upbuilding and industrial welfare of the country. In addition, when parks are created from parts of the forests, the portions remaining as forests should not be left in a form difficult or impossible to administer.

CLEAR-CUT POLICY NECESSARY

The importance of a clear-cut policy is evidenced by the efforts frequently made to secure the creation of national parks out of areas containing great bodies of timber, extensive grazing lands, and other resources, the withdrawal of which from use would be uneconomic and prejudicial to the local and general public interest. In most cases the desire for a specific park, where economic use of the resources also is essential, has led to the proposal for an administration of the area, after the creation of the park, identical with the present forest administration. Several such measures now are before Congress. Their enactment would result in a mere division of the public properties into parks and forests, having no distinction except in name; handled alike but by duplicate organizations in different departments. Still more serious is the fact that the cutting up of the forests would greatly cripple administration of the remaining lands. It would doubtless mean the abandonment of large areas which should remain under public ownership and control for timber production and watershed protection. It would greatly reduce efficiency in forest-fire protection and in the handling of current business, increase the expense of protection and administration, and cause endless confusion to users, who in many cases would have to deal with two departments in developing resources when, for instance, logging and grazing units overlap.

The protection of the scenic features and the development of the recreational use of the lands are being taken care of in the national forests. Some of the most unusual scenic areas in the forests are best suited to a full park administration. The bulk of the forest areas, however, should continue in their present status, where they will be fully protected and developed for recreation purposes as a part of the forest administration. The extensive road building, made possible by the $10,000,000 recently appropriated, will open them up rapidly.

An added cause of confusion is the fact that national parks and national forests are administered by two executive departments. While there is an effort to co-operate, nevertheless difficulties arise which could be wholly avoided if they were under one department. Unquestionably the administration of the forests should remain in the Department of Agriculture, because of the close relationship of the work of the Forest Service to the activities of other bureaus of the same department, such as the Bureau of Plant Industry, Bureau of Animal Industry, Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering, Bureau of Soils, Bureau of Biological Survey, and the Bureau of Entomology. Obviously, there are in the forests many problems relating to live-stock, plant growth, predatory animal and insect control, soil conditions, and road and trail work. These great bureaus are directly and intimately concerned with these

problems. If the forests were transferred to another department, that department either would have to duplicate these bureaus in part or would have all the difficulties of co-operation with another department which seem to be inherent. Whether the National Park Service should be transferred to the Department of Agriculture is a matter for consideration. If the transfer should be made, it would be unnecessary and, in my judgment, unwise to consolidate the work of the two services. The park service should take its place in the organization of the department as an independent bureau, with its activities closely related to those of the Forest Service. Certainly, if the two services are to be administered by different departments, there should be the closest co-operation throughout. Such co-operation should include not only the question of the creation of new parks out of national forests, but also fire protection on contiguous properties, game preservation, road building, and other activities.

RECREATION IN THE NATIONAL Forests of CALIFORNIA

During the season of 1916 the Forest Service distributed 90,000 recreation maps of nine national forests in California to those planning trips to these forests or to others interested. These maps, prepared by the Service, give detailed information about trails, roads, camping-places, supply-stations, resorts, and points of scenic interest, and also furnish concise histories and descriptions of the forests.

Fifteen thousand copies of the Handbook for Campers in the National Forests in California were also distributed. This is an interesting and useful pamphlet of forty-eight pages, prepared by the Forest Service. After a foreword, which explains the absence of restrictions on camping, hunting, and fishing in the national forests (except such restrictions upon hunting and fishing as are imposed by the state fish and game laws), a brief description of the forest areas of California and of each particular national forest is given. Some space is devoted to enumerating desirable clothing, camp equipment, and rations for camping in the national forests of California. Elaborate instructions are given in building campfires, in camp-cookery, in packing (including figures showing how to tie both the ranger-hitch and the bedding-hitch), in first aid in the case of accidents, in fire-fighting, and in the laws pertaining to fish and game, including a separate abstract of California fish and game laws, which is supplied by the State Fish and Game Commission. This interesting little pamphlet ends with useful miscellaneous information, varying from the care of chafed heels to instructions to persons lost in the California mountains.

The entire stock of both recreation maps and of campers' handbooks has now been exhausted, so great has been the demand for these. Unfortunately, the appropriation of the Forest Service is not sufficient to permit a new edition to be published at the present time. The members

of the Sierra Club can help to promote the recreation use of our splendid national forests by urging their Congressmen to have added to the next appropriation for the U. S. Department of Agriculture a special fund for this purpose.

TAHOE-YOSEMITE TRAIL

The following description of the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail Project is taken from a memorandum by District Forester Coert Du Bois:

The Tahoe-Yosemite Trail is a Forest Service project. . . . The purpose of the trail is entirely public. It is proposed to afford an easy and attractive route from the Lake Tahoe region to the boundary of the Yosemite National Park. Probably before it is completed the National Park authorities can be induced to complete the link between the head of Jack Main Cañon and Tuolumne Meadows, which when done will connect the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail with the John Muir Trail and make possible a pack-trip over a well-graded trail from Summit, on the Southern Pacific Railway, to Mount Whitney.

Instructions and specifications have been worked out in considerable detail and mimeographed, and copies will be placed in the hands of every officer or employee responsible in any way for construction or supervision on the trail. These specifications are in brief as follows:

1. Grade-Standard, 15 per cent; maximum, 20 per cent. Reverse grades allowable only when their avoidance would add 10 per cent to the cost.

