34 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



well wooded ; there is abundance of Douglas fir, Murray pine, spruce, 

 cedar, and hemlock. The trees are not great trees, such as you find in 

 parts of British Columbia. They have not had a chance, forest fires 

 having burned them down time and again. But they are abundant, 

 and they add greatly to the beauty of the scenery. At Field, there 

 is an admirable hotel, which has food steaming hot for the passengers 

 when the train stops. If complaint has sometimes to be made of 

 the service in some of the hotels in Canada, assuredly no complaint 

 can be made as to the rapidity with which food is served in these 

 railway hotels in the mountain ranges of British Columbia. Farther 

 on, there is the loop on the line which attracts the attention of all 

 passengers through the Rockies, though it is not such a wonderful 

 loop as the loop on the line cutting through the Alps from Lucerne 

 to Italy. There is also the Kicking Horse Canon, where the train 

 crosses and recrosses the foaming river. Possibly, however, the sight 

 in the mountains is the Three Sisters, covered with everlasting snow, 

 and the Glacier. The passengers get out at Glacier for refresh- 

 ments, and to have an opportunity of taking in the wonderful 

 picture. The scenery continues more or less magnificent through 

 the mountains. Revelstoke was reached in the evening of Sunday, 

 13th September. 



We said that the Commission split into two at Moose Jaw, and 

 we have described the wanderings of the main wing. The other 

 section of the Commission proceeded to the Kootenay district in 

 British Columbia, with the view of examining fruit-farming there. 

 It was a long run from Moose Jaw to the Kootenay landing. The 

 country for many miles after Moose Jaw was left behind, was 

 poor country, composed of sand for the most part, on which scrub 

 was growing. It was also an undulating country, rolling like the 

 sea. Farther west, the undulation increased and the ground be- 

 came more stony, and for many miles no settler's house was in evid- 

 ence. Just beyond Lake Chaplin was seen the track of a great 

 prairie fire, which covered a distance estimated at sixty miles long 

 by twelve broad. A strange thing had happened. The fire seemed 

 to have swept round a dwelling-house with some acres of ground, 

 and left the house and the ground untouched. The place was, of 

 course, protected by a firebreak, that is, some furrows had been 

 ploughed round the holding, and when the fire reached the ploughed 

 land it was unable to get across. The land remained poor, and in 

 many places there seemed to be much alkali in the ground until 

 between six and seven o'clock when Swift Current was reached. 

 It was 1L30 when this section of the Commission got to Medicine 

 Hat and on board the Kootenay train. By six o'clock next morning, 

 some of them got up in time to see Macleod. From Macleod west- 

 ward, the country has been developing into a wheat-raising country, 

 and the rancher is being driven out. Land which could have been 

 bought for a few dollars some years ago costs thirty dollars now. 

 Towards the foothills, the higher reaches of the Rockies looked quite 

 refreshing after the plains. A good view of the Crow's Nest Moun- 

 tain and of Crow's Nest Lake was obtained. At Frank, the Com- 

 missioners saw the scene of the great slide of two years ago. Part 



