﻿NO. 15 SMITHSOXIAN EXPLORATIONS, I92I 9 



exhibit of wild flowers in bloom. Mrs. Walcott counted 82 species 

 within a short distance of the tents. A spring-fed pond supplied camp 

 water ; dead pines and spruce, firewood ; and a grass covered snow- 

 slide slope, abundant feed for the horses. 



The moss pink (fig. 11) and the beautiful Dryas octopctala were 

 very abundant, but heavy frosts in August killed nearly all the plants 

 and few of the flowers went to seed. 



On our way north we crossed over Pipestone Pass and down the 

 Siffleur River. Clearwater River heads in glacial gravels on the east 

 side of the Sifileur about two miles north of Pipestone Pass. Figure 

 13 is a view looking west through the Clearwater Pass and across to 

 the high clififs on the western side of Sifileur Canyon. 



Twenty-five miles further to the northwest at the point where the 

 south branch (Alistaya Creek), the middle branch ( Howse River), 

 and the north branch unite to form the Saskatchewan River, there 

 are some beautiful and instructive views of the surrounding mountains. 

 Figure i (frontispiece) is a fine view of the head of the river, with 

 Howse River in the left background and the North Fork beyond the 

 island on the right. The Mount Forbes massif on the left is a superb 

 mountain mass and in the distant center is Division Mountain at the 

 head of Glacier Lake Canyon which we visited in 1919; on the right 

 Survey Peak and beyond two unnamed points. The Glacier Lake 

 section of the pre-Devonian and Upper Cambrian formations was 

 studied on the northern slopes of the Mount Forbes massif as illus- 

 trated by figure i (frontispiece) of the Smithsonian exploration 

 pamphlet for 1919,' and the rugged clififs and peak of Mount Forbes 

 are shown by text figure 14 of the present number. 



Twelve miles northeast of Mount Forbes the clififs of Mount 

 Murchison (fig. 15) rise high above the dark forested slopes and 

 present a view of the Devonian and pre-Devonian formations that is 

 unequalled in all this region of peaks, clififs and broad canyon valleys. 



Opposite Mount Murchison on the north side of the Saskatchewan, 

 Mount Wilson (fig. 16) presents another section of the pre-Devonian 

 formations, the upper end of which is a massive white quartzite formed 

 of the sands of the beaches over which the Devonian Sea deposited 

 thick layers of calcareous sediments abounding in the remains of 

 corals and various invertebrates of the time. On the west, Mount 

 Wilson rises directly above the North Fork of the Saskatchewan which 

 here flows through a narrow picturesque inner canyon (fig. 17). 



^ Smithsonian Misc. Coll., Vol. 72, No. i. 



