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The Yellowstone National Park

The Yellowstone National Park image
Parent Issue
Day
10
Month
May
Year
1872
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

From Scribner'a for May. The hungry patrons of eheap restaurants down town must occasionally havo been edified by the notice posted conspicuously over the counter, " all pastry consumed in this establishment is made cm the premisas" Without committing ourselves to the general principie oí' protection to home manufactures, we may afford to rejoice at the measure tending to encourage the practico of doing our own pleasuring within our own borders. The recent Act of Congress concerning a singulaily picturesque pieoo 'of land known as tTio Yellowstone región, will cali attention to the unexampled richness of Montana and AVyoming Territories as a fleld for the artist or the ploasure tourist, whilo it aims to insuro that tho región in quostion shall bo kopt in tho most favorable condition to attract travel and gratify a cultivated and intelligent cugiosity. Éy the Act souie 2, OOI) square miles of territory at the head-waters of tho Yellowstone Rivpr are sot apart as a National Park (!) with a Superintendont (the Secrotary of the Interior) nuthorized to tako all measures to keep the región in such a condition as roost fully to answer tho purposo of a gigantic pleasure-ground. Verily a colossal sort of junketing-place! Tho Yankee in the story -book olsimed that America could boast of bigger lakes, largor rivers, loudor thunder, and l'orkedur lightning than any othor country. If any ono doubts this heroaftcr, we shall rofer him to tho Yellowstonu Park. Everything in it seems on a scale out of all proportion to ordinary experienco an'd conventional habiis of thought. While European p-jtentates spond milliona of francs to dig out little, rills or lakes, or piinfully heap up little nuggets of rock-work in their ploasure grounds, Nature has given us one aere, ready made, whioh dwnrfs every other, natural or manufactured. As little children of a holiday afternoon amuse theuiselves with raaking dams, cutting canal?, and raising mud hilloeks in tho cabbagc garden or tho gutter, so here tho Tritons and JEons of the eldor world seem to have refreshed bhemselves, is soine leisure cyelo of geological growth, with playing at socnery. They (lid it lustily and con amort. Why should we waste oursolves in nnpatriptio wondorraent over the gorge oí the Tamma or the Tia Mala, when Natuf.' baa Eutniahed us with thn Qraod Canon of tho Yullowstpne, in which the famed Swiss ravjnea would be but as a crevico or a vrinkln '{ Why run across the sea to sniff and sneoze over tho ill odors of Soltaterra, when we cn spoil our langa or our trowsers to botter effeot, and on an ineomparably largor scale, with tho gigantio boiliiii; nprnis or geysera of Montana P And why struin and stiffen our backs in starriug up at. Temt or tho Sohmadribach, which :ir hut as sido-jets and spray-flakes to tho Titanio raajosty of "Wyoming Lowor Paite? Of tho dotailed wonden which wc only hcre hint at, &q reader of the magazine for the last year or two will noed to be remindpd. It will not bo forgotteji that uil along with our desoriptions and illustrations of this curious tract, the suggestion w;is m:uli which has boen carriod out in tho recent action of Congress. A oontèmporary pöblicatlön has latoly disBussed with some gravity the quostion trhether the tide of mountain travel can bo expectcd to sot wostward - whether Amoricans or Buropeans, turning away from the familiar terrors of the Alps, may bo. drawn to whet their appetite for adrentur on tlio peaks and ravincs of the Sierras, and Shastn or Mount Tyndal! ;orac to bo aa fascinating to the all-conjuering cragsmen as the Lyskamm or the iliittvrliorn. ■ Tho present disclosures oertainly tend to render it probable. When tho Xorth Pacific road, as we are led to hipo will bo the case, drops us in Montana in throe days' journèy, we may be sure that the tide of suiuraer touring will bo porccptibly diverted from European fíelas. Yankee enterprise will dot tho now park with hostelries and furrow it with lines of travel. That tho lifo for 'omo time to como will be frightfully rough, tho inconvenionocs plentiful, and the dangers mnny and appalling, ia likely enough. But that is just tho spieo n-hich will most ticklo tho palato of uur vlventurous tourists and men ot' scionco

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus