ould gather, and the
thunder-bird would shake its wings above them and cool the air. Delightful
times were these old festivals on the Missouri. At evening, in the long
Northern twilights, they would recount the traditions of the past. Some of
the old tales of the Blackfeet, Piegans, and Chippewas, are as charming as
those of La Fontaine.

The Rainbow Falls are far more beautiful than those of the Black Eagle.
They are some six miles from the new city of Great Falls. A long stairway
of two hundred or more steps conducts the tourist into their very
mist-land of rocks and surges. Here one is almost deafened by the thunder.
When the sun is shining, the air is glorious with rainbows, that haunt the
mists like a poet's dream.

The Great Fall, some twelve miles from the city, plunges nearly a hundred
feet, and has a roar like that of Niagara. It is one of the greatest
water-powers of the continent.

The city of Great Falls is leaping into life in a legend-haunted region.
Its horizon is a borderland of wonders. Afar off gleam the Highwood
Mountains, with roofs of glistening snow. Buttes (hills with level tops)
rise like giant pyramids here and there, and one may almost imagine that
he is in the land of the Pharaohs. Bench lands diversify the wide plains.
Ranches and great flocks are everywhere; armies of cattle; creeks shaded
with cottonwood and box-elder; birds and flowers; and golden eagles
gleaming in the air. The Rockies wall the northern plains.

The Belt Mountain region near Great Falls is a wonder-land, like the
Garden of the Gods in Colorado, or the Goblin Land near the Yellowstone.
It would seem that it ought to be made a State park. Here one fancies
one's self to be amid the ruins of castles, cathedrals, and fortresses, so
fantastic are the shapes of the broken mountain-walls. It is a land of
birds and flowers; of rock roses, wild sunflowers, golden-rods; of
wax-wings, orioles, sparrows, and eagles. Here roams the stealthy mountain
lion.

This region, too, has its delightful legends.

One of these legends will awaken great curiosity as the State of Montana
grows, and she seems destined to become the monarch of States.

In 1742 Sieur de la Verendrye, the French Governor of Quebec, sent out an
expedition, under his sons and brother, that discovered the Rocky
Mountains, which were named _La Montana Roches_. On the 12th of May, 1744,
this expedition visited the upper Missouri, and planted on an eminence,
probably