d even an imposing
spectacle. One also thinks of it as a gigantic organ, whose many hundred
pipes rise many feet in air. Its lofty position, seen from the viewpoint
of the trail, is one of dignity; it overlooks the pines and firs
surrounding the clearing in which the observer stands. The trees on the
higher level scarcely overtop it; in part, it is outlined against the
sky.

"The Devil's Postpile," writes Professor Joseph N. LeConte, Muir's
successor as the prophet of the Sierra, "is a wonderful cliff of
columnar basalt, facing the river. The columns are quite perfect prisms,
nearly vertical and fitted together like the cells of a honeycomb. Most
of the prisms are pentagonal, though some are of four or six sides. The
standing columns are about two feet in diameter and forty feet high. At
the base of the cliff is an enormous basalt structure, but, wherever the
bed-rock is exposed beneath the pumice covering, the same formation can
be seen."

An error in the proclamation papers made the official title of this
monument the Devil Postpile, and thus it must legally appear in all
official documents.

The reservation also includes the Rainbow Fall of the San Juan River,
one of the most beautiful waterfalls of the sub-Sierra region, besides
soda springs and hot springs. This entire reservation was originally
included in the Yosemite National Park, but was cut out by an
unappreciative committee appointed to revise boundaries. It is to be
hoped that Congress will soon restore it to its rightful status.

DEVIL'S TOWER NATIONAL MONUMENT

A structure similar in nature to the Devil's Postpile, but vastly
greater in size and sensational quality, forms one of the most striking
natural spectacles east of the Rocky Mountains. The Devil's Tower is
unique. It rises with extreme abruptness from the rough Wyoming levels
just west of the Black Hills. It is on the banks of the Belle Fourche
River, which later, encircling the Black Hills around the north, finds
its way into the Big Cheyenne and the Missouri.

This extraordinary tower emerges from a rounded forested hill of
sedimentary rock which rises six hundred feet above the plain; from the
top of that the tower rises six hundred feet still higher. It is visible
for a hundred miles or more in every direction. Before the coming of the
white man it was the landmark of the Indians. Later it served a useful
purpose in guiding the early explorers.

To-day it is the point which draws th