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they are not mixed, as here, with young evergreen pines, nor have they a
framework of snow mountains, like these, to enhance their beauty.

High up on the ridges there is another variety of trees of a beautiful
russet color set off by a deep-blue sky. Talk of color symphonies. Here
they are--miles of them--long as a Wagner trilogy, and as richly
orchestrated. Even the masses of blackened logs and stumps--if one can
set aside for the moment all thought of pity for the poor charred trees,
so happy before the fire in their green luxuriance, and of the sad waste
of useful timber--enhance the charm of this scene by contrast.

I have said that the time-table of the Canadian Pacific Railway is
so arranged that the finest scenery is passed in daylight, in both
directions; but of course there must be exceptions, and, as a matter of
fact, as long as the road crosses the three great mountain ranges of the
Cascades, Selkirks, and Rockies, there is hardly a mile that does not
offer something worth seeing. Consequently, as darkness again closes in
soon after leaving Golden, east-bound passengers must resign themselves
to lose sight of the Kicking Horse Canyon, the Beaverfoot and Ottertail
Mountains, the large glacier on Mount Stephen, etc.,--which is all the
more provoking as they have to sit up anyway till midnight, when Banff
is reached; for, of course, every tourist who is in his right senses and
not a slave to duty gets off here to spend a few days in the Canadian
National Park.

[The description of this park we can give only in summary.]

Summing up on the Canadian National Park, we may say it has not so many
natural wonders as the Yellowstone Park,--no geysers, steam-holes,
gold-bottomed rivulets, paint-pots, nor anything to place beside the
Yellowstone Canyon and Falls. But the Minnewonka Lake may fairly
challenge comparison with the Yellowstone Lake, and the mountain scenery
is grander in the Canadian Park, and the snow and glaciers are nearer,
though not so near as at the Glacier House, where the air is in
consequence cooler and more bracing in summer than even at Banff. As
the Canadian Park is only twenty-six miles long and ten wide, while the
Yellowstone Park is about sixty-two by fifty-four miles, the former can
be seen in much less time than it takes to do justice to the latter.

When we get ready to leave Banff we have to take the midnight train, so
there is no chance to say good-by to the mountains. But we h