Part 4

In Glacier National Park some of the ice still remains in the higher portions of the valleys and a study of these ice fields helps in interpreting the history of the park during the Ice Age. It is evident that ice did not cover the entire range, but that the higher peaks stood out above the ice, which probably never reached a thickness of over 3,000 feet in this region. The V-shaped valleys which had been produced by stream erosion were filled with glaciers which moved slowly down the valleys. The ice froze onto all loose rock material and carried it forward, using it as abrasive to gouge out the rock, the valley bottoms, and sides. Gradually the valleys were molded until they had acquired a smooth U-shaped character (fig. 3). There are excellent examples of this work of ice in the park, among which are Two Medicine, Cut Bank, St. Mary, Swiftcurrent, and Belly River Valleys.

In addition to smoothing the valley down which they moved, the glaciers produced many rock basins called cirques. These are the result of ice plucking in the regions where the glaciers formed. Alternate freezing and thawing cause the rock to break and the resulting fragments are carried away by the moving ice mass. In the majority of cases the cirques have lakes on their floors. The park is dotted with these beautiful little lakes scattered throughout the high mountain country.

The valley lakes are usually larger than the cirque lakes and have a different origin. As the glaciers melted they deposited huge loads of sand, mud, and boulders in the valley bottoms called moraines. Debris of this nature has helped to hold in the waters of St. Mary, Lower Two Medicine, McDonald, Bowman, and numerous other lakes in the park.

FLORA AND FAUNA

Glacier National Park is exceptionally rich in many kinds of wildlife. Its rugged wilderness character, enhanced by numerous lakes and almost unlimited natural alpine gardens, combine to offer an unexcelled opportunity to enjoy and study nature.

Glacier is noted for its brilliant floral display which is most striking in early July. Above timber line hardy plants such as mosses and lichens, together with the delicately colored alpine flowers, are found. Lower on the mountains are heather, gentians, wild heliotrope, and stunted trees of alpine fir, white-barked pine, and alpine larch. The valleys on the east bear Engelmann spruce, alpine fir, lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, and limber pine.

The valleys of the west side are within an entirely different plant life zone, typified by dense climax forests. For the most part these forests consist of red cedar and hemlock, with intermediate forests of larch, fir, spruce, and white pine. There are also younger stands of larch and lodgepole pine. Some of the white pines in McDonald Valley have reached huge dimensions. The deficiency of wild flowers found there is in part made up by the presence of sphagnum bogs with a typical fauna and flora of their own.

On the east, at lower elevations, representatives of the Great Plains flora are found, such as the passion flower, carpet pink, shooting star, scarlet paintbrush, red and white geraniums, bronze agoseris, the gaillardia, wild hollyhock, asters, and many other composites. The bear grass is one of the most characteristic plants of Glacier.

Of equal interest is the abundant animal life, including both the larger and smaller forms. Bighorn, mountain goats, moose, wapiti, grizzly and black bear, and western white-tailed and Rocky Mountain mule deer exist in as natural a condition as is possible in an area also utilized by man. Mountain caribou are occasional visitors to the park. Mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes are present, although the first have been reduced greatly from their original numbers. The beaver, marmot, otter, marten, cony, and a host of smaller mammals are interesting and important members of the fauna. Among the birds, those that attract the greatest interest are the osprey, water ouzel, ptarmigan, Clark nutcracker, thrushes, and sparrows.

[Illustration: _Hileman photo._ BEARGRASS]

IDEAL PLACE TO SEE AMERICAN INDIANS

With the exception of the Kootenais, few Indians ventured into the fastness of the park mountains before the coming of the white men. Yet so frequently did a large number of tribes use its trails for hunting and warfare, or camp in midsummer along its lakes and streams on the edge of the plains, that the park has an Indian story intertwined with its own that is unsurpassed in interest. Except for a few plateau Indians who had strong plains' characteristics because they once lived on the plains, all tribes were of that most interesting of Indian types, the plains Indian.

The earliest peoples inhabiting the northern Montana plains of which we have any record were apparently Snake Indians of Shoshonean stock. Later Nez Perces, Flatheads, and Kootenais pushed eastward through passes from the headwaters of the Columbia River system. Then came horses and firearms, and the whites themselves to set up an entirely different state of affairs in their hitherto relatively peaceful existence. First, a growing and expounding Siouan race, pressed forward also by an expanding irresistible Algonkian stock, occupied the high plains and pushed back its peoples behind the wall of mountains. These were the Crows from the south, the Assiniboins to the east. Lastly, armed with strategy and Hudson's Bay Co. firearms, and given speed and range with horses, the dauntless Blackfeet came forth from their forests to become the terror of the north. They grew strong on the abundance of food and game on the Great Plains, and pushed the Crows beyond the Yellowstone River, until met by the forces of white soldiery and the tide of civilization.

Today the Blackfeet on the reservation adjoining the park on the east remain a pitiful but picturesque remnant of their former pride and glory. They have laid aside their former intense hostility to the whites and have reconciled themselves to the fate of irrepressible civilization. Dressed in colorful native costume, a few families of braves greet the park visitor at Glacier Park Station and Hotel. Here they sing, dance, and tell stories of their former greatness. In these are reflected in a measure the dignity, the nobility, the haughtiness, and the savagery of one of the highest and most interesting of aboriginal American peoples.

