May 1925

Volume IV May, 1925 Number 5

A PERSONAL INVITATION. YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK IS YOURS! WE OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WANT TO HELP YOU TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOUR PARK AND TO UNDERSTAND IT IN ITS EVERY MOOD. ALL OF THE FOLLOWING SERVICE IS OFFERED TO YOU FREE BY YOUR GOVERNMENT:

Visit the Yosemite Museum!

Here you will learn the full story of the Park — what tools were used by the great Sculptor in carving this mighty granite-walled gorge; who lived here before the white man came; how the Days of Gold led to Yosemite's discovery; how the pioneers prepared the way for you; and how the birds and mammals and trees and flowers live together in congenial communities waiting to make your acquaintance.

Plan your trail trips on the large scale models in the Geography Room.

The Yosemite Library in the museum provides references on all phases of Yosemite history and natural history.

Popular lectures on Yosemite geology and other branches of natural history are given by nature guides at scheduled times each day. The nature guide on duty will be more than willing to answer your questions on any subject.

Go Afield with a Nature Guide!

Take advantage of this free service that will help you to know your Park. A competent scientist will conduct you over Yosemite trails, and from him you may learn first hand of the native flowers, trees, birds, mammals, and geological features.

See Schedule of Nature Guide Field Trips.

Visit Glacier Point Lookout!

From there you will obtain an unexcelled view of Yosemite's High Sierra. The binocular telescope will bring Mt. Lyell to within one third of a mile from where you stand; you can recognize friends climbing trails several miles away. The Nature Guide in attendance will help you to operate it and will explain what you see.

A small library is at your command.

You will enjoy the informal nightly campfire talks given here.

Attend the Nature Guide Campfire Talks!

In addition to the museum lectures members of the educational staff give talks as a part of the evening program at Camp Curry and Yosemite Lodge. Non-technical explanations of how Yosemite came to be; what you may expect of Yosemite bears; how the local Indians lived; what birds you see about your camps; what trout you will catch in Yosemite waters; how you may best visit the wonderland of the summit region; and scores of similar subjects are given by the National Park Service Nature Guides.

ALL OF THESE OPPORTUNITIES ARE PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE BY YOUR GOVERNMENT.

—TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM—

Volume IV May 1925 Number 5

Educational Value of Parks By STEPHEN T. MATHER Director of National Park Service In Speech at Denver, Colorado.

THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR recently pointed out the fact that we, as a Nation, are beginning to realize the important part played by the out-of-doors in our daily life. For a century and a half our big task has been to subdue the wilderness, to build ourselves homes, and to develop our national resources. Our great cities are an evidence of our prosperity, but they are also evidence that the past has gradually led us toward an indoor existence. Of recent years we have again returned to the out-of-doors, realizing that the open road leads toward national wealth, happiness and inspiration.

Our national parks were set aside to preserve the superb scenic features of our country for all time. During the past few decades, especially since the advent of the automobile, the numbers of visitors to the parks have increased enormously. The country is making good use of its playgrounds.

A new tendency on the part of the people is making itself felt in connection with this out-of-doors movement. Visitors to the parks were formerly satisfied to admire scenic features; now they want to understand them. The spirit of wanting to know is felt everywhere. How much more enjoyable is a vacation if one recognizes as friends all the birds and flowers and trees of the trailside.

A Great University

Our Secretary has truly said that the Department of the Interior is a great university, and the National Park Service, I am glad to say, is one of the most important colleges in this great university.

The educational movement in the national parks was not imposed upon visitors by the Government. Instead, it owes its origin to the people themselves, usually having its beginnings in the enthusiastic cooperation of private individuals and universities or other institutions. Despite the fact that practically no Government funds were available, the work started spontaneously in many of the parks during the past five years and we look forward to the day in the not far distant future when every park will be equipped not only to administer to the material wants of visitors but also to supply the knowledge they demand.

Lines of Educational Development

Development has taken place along several closely allied lines:

1. Field trips conducted by nature guides competent to explain every subject of natural history observed along the trailside.

2. Camp fire lectures on birds, geology, or any of the other phases of nature so wonderfully exemplified in the parks.

3. Collection of materials that can better be presented in a simple, systematic way in order to tell the true story of the parks. These collections form the nuclei for the museums.

4. Field courses in various branches of natural history offered by the Park Service in cooperation with universities and other institutions.

