its arch. The chapter states they were probably the first human beings to reach it.
Chapter 75
Why did the Navajo White Horse refuse to return under Rainbow Bridge?
White Horse passed under the bridge but would not return, instead climbing laboriously around its end. Douglass later learned through Mrs. John Wetherill that such formations were symbolic rainbows or the sun's path, and one passing under could not return without a certain prayer, under penalty of death. White Horse had forgotten the prayer; his informant would not reveal it for fear of the 'Lightning Snake.'
Chapter 75
What are the three natural bridges of Natural Bridges National Monument and their dimensions?
The largest, locally the Augusta Bridge, is named Sipapu, Gate of Heaven, one of the largest natural bridges in the world: two hundred and twenty-two feet high with a span of two hundred and sixty-one feet, crossed on a level platform twenty-eight feet wide. The other two, nearly its size and within five miles, are the Kachina (Guardian Spirit), locally Caroline Bridge, and the Owachomo (Rock Mound), locally Edwin Bridge.
Chapter 75
What does the chapter say about dinosaur fossils and excavation at Dinosaur National Monument?
Eighty acres of exposed Morrison strata eighteen miles east of Vernal, Utah, were set aside in 1915. The site has yielded a very large collection of skeletons; the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh gathered specimens since 1908, and the only complete dinosaur skeleton ever found was taken out in 1909. Rock is chiselled in thin layers, bones covered with plaster of Paris, and two years were required to unearth a brontosaurus skeleton.
Chapter 75

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Why were the three Petrified Forest groups near Adamana chosen for conservation?
They were chosen because they are the largest and perhaps the finest of the petrified wood areas in the Navajo country and surrounding deserts. At the time, the gorgeously colored logs were being carried away in quantities to be cut up into table-tops, so conservation was needed to protect them.
Chapter 76
According to Merrill, how did the logs petrify and why are the colors brightest on the surface?
Merrill writes that the chemistry is not quite clear, but silica dissolves readily in alkaline solutions containing soda or potash. Such solutions likely permeated the buried logs, and as the organic matter decayed it was replaced molecule by molecule by silica. Iron and manganese deposited with the silica cause the red and other colors, becoming super-oxydized on exposure to air, so the most brilliant colors are on the surface.
Chapter 76
What does Knowlton say about the age of the Triassic forests and buried strata?
Knowlton states that since the close of Triassic times probably more than fifty thousand feet of sediments have been deposited, so the age of the Triassic forests of Arizona can only be reckoned in millions of years, though the exact number would be speculation. He adds that the tree-bearing beds were once buried beneath thousands of feet of later strata, now partly worn away, and that other forests as great or greater undoubtedly lie buried beneath later formations.
Chapter 76
How does the chapter describe the American desert flora versus the Sahara stereotype?
The author argues the popular idea of a desert of dry drifting sand relieved only by oases came from early geographies picturing the Sahara as the desert type. Far different is the American desert, most of which has a few inches of rainfall in early spring and grows a peculiar flora of remarkable individuality and beauty, including creosote bush, low flowering plants, and large cacti in the far south and southwest.
Chapter 76

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How does the Muir Woods exemplify Nature's forest plan in miniature?
The author argues the Muir Woods is a complete expression in little of Nature's forest plan: its meadow borders, ravines, valley floor, slopes, and hilltops show fullest luxuriance and perfect proportion. Characteristics of the greater redwood forests that elsewhere require weeks or months to compass are here exhibited within the rambling of a day, and the struggle of greater trees to climb hills can be seen in half an hour.
Chapter 78
What makes the Devil's Postpile's basaltic columns, and how were their upper ends exposed?
The columns were a product of the extensive volcanic eruptions that accompanied the Sierra uplift, forming deep within hot masses that poured over the region. Their upper ends became exposed by erosion over ages, which wore away the cinder soil and softer rock around them. Professor Joseph N. LeConte describes them as nearly vertical perfect prisms, mostly pentagonal, fitted together like honeycomb cells, about two feet in diameter and forty feet high.
Chapter 78
What does the chapter say about the Devil's Tower's height and appearance?
The tower emerges from a rounded forested hill of sedimentary rock rising six hundred feet above the plain, and from that top the tower rises six hundred feet higher, visible for a hundred miles or more. At a distance it resembles an enormous up-pointing finger amputated below the middle joint; nearer, one sees upright flutings of closely joined pentagonal basaltic prisms. Close by, the author says, all similes become futile.
Chapter 78
What legal naming error and boundary history does the chapter describe for the Devil's Postpile?
An error in the proclamation papers made the official title the Devil Postpile, so it must legally appear that way in all official documents. The reservation, made a national monument in 1911, also includes the Rainbow Fall of the San Juan River plus soda and hot springs. It was originally included in Yosemite National Park but was cut out by a boundary-revision committee, and the author hopes Congress will restore it.
Chapter 78

