CHAPTER XIII. 



PATH FINDING IN THE KOOTENAY COUNTRY, AND 

 NOTES ON THE INDIANS. 



OF the three mountain systems that occupy the Kootenay 

 district, the Rockies, the Gold Range, and the Selkirks, only the 

 last named is wholly situated in Kootenay, In fact, the Selkirks 

 occupy the heart of the district, the two great rivers of Eastern 

 British Columbia forming, as we have already described, a great 

 "O" round these mountains, the little one-mile long canal of 

 blessed memory thus making an island of the Selkirks. 



They are interesting mountains ; " a region of rushing streams, 

 towering forests, rugged peaks, and fine glaciers," as the first 

 properly fitted out mountain explorer of the Selkirks has tersely 

 and correctly described them. This was the Rev. W. Spotswood 

 Green, the well-known explorer of the High Alps of New Zealand.*" 

 For, though my explorations in this range commenced five or six 

 years earlier than did his, I can lay no claim to have done genuine 

 mountain exploration on scientific principles. In my case the 

 attractions of the rifle were more powerful than those of the 

 sextant and plane-table, and though I always promised myself a 

 good long summer's holiday of mountain climbing, the unexpected 

 exigencies connected with my pioneer enterprise in Kootenay 

 never permitted the execution of this design. 



To-day one can no longer speak of path-finding in 

 Kootenay. Half a dozen live towns, with a population in some 

 cases of seven thousand, half a hundred mining camps, five 



* See his " Among the Selkirk Glaciers." Macmillan. 1890. 



