18 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



lofty mountains steeped in lovely nemophila-blue 

 skies and clad with forests and glaciers, mossy, 

 ferny waterfalls in their hollows, nameless and 

 numberless, and meadowy gardens abounding in 

 the best of everything. When you are calm 

 enough for discriminating observation, you will 

 find the king of the larches, one of the best of 

 the Western giants, beautiful, picturesque, and 

 regal in port, easily the grandest of all the 

 larches in the world. It grows to a height of 

 one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, with 

 a diameter at the ground of five to eight feet, 

 throwing out its branches into the light as no 

 other tree does. To those who before have seen 

 only the European larch or the Lyall species of 

 the eastern Eocky Mountains, or the little tama- 

 rack or hackmatack of the Eastern States and 

 Canada, this Western king must be a revelation. 



Associated with this grand tree in the making 

 of the Flathead forests is the large and beautiful 

 mountain pine, or Western white pine (Pinus 

 monticola), the invincible contorta or lodge-pole 

 pine, and spruce and cedar. The forest floor is 

 covered with the richest beds of Linnaea borealis 

 I ever saw, thick fragrant carpets, enriched with 

 shining mosses here and there, and with Clin- 

 tonia, pyrola, moneses, and vaccinium, weaving 

 hundred-mile beds of bloom that would have 

 made blessed old Linnaeus weep for joy. 



Lake McDonald, full of brisk trout, is in the 



