In North-West Canada. ' 101 



naBinon. The nests of the harlecjuin duck are made of dark grey- 

 ish brown down, and like the down of most other ducks can be 

 identified by an experienced eye as easily as the eggs themselves. 

 Thus it is impossible to confound the downy nest of Barrow's 

 golden-eye with that of any other duck, likewise the down of 

 the harlequin, long-tail, eider, goosander, and other species are as 

 distinct in colour from each other as the eggs themselves. The 

 nests of down of the duck family are beautiful objects, and when 

 the eggs are placed inside the nests in the cabinet, they look 

 very attractive. 



The harlequin does not lay so many eggs as most other 

 ducks do, five to seven being the usual number. During the 

 last five years I have received from my Iceland collector over 

 two hundred eggs of this species, consisting of two clutches of 

 eight eggs, nineteen clutches of seven, and twelve clutches of 

 six, so that six and seven seem to be the regular number of 

 eggs laid. The male harlequin duck has beautiful variegated 

 plumage, and in some places they are called " lord and lady 

 ducks." 



At Banff, fine mountain trout fishing can be had on the Bow 

 and Cascade rivers, also deep trolling for lake trout in Devil's 

 Lake. White and Indian guides can be securt^d for extended 

 trips into the mountains after bear, sheep or goat. 



Resuming our journey through the Rockies, we are soon re- 

 minded, b}' the increasing nearness of the fields of snow and 

 ice in the mountain slopes, that we are reaching a great eleva- 

 tion, and two hours after leaving Banff our train stops at a 

 little station, and we are told that this is the summit of the 

 Rocky Mountains, just a mile above the sea ; but it is the 

 summit only in an engineering sense, for the mountains still 

 lift their white heads five thousand to seven thousand feet 

 above us, and stretch away to the north-west and the south- 

 west like a great backbone, as indeed they are, — the " back- 

 bone of the continent." Two little streams begin here, almost 

 from a common source. The waters of one? find their way 

 down to the Saskatchewan and into Hudson's Bay, and the 

 other joins the flood which the river Columbia pours into the 



