Visitors to some of the national monuments in 1919.

Analysis of park-travel figures.-An analysis of these figures shows that the travel in 1919 was 67 per cent over that of 1918 and 54 per cent more than that of the previous high-water mark in park travel of 1917. An astounding increase occurred also in motor travel to the national parks. The increase of the number of cars, 95,140 in 1919 over that of 55,296 in the record year 1917, is 72 per cent. While no accurate general record is kept in all the parks of the number of tourists entering in motor cars, in Yellowstone it is found that they average about four to the car, as will be seen from the following tables for the past three years:

With this average in mind it is estimated that about 400,000 visitors entered the parks and monuments by motor. The travelers came from every State in the Union and from foreign countries, and the motorists from every corner of the country and from Canada and Mexico. Some of the motorists visited all of the national parks of the continental west and others toured from two to five. More than half carried their own supplies and camp equipment, and they enjoyed the playgrounds in their own way.

Conventions in the parks.-Conventions in various parks during this year of tremendous travel were the cause of some overcrowding of hotel and camp facilities. It may be necessary in the future to restrict the holding of conventions in the parks until the hotel and camp facilities can be extended beyond their present capacity. The aim is first of all to accommodate the traveling public. Among the conventions held in the parks were those of the Montana Bankers' Association, in Yellowstone Park; the Washington Bankers' Association, the West Coast Lumbermen's Association, the Association of Western Confectioners, the Knights of Pythias, the Order of the Eastern Star, in Mount Rainier; and the Native Sons of the Golden West in Yosemite.

Cooperation of United States Railroad Administration.-In these large travel figures the influence of the activities of the United States

1 No records for other 17 national monuments.

2 Estimated.

Railroad Administration is also reflected. During the war travel was discouraged. Soon after the cessation of hostilities, however, the administration changed to a stand just opposite to the former policy, and by judicious advertising and education of those of its employees who come in direct contact with the tourists, stimulated the patronage of the winter resorts in the South and West to unusually gratifying proportions. Later, through its passenger traffic committee, it directed its efforts toward the summer resorts of the country with special emphasis on the national parks. The promotion of park travel, of course, fell naturally to the western committee of the railroads and to the Bureau of Service, National Parks and monuments, with headquarters at Chicago. This latter bureau was well organized and prepared to perform its functions without delays when the restrictions were raised. By attractively designed and well-written national park booklets they presented a feature of their campaign that offered at once the most important inducement to travel in the parks that has appeared since the publication of the National Parks Portfolio some three years ago. The very satisfying result achieved by this bureau testifies to its great importance and the extreme desirability of its surviving as one of the institutions of the Railroad Administration whenever the railroads are turned over to private operation.

Touring and industry.-At this writing restrictions against overseas travel have also been removed. The competition of Europe for tourist travel will begin with renewed activity. We have in this country scenery that is the peer and in most instances the superior of that found abroad, but the value of tourist travel as an industry has hardly been recognized in this country. Various industries of the United States are protected as a matter of course, but what protection will the great resorts of this country have from the greatest campaign for tourist travel in foreign lands that will ever have been waged? As a nation we have failed to grasp the significance and value of the tourist industry. Every dollar of revenue received from it stays here. Before the war Americans spent in England alone about $200,000,000 a year, and in France and Switzerland $400,000,000. We should develop this industry, as other countries are doing, into one of our biggest economic assets.

The need of a touring agency.-To properly develop this the establishment of a touring agency is a present national necessity. It is vitally important to the Nation, and, as there is no other agency of the Government that is so interested or so closely in touch with the traveling public as the National Park Service, the agency should be established there. Such an activity could cooperate closely with the resorts of the United States, the railroads, automobile associations, highway associations, mountaineering clubs, etc. Promotive

literature bearing the stamp of approval of the department and of the National Park Service would most effectively stimulate and maintain travel in the United States, because its data would not be selfish or exaggerated and would have the confidence of everybody using it.

The national parks in the field of education. The dissemination of information regarding the national parks and national monuments, aside from its value from a tourist standpoint, has maintained its high place in the educational field. While no entirely new literature regarding the national parks has been issued, the existing circulars for all of the parks were published in considerably increased editions. During the year 185,000 of such publications were issued and approximately 167,500 have been distributed. Mountaineering in Rocky Mountain National Park by Supt. Roger W. Toll, of Mount Rainier Park, and Wild Animals of Glacier National Park by Vernon Bailey and Florence Merriam Bailey, compiled last year, were available for distribution during the season. A new edition of the popular pamphlet, Glimpses of Our National Parks has been prepared and another pamphlet, entitled Glimpses of Our National Monuments, is in course of preparation; these will be available for next season's work. Large editions of automobile maps were widely distributed. Popular publications on the wild life of Mount Rainier National Park, the flora of Glacier National Park, and the bird life of Papago Saguaro National Monument and adjoining regions will be ready during the coming winter months. Copy for an information circular on Zion Monument has been prepared. The value of the parks and monuments for profitable summer investigations in numerous branches of scientific and historic research is more and more apparent. Columbia University has definitely opened a field of national park study as a distinct feature of its curriculum; it is conducting a course in the scenery of the national parks with special emphasis on its creation by the forces of nature that have developed the surface of the earth and are still engaged in modifying and changing it.

