AMONGST THE WILD GOATS OF THE CASCADES. 293 



An important characteristic of mountaineering on 

 the western slope of the Pacific watershed is the 

 peculiar obstacles it offers, entirely different from 

 anything of the kind in Europe. With proper guides 

 and ice-axes, the practised mountaineer can cross blue 

 ice lying at a steep angle the last slope of the 

 Aletschhorn, the last aretes of the Bernina or Weisshorn 

 seem merely episodes in the day's work ; but in 

 British Columbia the mountain slopes of the coast are 

 different, and of the same character throughout. Up 

 to a height of about seven thousand feet the sides are 

 excessively steep, ascending at an angle of about 35 

 from the vertical, often consisting of compact, stony 

 earth covered with multitudes of small broken twigs 

 and loose pebbles. Coarse, short varieties of grass 

 grow upon the surface, beaten flat upon the soil by 

 the pressure of the snow and the washing of the rain, 

 each blade pointing downwards like the tiles on the 

 roof, and offering a slippery foothold to ordinary foot- 

 gear if it offers any at all. It is true that, in certain 

 difficult places, to tread upon a twig and slip without 

 recovering one's footing means destruction. Here 

 and there stunted alder and other bushlets grow, 

 whose branches, while constituting a danger if 

 trodden upon, do also afford a means of partial safety, 

 for they offer the only hand-hold that exists, except- 

 ing where in places the trailing branches of a spruce 

 are seen. The tenacity of their roots within the soil is 

 only moderate; one must be careful to trust but a 

 fraction of one's weight upon any single plant, as 