REFERENCES

ALBRIGHT, HORACE M., and TAYLOR, FRANK J. Oh, Ranger! About the national parks.

BOWMAN, I. Forest Physiography. New York, 1911. Illustrated; maps.

EATON, WALTER PRITCHARD. Boy Scouts in Glacier Park. 1918. 336 pages.

---- Sky-line Camps. 1922. 268 pp., illustrated. A record of wanderings in the Northwestern Mountains from Glacier National Park to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.

ELROD, Dr. MORTON J. Complete Guide to Glacier National Park. 1924. 208 pp.

FARIS, JOHN T. Roaming the Rockies. 1930. 333 pp., illustrated. Farrar & Rinehart, New York City, Glacier National Park on pp. 42 to 80.

HOLTZ, MATHILDE EDITH, and BEMIS, KATHERINE ISABEL. Glacier National Park, Its Trails and Treasures. 1917. 262 pp., illustrated.

JEFFERS, Le ROY. The Call of the Mountains. 1922. 282 pp., illustrated. Dodd, Mead & Co. Glacier National Park on pp. 35-39.

JOHNSON, C. Highways of Rocky Mountains. Mountains and Valleys in Montana, pp. 194-215. Illustrated.

KANE, J. F. Picturesque America. 1935. 256 pp., illustrated. Frederick Gumbrecht, Brooklyn, N. Y. Glacier National Park on pp. 147-169.

LAUT, AGNES C. The Blazed Trail of the Old Frontier. Robt. M. McBride & Co., New York, 1926.

---- Enchanted Trails of Glacier Park. Robt. M. McBride & Co., New York. 1926.

MARSHALL, L. Seeing America. Philadelphia, 1916. Illustrated. Map.

## Chapter XXIII, Among the American Alps, Glacier National Park,

pp. 193-200.

McCLINTOCK, W. The Old North Trail. 539 pp., illustrated, maps. Macmillan Co. 1920.

---- Old Indian Trails, Houghton Mifflin Co. 1923.

MILLS, ENOS A. Your National Parks. 532 pp., illustrated. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1917. Glacier National Park on pp. 148-160, 475-487.

RINEHART, MARY ROBERTS. Through Glacier Park. The Log of a Trip with Howard Eaton. 1916. 92 pp., illustrated.

---- My Country 'Tis of Thee.

Rolfe, Mary A. Our National Parks, Book Two. A supplementary reader on the national parks for fifth- and sixth-grade students. Benj. H. Sanborn & Co., Chicago. 1928. Glacier National Park on pp. 197-242.

SANDERS, H. F. Trails Through Western Woods. 1910. 310 pp., illustrated.

---- History of Montana, vol. 1, 1913. 847 pp. Glacier National Park on pp. 685-689.

---- The White Quiver. 344 pp., illustrated, Duffield & Co., New York. 1913.

SCHULTZE, JAMES WILLARD. Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park. 1916. 242 pp., illustrated.

STEELE, DAVID M. Going Abroad Overland. 1917. 198 pp., illustrated. Glacier National Park on pp. 92-101.

STIMSON, HENRY L. The Ascent of Chief Mountain. In Hunting in Many Lands, edited by Theodore Roosevelt and George B. Grinnell, 1895, pp. 220-237.

YARD, ROBERT STERLING. The Book of the National Parks. Scribner's, 1926, 444 pp., 74 illustrations, 14 maps and diagrams. Glacier National Park on pp. 251-283.

GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

=Glimpses of Our National Parks.= Brief descriptions of national parks. Address Director, National Park Service, Washington, D. C. Free.

=Recreational map.= Shows Federal and State recreational areas throughout the United States and gives brief descriptions of principal ones. Address as above. Free.

Illustrated booklets about the following national parks may be obtained free of charge by writing to the Director, National Park Service:

Acadia, Maine. Carlsbad Caverns, N. Mex. Crater Lake, Oreg. General Grant, Calif. Grand Canyon, Ariz. Grand Teton, Wyo. Great Smoky Mountains, N. C.-Tenn. Hawaii, Hawaii. Hot Springs, Ark. Lassen Volcanic, Calif. Mesa Verde, Colo. Mount McKinley, Alaska. Mount Rainier, Wash. National Capital Parks, Washington, D. C. Platt, Okla. Rocky Mountain, Colo. Sequoia, Calif. Wind Cave, S. Dak. Yellowstone, Wyo.-Mont.-Idaho. Yosemite, Calif. Zion and Bryce Canyon, Utah.

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_Publications for sale in Glacier National Park_

Wild Animals of Glacier National Park $1.00 Plants of Glacier National Park .50 Origin of Scenic Features of Glacier .20 Geological Survey map of Glacier .25 Fauna of the National Parks .20 National Parks Portfolio 1.50

[Illustration: AREAS ADMINISTERED BY THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE]

[Illustration: MAP OF WATERTON-GLACIER INTERNATIONAL PEACE PARK]