GLACIERS OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



AND SELKIRKS 



(Report of the Smithsonian Expedition of 1904.) 



Bv William Hittell Sherzer, Ph.D. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I. Geographical Data. 



a. Physiographic features.— The Canadian Pacific Railway crosses the 

 Rockies and Selkirks between north latitude 51° and 51° 30', working its way 

 up the left bank of the Bow River and its small tributary Bath Creek, to the 

 Kicking Horse Pass, attaining an altitvide of 5,329 feet above sea-level. Upon 

 the more abioipt western slope of the Rockies the road follows the left bank of 

 the Kicking Horse River to its junction with the Columbia, crosses this great 

 waterway of the mountains, and slowly ascends the eastern slope of the Selkirks 

 along the left banlc of the Beaver. The summit of the Selkirks, Rogers' Pass, 

 is crossed at an elevation of 4,351 feet, whence there is rapid descent along the 

 swift -flowing lUecillewaet to the Columbia again, which has encircled the system 

 to the north, forming the "Big Bend." These transverse mountain valleys 

 are lined with most majestic peaks, many of them rising a mile above the valley 

 floor and furnishing some of the grandest of mountain scenery upon the American 

 continent. The highest peak in the Rockies, seen from the railway, is Mt. 

 Temple, with an elevation of 11,627 f^^t, and in the Selkirks, Mt. Sir Donald, 

 10,808 feet. Numerous peaks range from 10,000 to 11,000 feet and are believed 

 to culminate to the northward in latitude 52° to 53°. 



The Rockies and Selkirks, together -with the Gold and Coast ranges to the 

 west, make up the Great Cordillera in this part of Canada. North of the inter- 

 national boundary this great system is much narrower than in the United States, 



