OUR NATIONAL PARKS. 19 



the region. Several private explorers followed, but so great was 

 public incredulity as to the marvels they described that they did not 

 dare tell their experiences before any general audiences. The large 

 exploring expedition under Governor Henry D. Washburn, surveyor 

 general of Montana, in 1870, finally established the facts to the public 

 belief and led to the creation of the Yellowstone National Park. 



V. 



THE GLACIER NATIONAL PARK 



Special Characteristics: Unsurpassed Alpine Scenery; 250 Lakes of 



Particular Beauty 



THE Glacier National Park is so named because in the hollow 

 of its rugged mountain tops lie more than sixty glaciers. It is 

 in northwestern Montana right up against the Canadian boundary 

 line, from which, on the map, it appears to hang down like a boy's 

 pocket full of the sort of things boys usually carry there. It is a 

 land of peaks and precipices, snow, ice, rushing rivers, waterfalls, 

 and lakes of great loveliness. Experienced travelers tell us that 

 nowhere in the world is alpine beauty found in such diversity and 

 luxuriance. It contains 1,534 square miles. 



A glacier is a river of ice, remarkably like a river of water in its 

 action, only, of course, much slower. The glacier begins in a pocket 

 or cirque of snow instead of in a lake or spring, as does a river. 



Like the river, it flows through valleys, the ice becoming harder 

 under the pressure from above. It grows in size by smaller glaciers 

 flowing into it. It breaks into ripples of ice while flowing over rocky 

 ledges, and, also like rivers, forms falls when dropping over precipices. 



The glacier ends when it reaches far enough down the mountain 

 sides for the warmer weather to melt the ice into a river of water. 



But, with all its glaciers, the Glacier National Park is chiefly re- 

 markable for its picturesquely modeled peaks, the unique quality 

 of its rugged mountain masses, its gigantic precipices, and the 

 romantic loveliness of its lakes. Though all the other National 

 Parks have these general features in addition to others which dif- 

 ferentiate each from the other, the Glacier National Park possesses 

 them in unusual abundance and especially happy combination. In 

 fact the almost sensational massing of these scenic features is what 

 gives it marked individuality. 



A ROMANCE OF GEOLOGY 



How Nature made this remarkable spot far back in the dim ages 

 long before man is a stirring story. 



Once this whole region was covered with water, but whether the 

 water was a lake or a part of the sea no man knows. The tiny earthy 



