By A. P. Coleman, M.A., Ph. D., F.R.S. President Alpine Club of Canada Author of “The Canadian Rockies” With Notes on Five Great Glaciers of the Canadian National Parks By A. O. Wheeler, Director Alpine Club of Canada Re-Published under the direction of Sir James Lougheed Minister of the Interior First Edition, 1914 Second Edition, 1921 The traveller going westwards from the prairie finds the way blocked by a grim wall of cliffs rising 7,000 or 8,000 feet above the sea and justifying the name of

To reach the snows generally means some miles of walking and climbing, often through forest covered slopes at first where the outside world is lost. Then the trees begin to thin and grow stunted, revealing between the trunks blue valleys with a lake or two and far off cliffs and mountains. At last the trees cease at 7,500 feet and you are at timberline. Here the three Rocky mountain heathers spread soft thick carpets between stiff bushes only a few feet high but with trunks a foot through, so bu

The final disposal of the snowfield, turned to ice in its lower parts, comes by a slow creep downwards. That the névé is actually in motion can be seen by following the slope of snow to its upper edge against some mountain wall where a “ BERGSCHRUND ” generally yawns between the snowfield and the cliff. This may be several feet wide, and may go down many feet to obscure depths. No amount of snow fall can fill the chasm permanently, though it may be bridged with fresh snow for a time, making a ri

One of the most interesting points in a glacier is its carrying power. Though it is in motion like a plastic substance it is solid and strong enough to support any weight loaded upon it. Debris quarried by frost from the mountain side buries its edge so that often one may walk 50 yards out before the ice can be seen. This fringe of broken rock carried on the edge of the glacier is called a marginal moraine. When two glaciers join, the marginal moraines between them unite to form a medial moraine

Our glaciers, like those of other countries, are now almost all in retreat, either because the climate is slowly growing warmer so that thawing goes on faster or because the snowfall is lessening so that the névé fields no longer feed the glaciers as substantially as before. On this account one can often see several terminal moraines down the valley below the one now forming. The nearest to the present end of the ice is almost bare, the next, a few hundred yards away, may have bushes growing on

There are very few parts of the world where fine glacial scenery can be found so close to a great railway as in our mountain parks. If one stops at lake Louise, in Rocky Mountains Park, the splendid Victoria glacier is in view doubled by reflection in its waters, which get their exquisite color from the last remaining particles of mud brought down by the glacial stream. Two miles walk or ride along a good trail brings one into its presence, and often great masses of ice may be seen avalanching d

The beauties of the Louise, Field and Glacier regions on the Canadian Pacific are well known to the public and have been seen by thousands but the exceedingly impressive glacial surroundings of Mt. Robson near the Yellowhead Pass on the Grand Trunk Pacific have so far been little visited. Mt. Robson, rising 13,087 feet above the sea, the highest point in the Canadian Rockies, is invisible from the pass itself, hidden by the nearer Rainbow mountains but bursts upon the view where Grand Forks rive

Much of the exploration of the Canadian Rockies and Selkirks has been done by Englishmen and eastern Americans who received their training as mountaineers in the Alps, and one naturally asks why they should travel thousands of miles to our western mountains when the Alps are so much more accessible. There is, of course, the charm of a virgin and unexplored wilderness in our Rockies and Selkirks, so seductive to one who loves adventure; but there are other attractions as well which make our mount

If one halts by chance anywhere on a mountain pass, all sorts of thrilling things are going on around. Lovely flowers are opening eagerly to the sun and wind of Spring—in mid August, with September snows just at hand, a whole year’s work of blossom and seed to be accomplished before the ten months’ winter Sleep begins. Bees are tumbling over them intoxicated with honey and the joy of life while it is summer. Even the humming-birds, with jewels on their breasts as if straight from the tropics, ar

The Yoho glacier is situated at the head of the Yoho valley and is of very spectacular appearance. It presents a magnificent cascade of broken ice falling into the valley a long way below timber line and the forest is seen thickly clothing the heights far above it. The glacier is of the alpine type. It has its origin in the Wapta icefield, a wide snow covered tract of ice with an area of some twenty-five square miles, and affords one of the principal overflows that maintain the yearly accumulati

The Victoria glacier is of the alpine type , that is, has its origin in the snow that accumulates at the summit of the Abbot pass, and is fed by snow and ice avalanching from the adjacent slopes of Mts. Lefroy and Victoria. It flows in a narrow channel between the precipitous sides of the two mountains named, which is known as the death Trap, owing to the number of avalanches that are precipitated from side to side directly across its bed. It is wise to make the traverse of this part of the glac

The Wenkchemna glacier lies at the northern base of the Ten Peaks in the valley of Moraine lake. The name is of Sioux Indian origin, Signifying ten, and was given to the glacier by Mr. S. E. S. Allen, an early explorer, in relation to the Ten Peaks. It is of the piedmont type of glacier, that is, has its source from a number of commensal streams of ice, fed by snow falling upon the eastern slopes of the Ten Peaks. These independent streams descend to the valley of Moraine lake and are so close t

The Illecillewaet glacier is commonly referred to as the Great glacier of the Selkirks, although it is by no means the largest one. It is, however, one of the most spectacular, and is seen from Glacier House, the C.P.R. Hotel near the railway summit of the range, falling some five thousand feet from skyline of the icefield in which it has its source. Seen from high up on the opposite mountain side, it presents a bird’s-eye view that is unique and altogether entrancing. The glacier is of the alpi

Tributary to the valley of the Illecillewaet glacier is the Asulkan (Wild Goat) valley, which is, perhaps, the most beautiful specimen of a mountain valley traversed by a rushing glacier torrent, that can be found. On either hand are towering mountain slopes and precipices, exalted rock ledges from which spectacular waterfalls leap from great heights, overhanging snow crests which often send roaring avalanches sweeping all before them into the valley below and far up the opposite side. At the he