Origin of Work in Yosemite

Yosemite National Park offers an example of what can be accomplished along these lines. In this Park the Nature Guide Service was started by private funds five years ago, the California State Fish and Game Commission co-operating. The work was gradually taken over by the Government and now the small organization serves two out of every three visitors to Yosemite, taking them on both short and long field trips and delivering camp fire talks at all the large hotels and camps. This year the same organization will also offer courses of university grade in the Yosemite Field School of Natural History, which is being established by the Park Service, to give more intensive training to persons who desire to know the out-of-doors more intimately. While the public was thus being served the Yosemite park naturalist started collecting exhibit material that would eventually develop into a museum. Although no Government funds were available, the visitors showed such a splendid spirit of co-operation that collections of Yosemite material of the value of some $40,000 or $50,000 were gathered together. A campaign was then started to raise funds for a permanent fire-proof building and more than $5000 had been collected when the American Association of Museums, realizing the importance of a development thus demanded and supported by the public, brought the matter to the attention of a nationally known institution which is deeply interested in all phases of education. In July of the past year this organization contributed $70,000 with which to build a fire-proof museum building in Yosemite. Construction has been pushed rapidly and the new museum which is now practically finished will be opened on June 1, when the Nature Guide Service will also initiate its 1925 season.

At Rocky Mountain and Mesa Verde

It is not only in Yosemite that big things have been accomplished for visitors to a greater enjoyment of the parks through greater understanding. Two of the most progressive parks in the country in this respect are Rocky Mountain and Mesa Verde, both in the State of Colorado.

Superintendent Nusbaum of Mesa Verde National Park is one of the greatest authorities on the prehistoric peoples of the Southwest. For a number of years he has been carefully collecting and preserving all manner of articles used in the daily life of the vanished race of cliff dwellers. A splendid gift from one of the visitors to the park made it possible to construct a museum to house these priceless relics. Our idea is not only to preserve this material, but also to present it in such a form that it will tell the story of our vanishing American races. Ultimately we expect to add men to our organization who will lead each party through the ruined cities of past ages, explaining every feature that careful research has disclosed.

Rocky Mountain National Park offers a splendid field for educational development. Superintendent Roger W. Toll has been working against odds, but has founded an organization that will soon be equipped to tell the whole story of the out-of-doors of this region of superb mountain grandeur. Without funds but with the cooperation of the Colorado Society of Natural History and private individuals and organizations, Mr. Toll has established a small museum which will eventually tell in a simply narrative way the story of the park from its geological beginnings millions of years ago, through all phases of natural history up to the present, including the coming of man and the final discovery and development by the white race. Nature guides will help the visiting public to become acquainted personally with each bird and tree and flower and other objects of interest in the open. We are keeping in mind the idea that nature should be studied in the field; only in so far as it will aid us to simplify the story are we bringing exhibits indoors, and this, after all, is for the purpose of explaining what one sees in the field.

Leading Physically and Spiritually to Higher Places

The educational branch of the National Park Service is being organized under the direction of Chief Naturalist Ansel F. Hall, who has recently returned from a year abroad, where he studied the museums and out-of-doors education offered in Europe. I am not surprised to learn from Mr. Hall that we are already far in advance of every other country in this field. I am proud of the fact that our love for the out-of-doors is becoming more and more a love based upon understanding, and that the National Park Service is playing such an important part in this educational renaissance that is leading us both physically and spiritually to higher places.

THE FLIGHT AND PURSUIT TACTICS OF THE DUCK HAWK

By DONALD D. McLEAN Assistant Park Naturalist

The duck hawk has always been considered a master in the art of flying since the ancient days of falconry. In falconry the duck hawk was known as the Peregrine Falcon and was the favorite with the falconers. The European Peregrine differs but slightly from our duck hawk, being only a nominal sub-species. Although not common in the Yosemite region at any time, individual birds do wander into the mountain valleys during the winter to take heavy toll on the robins and other birds feeding in the open.

Near my home just west of the Yosemite National Park, there is an open field 450 yards long, over which duck hawks pass regularly nearly every afternoon during the winter months. One bird in particular, during the past winter, seemed to come down over the field at 4 o'clock every afternoon, its goal being an alfalfa patch beside the barn, where thousands of robins gathered every evening for their supper of earthworms. On many different occasions I had the opportunity to watch this bird as it came down the valley at full speed, swerved up over the barn, and dashed headlong into the flock of robins before they could scarcely realize he was upon them. He would knock one, sometimes two, to the ground in a cloud of feathers, but would seldom pick it up and carry it away. He seemed to be killing them for the mere sport of the chase.

