GLACIERS OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES AND SELKIRKS. 7 1 



ancient Wenkchemna and Bow glaciers. Looking down the valley towards the 

 Bow, Babel Mountain is on the right and Mt. Temple upon the left, rising above 

 the high morainic ridge mentioned. From the shoulder of Mt. Temple there ex- 

 tends to the center of the view the morainic ridge reaching out into the Bow 

 Valley, gradually losing in height and breadth. As pointed out by Wilcox, this 

 deposit probably mantles a rock spur which escaped destruction by the ice. 

 During the height of glaciation a tributary glacier moved in northwestward from 

 Consolation Valley and joined the Wenkchemna at a level 400 to 500 feet above 

 the present valley floor, forming a "hanging- valley." From the "Tower of 

 Babel " there curves across the mouth of the valley what appears to be a morainic 

 ridge, of the same nature and origin as that just described. The height of this 

 hanging- valley above that of the Ten Peaks is believed by some to measure the 

 differential erosion between the ancient Wenkchemna and that of the tributary 

 which occupied this valley. 



CHAPTER V. 



YOHO GLACIER. 



i. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



THIS glacier, the largest and most northerly situated of the series studied 

 constitutes a tongue of ice from the great Waputik snow-ice field which mantles 

 the Continental Divide to the north of the railway. Its nose lies in latitude 51 

 34', at the head of the picturesque Yoho Valley, and is most conveniently reached 

 from Field, via Emerald Lake. The day's ride, over a fairly good trail, up this 

 ice-cut valley, with its hanging glaciers and plunging cataracts, is an experience 

 never to be forgotten. The return trip to Field should be made over the Burgess 

 Pass. During the summer the Canadian Pacific Railway maintains a camp at 

 Laughing Falls, some four miles from the glacier. The glacier was first made 

 known through the descriptions and photographs of Jean Habel, 1 secured in 

 1897, and each summer since it has been visited by gradually increasing numbers 

 of tourists and students. The original name was derived from the Wapta River, 

 another name for the Kicking Horse, the name "wapta" itself meaning river 

 in the Stoney Indian language. The name Yoho since approved by the Canadian 

 Geographic Board is the Indian exclamation of surprise and wonderment. 



As one emerges from the forest and comes suddenly face to face with the 

 glacier, plunging at him from above, he is greatly impressed with its size and appar- 

 ent pow r er. Its freedom from surface debris better enables it to meet the popular 

 idea of what a glacier should look like, the Victoria and Wenkchemna, having 

 been somewhat disappointing (plate xxvii, figure 3) in this respect. The Yoho 

 has the general form of a gauntlet mitten, extending in a south-southeast direc- 

 tion, with the thumb upon the eastern side of the valley and partly surrounding 

 a great rock embossment (see plates xxvi and xxvui, figure 2). Independently of 



1 " The North Fork of the Wapta," Afpalachia, Vol. vm, No. 4, 1898, pp; 327-336. 



