1902.] on Exploration in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. 155 



over the Howse Pass, the continental waterslied was crogscd, wc then 

 descended the Blaeberry Creek for some distance, but this valley at 

 last becoming quite impassable for horses, owing to the fallen timber 

 and dense forest, a new pass (the Baker Pass) had to be discovered, 

 which led us finally down to Field on the railway. The most impor- 

 tant results achieved by this journey were a plane table survey map 

 by Mr. Baker and our discovery of higher peaks still further north. 



On returning to England, the only literature that I could obtain 

 dealing with the country we had visited was in a rare parliamentary 

 report on the Palliser Expedition of forty years ago. There an 

 account was given by Dr. Hector of a visit he made to this region. 

 The existence of these unknown peaks further north that I had seen 

 from the ridge of Freshfield, took me back in the following year 

 (1898) to the Eocky Mountains: this time in the company of Mr. H. 

 E. M. Stutfield and Mr. H. Woolley. Again I started from Laggan 

 with men and horses, and travelling north by way of the Pipestone 

 Pass the main Saskatchewan was reached. The north fork of the 

 Saskatchewan was then ascended, but owing to the immense quantity 

 of water in the river progress was very slow. Eventually a pass was 

 reached (the Wilcox Pass) which led over to the head waters of the 

 Athabasca Eiver. From this spot the Athabasca peak (11,900 feet) 

 was ascended ; from its summit, a magnificent panorama of an almost 

 unknown land was obtained. Stretching for miles to the north-west- 

 ward lay an immense snow-field surrounded by the loftiest peaks I 

 had yet seen in the Eockies ; moreover some of these were those I 

 was in search of. This glacier was the source of three of Canada's 

 largest rivers, the Columbia, the Saskatchewan and the Athabasca. 

 Later we climbed a peak (the Dome, 11,700 feet) which rises from near 

 its centre, and it is a point of some interest that the snows of this peak 

 when melted feed rivers that flow into three ocean.s, the Pacific, the 

 Arctic and the Atlantic, also it is quite impossible that any other 

 mountains can exist on the American continent of which the same can 

 be said. The two highest peaks discovered on this journey were named 

 Mount Columbia and Mount Alberta, and the snow-field was called the 

 Columbia snow-field. In 1900 a third trip was made to this fascinating 

 land, this time to explore the entirely unknown valleys on the western 

 slopes of the range that drain into the Columbia Eiver. With Mr. 

 Stutfield and Mr. Spencer the Bush Valley was visited. Starting from 

 Donald on the railway we first went down the Columbia Valley and 

 then turned eastwards towards the mountains up the Bush Valley. 



In the valley of the Columbia, down which we travelled for several 

 days, we hardly saw the sky. The vast forest far surpassed in size 

 anything we had seen on the other side of the range, huge pines, 

 cotton-wood trees, firs and spruces, reaching to a height of 150 feet 

 or more. The undergrowth too was very dense, whilst the fallen 

 trunks of dead trees, sometimes six or eight feet in diameter, lay 

 scattered with others of lesser size in every kind of position. Some 

 in their fall had been arrested by otherri and were waiting for the 



