les
are drawn by six, the smaller ones by four, strong horses, well fed,
well groomed, high spirited, yet safe. This feature of our National
Park astonished me. I had formed no idea of its perfection or its
magnitude. Here, for example, are vehicles enough to accommodate
seven hundred tourists for a continuous journey of five days! Here,
too, are five hundred horses, all of which can be harnessed at
twenty-four hours' notice; and, since the Park is so remote, here
also are the company's blacksmith and repair shops. Within the
stables, also, are the beautifully varnished coaches, varying in
cost from one to two thousand dollars, and made in Concord, New
Hampshire, twenty-five hundred miles away. On one of these I read
the number, "13-1/2." "Why did you add the fraction?" I inquired of
the Manager of Transportation. "Because," he replied, "some
travelers would not take a number thirteen coach. They feared a
breakdown or a tumble into the river; so I put on the half to take
ill-luck away." I dwell at length upon these practical details,
because I have found that people, in general, do not know them. Most
Americans have little idea whether the driving distance in the Park
is ten miles, or a hundred. Especially are they ignorant of the fact
that they may leave the coaches at any point, remain at a hotel as
long as they desire, and then resume their journey in other
vehicles, without the least additional expense for transportation,
precisely as one uses a stop-over ticket on a railroad.

[Illustration: A COACHING-PARTY.]

[Illustration: NO. 13-1/2.]

[Illustration: HOTEL AT YELLOWSTONE LAKE.]

The fact that it is possible to go through the Park in four or five
days is not a reason why it is best to do so. Hundreds of tourists
make the trip three times as rapidly as they would were they aware
that they could remain comfortably for months. When this is better
known, people will travel here more leisurely. Even now, parents
with little children sometimes leave them at the Mammoth Springs
Hotel in charge of nurses, and receive messages by telephone every
day to inform them how they are. An important consideration, also,
for invalids is the fact that two skilled surgeons, attendant on the
army, are always easily accessible. Moreover, the climate of the Park
in summer is delightful. It is true, the sun beats down at noonday
fiercely, the thin air offering scant resistance to its rays, but in
the shade one feels no heat at all