During the summer the University of California through its extension division established a course of lectures on national parks, which are to be given every year in Yosemite Valley. These are to be known as the Le Conte Memorial Lectures, in commemoration of the late Joseph Le Conte's devotion to the national parks and his contributions to science. The lectures were popular and well attended. The next season's series are already being printed.

Camp-fire talks, such as were given by Dr. Matthes of the Geological Survey, at popular camps in Yosemite and at the Sierra Club camp fires by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes in the Mesa Verde National Park, and by other men interested in this educational extension work

prove intensely interesting features of the education of the visitors to a real appreciation of the meanings of the natural formation in the parks. The opportunities for field laboratory work in the parks for students are unlimited and the endeavor will be to have these opportunities developed in an increasing degree from year to year. Establishment of museums.-The museum established at Mesa Verde National Park to house relics taken from the cliff dwellings and other prehistoric buildings of the park has become one of the most interesting and enjoyable features of the reservation. In the plans for a new administration building for Yosemite Park provision was made for a large museum to be constructed with every modern appliance for effective exhibitions. In Yellowstone National Park a large room in one of the buildings selected for headquarters will be developed as a museum to house specimens of the hundreds of different objects of interest that the park contains. At the Casa Grande National Monument a collection of prehistoric implements and other relics of interest, together with a library of archeology and ethnology, has been assembled. In Rocky Mountain Park collections of specimens of wild flowers and exhibits of mounted birds and animals are attracting attention. This work promises to be of great value to the public and will create a true understanding of the historic aspects and wild life of the parks. Supplemented by the various publications put out during the year, such as Wild Animals of Glacier National Park and similar educational papers, the attractions and biological history of these areas will be available to the public in varied form. The Biological Survey under the Department of Agriculture, the University of Washington, and the National Park Service are cooperating at this writing in the gathering of data for popular articles on the wild life of Mount Rainier National Park, and the Smithsonian Institution is assembling data for a book on the flora of Glacier Park.

Film and pictorial service.-The National Park Service has maintained a wide circulation of pictures, films, lantern slides, and other pictorial material. The demand for these, while not as heavy as prior to the war, was still very extensive. The great interest in the national parks shown by organizations and societies is fully evidenced by the continued demands for such material. Travel exhibits of national park pictures are constantly on view in various cities. Money is needed for more material of this kind so that the rapidly increasing demand may be met. All these parks are reservations for wild animals; they contain some of the finest game preserves in the world. With few exceptions, the wild animals of the park have thrived splendidly. The open winter helped to make raising conditions good. Toll taken by poachers and the occasional results of sporadic epidemics, of course, make certain inroads each year. It is particularly

important that appropriations become available for the administration of Mount McKinley National Park in Alaska, which was created primarily to protect its splendid animal life. Complete jurisdiction of the United States over the California and Colorado parks should also be speedily effected to protect the wild animal life. It is also highly important that a number of States give attention to the establishment of game preserves adjoining the national parks, particularly in California; these are essential to the preservation of the growing herds of animals after they leave the park boundaries, and particularly in the wintertime, when cold and scarcity of food drive them into the lowlands outside of the existing park boundaries and beyond our present protective care. Unusual success was experienced in killing of predatory animals; so much so that there has already been a noticeable increase of the deer and other species that are usually their victims.

Fishing a favorite sport in the parks.-Fishing in the parks was excellent during part of the season, but the large number of tourists enjoying the sport greatly depleted the stock. Large consignments of fry were planted in practically all the parks, but this operation will have to be conducted on a larger scale in the future. The cooperation of the United States Bureau of Fisheries and some of the States in this phase of park development was particularly gratifying. Good fishing for the visiting public is one of the most appealing diversions offered by the parks, and opportunities for following this sport will be intensively improved.

Park-to-park highway. The immense value of a park-to-park highway is becoming yearly more apparent. Where in former years relatively few communities were in favor of it, now there is a wide demand for such a connecting link between these scenic areas. Motorists find that in almost every town along the routes from their homes to the parks or between the reservations themselves a well-kept automobile camp is established which they are privileged to use free of charge. Many of these camps are adequately equipped and wood is nearly always available; of course, small charges are made in places to cover the cost of wood or other fuel. The automobile camp of the western towns and cities is now an institution and a particularly enjoyable adjunct of park-to-park travel. The first extensive parkto-park trip to be made by using the special transportation facilities provided by the Yellowstone Park Transportation Co. and the Glacier Park Transportation Co. was made by a party organized by and under the guidance of the Brooklyn Eagle, which undertook the trip in July and early August. The trip was a great success.

In connection with the park-to-park highway travel it was very interesting to note the large numbers of parties traveling between the parks on trains. While no record is available of the number who