d conditions. They seldom hurt any one, but
prowl around the hotels at night, and by eating up the scraps and
leavings solve the garbage problem in a satisfactory manner.

Deer, elk, antelope and mountain sheep climb the mountains, and very
frequently find their way into Elk Park or Gibbon Meadow. This is an
exceptionally desirable wintering ground, because it is surrounded by
hills and mountains which keep off the worst of the winds, and there is,
moreover, a perpetual spring of pure water. The meadow is probably the
prettiest spot in the entire park. There is less of the awful and more
of the picturesque than can be found elsewhere, and it is, in many
respects, an oasis in a vast and somewhat dreary expanse of land.

Golden Gate is another of the exquisite spots every visitor to
Yellowstone Park seeks and finds. To reach the Golden Gate one must be a
great climber, for it is high up, and the road to it is built along the
edge of a cliff, which, in places, seems to be absolutely perpendicular.
The gate is, however, worth reaching, and one is not surprised to hear
that as much as $14,000 were spent in cutting out a single mile of the
road to it through the rock.

Leaving the Golden Gate, and continuing the tour of inspection, a valley
of large dimensions is seen. The contrast between the rich green of
almost faultless verdure, and the dreariness of the rocks left behind,
is striking. It would seem as though nature had built up an immense
barrier between the weird and the natural, so that the one could not
affect the other. The Bible speaks of the intense comfort of the shade
of a great rock in a dry and thirsty land. A sensation of equal, if not
greater, relief is experienced in Yellowstone Park when one leaves the
grand, death-like desolation around the Hot Springs, and encounters the
exquisite beauty of shrub land and timber but a few paces away. The
groves of trees are in themselves sources of great delight, and also of
immense wealth. Fortunately, they will be preserved in perpetuity for
the American people. The lumber king cannot get here. His ravages must
be confined to other regions.

The valley into which the tourist has entered takes its name from the
Swan Lake, a very delightful inland mountain scene. The lake is about
two miles from Golden Gate. It is not a very large body of water, but
its rippling surface extracts expressions of admiration from all who
behold it. It has been described as a demure looking