294 



Canadian Porestrv Journal, December, 1^15. 



over. To our lasting regret be it 

 said, that some of Nature's most 

 striking masterpieces have here 

 been irreparably destroyed by forest 

 fires. Three cases in particular 

 come to my mind, viz. : 



The Avenue of Sticks. 



1. Of all beautiful mountain tarns, 

 Lake O'Hara, situated not far west 

 of the C.P.R. crossing of the main 

 range, is, perhaps, the most beauti- 

 ful, although the same publicity is 

 not given to it as to Lake Louise 

 and Moraine Lake. In magnificence 

 of surrounding snow-clad peak, 

 rocky precipice and leaping water- 

 fall it is a gem among gems. To 

 reach it one has to pass through a 

 stretch of several miles of burned 

 sticks, where the forest has been 

 destroyed by a fire that would have 

 swept the entire valley but for a 

 providential rock-slide that has cut 

 right across it and so created a 

 natural fire-break. 



2. Moraine Lake, not far from 

 Lake Louise, is another such beauti- 

 ful spot, and yet the original forest 

 bordering the road leading to it and 

 covering the surrounding hillsides 

 has been almost completely devas- 

 tated by forest fires. 



3. Towering above the Grand 

 Trunk Pacific and Canadian Nor- 

 thern Railways as they wind in sin- 

 uous curves through the blue depths 

 of the Fraser River Valley, the ice- 

 bound summit of the highest peak 

 of the Canadian Rockies, Mount 

 Robson, rises in unequalled splen- 

 dour — "a giant amongst giants and 

 immeasurably supreme" wrote Mil- 

 ton and Cheadle in their "Northwest 

 Passage by Land." On the north 

 face of the massif, a wildly broken, 

 crystal icefall tumbles for 5000 feet 

 down the steep side and buries its 

 nose in the turquoise blue waters of 

 Berg Lake ; so-called on account of 

 the numerous chunks of ice that, 

 with reports like cannon, break from 

 the glacier and float on its surface, 

 resembling miniature icebergs. Op- 

 posite this vast mountain mass, the 



centre of an alpine scene, unique the 

 world over, are valley slopes from 

 which the beautiy has gone forever. 

 They present the bleached skeletons 

 of a magnificent primeval forest that 

 has been swept by fire, and al- 

 though, as a compensation for the 

 loss of the soft setting of forest 

 green. Nature has spread a most 

 wonderfully beautiful and varied 

 carpet of alpine flowers, that loss 

 has for all time marred the consuma- 

 tion of a scene the like of which 

 could have nowhere else been found. 

 The pity of it, the lasting pity of it, 

 fills the beholder with vmshed tears 

 of rage and sorrow. 



Hundreds of other cases, particu- 

 larly along the lines of railway, can 

 be cited but the' above are strikingly 

 typical and will suffice. As an op- 

 posite may be mentioned the forests 

 surrounding Emerald Lake, near 

 Field on the C.P.R. Here, an ex- 

 quisite glacier lake of a wondrous 

 jade colour is surrounded by wide 

 virgin forests of varying shades of 

 green, as yet untouched by fire. Be- 

 hind, on all sides, towering peaks 

 covered by perpetual snow reach to 

 the clouds, wide stretches of ice 

 shimmer in the sunshine and white 

 waterfalls descend in sheer leaps 

 from ledge to ledge of rock. There 

 is no other spot in the mountains 

 where the eye can dwell with such 

 a satisfied feeling of rest on long 

 stretches of soft, velvety green, in- 

 tensified by a fiercely wild back- 

 ground, or where such a perfect feel- 

 ing of peace can be obtained; and 

 the Railway Company's delightful 

 little chalet supplies all that can be 

 desired to revitalise exhausted phy- 

 sical forces. 



Not a Club for "Stunts." 



There is a very generally fixed 

 idea in the public mind that the Al- 

 pine Club of Canada is a species of 

 high-grade athletic association, 

 whose one and only aim is to train 

 its members to daring stunts of 

 climbing on next to impossible 

 mountains; and that having once 



