YELLOWSTONE AND THE BIOLOGY OF TIME.

• Author: KREYCHE, GERALD F.
• Position: Review

YELLOWSTONE AND THE BIOLOGY OF TIME BY MARY MEAGHER AND DOUGLAS B. HOUSTON UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS 1999, 287 PAGES, $32.95

Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872, was America's first national park and served as a prototype for such preserves the world over. Close to the Earth's molten magma, it has geysers galore and hot springs, more than any other place on the planet. It contains more than 40 waterfalls as well as mountain ranges, pristine lakes, and bountiful wildlife.

Today, its annual 3,000,000 visitors are asked to enjoy Yellowstone, but to leave only footprints and to take only photographs. This large-dimension photo book took to heart the latter and went a measure beyond. The authors are research scientists interested in comparing the Yellowstone of yester-year to that of today. They did so by collecting photographs of the park in its early years, searching through various archives and personal collections.

The authors' next step was to find the exact site and perspective of each old picture as well as the season and time of day it was taken. This determined, they duplicated the scene in order to see what differences there were between the new and old photos--a time lag of over 125 years. Such documentation revealed extensive ecological changes. The park has hundreds of earthquakes and fires annually. Even beaver ponds affect the landscape with dams and flooding.

Many old geysers petered out, and dormant ones burst forth from the netherworld. Even Old Faithful has become less faithful as its eruption schedule changed, Meanwhile, the fires of 1988...