58 THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



Nothing can surpass the rosy hues which tinge the heavens 

 at sunrise. Here game of all sorts is found. The lakes 

 swarm with mallards, ducks, and a variety of teal. Herds of 

 antelopes cross the plain in all directions, and vast herds 

 of buffalo darken the horizon as they sweep by in their 

 migrations. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



At length a blue range, which might be taken for a rising 

 vapour, appears in the western horizon. It is the first sight 

 the traveller obtains of the long-looked-for Rocky Mountains ; 

 yet he has many a weary league to pass before he is among 

 them, and dangers not a few before he can descend their 

 western slopes. At length he finds himself amid masses of 

 dark brown rocks, not a patch of green appearing ; mountain 

 heights rising westward, one beyond the other; and far away, 

 where he might suppose the plains were again to be found, 

 still there rises before him a region of everlasting snow. For 

 many days he may go on, now climbing, now descending, now 

 flanking piles of rocks, and yet not till fully six days are 

 passed is he able to say that he has crossed that mountain- 

 range. Indeed, the term " range " scarcely describes the sys- 

 tem of the Rocky Mountains. It is, in fact, a chain, com- 

 posed of numerous links, with vast plains rising amid them. 



PARKS. 



These ranges in several places thin out, as it were, leav- 

 ing a large tract of level country completely embosomed 

 in snowy ridges in the very heart of the system. These 

 plains are known as " parks." They are found throughout 

 the rang;e. Several of them are of vast extent, the four 

 principal ones forming the series called, in their order, 



