For the convenience of administration this vast territory is divided into one hundred and forty-nine national forests, each in charge of a supervisor. In all cases the supervisor is selected for his wide practical knowledge of the West, and of the lumbering and grazing particularly.

For each of the many lines of work to be carried on in the forest, men with special experience are required. Those who prepare and tend the nurseries must be experienced in raising and caring for young trees. The lumberman, who cruises and estimates timber, helps to plan logging operations, sees that the scaling is correctly done and that the rules for logging are properly observed, must be an experienced and capable woodsman. The ranger patrols his district of the forest and sees that fire and trespass are prevented, that the range is not overgrazed, that logging regulations are enforced, and that the privileges granted by permit for the use of the various forest resources are not abused. He also must be hard-headed, practical, and thoroughly honest, an able-bodied citizen of the West, with plenty of experience in all the problems with which he may have to deal.

The National Forests are administered by the Forest Service, a branch of the Department of Agriculture. The forester, with an assistant forester in charge of each of the four branches, timber sales and planting, grazing, accounts and timber testing, has general supervision, while for field administration the western half of the United States is divided into six districts under district foresters, with headquarters at Missoula, Denver, Albuquerque, Ogden, San Francisco, and Portland.

National Parks

The national parks and reservations under the jurisdiction of the Interior Department are as follows:

The twelve national parks above enumerated are made by act of Congress, and include the big trees of California, a health resort at Hot Springs, Ark., several ruined cities in the southwest, a collection of prehistoric cliff dwellings, and several scenic wonders and natural phenomena which should be forever preserved from desecration; Mount Rainier in Washington; and Crater Lake, in the southern part of the Cascade range of Oregon, which is the deepest

body of fresh water known. It occupies the crater of an extinct volcano at the top of a mountain 9,000 feet high, and is encircled by a continuous wall of cliffs from one thousand to two thousand feet in height. There is no break in the wall, which is so nearly perpendicular that it cannot be scaled except in a few places.

Wind Cave, in the southwestern part of South Dakota, east of the Black Hills, near the town of Hot Springs, is a remarkable natural curiosity as well as a health resort. The interior of the cave has never been thoroughly explored. It is like a honeycomb with more than three thousand rooms or cells and more than a hundred miles of corridors. Some one has likened it to a sponge, several miles in length, depth and breadth, composed of narrow passages connecting at different points with caverns large enough to enclose the capitol of the United States, and beautifully decorated with feathers and crystals of gypsum, that glisten like diamonds. The atmosphere in the cave is so dry that it is recommended as a specific for diseases of the throat, nose and lungs.

The Casa Grande Ruins, in Arizona, are the largest and best example of prehistoric architecture in this country. Although partially destroyed by vandals and the tooth of time, fifty-seven large rooms still remain, which have been put in order under the direction of the National Museum.

The Yosemite Valley now belongs to the national government, having been receded by the State of California in May, 1905. It was accepted by Congress that year in a clause inserted in the sundry appropriation bill, but some of the California state commissioners, who had been opposed to the recession, refused to surrender the property until formal resolution of acceptance was adopted by Congress, June 11, 1906.

Since the government took possession of the Yosemite a steam railroad has been built to connect with the Southern Pacific and the Sante Fe lines at the town of Merced. It carries visitors to a station called El Portal, at the boundary of the park. A traveler can leave San Francisco in the morning, reach El Portal without change of cars in the evening, stay over night at a comfortable hotel and take a stage ride of fourteen miles through the valley to the Sentinel Hotel in about four hours. It is also possible to go in from Raymond by stage via Wawona in two days as formerly. Since the railway was opened in 1907 there has been a very large increase

of visitors, but they are still amazingly few in number compared with those who go to Europe every year, and obtain very much less enjoyment at a very much larger price. The Yosemite will hereafter be open in the winter.

At the recent session, Congress passed an act authorizing an exchange for the Calaveras big tree forest, which was owned by a Minnesota lumber king, patriotic enough to wait patiently for years for Congress to accept a grove of the most majestic sequoia trees in the world for timber land of equal value elsewhere on the public domain.

The chain of parks in that section of California belonging to the government now embraces 882,000 acres, including the Mariposa, the Sequoia, General Grant and Calaveras groves of big trees, all of which should be connected by perfect roadways so that the public can enjoy their wonders without discomfort and fatigue. They are all within a forest reserve of nearly 4,000,000 acres, which will belong perpetually to the government.

The House Committee on Public Lands has reported favorably a bill which passed the Senate last May, creating Glacier National Park, west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains and south of the Canadian boundary line in Montana. It includes about 1,300 square miles of the finest mountain scenery upon the continent, averaging about 10,000 feet above the sea level, containing about two hundred and fifty lakes and sixty-eight glaciers.

Those who are interested in this enterprise are confident that the Canadian government will reserve a similar area on its side of the border; it has already made a beginning which will make this the greatest park for natural beauty and the greatest preserve for wild animals in the civilized world. It is proposed to put it under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Agriculture, who already administers it as a National Forest, and who will permit shooting and fishing at such times and under such rules and regulations as he deems best. There is practically no agricultural land and no mineral-bearing formations of commercial value, but in the canyons are roaring streams fed by melting ice and snow, and there are more than two hundred and fifty lakes which abound in fish of many varieties. The region is inhabited by a greater variety of large wild animals than can be found in any other one district of the United States. Mountain goats and sheep, grizzly and black bears,

caribou, elk, moose and two kinds of deer are found as well as a great variety of other mammals and birds. The animals use it as a breeding ground, because they can find perfect protection. The waters flow in three directions, finding the Hudson Bay, the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Some of the mountains are of unparalleled beauty, one of the highest peaks having been named in honor of the late Grover Cleveland.

"Cinder Cone" is a great lava field of extraordinary scientific interest within the national forest of California, and is, perhaps, the best illustration we have of volcanic phenomena.

The Gila Cliff dwellings in New Mexico are among the most perfect and extensive remains of the prehistoric race which once occupied, irrigated and cultivated the southwestern section of this country. They are situated in the canyon of the Gila river in the southwestern part of New Mexico.

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado is well known. It is in many respects the grandest natural spectacle in the world.

Jewel Cave is situated within the Black Hills national forest, in Custer county, South Dakota, thirteen miles southwest from the town of Custer, and was so named because metallic stones of brilliant colors are found there in large quantities. It was discovered in 1900 by two brothers named Mishaud, who were prospecting for gold in that vicinity, and has been explored for several miles. A strange phenomena is the action of the wind, which alternately and with great regularity, blows in and blows out of the cave.

Lassen Peak, or Mount Diabolo, marks the southern terminus of a long line of extinct volcanoes in the Cascade range of mountains in California, and is not only a landmark of great beauty, but is of special importance in tracing the history of the volcanic phenomena in that vicinity.

The Pinnacles, about nine miles due east from the Southern Pacific Railroad station Soldad, San Benito county, California, are a collection of jagged peaks of impressive grandeur and much scientific interest.

The Tonto national monument is a group of prehistoric ruins located in the region commonly known as the Tonto drainage basin, Gila county, Arizona, and is of great ethnological and educational interest as a relic of vanquished civilization.

The Wheeler national monument is near Wagon Wheel Gap