and
| | | eight to twelve miles
| | | wide--Brilliantly colored.
| | |
Lafayette, 1919| Maine Coast | 8 | The group of granite mountains
| | | on Mount Desert Island.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another distinction which should be made is the difference between a
national park and a national monument. The one is an area of size
created by Congress upon the assumption that it is a supreme example of
its kind and with the purpose of developing it for public occupancy and
enjoyment. The other is made by presidential proclamation to conserve an
area or object which is historically, ethnologically, or scientifically
important. Size is not considered, and development is not contemplated.
The distinction is often lost in practice. Casa Grande is essentially a
national monument, but had the status of a national park until 1918. The
Grand Canyon, from every point of view a national park, was created a
national monument and remained such until 1919.

THE GRANITE NATIONAL PARKS

GRANITE'S PART IN SCENERY

The granite national parks are Yosemite, Sequoia, including the proposed
Roosevelt Park, General Grant, Rocky Mountain, and Mount McKinley.
Granite, as its name denotes, is granular in texture and appearance. It
is crystalline, which means that it is imperfectly crystallized. It is
composed of quartz, feldspar, and mica in varying proportions, and
includes several common varieties which mineralogists distinguish
scientifically by separate names.

Because of its great range and abundance, its presence at the core of
mountain ranges where it is uncovered by erosion, its attractive
coloring, its massiveness and its vigorous personality, it figures
importantly in scenery of magnificence the world over. In color granite
varies from light gray, when it shines like silver upon the high
summits, to warm rose or dark gray, the reds depending upon the
proportion of feldspar in its composition.

It produces scenic effects very different indeed from those resulting
from volcanic and sedimentary rocks. While it bulks hugely in the higher
mountains, running to enormous rounded masses below the level of the
glaciers, and to jagged spires and pinnacled walls upon the loftiest
peaks, it is found also in many regions of