When he came up the valley instead of down, the robins would spot him before he was visible to my eyes. They would all start at once and dash up the valley and into the trees and willows. Above the roar of their wings I could generally pick out the peculiar sound of the hawk's wing beats as he came pelting through the flying birds. The sound made by his rapidly vibrating wings was something like this: "foc, foc, foc, foc," the "foc" being made at the rate of about eight per second. As he appeared behind them, flying only six or eight feet from the ground, it was only a matter of a few seconds until he had passed clear through the flock and had risen to several hundred feet above the ground.

As he came on he moved relatively so fast that I found it would be easy to time him as he passed over the long open field. I found if I stationed myself near the barn at the lower end of the field and watched carefully, I could tell the instant he came over the upper end of the field as he had to rise over an embankment at the upper end before I could see him. I learned that on two occasions he passed over the 450 yards in three seconds, which is at the rate of three miles a minute or 180 miles an hour. On several other occasions he passed over the same field at a much slower rate of six to ten seconds. Of course, this is not the average flying speed of the hawk, but it shows of what the bird is capable when in pursuit or drawing near its quarry.

He never flew more than twenty feet from the ground on these occasions; hence, the trees and barn made a very good screen. Coming up the valley, however, the robins were able to discern him long before he actually was upon them, but that mattered little as he came so rapidly that they were scarcely under way before he came dashing through the flock, putting terror into the birds and doing as much destruction as possible.

On two different occasions robins dashed themselves to pieces on the chicken wire fence around the alfalfa field as they made efforts to dodge the hawk.

Duck Hawks sometimes pick out Meadowlarks and Brewer Blackbirds, but the robin seems to be their favorite in this section. Water ouzels are their standbys in sections of the country where these birds are plentiful.

Some Animal Friends You May Make in Yosemite By C. P. RUSSELL, Park Naturalist

In a previous article I outlined some mistaken ideas regarding animals which we as a people seem to wish to preserve. In this one I am going to tell some truths about a few Yosemite animals which are quite as interesting, and much less generally known, as are the aforementioned fables.

We have in Yosemite a free educational service known as the Yosemite Nature Guide Service, the purpose of which is to supply information on the native plants and animals of the great national park. It is a fact not always recognized that it is largely the presence of wild life that makes the mountain regions attractive. If we can teach a few thousand citizens each year to interpret nature, we have helped materially in furthering the nation-wide movement that is making America a great leader in conserving natural beauty spots.

Each summer 100,000 or so Yosemite visitors go afield with nature guides, visit the museum, or listen to camp fire talks on natural history. So genuine has been the demand for this free service that to properly serve all we will, in 1925, extend the work to include Glacier Point, Tuolumne Meadows and the high-country hikers' camps as well as Yosemite Valley. Nine scientists, where in the past there have been six, will this year be employed to help you understand and appreciate the wealth of natural wonders preserved for you in Yosemite.

Certain ones of our National parks have made a great appeal to Americans through their variety of wild animal life. When Yellowstone is mentioned one at once enjoys a vivid mental picture of great herds of elk, stampeding birds of buffalo or timid groups of antelope. Efficient advertising and the goods to back up the brag have identified Yellowstone National Park with the best American wild animal life. Yosemite does not possess such a reputation as a game sanctuary. But in the very near future, I venture to predict, visitors will be quite as impressed by the intimate animal acquaintances they may make as they now are by the mile-high cliffs and unequaled glacier monuments.

The Bears Always Interesting

Yosemite visitors are always interested in bears. This interest is never failing for bears may be seen by all. You will see bears of apparently two kinds, but they are all of the same species. Black bears or brown bears — they are both of the species known to scientists as Ursus americanus, the American black bear, which occurs from the extreme north down into Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The brown is but a color phase of the typical black, and a black bear mother may give birth to a brown and a black cub.

Do not permit anyone to convince you that we have grizzly bears in Yosemite. There was a time when the grizzly was common here; in fact, the name Yosemite was derived from the Indian name for grizzly bear. The great State of California saw fit to emblazon upon her State flag the figure of a grizzly and the same figure appears upon the California State seal. But the animal that was so characteristic of the State as to receive this prominence and recognition has long since been exterminated so far as California is concerned. It is one of the animals in the long list of those we would save if it were not too late.

