American Fern Journal 
OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 1920 No. 4. 
Vol. 10 
FERNS OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, 
MONTANA! 
PAUL C, STANDLEY 
Glacier National Park embraces an area of 1,534 
square miles in northwestern Montana along the main 
range of the Rockies. The region is extremely rugged 
and consists of a great mass of abrupt peaks, separated 
by deep valleys. On the north the Park adjoins Alberta 
and British Columbia; to the east lie the prairies of the - 
Blackfoot Indian Reservation, and to the west the for- 
ests of the Flathead Valley. The Continental Divide 
traverses the Park. The streams of the west slope 
reach ultimately the Columbia River, and those of the 
east slope drain partly into the Missouri River and part- 
ly into Hudson Bay. 
The highest peaks attain an altitude of little more 
than 10,000 feet, but the surrounding country is com- 
paratively low—3,170 feet on the west slope and 4,800 
feet on the east slope—so that the mountains are quite 
as imposing in appearance as the more elevated peaks 
of the southern Rockies. ‘The rocks are stratified and of 
Algonkian age. They consist chiefly of beds of shale, 
limestone, sandstone, and argillite, many of which are 
beautifully colored in red and green. 
From a scenic standpoint the region is perhaps unsur- 
passed in North America. ‘There are more than 60 gla- 
1 Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute. 
Me 10, no. 3 of the JouRNAL, pages 65-96, plate 1, was issued Sept. 21, 
1920 
97 