2. Clearing-Standard, 3 feet; maximum, 5 feet. All brush piled for burning except through heavy brush-fields on steep sidehills with no openings, where the cost of piling and burning is clearly prohibitive.

3. Tread-Standard, 15 inches in solid ground; minimum, 12 inches; maximum, 24 inches.

4. Drainage-Waterbreaks when necessary.

5. Corduroy-When necessary over boggy places, embedded-log corduroy with sill will be used.

6. Rock Walls-Rock walls will be used where their construction is cheaper than blasting or digging the tread from the surface in place.

A distinctive sign-heading will be adopted for the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail. It is suggested that in addition to the name of the forest all signs along the trail carry the name of the trail. Direction signs will be needed wherever lateral or intersecting roads or trails are met; and distance signs throughout should give the distance and direction to the next camping-ground or fenced pasture. Signs should also indicate all points of topographic and historic interest, such as peaks, emigrant trails, etc. Signs giving the name of the watersheds left and entered should be at

all passes, and all creeks and lakes should be signed up with their proper names. Signs should be placed at county boundaries and at national forest boundaries. Signs should be placed at the points where the trail enters and leaves meadows. Where the trail crosses open country on the summit it must be indicated by ducks. It is suggested that a distinctive duck be developed, consisting, possibly, of three rocks about eight inches in diameter as a base and one rock about six inches in diameter on top. This will distinguish the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail from the innumerable trails through the high country.

I have a strong idea that such trails as the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail and John Muir Trail are going to be very popular in the future. Already every possible camping- and recreation-ground that can be reached with a Ford is getting overcrowded. The tendency is to get away from the crowd and take either a knapsack-trip or a pack-trip into the high country.

The project will not end with merely building a trail and putting proper signs along it. Properly fenced meadows must be supplied at very frequent intervals. I should say that horse-feed sufficient for at least ten horses for three nights should be available on the average for every three miles of trail. It is impossible to foresee where travelers will want to camp, and one camp-ground being occupied there should be another so close to it that the travelers will have no difficulty in going on to the next one. The ultimate development of the trail will include rest-houses and locators at the high points, similar to those installed on Mount Tamalpais.

The policy will be to work out this project gradually, concentrating the annual expenditures on the worst places and bringing each stretch worked upon up to the standard specifications as stated herein. Later on, the stretches which are now fairly good will be worked up to standard. There is no intention whatever of rushing this through to completion or making large expenditures on it immediately; but it is a job which the Service has undertaken, and which it is hoped very much will be carried through to satisfactory completion in a few years.

During the field season of 1916 an expenditure of $4990 was made on the Lake Tahoe section, where the trail was completed up Meeks Creek past the Talent Lakes to Velma Lakes. About four miles remains to be built to close the gap from Velma over Dick's Lake summit to Susie Lake. The trail is completed from Susie Lake to Desolation Valley with the exception of a very short stretch, and even this is passable for horses. On the Stanislaus section $2020 was expended and the trail was completed from the head of Disaster Cañon to the east end of Iceberg, approximately six miles.

BOOK REVIEWS

Edited by MARION Randall PARSONS

"A THOUSANDMILE WALK TO THE GULF"*

"Hungry and happy and hopeful" were his days at the University of Wisconsin, Mr. Muir tells us, when he bade it farewell to enter the "University of the Wilderness." Equally happy and hopeful, and even more hungry, were the days of his "Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf," the first of his more extended wilderness wanderings. In September, 1867, Mr. Muir started on his walk, through Kentucky and Tennessee and across a corner of North Carolina and all of Georgia to Savannah. There he took ship for Fernandina, a town on the border of Florida, and tramped across that "land of flowers" to Cedar Keys on the Gulf of Mexico, where he hoped to find a ship that would carry him to South America. In this disordered and lawless South of post-bellum days bands of guerillas threatened the whole country; a stranger was looked upon with suspicion and often given grudging hospitality; and hungry, desperate negroes lurked everywhere, ready to "kill a man for a dollar or two." Sometimes Mr. Muir lay out in the open in swamps, not daring even to light a fire for fear of drawing the attention of some marauder; often he walked fasting-"traveled today more than forty miles without dinner or supper" is one entry. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that he contracted the fever which might have ended his life, and which did materially change its whole course. On his recovery, he left Florida for Cuba, thence sailing for New York, and then by way of Panama to California.

This book may be said to form the second volume of Mr. Muir's autobiography, for it covers the period between My Boyhood and Youth and My First Summer in the Sierra. Dr. Badè has wisely included a California chapter-"Twenty-Hill Hollow"-not originally a part of the Florida journal, which makes the link complete. This delightful narrative is the first volume of his unrevised journals to be published since Mr. Muir's death, and it holds rich promise of literary treasures yet to come. The journal, however, cannot altogether be classed as "unrevised," for it bears the unmistakable stamp of Mr. Muir's more mature thought and style, even though the typewritten copy from which the material was principally drawn was little more than a first draft of the projected book. Mr. Muir often told me that he intended to turn his attention to the Florida journal immediately after the Alaska travels.

The book is full of charm and youthful enthusiasm, the register of a

A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. By JOHN MUIR. Edited by William Frederic Badè. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York. 1916. Price, $2.50. Illustrated. Large paper edition, $5.00.