Dec. 26, 1908 ] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
1017 
so far as to invest in pieces of heavy and ex¬ 
pensive machinery which they laboriously hauled 
over the rough prairie to the mountains. It was 
labor wasted; nothing in the shape of ore ever 
came out of the hills. 
After the mines proved to be valueless, it was 
reported that there were signs of oil in the re¬ 
gion, and a new lot of prospectors began to 
look for that. Oil companies were formed, stock 
sold to persons innocent enough to purchase it, 
and wells sunk; all without results. Occasion¬ 
ally there were reports that one of the wells 
had really struck oil, and then a little more stock 
would be sold and a little more money put in 
the ground. Of late years, however, the pros¬ 
pecting for oil has wholly ceased and the region 
is abandoned by the miners. 
In- the minds of the original prospectors these 
mountains were to yield first the precious metals 
and then inexhaustible stores of copper, and 
the valley of the St. Mary’s Lakes was soon to 
contain “a bigger camp than Butte.” But the 
UPPER SWIFT CURRENT VALLEY AND MOUNT GOULD. 
In the proposed Glacier National Park. 
The Glacier National Park.— II. 
Of the proposed Glacier National Park, the 
establishment of which is authorized by Senator 
Carter’s bill S. 5648, as amended, we have al¬ 
ready more than once spoken. The bill favor¬ 
ably recommended by the Committee on Public 
Lands duly passed the Senate, and it is hoped 
will receive favorable action by the Plouse of 
Representatives during the present session. 
Should the House pass 
it, there is no doubt of 
its receiving' executive 
approval. 
As described in the 
bill the park contains 
practically no agricul¬ 
tural land, and no min¬ 
eral bearing strata of 
any importance or com¬ 
mercial value. Here and 
there in different places 
are sometimes to be seen 
thin veins containing a 
little copper, and it was 
the presence of these 
veins which led citizens 
of Montana to believe 
that here was a great un¬ 
developed mineral coun¬ 
try. They believed this so 
firmly that about 1893-94 
pressure was brought on 
Congress to purchase, 
from the Blackfeet In¬ 
dians, of whose reserva¬ 
tion it then formed a 
part, the mountain tract 
lying betiveen the prairie 
and the summit of the 
range and to throw this 
open to settlement. In 
the year 1895 a treaty 
was made with the 
Blackfeet by which they 
sold their rights in this 
mountain territory, and 
a couple of years later 
the region was thrown 
open to settlers. 
For four or five years 
before that, however, 
prospectors had been 
running all over the ter¬ 
ritory, carefully conceal¬ 
ing their presence from 
the officers of the law, 
but faithfully searching 
the. ledges for ore and 
staking out claims in all 
directions. It was a 
great day for these pros¬ 
pectors and for others when the reservation 
was finally thrown open and people rushed into 
it, staked out their claims, and sat down and 
waited for the mining companies to come in 
and buy them out. 
They waited long and they waited in vain. True 
it is that the mining companies sent a few repre¬ 
sentatives into the region, but their reports could 
not have been favorable, for no sale was ever 
made. A few people with more faith and energy 
than knowledge of mining or metallurgy drove 
shafts into the hills, and one or two even went 
St. Mary’s valley remains without human occu¬ 
pants except for half a dozen people who still 
inhabit it and keep in repair two or three of 
the rotting log huts that constituted the St. 
Mary’s city of the last few years of the nine¬ 
teenth century. From the heights of the old 
Single Shot and Goat Mountain the mountain 
sheep still look out over that valley. Through 
the aspen on its borders the grizzly bear still 
prowls and digs roots, 
vacated. During the 
gone. 
and on quiet mornings 
the tuneful voice of the 
coyote still floats down 
toward the lake. There 
is no roar of exploding 
dynamite, no rattle of 
active mill. 
Here in October gather 
tremendous hordes of 
waterfowl on their way 
from the North, paus¬ 
ing for a while to feed 
and rest before start¬ 
ing off on another long 
flight which shall carry 
them across the main 
range, and well on 
southward toward their 
winter resting places 
near the tropics. We 
have seen these lakes 
white with flocks of 
swans and of snow 
geese, or again black 
with hordes of Canada 
geese and migrating 
ducks. Sometimes, to¬ 
ward the beginning 
of winter, when the 
weather is still and cold 
and snow lies upon the 
ground, and the lakes 
steam like huge hot 
springs, it is a great 
sight to see the fowl 
growing uneasy, and 
taking short flights as if 
to try their wings—a 
part anxious to set off 
on their journey, a part 
inert and lazy and seem¬ 
ing to try to persuade 
the others to wait a little 
longer. But at last the 
vote seems to be taken, 
and after a day of stir¬ 
ring about and flying 
and trumpeting, they 
settle down at evening 
in quiet and then the 
next morning, when one 
looks out upon the still 
waters, he finds them 
darkness the fowl have 
Game of the Glacier National Park. 
Boston, Mass., Dec. 18.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Having read with interest your ac¬ 
count of the proposed Glacier National Park in 
Montana, I thought that a few notes on the 
large game of this region might not be out of 
place. 
I feel quite at home in this most wonderful 
section of country, as I have hunted, fished and 