Female Bears Become Mothers During Winter

When the snow begins to fly, Yosemite bears seek warm holes in which to spend the winter. The fall is spent in getting excessively fat. When the time for hibernation comes, the bear crawls into his cave or hollow log and the snow and ice seal him in tight as he sleeps. In some cases he could not get out of his ice-bound shell if he wanted to. Unlike the ground squirrel, the bear does not become rigid in this winter sleep. The bodily processes are rather active all through hibernation. The female actually gives birth to young during this winter sleep. The cubs are tiny things at birth, no longer than one's hand and weigh twelve ounces or less, or about 1/200th of the mother's weight. A human baby is about 1/20th of the mother's weight. It is fortunate for the mother bear that her cubs are so tiny, for she must nurse them for weeks before she may come out to search for food.

Male bears apparently take no interest in family matters. During the mating season the males have the habit of making signs on certain trees. They rear up on their hind legs, reach as far up the trunk as possible with front legs, and scratch and chew the bark.

It is supposed that these bear sign posts serve to inform passing bears that the territory is occupied. Bear sign posts are to be found in the Aspen forest around the track of Merced Lake.

Do Not Attempt to Feed Bears From Your Hand

Let me warn you that while in Yosemite you are apt to see so many bears that they will become commonplace to you. You will meet them on the trails in broad daylight; you will find them about your camp both at night and during the day; at the garbage disposal area you will find them in numbers; and in late summer when fruit is ripe a dozen at one time may visit the old apple orchards that were set out by pioneers in Yosemite. The animals are so numerous and you will witness so many people taking liberties with these great beasts, that you too are tempted to become familiar with them. No bear, no matter how tame, should be approached by a tourist.

Understand, I am not attempting to develop a general fear of these interesting animals. They are as harmless as well behaved dogs if they are not tampered with. But it is positively dangerous to feed a bear from one's hands. You may believe that you are performing a kindness and it will seem to you that the bear understands. But remember there is no human feeling in the brain of a bear. Suppose you may be a trifle slow in producing the second or third piece of candy? Your bear may be temperamental. What to him may be but an impatient slap may to you be a crushing blow that will disfigure for life.

No accidents of this sort have yet occurred in Yosemite and there are no regulations which prohibit familiarities with the animals of the park, but park officials live in dread of what may happen if visitors develop a contemptuous disregard for the bears' great strength. Bears are not to be feared but they should be respected.

Do not feed Yosemite bears from your hand!

Bears Are Shot and Trapped Outside Park Boundaries

Apparently bears are becoming more numerous within the park, but if hunters continue to do what they did last year the bear population will not increase rapidly. Some park bears are very apt to wander beyond the park limits. Last fall hunters met these park-tamed bears just beyond the park boundary and killed them for their pelts. At least nine were killed at the east edge of the park and I have knowledge of twenty that were trapped or shot in the Stanislaus National Forest along the west boundary.

I should like to emphasize that bears are not stock killers. In spite of what stockmen have believed for years, statistics show that only rarely do bears develop a habit of killing stock. Bears are worth much more from an aesthetic standpoint, roaming at will through our forests than they are worth dead. Everything considered, I wish that California might give Black bears full protection at all seasons, before they follow the extinct grizzly.

Bear cubs readily learn to take food from human hands. They retain the habit and when fully grown may be dangerous.

(Continued on Page 40)

Well, so much for bears! One might discuss them and their interesting habits and behavior for a much longer time, but I do not wish to entirely ignore another important member of our animal life.

Deer — Introduced to Yosemite Households

Not many years ago Yosemite visitors were quite delighted if they were privileged to catch a glimpse of a frightened deer bounding across a meadow. Now one of the most impressive sights in the park is the numerous tame deer seen about Yosemite valley. Thousands of human beings mean nothing but tasty "hand-outs" to the present deer generation. They pick their dainty ways through the village street; stand confidingly by as you pass on the trail; come boldly to your camp in quest of food; recline for hours at a time in some shady nook a stone's throw from where noisy children romp and play; and does actually introduce their timid fawns to Yosemite households.

Our deer are the Rocky Mountain mule-tails. They belong to the same species found in the Rocky Mountains and were given their name by the Lewis and Clark expedition, which first saw and described them there. Visitors need have little hesitancy in feeding deer. To be sure, there is a bare possibility of a doe striking with sharp hoofs, but I believe that danger is negligible except in the case of small children. In the fall of the year the tame bucks may prove a menace to too friendly human beings, but as yet there are few bucks disposed to permit a close approach.

Deer Wander Beyond Park Lines

But the 30,000 or more deer that in summer range over the park, drift rapidly to lower levels as the winter storms bury their feeding grounds with snow. Finally when they have descended to that level which experiences little or no snow they hold their ground and await the coming of spring. This seasonal migration results in a concentration of the Yosemite deer each winter in the Stanislaus and Sierra National Forests. In other words, Yosemite National Park is a deer sanctuary in summer only.

