r in the world that bears the
name of lake; and it is also one of the rarest gems of the lakelet
world.

The tree-distribution is most pleasing, and the groves and forests are
a delight. Aged Western yellow pines are sprinkled over the open areas
of the park. They have genuine character, marked individuality. Stocky
and strong-limbed, their golden-brown bark broken into deep fissures
and plateaus, scarred with storm and fire, they make one think and
dream more than any other tree on the Rockies. By the brooks the clean
and childlike aspens mingle with the willow and the alder or the
handsome silver spruce. Some slopes are spread with the green fleece
of massed young lodge-pole pines, and here and there are groves of
Douglas spruce, far from their better home "where rolls the Oregon."
The splendid and spiry Engelmann spruces climb the stern slopes eleven
thousand feet above the ocean, where weird timber-line with its
dwarfed and distorted trees shows the incessant line of battle between
the woods and the weather.

Every season nearly one thousand varieties of beautiful wild flowers
come to perfume the air and open their "bannered bosoms to the sun."
Many of these are of brightest color. They crowd the streams, wave on
the hills, shine in the woodland vistas, and color the snow-edge.
Daisies, orchids, tiger lilies, fringed gentians, wild red roses,
mariposas, Rocky Mountain columbines, harebells, and forget-me-nots
adorn every space and nook.

While only a few birds stay in the park the year round, there are
scores of summer visitors who come here to bring up the babies, and
to enliven the air with song. Eagles soar the blue, and ptarmigan,
pipits, and sparrows live on the alpine moorlands. Thrushes fill the
forest aisles with melody, and by the brooks the ever-joyful
water-ouzel mingles its music with the song of ever-hurrying,
ever-flowing waters. Among the many common birds are owls,
meadowlarks, robins, wrens, magpies, bluebirds, chickadees,
nuthatches, and several members of the useful woodpecker family,
together with the white-throated sparrow and the willow thrush.

Speckled and rainbow trout dart in the streams. Mountain sheep climb
and pose on the crags; bear, deer, and mountain lions are still
occasionally seen prowling the woods or hurrying across the meadows.
The wise coyote is also seen darting under cover, and is frequently
heard during the night. Here among the evergreens is found that small
and audac