Altogether there are about one hundred glaciers in the Park. Most of these have an area of less than one square mile. The majority of them, of course, are mere remnants of vast glaciers. In many cases their small size is an advantage to the student. Carrying, as most of these do, the characteristics of larger glaciers, and being in a small compass and surrounded with various kinds of glacial work—moraines, lakes, and smooth rock-surfaces—they place before us, in one scene, the story of the ice age.
On every hand is evidence of glacier work. The glaciers themselves in many instances are placed in a manner that explains their mobility. You can see that they have moved and are moving. You can see the effects of their moves, and the results of the movements of the stupendous prehistoric glaciers that have vanished.
The Glacier National Park has an endless variety of small game, and in it numerous varieties of large animals are fairly abundant. Most important of all is the grizzly bear. Black bears are common. So, too, are elk; and there is a scattering of moose, lions, deer, and antelopes. In some localities bighorn sheep and mountain goats are abundant. Trout abound in many lakes and streams.
There is a goodly array of suggestive outdoor names, many of which are of Indian application. Red Eagle Mountain, Pass, and Valley, Rising Wolf Mountain, Two Medicine Lake, Avalanche Lake, Swift Current River, are a few of the vigorous, spirited names. Many of the old picturesque and descriptive Indian names have been discarded, however, for names that are utterly unfit or meaningless.
There are scores of varieties of flowers. These brighten the woods, stand along the streams, border the lakes, and crowd close to the glaciers. They climb above the limits of tree growth. Grinnell Lake has a grand wild-flower garden on its shores. Among the many kinds are bluebell, queen's-cup, violet, water-lily, and wild hollyhock.
The summit slopes of these mountains are above the timber-line. All the lower slopes and spaces in the Park not occupied and glorified by lakes, streams, and cliffs are crowded with forests, green and grand. Much of the old glaciation is covered with forest growths. Many moraines are crowned with spruces, and numerous glacial amphitheaters are now filled with splendid forests.
The visitor to the summit of Swift Current Pass will find himself monarch with great scenes to survey. Below, around, and above are lakes, streams, peaks, waterfalls, snow-fields, glaciers, cañons, and mountains. These are splendidly grouped and combined; gradually they fade into mysterious horizons.
St. Mary's Lake—"Good Spirit Woman Lake"—is crescent-shaped, with miles of spruce-walled shores. It has a length of ten miles in the Glacier Park and is a queen among queens of mountain lakes. Kingly peaks stand waiting around the shores. Red Eagle Mountain, Fusillade Mountain, and Going-to-the-Sun Mountain are a part of the magnificence in which this lovely lake reposes. Mount Jackson, one of the highest summits in the Park, is often reflected in its waters.
The mountains of this Park are broken and have towering walls. On the east they rise abruptly from the peaceful plains. Nowhere in the country can be found such an array of high and nearly vertical walls. Many of these mountains and peaks are enlivened with color. Yellow, red, and green are distributed on a magnificent scale.
The very name "Two-Ocean Pass," in the Yellowstone Park, led me through the pathless forest for days in search of it. There was a fairyland novelty in the lure of the name. As soon as I heard of a glacier in the Glacier National Park whose waters were divided between the Arctic and the Pacific Oceans, I wanted to see it. A part of the water of a glacier on Vulture Peak goes to the Pacific through Logging Creek and the Columbia River. The remainder goes to Hudson Bay through the Little Kootenai Creek. Some one has wisely proposed the name "Two-Ocean Glacier" for this ice-field.