GLACIERS OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES AND SELKIRKS. 3 



size. Being so largely glacier fed here, as well as in the Rockies, the streams 

 maintain themselves during the siimmer months, but reach their highest stage 

 in the late spring, or early summer, from the melting of the snows, when the 

 Columbia may rise 30 to 40 feet above its usual level. The streams are generally 

 turbid with glacial sediment that ^ives them a milky, or yellowish, appearance, 

 changing to green and, upon the loss of the sediment, to a blue color wherever the 

 water is of considerable depth. The lakes of the region owe their origin mainly to 

 former glacial action, consisting either of rock-basins, or of depressions in the 

 glacial or fiuvio-glacial deposits. Certain ones have been dammed back by 

 morainic material deposited either beneath or at the extremities of glaciers of 

 greater extent than at present. Those lakes which receive glacial sediment, 

 or which are shallow, have a greenish cast, while those free from sediment 

 and of moderate to considerable depth are rich blue. 



c. Glaciers selected for study. — ^The glaciers selected for study lie close to the 

 main crests of the systems above described, between north latitude 51° and 52°, 

 and west longitude 116° and 117° 30', from 160 to 200 miles north of the inter- 

 national boundary between the United States and Canada. They are but a 

 few of a series available for study, those being selected which are most easily 

 reached by well established trails. They are at such low altitudes that one may 

 comfortably ride almost to the nose of each and none require climbing except 

 to reach the neve regions. The two most easterly of the glaciers here discussed, 

 the Victoria and Wenkchemna, lie east of the Great Divide in Alberta, the other 

 three are west in British Columbia. 



2. Historical Data. 



The establishment of the international boundary to the south, along the 

 49th parallel, and the opening of the railway in 1885 called for geographic, 

 geologic, and topographic work which was started by the various Dominion 

 departments concerned and is still in progress. Dr. George M. Dawson began 

 his work in 1874 along the boundary and extended it northward to include the 

 region pierced by the railway, where he was assisted by R. G. McConnell. 

 Topographic work of a preliminary nature, along the line of the railway, was 

 begun in 1886 by J. J. McArthur. Photographic methods were introduced into 

 the survey in 1889 by Director Deville and the accompanying triangulation of 

 the "railway belt" placed in charge of W. S. Drewry, D. L. S. The same 

 year Mr. St. Cyr made a survey along the upper Columbia, between the Selkirks 

 and Rockies, and in 1896 he and McArthur continued the work from Revelstoke 

 down the Columbia and Aitow Lakes, with the view. of connecting the surveys 

 of the railway belt with those of the boundary commission.' Two topographic 

 maps, t;pon a scale of two miles to the inch, were isstied in 1902 by the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior, under the direction of James White, geographer. These 

 are the Banff and Lake Louise sheets and are issued by the department at 



' The reports of the work of McArthur, Drewry, and St. Cyr will be found in the Annual Reports of the 

 Canadian Dept. of the Interior for iSS6, i88S 1889, 1890 1891, 1892, and 1893. 



