o follow the great mineral belt in a
southwesterly direction even to the Sierra Nevada Range if need be. At
Livingston he went south by railway through a gateway of the mountains,
and up the fertile Paradise Valley, following the cool green waters of
the Yellowstone alive with trout and equally gamesome graylings.

At Cinnabar Alfonso joined a merry party of tourists, who mounted a
Concord coach, and the four grays were urged to a brisk pace over a
smooth government road towards the great National Park. How exhilarating
this six miles' ride, and how imposing the scenery, as the coach enters
this Geologist's Paradise!

The Yellowstone or National Park contains 2,288,000 acres, and is fifty
times the size of France's greatest park at Fontainebleau. Its altitude
is a half mile higher than the summit of Mt. Washington, and the whole
park is encircled by snow-clad peaks and majestic domes from three to
five thousand feet high. This reservation by Congress in 1872, of 3575
square miles of public domain in perpetuity for the pleasure of the
people, was a most creditable act.

Alfonso found that the park abounded in wild gorges, grand canyons,
dancing cascades, majestic falls and mountains, picturesque lakes,
curious hot springs, and awe-inspiring geysers. He and his party pushed
through the Golden Gate, marveled at the wonders of the Norris and
Firehole Basins, stood entranced before the mighty Canyon then bathed in
the transparent Yellowstone Lake, and by nine o'clock were lulled to
sleep in the shade of fragrant pines.

After breakfast next morning, while Alfonso and the hotel guests sat on
the porch, a retired army captain, who had served in the Seventh U.S.
Cavalry, said he wished a party could be organized to visit General
Custer's monument east of the National Park on the Little Big Horn River.
There the Government had marked the historic battleground, where on the
morning of the 24th of June, 1876, two hundred of the famous Seventh
Cavalry and their brave leader, were overwhelmed and slaughtered by 2,500
Indians under the famous chief, Sitting Bull. Custer was tall and
slender, with blue eyes and long light hair. He had fought at Bull Run
and Gettysburg, and was present at Lee's surrender at Appomattox. He was
promoted to brigadier general when he was twenty-three years old, and
became major general when he was twenty-five. Eleven horses were shot
under him. Once he saved the flag by tearing it from its staff and
co