Not many persons have ever attempted to traverse the Park in the winter season, but it has been done by a few hardy and adventurous people, who nearly perished in the attempt. Such individuals have reported that the raging snow-storms and blizzards which they encountered were on a scale quite equal to the other demonstrations and natural curiosities of the place. The trees in their neighborhood were beautifully gemmed with the frozen vapor of the geysers, and the heated springs seemed doubly active by the contrast between their temperature and that of the freezing atmosphere. It was only by camping at night upon the very brink of these boiling waters that life could be sustained, with the atmosphere at forty degrees below zero. One who comes hither with preconceived ideas of the peculiar sights to be met with is sure to be disappointed, not in their want of strangeness, for the Park is overstocked with curiosities having no counterpart elsewhere, but the features are so thoroughly unique that his anticipations are transcended both in the quality and the quantity of the food for wonder which is spread out before him on every side. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER V. Westward Journey resumed.—Queen City of the Mountains.—Crossing the Rockies.—Butte City, the Great Mining Centre.—Montana.—The Red Men.— About the Aborigines.—The Cowboys of the West.—A Successful Hunter.— Emigrant Teams on the Prairies.—Immense Forests.—Puget Sound.—The Famous Stampede Tunnel.—Immigration.