Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/311

Rh wide expanse of prairie to the south. A free horizon southward is of great advantage to a winter climate, not only because the practically unlimited surface of snow secures the most perfect reflection of solar warmth, but also because there is no obstruction to the rays of the rising and setting sun. I consider the want of a free southern horizon to be an important defect in the situation of Davos, for it reduces in winter the daily period of sunshine by more than two hours, or, in other words, it diminishes the length of day available for patients in midwinter by more than one fourth. In respect of daily duration of sunshine, therefore, the advantage of the park over Davos would be considerable.

In order, however, that it may be fitted for the reception of invalids, much will have to be done besides the building of hotels. The lawlessness and extortion which at present prevail throughout the Yellowstone National Park must be made to cease, wholesome food must be substituted for the indigestible material which now does duty for beef and mutton, and the almost impassable roads must be seriously taken in hand.

The one drawback to the park is its great distance from the masses of the American population; but, in the first place, distances which are almost prohibitive to travelers in Europe are thought little of in America; and, secondly, the comfortable, not to say luxurious, traveling: on American lines would render the transit from the Eastern cities of the United States scarcely more formidable than that from London to Davos, the driving portion of the journey being, in fact, much shorter in the American route.

We are as yet too little acquainted with the chemical composition of the hot springs, geysers, and mineral waters so profusely distributed throughout the park, to form any trustworthy opinion of their medicinal virtues, but the physical properties of water are much the same everywhere, and, by a judicious selection of sites, the enormous advantages of an unlimited supply of natural hot water and steam for baths and heating purposes could easily be secured, and this without interfering with the wonders and aesthetic beauties of this most extraordinary and interesting region.

At present, the park, so generously set apart by Congress for the enjoyment of the American people, is utilized only by a very limited number of tourists, in the few months of a very short summer, and it seems a pity that such a magnificent possession should not be much more extensively used. Dedicated during the winter months to the purposes I have here advocated, it would constitute a winter sanitarium unequaled in the world, restoring to health and vigor not only thousands of persons suffering from incipient chest-diseases, but also still greater numbers of the overworked populations of the States and Canada.