ROCKY MOUNTAINS 



place where they could carry their tracks across 

 the Rockies without encountering heavy grades, 

 found in the southern part of Wyoming a pla- 

 teau over 250 miles long and 100 miles wide 

 running through the mountains from east to 



t at a height of 7,000 feet. This plateau, 

 called the Laramie Plains, divides the Rockies 

 of the United States into two distinct parts. 

 To the south of it comes first the highest and 

 broadest section in the whole Rocky Mountains 

 system, covering Colorado and Eastern Utah; 

 then come the lower and less compact ranges 

 of New Mexico and Texas. In Colorado alone 

 there are almost fifty peaks over 14,000 feet 

 high ; in Utah and New Mexico ten exceed 13,- 

 000 feet, and in Texas one mountain, El Capi- 

 tan, is 9,020 feet in height. Above the Laramie 

 Plains the Rockies extend toward the northwest, 

 and are narrower and slightly lower. Wyoming 

 has half a dozen peaks more than 13,000 feet 

 high, but Idaho and Montana have each only 

 one summit above 12,000 feet. 



The Canadian Rockies. Sometimes people 

 who have never before seen mountains exclaim 

 with disappointment, after passing through the 

 Rockies, that mountains were not at all what 

 they had expected. Such a feeling is aroused 

 by the fact that usually where the tallest peaks 

 are, there also are the highest plains and pla- 

 teaus. If these plains surround a mountain at 

 half its height, its visible mass is only about 

 one-eighth as great as if it rose directly out of 

 the sea. In the Canadian mountains travelers 

 find all their dreams of the Rockies fulfilled. 

 There are dozens of peaks more than 11,000 

 feet high, several more than 12,000 and one, 

 Mount Robson, over 13,000 feet high, yet the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway crosses the conti- 



d divide at an altitude of only 5,332 feet 

 and the Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian 

 North, rn. when at their highest points, near 

 the foot of Mount Robson, are only 3,726 and 

 3,712 feet above the sea. The principal peaks 

 <>t the Canadian Rockies are in British Colum- 

 bia, and toward the north the range gradually 



:u?es in height until at the Arctic Cirri. 

 it is only a series of hills. 



What Made the Rockies. The Rocky Moun- 

 tains arc too long a chain to be alike through- 

 out their length. In general, of course, their 



nee is due to pressure from east and west 

 l.y tin- mmhtv forces of nature, which has lifted 

 to this continental backbone rocks containing 

 skeletons of animals that on< the sea, 



other rocks formed by the intense heat of 

 the earth's interior. In the southern half some 



ROCKY MOUNTAINS PARK 



of the mountains were once volcanoes, and evi- 

 dences of volcanic activity are found in the 

 huge lava sheets of Montana and Idaho and 

 the geysers of Yellowstone National Park. But 

 the shape of the Rockies as we now see them 

 is the work of nature's never-resting carvers, 

 the wind, the rain and, from Colorado north- 

 ward, the glacier. It is they that have hollowed 

 out the valleys and worn away the softer lay- 

 ers of rock, revealing to geologists the history 

 of the mountains and exposing to prospectors 

 and miners rich treasures in gold, silver, copper 

 and coal. C.H.H. 



Consult Parkman's The Oregon Trail; Horna- 

 day's Camp/ires in the Canadian Rockies; John- 

 son's Highways and Byways of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. 



ROCKY MOUNTAINS PARK, in Alberta, a 

 national playground for the Canadian people. 

 The park, covering an area of about 2,000 

 square miles, lies on the eastern slope of the 

 Rockies. It was set aside as a reservation by 

 Act of Parliament in 1887, the first Dominion 

 park. In 1911 Parliament provided for the res- 

 ervation of a larger area, the Rocky Mountains 

 Forest Reserve, of which the old park became a 

 part for some purposes, although it still retains 

 its identity as a national park. The new re- 

 serve, covering an area of 20,896 square miles 

 (13,373,000 acres), extends northward from the 

 United States boundary for a distance of 500 

 niiles, and is from twelve to one hundred miles 

 wide. It covers an area about as large as the 

 province of Nova Scotia, or about one-twelfth 

 of the entire province of Alberta. In this vast 

 territory animal and plant life is protected. 

 Firearms are prohibited, and visitors must con- 

 duct themselves so that the peace of the park 

 is not disturbed. 



The heart of the Rocky Mountains Forest 

 Resent i> Rocky Mountains Park. Hen 

 many of the lovehe.-t .-pots in all the world. 

 The Dominion government and the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway have comlmied to make \\. 

 spots easily accessible and yet have not de- 

 stroyed thnr c-harm. The park is under the 

 control oi utendent. \\ho is responsible 



to the chief of the Dominion Parks Branch of 

 the Diparimmt nf tin- Interior. 



Banff, "Capital" of the Park. To thousands 



isitors, and to many thousands more who 



I ni us wonders, the park means 



Hanii". This httle settlement, which exists for 



the benefit of tourists, is the extrance to tin 



park II Mtor may recline luxuriou.-ly 



on a hotel veranda, overlooking the valleys of 



