We soon reach the summit of the Continental Divide.  Now the outlook is much expanded, and it becomes more majestic and dignified.  The mountains overhang the roadway on one side and drop far below on the other.  Heavy, shaggy forests cover the slopes and peaks, while tiny island parks, as it were, and cheerful openings are occasionally seen.  The road winds about the mountain-flanks, now climbing up, now descending; the whole aspect of nature grows more grand, more austere; the air grows more rarified, and one becomes more and more exalted in spirit.  Occasionally the mountains break away and you obtain a view far out beyond the narrow limits round about.  Distant mountains are seen, and the feeling that there are nothing but mountain-walls about you impresses itself strongly upon one, and it is just about true.  After several miles of such riding, and when you have begun to imagine that nothing finer can come, the road leads up to a point that, almost before you know it, simply drives from your thoughts all else seen on this ride.

It is a wonderful picture, and produces a state of exultation that to some must seem almost too strong to endure.  The mountains, which rise high above, stretch also far below, and in every direction are at their very best.  Proud and regal in their strength and bearing, they are still, from summit to the depths, heavily covered with the primeval forest.  It would seem as if they really knew what a view was here unfolded, and to rejoice in the grandeur of the scene.  Like a thread, you can trace the turns and lines of the road along which the stage has come.  But that which adds the softer, more beautiful element to a picture otherwise almost overpowering in its grandeur, and withal stern and unyielding, is seen through a break or portal off to the south.

Far away, far below, lies a portion of Shoshone Lake.  Like a sleeping babe in its mother’s lap, nestles this tiny lakelet babe in the mountains.  It shines like a plate of silver or beautiful mirror.  It is a gem worth crossing a continent to see, especially as there runs between the lake and the point of view a little valley dressed in bright, grassy green as a kind of foreground in the rear.  There is thus a silvered lake, a lovely valley, with bright and warm green shades, and rich, dark-black forests in the rear.  No one can gaze upon such a combination and contrast without being impressed, and without recognizing the sublime beauty and grandeur of the park and its surroundings.

Yellowstone Lake is another of the extraordinary attractions of our great National Park.  It is described as the highest inland sea in the world, and more than 7,000 feet above the sea level.  It is, really, nearly 8,000 feet above the sea, and its icy cold water covers an area some thirty miles in length and about half as wide or about 300 square miles.  This glorious inland ocean is perched up at the summit of the Rocky Mountains, just where no one would expect