OUR NATIONAL PARKS. 21 



Imagine everywhere mountain gorges of the utmost wildness. 

 Imagine rushing rivers and waterfalls. Imagine valleys clothed with 

 pines right up to timber line where trees can not grow because it is too 

 high and in winter too cold and windy. 



Imagine what all this looks like in summer, and then some summer 

 go there yourself and you will find that you did not imagine even a 

 small part of its real beauty. 



Down from the Continental Divide, which the crest of the moun- 

 tains is called because it divides the streams that flow eastward into 

 the Atlantic Ocean from those that flow westward into the Pacific, 

 descend nineteen principal valleys, seven on the east side and twelve 

 on the west. Of course there are very many smaller valleys trib- 

 utary to each of these larger valleys. Through these valleys run the 

 rivers from the glaciers far up on the mountains. 



Many of these valleys have not yet been thoroughly explored. It 

 is probable that some of them have never been even entered except 

 by Indians; for there are Indians still living during the summers in 

 the Glacier National Park. The great Blackfeet Indian Reservation, 

 one of the many tracts of land set apart for the Indians still remain- 

 ing in this country, adjoins the Glacier National Park on the west. 

 Northward, the park adjoins the Waterton Lakes Park in Canada. 



There are 250 known lakes. Probably there are small ones in the 

 wilder parts which white men have not yet even seen. 



PURCHASED FROM THE INDIANS 



This region was not visited by white men till 1853 when a Govern- 

 ment engineer exploring for a route to the Pacific Ocean ascended one 

 of the creeks by mistake and returned when he found that no rail- 

 road could be built there. The next explorers were engineers who 

 went in to establish the Canadian boundary line in 1861. 



In 1890 copper was found at the head of Quartz Creek, and there 

 was a rush of prospectors. In 1896 Congress bought the land east 

 of the Continental Divide from the Blackfeet Indians, but not enough 

 copper was found to pay for the mining. Since then few persons 

 went there but big game hunters till 1910 when it was made a 

 National Park. 



There are now several very fine hotels and several camps on the 

 east side. Most of the tourists go there, but the west side is wonder- 

 fully beautiful, too, and hotels and camps are found there also. 



There are a few good roads for automobiles and trails for walking 

 and horseback riding. A railroad touches its southern boundary. 