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What is the Devil's Tower column made of, and what surrounds its base?
The column is the core of a volcanic formation that once had a larger circumference. At its base lies an immense talus of broken columns, which loosening frosts and winter gales constantly increase; this process has continued for untold thousands of years while softer surrounding rock eroded to the present plain level. The top is nearly flat and elliptical, sixty to a hundred feet in diameter.
Chapter 79
Why was Mount Olympus National Monument reserved, and how large is it?
The reservation contains nine hundred and fifty square miles across the Olympian Peninsula in northwestern Washington. Although the author notes it possesses unusual scenic beauty, it was reserved specifically to protect the Olympic elk, a species peculiar to the region. Deer and other wild animals are also abundant. Mount Olympus itself rises eight thousand one hundred feet, about twenty-five miles equidistant from the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific.
Chapter 79
What does the chapter say about the Lewis and Clark Cavern as a memorial?
The cavern is the only memorial of the Lewis and Clark expedition in the national parks system, yet there is no record the explorers entered it or knew it existed. The author argues Pompey's Pillar, where Clark inscribed his name and the date July 25, 1806, would have been a far more appropriate monument; an attempt to proclaim it failed because it lay within an Indian allotment.
Chapter 79
What features define the Pinnacles National Monument, and what name did it lose?
Located forty miles east of Monterey, California, in a spur of the low Coast Range, the monument was carved by erosion into crowded pointed rocks. Two deep gorges bordered by fantastic walls six hundred to a thousand feet high, plus a broad semi-circular flower-grown amphitheatre, form the central feature. It was long known as Vancouver's Pinnacles because the explorer visited and described it; the author regrets that historical allusion was lost.
Chapter 79

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What did Verendrye and his sons accomplish around 1740, and how close did they come to Yellowstone?
Starting from Lake Superior's north shore about 1740, Verendrye or his sons traveled west and south into the great plains, entering Montana along a route Lewis and Clark paralleled in 1806. They swung south near Fort Benton and skirted the Rockies nearly to central Wyoming, passing within a couple hundred miles of Yellowstone National Park. The chapter notes their journey records are confusing.
Chapter 80
Why did Congress create Sully's Hill National Park in 1904, and what does it contain?
Congress created Sully's Hill National Park in North Dakota in 1904 in response to local demand. Its hills and meadows form a museum of practically the entire flora of the state. The United States Biological Survey maintains a wild-animal preserve there for elk, bison, antelope, and other animals representative of the northern plains.
Chapter 80
What does Sitka National Monument commemorate, and what else does the reservation exhibit?
Sitka National Monument on Baranoff Island, Alaska, commemorates an early Alaska episode: the village of the Kik-Siti Indians, who attacked the Sitka settlement in 1802 and massacred the Russians. Two years later Baranoff's Russians recovered it despite British opposition, establishing title later transferred to the United States. Graves remain, and the reservation exhibits Alexander Archipelago forest and flora plus sixteen totem-poles.
Chapter 80
How were the thirty-six national monuments distributed among departments, and what does the author argue about it?
Of thirty-six national monuments, twenty-four were administered by the National Parks Service, ten by the Department of Agriculture, and two by the War Department. The author argues the Agriculture assignments, justified because the monuments occurred in forests, make little sense since many other monuments and nearly all parks also lie in forests; he contends these monuments suffer from disassociation with the National Park Service.
Chapter 80

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All questions and answers

What two principal objects does Yard state in his preface?

How does Yard structure the book so both popular and scientific readers are served?

Why did Yard reject putting his science in an appendix?

Whom does Yard credit for helping him acquire knowledge for the book?

According to the author, what must Americans learn before they can truly enjoy their scenery?

What evidence does the author give that Americans love scenery and travel for it?

What does the woman at Yosemite Falls represent, and how does the author judge her?

What does the author observe about crowds at the Grand Canyon and their silence?

According to the author, what equipment does the average intelligent traveler of today have for enjoying scenery?

