May 21, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
813 
The President signed the Glacier National 
Park bill on May 12 and the park is therefore 
established beyond any peradventure. 
The region of the Glacier National Park was 
first made known to the public by Forest and 
Stream, which published in the latter part of 
1885 and the earlier part of 1886 a series of 
letters entitled “To the Walled-in Lakes.” These 
letters described the country about the St. Mary’s 
Lakes and the wonderful game fauna then exist¬ 
ing—the bears, the moose, elk, deer, sheep and 
goats which abounded there, together with the 
fish in the lakes and the grouse and wildfowl on 
the hills and the waters. In the years which 
have elapsed since that time, many big-game 
hunters have visited this region, which has been 
the scene of some stirring adventures, and to 
many people the region has become well known. 
All who know it have been insistent that it should 
be preserved as a park for the benefit of future 
generations. 
Beautiful to the eye as is the Glacier Park, 
stupendous as are its mountains and wonderful 
as are its lakes, snowfields and glaciers, the park 
has another value and another beauty quite apart 
from this. The abundance and variety of game 
indigenous to its rough mountains is noteworthy. 
Formerly it was a great range for bison, the 
dark timber inhabiting animals, of which a few 
yet linger in the Yellowstone National Park. 
Some moose still inhabit the thick timber of the 
Glacier Park’s mountain slopes, where there are 
also a very few elk, some mule deer and some 
whitetail deer. Black and grizzly bears, and 
their signs, are seen from time to time. The 
great importance of the region, however, is as 
a range for mountain sheep and for vyhite Rocky 
Mountain goats. In this park there are prob¬ 
ably more wild sheep than in any equal area in 
the United States, and in some sections white 
goats are very abundant. Only a few years ago 
some travelers counted at a single view several 
little bunches of goats—forty in all—feeding in 
a valley below the snow line near Iceberg Lake. 
With protection and the introduction of a few 
buffalo, the Glacier Park will become a wonder¬ 
ful preserve for the perpetuation of many forms 
of the large animal life in North America. 
The map here printed shows the Glacier Na¬ 
tional Park from surveys of the L T nited States 
Geological Survey, and, though greatly reduced, 
gives a good idea of the character of the coun¬ 
try. The Continental Divide may be followed 
down through the middle of the park, and from 
the divide on either side many streams flow 
down east and west, often through deep, narrow 
lakes Walled in by high mountains. The upper 
St. Mary’s Lake on the east and McDonald Lake 
on the west are the largest bodies of water. At 
various points along the Continental Divide, es¬ 
pecially on the heads of the St. Mary’s River, 
Swift Current and Kintla Creek, are great glaciers. 
From the upper St. Mary’s Lake, a trail leads 
over the main range between Mt. Jackson and 
Fusilade Mt., and from the head of Swift Cur¬ 
rent, another trail crosses the range and again 
one on Belly River. The region is easily acces¬ 
sible from the Great Northern Railroad and 
there is a hotel on McDonald Lake. 
