WILD PARKS OF THE WEST 7 



lypso borealis still hides in the arbor vitae swamps 

 of Canada, and away to the southward there are 

 a few unspoiled swamps, big ones, where miasma, 

 snakes, and alligators, like guardian angels, de- 

 fend their treasures and keep them as pure as 

 paradise. And beside a' that and a' that, the 

 East is blessed with good winters and blossoming 

 clouds that shed white flowers over all the land, 

 covering every scar and making the saddest land- 

 scape divine at least once a year. 



The most extensive, least spoiled, and most 

 unspoilable of the gardens of the continent are 

 the vast tundras of Alaska. In summer they 

 extend smooth, even, undulating, continuous beds 

 of flowers and leaves from about lat. 62° to 

 the shores of the Arctic Ocean ; and in winter 

 sheets of snowflowers make all the country shine, 

 one mass of white radiance like a star. Nor are 

 these Arctic plant people the pitiful frost-pinched 

 unfortunates they are guessed to be by those who 

 have never seen them. Though lowly in stature, 

 keeping near the frozen ground as if loving it, 

 they are bright and cheery, and speak Nature's 

 love as plainly as their big relatives of the South. 

 Tenderly happed and tucked in beneath downy 

 snow to sleep through the long, white winter, 

 they make haste to bloom in the spring without 

 trying to grow tall, though some rise high enough 

 to ripple and wave in the wind, and display 

 masses of color, — yellow, purple, and blue, — so 



