e by way of comparison, which is absurd between scenes so
different, but merely to help realization by contrast with what is well
known, let us recall the Yosemite Valley. Yosemite is a valley,
Swiftcurrent an enclosure. Yosemite is gray and shining, Swiftcurrent
richer far in color. Yosemite's walls are rounded, peaked, and polished,
Swiftcurrent's toothed, torn, and crumbling; the setting sun shines
through holes worn by frost and water in the living rock. Yosemite
guards her western entrance with a shaft of gray granite rising
thirty-six hundred feet from the valley floor, and her eastern end by
granite domes of five thousand and six thousand feet; Swiftcurrent's
rocks gather round her central lake--Altyn, thirty-two hundred feet
above the lake's level; Henkel, thirty-eight hundred feet; Wilbur,
forty-five hundred feet; Grinnell, four thousand; Gould, forty-seven
hundred; Allen, forty-five hundred--all of colored strata, green at
base, then red, then gray. Yosemite has its winding river and
waterfalls, Swiftcurrent its lakes and glaciers.

Swiftcurrent has the repose but not the softness of Yosemite. Yosemite
is unbelievably beautiful. Swiftcurrent inspires wondering awe.

McDermott Lake, focus point of all this natural glory, is scarcely a
mile long, and narrow. It may be vivid blue and steel-blue and
milky-blue, and half a dozen shades of green and pink all within twice
as many minutes, according to the whim of the breeze, the changing
atmosphere, and the clouding of the sun. Often it suggests nothing so
much as a pool of dull-green paint. Or it may present a reversed image
of mountains, glaciers, and sky in their own coloring. Or at sunset it
may turn lemon or purple or crimson or orange, or a blending of all. Or,
with rushing storm-clouds, it may quite suddenly lose every hint of any
color, and become a study in black, white, and intermediate grays.

[Illustration: _From a photograph by Bailey Willis_

THE GREAT GABLE OF GOULD MOUNTAIN

The water is McDermott Lake, one of the most beautiful in Glacier
National Park]

[Illustration: _From a photograph by A.J. Baker_

THE CIRQUE AT THE HEAD OF CUT BANK CREEK

Fine examples of glacier cirques throughout the park. The peak is Mount
Morgan, Glacier National Park.]

There are times when, from hotel porch, rock, or boat, the towering
peaks and connecting limestone walls become suddenly so fairy-like that
they lose all sense of reality, seeming to merge into th