are simply meadows on a magnificent scale. 

 Each is an extensive prairie of irregular outline 

 surrounded by high forest-draped mountains 

 with snowy peaks, — an inter-mountain plain 

 broken by grassy hills and forested ridges. 

 Here a mountain peninsula thrusts out into the 

 lowland, and there a grassy bay extends a few 

 miles back into the forested mountains. Samuel 

 Bowles, in the "Springfield Republican," gave 

 the following description of Middle Park while 

 it was still primeval: "Above us the mountain 

 peaks go up sharp with snow and rock, and 

 shut in our view; but below and beyond through 

 wide and thick forests lies Middle Park, a 

 varied picture of plain and hill, with snowy 

 peaks beyond and around. ... It offers as 

 much of varied and sublime beauty in moun- 

 tain scenery as any so comparatively easy a trip 

 within our experience possibly can. ... A short 

 ride brought us into miles of clear prairie, 

 with grass one to two feet high, and hearty 

 streams struggling to be first into the Pacific 

 Ocean. This was the Middle Park, and we had 

 a long twenty-five miles ride northerly through 



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