G

LACIER PARK, on the northern

border of Montana, is four years old, though the territory it covers has belonged to the Government for nearly twenty years. It was originally part of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, from which it was carved by an Act of Congress, with the consent of the Indians, because it was hoped that within its limits there might be found mineral deposits of great value. Disappointed in this hope, Congress and President Taft in 1910 turned this region, occupying fourteen hundred square miles, into a pleasure-ground for the Nation. Dr. William T. Hornaday, Director of the New York Zoological Park, has said that here "there is more geography to the square mile than can be found in any equal area anywhere else on this round earth." The Flathead River forms the southwestern boundary of this reservation which the Nation has dedicated to health and the spirit of wonder. On its northern edge it touches the Canadian border.

If you go to the eastern gateway of this new National Park, the train lands you directly in front of a handsome rustic hotel at Glacier, where two tall varicolored totempoles greet you. If, on the other hand, you approach from the Pacific coast, you alight at Belton station and go by stage to beautiful Lake Macdonald. If the traveler from the East can spare ten days or two weeks in this care-free region, he will perhaps leave Glacier Park station for a ride by stage to Two Medicine Camp, making this trip by way of a beautiful drive over ridges and by the side of Lower Two Medicine Lake, with a stop-over at Trick Falls, on the way to the upper lake, with its pretty log chalets, furnished with comfortable beds, gayly colored blankets and rugs, and open fireplaces. Cut Bank Camp, where the traveler may fish and climb mountains to his heart's content, can also be reached by automobile and wagon from Glacier. Upper and Lower St. Mary Lakes, still farther north, surrounded by lofty mountains, may also be easily reached as the focus of still other expeditions. A chalet such as has been built at the upper lake for the accommodation of tourists may be seen, in an illustration accompanying this article, perched

on a cliff above that narrow, ribbon-like body of water. Awaiting the angler the gamy cutthroat trout may here be found. At the northern end of Lower St. Mary Lake there is a road to Many Glacier Camp, in the Lake McDermott region. In a four-horse stage by many lakes and through deserted mining camps the trail goes. Travel through this region can be made, if the tourist desires, in the saddle, with pack-horses to carry luggage and provisions. The traveler may cross thence over the passes to the Lake Macdonald region, at the other side of the Park. Or, if one chooses, from St. Mary Camp one may take a launch for the upper narrows. The St. Mary Lakes are the home of the Mackinaw trout, which are caught by trolling. They have been known to reach a weight of eighteen pounds. This is frequently conceded to be the most picturesque spot in the Park. The ride on the Upper St. Mary Lake is beautiful in the extreme, framed as it is with a girdle of lofty mountains. One of these

mountains, "Going to the Sun," is vital with Indian lore not unlike the Prometheus legend of ancient Greece. According to the Indian story, a great benevolent messenger, Sour Spirit by name, came to the Blackfeet Indians from the Lodge of the Sun. He showed the Indians how to tan hides, build tepees, and other arts necessary to Indian life. When his work was finished, he returned to the Lodge of the Sun. In proof of their legend the Indians point out, on "Going to the Sun Mountain," the great stone face of Sour Spirit, left there when he returned to the Sun's Lodge, that all men who doubted the story of his deeds might see and believe. The Indian name of this mountain is Mah-tah-pee O-stook-sis MehStuck, which, fully translated, means "The face of Sour Spirit, who went to the sun after his work was done."

Gunsight Camp, above Gunsight Lake, shown from a point on Gunsight Pass in an illustration accompanying this article, may be made the next stop of the trip. From here both the Blackfeet Glacier, said to be the finest glacier in the United States, and Sperry Glacier can be reached.

Such an account as this can give hardly more than a bare catalogue of some of the

points of interest. The Park itself, so far as travelers are concerned, has been far from fully explored. Some of its lakes, indeed, lie along the regular routes and are easily reached, while others can be approached only by tortuous and difficult trails. All are in the midst of magnificent scenery, and our Government is now making detailed observations regarding their depth and their fish life. A few of these lakes are circular in form, but the typical lake of this region is long and narrow. The settings of almost all are sublime. Giant pines fringe their edges, and bleak and bare mountains rise precipitously from their shores. One lake, known as Iceberg Lake, which can be reached from Many Glacier Camp, in the McDermott region, is the only lake of its kind to be found on the continent of North America. At one end is a small glacier, and during the warm days of summer this mass of ice moves out over the edge of the solid wall that holds it, and great chunks as big as the Flatiron Building in New York City go plunging down into the water. The elevation at this point is so high that the lake never becomes warm enough to melt the ice entirely. There are always several huge icebergs floating on its surface. Iceberg Lake was thought by the Indians to be the home of lost souls and troubled spirits. Avalanche Lake, in Avalanche Basin, at the head of Lake Macdonald, is another beauty that is well worth a day's jaunt to reach. It is the favorite with persons unaccustomed to horseback, for the trail is an easy one through pine forests until, as the rider suddenly emerges at what seems a hole in the Rockies, the lake bursts upon the traveler, a gem often seen through a halo of purple mist. This lake is two miles long, with a border of green. Its chief charms are four waterfalls tumbling down from the surrounding hill. In the distance these great falls seem like ribbons flung from the crags, to end in milky foam below.

Glacier Park was the spirit land of the Piegans or Blackfeet Indians, now unfortunately diminishing in number. Their chiefs tell many tales of romance connected with these lakes and mountains. Lake Macdonald they have, for reasons of their own, always shunned. Of Lake McDermott they have been particularly fond. Two Medicine Lake was named after an ancient ceremony.

As

So

the story goes, there was a famine in the land. Even the buffalo had left, and there was nothing to eat but berries. The Blackfeet are plains Indians, and this loss of game meant to them virtual starvation. the wise men of the tribe came up into the mountains and built two medicine lodges on the shore of this lake to worship the Great Spirit and to pray that they might be relieved from the famine. When the Great Spirit heard them, he directed that some of their oldest men should go to Chief Mountain, where the Wind God held sway. The old men were afraid to approach the Wind God, and so the Great Spirit directed that the medicine men send their youngest and bravest warriors. These young men, when they reached Chief Mountain and saw the Wind God, were also afraid; but they drew nearer and nearer to him, and finally dared to touch the skins he was wearing. They made their prayer, and he listened. Stretching one wing far over the plains, he told them in this way to go back there and they would find the buffalo. The warriors descended to the valley and brought the good news to their people. They found that the buffalo had already come back and that the famine was broken.

There is, of course, no hunting, killing," wounding, or capturing of birds or wild animals allowed in the National Park. The white goat and bear, deer, and members of the feathered tribe are as bold here as they are every-. where when a truce of God exists between man and beast. In the midst, too, of all this stupendous scenery there are found all the quieter pleasures and beauties of the wilderness. The traveler sinks his feet deep in ferns and mosses, rests himself on fallen tree-trunks covered with green lichen, picks wild berries that are strange and beautiful and at whose name he can only guess. The air is pure and still, and over it all is the charm of a wild and unspoiled land. Are we to wonder if within the confines of this Park the American traveler feels a thrill of pride? For all this grandeur, all this intimate beauty, is not in some far and distant land. It is not Africa, Europe, or Asia. It is part of our United States, and it belongs to our people as a matchless and inalienable heritage.