The Yellowstone Park 
upon many small lakes dotted over the 
Park, rearing their young without the least 
fear of molestation. Pelicans find a home 
around the shores of Yellowstone Lake and 
the bottom-lands of its tributaries. That 
graceful creature and rare bird, the white 
swan, may frequently be seen on Yellowstone 
Lake, and on three separate visits to that 
secluded sheet of water, Riddle Lake, I have 
never failed to find several of them paddling 
about in its quiet waters. Eagles, fish- 
hawks, and ospreys soar above the forest, 
building their nests upon the summits of the 
crags and pinnacles in the wildest and most 
inaccessible places. It is always an impres- 
sive sight to see that magnificent bird, the 
bald-headed eagle, flying high over the lakes, 
crossing and recrossing the wooded con- 
tinental watershed, equally at home among 
the sources of the Mississippi and Columbia, 
undisturbed by his only really dangerous 
enemy, rifle-bearing man. 
The preservation of animal life, as it exists 
to-day under natural conditions within a gov- 
ernment reservation, may be purely a matter 
of sentiment; but surely this grand possession 
269 