At this season Yosemite National Park is a sanctuary for but a very small percentage of the deer that in summer range over the 1125 square miles of the park. The nature of the country within the preserve is such that deer can find no habitable range within its boundaries after the winter snows come. Yosemite valley, however, is an exception. Of late years quite a number of deer have remained in spite of the snow. Probably this is due to increased confidence in man and to the fact that many residents of the valley take the trouble to feed the animals. Then, too, it is true that the warm north side of the great gorge is free from snow most of the time.

Frequently, in June and July, Yosemite visitors come upon tiny fawns or baby deer. Nearly always the finder is moved to great pity and feels that the only thing to do is to carry the helpless little thing to camp and try to feed it. Should you happen to find such an infant, please do not pick it up. It is the habit of mother deer to hide their spotted and apparently unmothered fawns for the first several days after birth. They return to them frequently to feed them, and when they are strong they will follow the mothers about. As they gain strength and ability to leap and run it is most interesting to note their mad demonstrations of their inherited timidity. Even though the mother be very tame and entirely confident of kind treatment from man, yet her youngsters display all the characteristics that we think of when we use the expression "as wild as a deer."

Before the summer is over, however, Yosemite fawns may become as tame as the mother. Last fall one doe in particular acquired the habit of coming regularly to my cabin for food. She always brought her two children with her. One of these fawns became bold enough to follow my retreating handful of cake directly into my living room. This was too much for the other fawn or even the mother. They would stretch their necks and gaze in curiously, but not a step would they make over the threshold.

These babies of the summer grow rapidly, but even when a year old they are yet to be recognized as youngsters. They follow their mothers about all through the first year. Perhaps during the rutting or breeding season the doe may give them "the shake," but after that period of excitement she is very apt to again tolerate them. Not until June or July, when another pair of fawns arrive, will she be entirely free from the yearlings' company.

In the space available I have mentioned but two Yosemite animals, and I have but touched the surface in telling about them. There is much more to be said about these two and there are scores of other animals in the Sierras quite as interesting as deer and bear. I invite you to come to Yosemite National Park and learn of them first hand.

Three Ways of Catching a Gopher By D. D. McLEAN Assistant Naturalist, Yosemite National Park

Upper left — The gopher has not yet broken the surface perhaps, so the great blue heron holds his pose. The gopher pushes up through the soil a little at a time, but the heron moves not a feather.

Upper right — As the red-tail nears the ground his legs are stretched out and his wings are suddenly spread, the powerful feet are widely extended, and as they reach their mark they snap closed.

Lower — The coyote, as he draws near to where the gopher is working, flattens himself to the ground and edges up by inches till within easy leaping distance.

ONE OF THE worst pests the rancher knows is the pocket gopher. Found through a considerable portion of the United States, the damage done in destruction of crops and diversion of irrigation water which is running down the open holes, is by no means a minor loss. Yet we have many helpers in our efforts to curb the inroads of this pest.

Chief of the most common here in the West are the coyote, the great blue heron and the red-tailed hawk.

The types of action in capturing a gopher are entirely different, but in the end they are all alike, each killer being very adept at the method it uses.

The coyote wanders about over a field in an aimless sort of way, going a short way this and a few steps that, stopping to look and listen every few moments. Suddenly he apparently hears or sees some movements, and he immediately becomes tense and interested. He crouches down close to the ground and sneaks along only a step or so at a time. Then he stops and waits a few seconds, then moves up a little closer to the spot. Gradually as he draws near to where the gopher is working he flattens himself out on the ground and edges up by inches till within easy leaping distance. When the gopher is at last far enough above ground to suit him he sets his muscles and jumps, snapping the gopher in his "steel trap" jaws. Giving it a couple of times he pins it down and proceeds to tear it asunder and gobble up the pieces.

The Great Blue Heron's Method

The great blue heron, on the other hand, comes flapping along and awkwardly tumbles himself onto the field, where he stands motionless. But his ears and eyes are just as sharp as the coyote's. Finally his head turns a little and he listens for a few moments, then walks sedately toward the sound and upon reaching the spot draws his neck down and angles his head toward the earth, the bill being at an acute angle with the axis of the body.

