OUTPOSTS OF THE ROCKIES 147 



of the Rocky Mountains came into view. Gradually 

 they broke upon us, as if adapting themselves to eyes 

 too long accustomed to uneventful flatness. Nature 

 intensifies her effects by contrasts. One thousand 

 miles of flat are succeeded by one thousand miles of 

 mountain, but it is difficult for the insular mind to 

 grasp the meaning of it. Our familiarity with minute 

 details is an indifferent preparation for things so vast, 

 and here we have the plains and hills of England 

 scaled up to the prairies and Rockies of British 

 Columbia. Our faculties are not equal to it. We 

 can no more see in thousands of feet than we can 

 think in millions of figures — without practice. But 

 nature trains us in her own way. She satiates the 

 eye with the drab of a monotonous flat, in order to 

 whet it for the purple of crags that " kiss high 

 Heaven." And how cunningly she does it ! In her 

 hints, in foothills coming at intervals with prairie 

 lying between. First bare rocks, then verdure-clad, 

 followed by detached ranges, like stray notes and 

 introductory chords to full-souled music. The mur- 

 muring of rivers is faintly caught in the distance 

 to-day, which to-morrow will be heard in full-throated 

 roar. Pioneer mountains prove to be only links in 

 ranges which divide in clear-cut peaks amongst the 

 clouds. 



The solid stone and timber of the railway line 

 rests on nothing less than the track of an ancient 

 glacier which once crawled down the descent and 



