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Show 11 SWEPT OVER FORESTS OF THE YELLOWSTONE To comprehend what we hae in Yellowstone, we must begin with i te making The entire region is of vol-; vol-; came origin. The mountains around j it on both sides and the mountains within it are products or remainders 1 of great volcanoes of the far past ; I and the great plateaus, from which spring its ge sers and hot springs and j through whose foresLs now roam BO many wild animals, 1fre eom posed m the ash disintegrated lavas which were 'once ejected from these volcanoes. Of' course ihe plains are now all d'ep with ' soil. But such evidences of the pasl 1 ! as the black volcanic glass of the Ob- I sidian clifr and th- fantastic whorled 'lava rocks of Mount Washburn are plain to the least instructed eye. One . peculiarly farcinating glimpse' of Yellowstone s lempestuous past is afforded in the petrified forest of the i Specimen ridge neighborhood, where many levels of upright petrified trunks may be found alternating, like the lay-eres lay-eres in cake. with levels of lava; J which plainly shows thai after ihe first forest grew on the oleano s slope ! and was engulfed by a fresh run of I lava, enough time elapsed for a second ! forest to grow upon that level; and that this, in turn, Mas engulfed with new ia iu uiiinr ine icvei lJi arioiil- er forest, and so on There Is a eliii I 2000 feet high composed wholly of I these alternate levels of engulfed for- ests and the lavas which engulfed I them In magnificent contrast with the vol canic plateau and its border of volcan-' volcan-' ic mountains there rises from the plains, SO miles south of (he park, one of the most abrupt and stupendous , outcroppings of granite in the western west-ern hemisphere From the western shore of Jackson lake the Teion mountains moun-tains lift their spired peaks 7000 feet I in apparent perpendicular. Man) glaciers gla-ciers rest upon their shoulders. Their I climax Is ihe Grand Teton, whose altitude alti-tude is 13,747 feet. Thus does the Yellowstone run the scenic gamut. Once Jackson Hole, as this region is still popularly called, was the refuge ! for the hunted desperado of mountain, j plain and city. In the recesses of these I granite monsters he was safe from pursuit, and the elk herds of the plain-pro plain-pro ided him food But that pictur I esqUe period of American life has passed with the warring Indians, who 1 also here found temporary safe retreat. |