The gopher has not yet broken the surface, perhaps, so he waits motionless in this position. The gopher pushes up through the sod a little at a time, but the heron moves not a feather. When the gopher is at last partially visible there is a sudden movement; in fact so rapid it is that the human eye can scarcely follow. The head shoots down, the neck being stretched out, and the heron falls all over himself apparently, with much flapping of wings and bending of legs, but up snaps the head and neck and there, dangling in the long bill, is the gopher, stone dead with its neck or back broken by the sharp double scissors of the heron's bill.

With a flip of the heron's beak, the gopher is started on his journey down the long neck, aided by much twisting and gulping on the part of the bird. The heron then pulls in his neck and slouches down to let his digestion do the rest.

The red tail soars over the field with head ever turning and his telescopic eyes peering down, covering every square yard of ground he passes over. If he spots any movement in the grass below he swings back and looks once again. When the gopher is located he hesitates not at all, but folds his wings and drops like a rock to the spot. As he nears the ground his legs are stretched out and his wings are suddenly spread, the powerful feet are widely extended, and as they reach their mark they snap closed. The talons are driven into the gopher and death follows immediately.

The hawk then often rests on the ground a few moments and adjusts his prey before flapping off to some old tree, often a black oak. Holding the gopher in his talons he proceeds to tear it apart, eating it piece by piece, slowly, stopping to look about after nearly every bite.

These three creatures are constant enemies of the gophers and should be allowed their share. The coyote is the only one with a questionable record. True, the heron eats fish, but two less gophers in a potato patch or alfalfa field compensate for many fish that may disappear from the nearby creek. Occasionally individual Red-tails get the poultry habit, but that is no reason why all the Red-tails in the country should be killed when in fact that one particular culprit could be disposed of and the poultry loss checked.

ANIMAL FRIENDS (Continued from Page 37)

they were privileged to catch a glimpse of a frightened deer bounding across a meadow. Now one of the most impressive sights in the park is the numerous tame deer seen about Yosemite valley. Thousands of human beings mean nothing but tasty "hand-outs" to the present deer generation. They pick their dainty ways through the village street; stand confidingly by as you pass on the trail; come boldly to your camp in quest of food; recline for hours at a time in some shady nook a stone's throw from where noisy children romp and play; and does actually introduce their timid fawns to Yosemite households.

Frequently, in June and July, Yosemite visitors come upon tiny fawns or baby deer. Nearly always the finder is moved to great pity and feels that the only thing to do is to carry the helpless little thing to camp and try to feed it. Should you happen to find such an infant, please do not pick it up. It is the habit of mother deer to hide their spotted and apparently unmothered fawns for the first several days after birth. They return to them frequently to feed them, and when they are strong they will follow the mothers about. As they gain strength and ability to leap and run it is most interesting to note their mad demonstrations of their inherited timidity. Even though the mother be very tame and entirely confident of kind treatment from man, yet her youngsters display all the characteristics that we think of when we use the expression "as wild as a deer."

Bear cubs readily learn to take food from human hands. They retain the habit and when fully grown may be dangerous.

THE YOSEMITE NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION ITS PURPOSES

1. To gather and disseminate information on the wild-life of the Sierras.

2. To develop and enlarge the Yosemite Museum (in cooperation with the National Park Service) and to establish subsidiary units, such as the Glacier Point lookout and branches of similar nature.

3. To promote the educational work of the Yosemite Nature Guide Service.

4. To publish (in cooperation with the U. S. National Park Service) "Yosemite Nature Notes".

5. To study living conditions, past and present, of the Indians of the Yosemite region.

6. To maintain in Yosemite Valley a library of historical, scientific, and popular interest.

7. To further scientific investigation along lines of greatest popular interest and to publish, from time to time, bulletins of non-technical nature.

8. To strictly limit the activities of the association to purposes which shall be scientific and educational, in order that the organization shall not be operated for profit.

MAY WE SEND YOU EACH ISSUE OF YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES?

Your check for $2.00 sent to the Park Naturalist, Yosemite National Park, will help to pay the cost of its publication for one year and make you a member of the Yosemite Natural History Association for the same period.

KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOUR YOSEMITE.

FROM THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON OUT-DOOR RECREATION

Called by PRESIDENT COOLIDGE

"THAT THE CONFERENCE ENDORSE NATURE STUDY IN SCHOOLS AND THE EXTENSION OF THE NATURE STUDY IDEA TO EVERY AMERICAN SCHOOL AND FAMILY; THAT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MUSEUMS OF NATURAL HISTORY IN NATIONAL PARKS WILL INCREASE THE EDUCATIONAL RECREATIONAL VALUE OF THE PARKS." —Resolution of the Conference.