A TOUR OF THE PARK.
_Preliminary._
In the following description there will be mentioned in succinct
outline all the notable features of interest in the Yellowstone
National Park. For more detailed information, the reader is referred
to the list of names in "Appendix A."
The necessary limit of space forbids any thing like extended
description, even if the inherent difficulties of such a task would
permit. Captain Ludlow has well stated the nature of these
difficulties:
"The Park scenery, as a whole," he says, "is too grand, its scope too
immense, its details too varied and minute, to admit of adequate
description, save by some great writer, who, with mind and pen equally
trained, can seize upon the salient points, and, with just
discrimination, throw into proper relief the varied features of
mingled grandeur, wonder, and beauty."
Of the many who have attempted, with pen or pencil, to reproduce the
wonders of the Yellowstone, no one has yet completely satisfied these
important requirements. The writer, for his part, will modestly
decline any such undertaking, and, like that pioneer explorer, Folsom,
will confine his descriptions "to the bare facts." He will, however,
occasionally call to aid those who have seen and written of these
wonders. To the early explorers, in particular, who entered this
region before it became generally known, its strange phenomena
appealed with an imaginative force which the guide-book tourist of
to-day can hardly realize. This may account for the fact that some of
these explorers, who have never, before or since, put pen to paper
with any literary purpose in view, have left in their narratives
strokes of word painting which the most gifted writer would find it
difficult to excel.
The season selected for the tour will be the early days of July. The
rain and snow and chilly air, not uncommon in June, are gone. The
drought and smoke of August and September are still remote. Even
mosquitoes, so amazingly plentiful at certain seasons (Langford found
them on the very summit of the Grand Teton), have not yet made their
appearance. It is late enough, however, to call forth in their richest
glory the magnificent profusion of flowers which every-where abound in
the Park. The air is at its best, full of life and energy, and so
clear that it confounds distances and gives to objects, though far
away, a distinctness quite unknown in lower altitudes. The skies, as
they appear at this season, surpass the sunny skies of Italy, and the
tourist will find in their empyreal depths a beauty and fascination
forever lacking in the dingy air of civilization. In short, the open
air stage trips through that rich mountain atmosphere will form one of
the most attractive and invigorating features of the tour.
Without further preliminary, the rôle of guide will now be assumed,
and the tourist will be conducted through the wonders of this
celebrated country, following, over most of the distance, the present
general route.