YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 



461 



of its cognomen by Spot Mountain in Glacier National 

 Park. Is it any wonder that storms blow up on this 

 Lake with such fury that they seem to be launched on to 

 renewed violence in order that they may tear from the 

 heart of the Lake those elements which have been cursed 

 by man's ignorance and lack of imagination? 



By most tourists the Lake Hotel is approached with a 

 spirit of keen and trembling anticipation, for all along the 

 line information 

 has been slyly 

 supplied to the 

 effect that here 

 will be found the 

 monarch of the 

 forests, and for 

 once, this form 

 of gratuitous 

 information 

 proves correct. 

 Out back of the 

 hotel, there is 

 an open space 

 where, for a 

 number of years, 

 the proprietors 

 have been dump- 

 ing the refuse 

 from the din- 

 ing-room. Why 

 the dumping is 

 done at the rear, 

 rather than in 

 the front, cannot 

 be explained on 

 any other 

 grounds than the 

 fact that it is 

 closer to the 

 kitchen, for 

 nothing could 

 add to the in- 

 consistency of 

 this combination 



rd for Northern Pacific Railroad 



THE GOLDEN GATE 



physical development and it is pride of race that keeps 

 him to schedule, but in any case, it is useless to seek a 

 glimpse of the great grizzly at any other time. 



There has been for some time a mother bear and two 

 cubs of the Black family that seem to have become more 

 inured to the extravagance in language and dress on the 

 part of the tourist than the other bears, for they are fre- 

 quently found within a few yards of the kitchen steps of 



the hotel and 

 may be snapped 

 with kodaks, fed 

 with cake and 

 crusts, and other- 

 wise annoyed, 

 with more or less 

 impunity. At the 

 risk of starting 

 a controversy 

 over a word 

 which has, in the 

 minds of certain 

 predatory cor- 

 porations, been 

 much over-used, 

 I would suggest 

 that the tourist 

 carry on his an- 

 noyances of the 

 bears within 

 "reasonable 

 limits." There 

 is a story of one 

 man who had 

 grown so pas- 

 sionately fond of 

 life in the open 

 that he took his 

 blankets and 

 slept by the edge 

 of the lake in 

 front of the 

 hotel. Whether 

 his preference 



Of Colonial archi Thls is a pass throu h which the government road runs. It looks as much like a gate as it does like gold, and is, f Qr j-^jg location 



therefore, as well and as aptly named as almost any other prominent feature of the Park. Perhaps it should be a 

 teCtUPe aild West- source of gratification that it was not named Politics Portal. aS against a 



ern box wood-work painted a vivid yellow. Be that as it 

 may, the dump grounds are well to the rear of the hotel, 

 and for several generations of bears this area has been the 

 dining-room of the wild animals that are so elaborately 

 described in railroad literature. It is true that on hot days 

 those who are enjoying a cold in the head will find their 

 affliction a distinct advantage, unless the bears may have 

 eaten all the refuse before it had time to give other than 

 ocular evidence of its presence. At almost any time in the 

 day, one or two bears may be found on the dumps, but 

 these are invariably of the family of Black Bears. The 

 Grizzly, it appears, is more regular in his habits and dines 

 only between the hours of six and eight in the evening. 

 Perhaps this regularity in habit accounts for his unusual 



couch in the hotel was prompted by a sincere love of 

 nature or an antipathy for the accommodations offered, 

 has never been ascertained, for, during the night a grizzly, 

 smelling the bacon under his pillow, aroused him to such 

 an extent that his movements were interpreted as threat- 

 ening to all bears. Prompted, therefore, by the first law 

 of nature, the grizzly swung on him with sufficient force 

 to throw him completely " through the ropes " and into the 

 Lake, some fifteen feet away, during which flight the na- 

 ture lover scattered various and sundry parts of his anat- 

 omy en route. Having completed his knock-out, the bear 

 ambled on his way, munching bacon, and the man lived 

 only long enough to give a few meager facts of the case. 

 The next day's journey follows along the Yellowstone 



