is useful because both regions are parts of the same
geological and scenic development in which Glacier may be said to be
scenically, though by no means geologically, completed and the Canadian
Rockies still in the making. A hundred thousand years or more from now
the Canadian Rockies may have reached, except for coloring, the present
scenic state of Glacier.

Glacier National Park hangs down from the Canadian boundary-line in
northwestern Montana, where it straddles the continental divide.
Adjoining it on the north is the Waterton Lakes Park, Canada. The
Blackfeet Indian Reservation borders it on the east. Its southern
boundary is Marias Pass, through which the Great Northern Railway
crosses the crest of the Rocky Mountains. Its western boundary is the
North Fork of the Flathead River. The park contains fifteen hundred and
thirty-four square miles.

Communication between the east and west sides within the park is only by
trail across passes over the continental divide.

There are parts of America quite as distinguished as Glacier: Mount
McKinley, for its enormous snowy mass and stature; Yosemite, for the
quality of its valley's beauty; Mount Rainier, for its massive radiating
glaciers; Crater Lake, for its color range in pearls and blues; Grand
Canyon, for its stupendous painted gulf. But there is no part of America
or the Americas, or of the world, to match it of its kind. In respect
to the particular wondrous thing these glaciers of old left behind them
when they shrank to shelved trifles, there is no other. At Glacier one
sees what he never saw elsewhere and never will see again--except at
Glacier. There are mountains everywhere, but no others carved into
shapes quite like these; cirques in all lofty ranges, but not cirques
just such as these; and because of these unique bordering highlands
there are nowhere else lakes having the particular kind of charm
possessed by Glacier's lakes.

Visitors seldom comprehend Glacier; hence they are mute, or praise in
generalities or vague superlatives. Those who have not seen other
mountains find the unexpected and are puzzled. Those who have seen other
mountains fail to understand the difference in these. I have never heard
comparison with any region except the Canadian Rockies, and this seldom
very intelligent. "I miss the big glaciers and snowy mountain-tops,"
says the traveller of one type. "You can really see something here
besides snow, and how stunning it all is!" says