What does the author say the geologic story adds to scenery like Crater Lake, Glacier, and Yellowstone?

What does the author say is required to understand the earth well enough to enrich park enjoyment?

What did the coal fragment on Glacier's limestone slope reveal to the author?

How does the chapter describe nature's work of wearing down the land?

Why do geologists measure the prehistoric past by accomplishment rather than years?

What does the chapter say man's place in the Procession of the Ages is?

What does the chapter say about the Yellowstone's rank among the world's volcanic areas?

What does the chapter say about the number and location of the national parks?

How does the chapter answer the view that national parks are merely playgrounds?

According to the chapter, what effect do national parks have on visitors' spirits?

What was the original motive behind early park-making, and what were the first three parks?

Why were areas in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Oklahoma added in 1903–1904?

How does the chapter distinguish national forests from national parks?

What change in Congressional attitude toward park funding does the chapter describe?

What did the growth of the park idea accomplish for park selection?

Why does the chapter say forests and parks must be handled separately?

How does the chapter distinguish a national park from a national monument?

Which parks does the chapter classify as granite national parks?

Why does the author argue mountain fame does not prove superior sublimity?

What does the chapter say about Yosemite Valley in relation to the park?

What is the Yosemite Valley's secret to world supremacy, according to the chapter?

How does the park's life change from crest to lowlands?

Why does the government fine visitors for picking snow-plants?

What does the chapter say about the claim that Yosemite is birdless?

How does the chapter describe the dimensions and origin of Yosemite Valley?

What does the chapter say distinguishes the Yosemite from other features?

What are the measurements of Yosemite Falls given in the chapter?

How does the chapter describe Bridal Veil Fall and the Ribbon Fall?

Why does Upper Yosemite Fall appear to fall slower than ordinary waterfalls?

How does the author compare the Lower Fall to the Upper Fall and Niagara?

What does the author say about the three most conspicuous features of Yosemite?

What is the history of the Tioga Road and its present role?

What does the chapter say about the trails and trail travel in Yosemite?

Why was Hetch Hetchy dammed, and how does the author assess the outcome?

How does the Grizzly Giant compare with other sequoias?

How did Captain Boling's 1851 expedition lead to the Yosemite Valley's discovery?

What did Congress grant California in 1864 regarding Yosemite?

What was Professor Whitney's theory of how the Yosemite Valley formed?

According to Matthes, how did the Merced River and glaciers shape Yosemite Valley?

Why does the chapter say the Merced kept cutting its channel steeply for millions of years?

How did the sinking of the Great Basin relate to the Sierra's shape?

What did the Quaternary uplift accomplish for Yosemite Valley before the glaciers?

What did the glaciers do to Yosemite Valley, according to the chapter?

What area and boundaries did Congress consider for Roosevelt National Park?

How does the author compare Roosevelt and Yosemite National Parks?

What zones lie between the Sierra crest and the western boundary?

Which river systems originate in the proposed Roosevelt region?

Which streams drain the southwestern area of the park, and what grows on their banks?

What is the golden trout's scientific name and what does the chapter say about its color?

What are the four principal entrance gates to the park described in the chapter?

What does the author say about the John Muir Trail and the ascent of Mount Whitney?

How does the author compare Tehipite Valley to Yosemite Valley?

How does Tehipite Dome compare with El Capitan and Half Dome?

What changes when the party descends to the Tehipite Valley floor?

What does the author say about fishing the Middle Fork for trout?

How does the chapter contrast Kings River Canyon with Tehipite Valley?

Which trees does the chapter rank as the chief courtiers of King Sequoia?

What ages and ancestry does the chapter give for the sequoias?

How does the Giant Forest's sequoia population compare with other groves?

What are the dimensions of the General Sherman Tree, and how does the author suggest imagining them?

Why does the author call Rocky Mountain National Park the only true example of its mountain system?

How do Colorado's high peaks compare in number and height with the rest of the United States?

Why does the author regret the southern boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park?

How does the continental divide shape the park's two sides?

Why were Estes Park and Grand Lake left outside the park boundaries?

What does the author say causes visitors to settle for lesser pleasures in the parks?

What two mountain groupings does the chapter identify within the park?

Which peaks form the Mummy Range's arc of gray monsters, and what notable features do they hold?

What does the author say about climbing mountains by horse, and what caution does he give?

What view does the author describe from the summit of Hallett Peak?