We must not leave the Wonderland without visiting Yellowstone Lake. It is very beautiful and stretches its long arms in among the mountains as though to embrace them. On the western shore of this lake you may catch trout if you will. Then, if you are hungry, you may take a few steps and drop the fish, still on the hook, into a boiling spring. Behold! your dinner of delicious trout is ready for your eating.
Yellowstone River flows out of this wonderful lake and at first moves smoothly and quietly. Then, as it is about to make its way through a mountain-pass, it makes leaps and bounds in the form of cascades and waterfalls, wearing the earth into a deep canyon, which is as full of interest as that of the Colorado.
In your visit to the Rocky Mountains you will, no doubt, wish to climb Pikes Peak. It is named for Major Pike, who tried to climb to the summit but failed.
“Only a bird could succeed,” he afterwards said. Now-a-days, however, hundreds of travelers go every year to the top of Pikes Peak.
Niagara Falls.
Nearly every one who travels over the United States takes a trip up the beautiful Hudson River, and goes to the top of Mount Washington in New England, by using the railroad built up the side of the mountain, and over which the train moves slowly with the help of a double engine.
Perhaps the most wonderful and interesting of all sights are the Falls of Niagara, between Canada and the United States. Out of Lake Erie, one of the Five Great Lakes, flows the Niagara River, which soon reaches a cliff over which it pours its whole body of water with a sound like thunder. If you stand near the foot of the falls you must wear waterproof garments, or the dashing spray will drench you in a few moments. The longer you look, the more wonderful the sight appears and before long you feel as though you would like to stay there forever, watching those mighty waters falling, ever falling, and never resting in their course for a single moment.
In winter the spray covers every bush and tree near the foot of the Falls and as it freezes almost instantly, strange forms are built up on the twigs and branches. Then in the bright sunlight the world around seems like fairyland. Masses of ice are carried along with the water of the cataract and become piled up below, making a bridge of ice across the river.
The children who visit Niagara Falls are sure to wish to enter the deep cave in the cliff directly under the falling waters. No matter how carefully they may enter, they will be drenched by the spray unless they are clad in waterproof from head to foot. They have a strange feeling while they are in the cave. The loud rumbling of the water and the trembling of the earth fill them with a sort of fear and they are glad when they are once more out in the sunlight and at a safe distance from the mighty cataract.