SELKIRK 



5297 



SELKIRK MOUNTAINS 



of which he was at the time lieutenant. His 

 experiences on the island were recorded in two 

 books of the sea published in 1712, and Defoe's 

 Robinson Crusoe is believed to have been based 

 on these accounts. Selkirk's exile also inspired 

 a poem by William Cowper Imaginary Verses 

 of Alexander Selkirk containing the familiar 

 lines : 



I am monarch of all I survey 

 My right there is none to dispute ; 



From the center all round to the sea, 

 I am lord of the fowl and the brute. 



For illustration of the Selkirk monument on the 

 island of Juan Fernandez, see page 3177. Consult 

 Howell's Life and Adventures of Alexander Sel- 

 kirk. 



SELKIRK, THOMAS DOUGLAS, Fifth Earl of 

 (1771-1820), a Scotch philanthropist and colo- 

 nizer, founder of the Red River settlement, out 

 of which grew the Canadian province of Mani- 

 toba. The earl was born in Kirkcudbrightshire, 

 Scotland, and was educated at the University 

 of Edinburgh. About 1800 he became deeply 

 interested in the hard lot of hundreds of Scotch 

 peasant-tenants who were evicted from their 

 farms. In 1803 he sent forth three shiploads 

 of such unfortunate families to found a settle- 

 ment on Prince Edward Island. This colony 

 was so successful from the start that he founded 

 a second colony, Baldoon, in the western part 

 of Upper Canada. 



In 1811 he proceeded on a larger scale to 

 found a third settlement, in the valley of the 

 Red River. He bought from the Hudson's 

 Bay Company 116,000 square miles of land. 

 The first settlers reached their destination in 

 the spring of 1812, and by the end of the third 

 year there were about 300 settlers. They spent 

 the winters at Pembina hunting buffalo, and 

 each spring retured to the junction of the 

 Assiniboine and Red rivers to sow their little 

 patches of grain. Their presence was ob- 

 noxious to the factors and traders of the North- 

 west Company, for the latter suspected that 

 Lord Selkirk, being a shareholder in the Hud- 

 son's Ba.y Company, had planted a colony to 

 interfere with the Nor' Westers' trade. Actual 

 hostilities were not infrequent, and in one of 

 these pitched battles Governor Semple (see 

 SEMPLE, ROBERT) was killed. As a result of 

 this defeat the settlers were driven northward 

 to the head of Lake Winnipeg. Selkirk, who 

 had meantime arrived in Canada, with a force 

 of soldiers restored the ejected colonists to their 

 farms, settled his soldiers in the vicinity and 

 made a treaty of friendship with the Indians. 

 332 



When news of this situation reached Eng- 

 land, both parties to the quarrel were ordered 

 to surrender all their property. Selkirk was 

 unable to secure the conviction of any of the 

 murderers of Governor Semple, and was himself 

 heavily fined on a charge of violence. Bitterly 

 disappointed and broken in health, Selkirk then 

 withdrew to France, where he died. In the 

 year after his death the rival trading companies 

 were combined, and thereafter the settlement 

 of Fort Garry, as it was known, made steady if 

 sometimes arduous progress. It has developed 

 into the city of Winnipeg. 



SELKIRK MOUNTAINS, a mountain range 

 in the southeast part of British Columbia, ex- 

 tending from the United States boundary to the 

 Columbia River. The Selkirk Mountains are 

 famous for their great glaciers, for heavy snow- 

 fall, and for wild, magnificent scenery. Though 

 not as lofty as the neighboring chain of the 

 Rocky Mountains, the Selkirks are more Alpine 

 in character and far more beautiful. The 

 lower slopes, particularly on the west, are 

 heavily wooded, and higher up are countless 

 glaciers, some of enormous size. One of the 

 greatest of them is the Illecillewaet, near the 

 Glacier House station of the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway. This glacier has its origin in the 

 perpetual snow and ice on the mountains to the 

 south, including Mount Sir Donald (10,645 

 feet), named for Lord Strathcona. The highest 

 peak in the range is Mount Sir Sandford (11,634 

 feet), named for Sir Sandford Fleming. The 

 beauty of the Selkirks has given this section 

 of the" Dominion its nickname, "the Switzerland 

 of America." 



The Selkirk Mountains have a length of 

 about 200 miles, and a width of about eighty 

 miles. The range is almost completely encir- 

 cled by the Columbia River and its tributary, 

 the Kootenay. Though usually regarded as a 

 part of the Rocky Mountains system, it belongs 

 to an older geological period, and is separated 

 from the greater system by the long, nar- 

 row Rocky Mountain Trench. Directly south- 

 east of the Selkirks is a minor chain, called the 

 Purcell Range, and farther east the main chain 

 of the Rockies. West and north of the Selkirks 

 is the Gold Range. Gold was discovered in 

 this section in 1857, and silver, copper, zinc, 

 mercury, coal and marble have also been found. 

 Gold mining has reached the stage of the lode 

 mining on a fairly large scale. The Selkirk 

 Mountains were named in honor of Thomas 

 Douglas, Earl of Selkirk (see SELKIRK, THOMAS 

 DOUGLAS, EARL OF) . A.P.C. 



