Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 80.djvu/539

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THE NATIONAL PARKS
535

the tourist but serve an extremely useful educational purpose by disseminating the results of scientific work. It is therefore planned to issue a number of short publications describing the phenomena in the various parks and explaining the causes and forces that have produced them. It is not contemplated that the department will embark on original investigations, as it is believed that more material can be obtained than can be printed with the funds available, but it is hoped to revise some of the papers already published and issue them in pamphlet form. The department has just issued the following publications: "Geologic

Photograph by Asahel Curtis.

Mount Rainier, from Kautz Fork. Mount Rainier National Park.

History of the Yellowstone Park," by Arnold Hague; an account of the geysers of the Yellowstone Park, including a comparison with the geysers in New Zealand and Iceland, by Walter Harvey Weed, and the geologic history of Crater Lake, by Joseph S. Diller. These publications are illustrated with well-selected half-tones and carefully prepared black and white maps based on the accurate topographic maps issued by the Geological Survey.

The first need of the intelligent traveler is a map of the area he is about to traverse. Fortunately excellent maps of almost all the larger parks are for sale by the United States Geological Survey at nominal prices. Maps have been published of Yellowstone, Yosemite and Glacier national parks on a scale of 2 miles to the inch; of the Crater