PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. -7 



The Illecillewaet Glacier in the Selkirks. By Albert Penck. 



From The Journal of The German and Austrian Alpine Society. 



(Translated by D. R. Keys, Toronto, Canada.) 



(Read April 29th, iSqg.) 



The Cordilleras of Canada separate a well-watered coast from an arid interior. 

 The moist winds, which blow from the northern Pacific into the interior, on 

 meeting with the individual chains of the mighty mountain system, give up their 

 moisture and then pass on, dried out like the Swiss Fohu, over the valleys beyond, 

 until they have to ascend anew in order once more to lose their aqueous vapor. 

 Each of the ditterent chains, which, running north and south, form the Canadian 

 Cordilleras, has, like the Cordilleras themselves, its weather side and its dry side. 

 This is seen plainly in the course of the snow line. It lies lower on the west 

 slope of the chain tluin on the east side. He who would view the Cordilleras as 

 a snow-clad chain must observe them from the west ; from the east they appear 

 as a rocky chain, the " Rocky Mountains." 



It is a bare, bald wall which rises above the great plain of North America. 

 When first seen in lat. 51° N., not far from Calgary on the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway, it resembles the Karwendel chain south of Munich, and although here 

 reaching a height of nearly 3,000 meters, it is below the snow-line. It is the .same 

 in the National Park near Banff, so rich in beautiful landscapes. Not till we 

 approach the watershed between the Atlantic and the Pacific streams, do we see 

 snow-fields and glaciers. Near the height of land we can see from the railway 

 the glittering ice upon the flanks of Mount Stephen. It is barely 200 meters 

 higher than the highest mountains around Banff, and if capable, like its ueigliliors, 

 of supplying ice streams, this is due less to its height than to its western position. 

 Its situation brings it further into the snow limit which here must be sought 

 considerably below 3,000 meters, (somewhere between 2,700 and 2,800 meters 

 high). 



The chief range of the Canadian Cox'dilleras, the Selkirk chain, lying in the 

 bend of the Columbia river, likewise appears free from snow' when seen from the 

 east. These are broad-shouldered mountain masses, which rise to the west of 

 the broad valley of the upper Columbia near Donald. The scenery here reminds 

 one of the wide valley of the Inn with the Patscherkofel above Innsbruck, and 

 the railway line which leads up along the Beaver Creek encloses landscapes like 

 those of the Brenner railway. The top of the Roger pass (1314 m.) is, however, 

 a narrower cut in the mountain than the Brenner ; on both sides rocky peaks 

 tower up to 2,800 or 2,900 meters. Then it descends into the valley of the 

 Illecillewaet, the railway making the descent by a series of loops. At the same 

 time a magnificent glacial landscape is unfolded and soon the train stops in siglit 

 of the splendid Illecillewaet glacier at the station called Glacier, (125(5 m.) This 

 station was the headquarters of William Spotswood Green* and Topham. Emil 

 Hueber, f and Carl Sulzer, X as well as H. P. Nichols {5 and Charles E. Vi\y || in 

 their ascents of the mountains and glaciers of the Selkirks. The passenger trains 

 of the C.P.R. make this their mid-day station. Those on board lierc enjoy a 



*Explorations in the Glacier Regions ot the Selkirk ransre, British Columbia. Proc. ot the Ri>yal Geo- 

 graphical Soc, London, i88q, p. lijij. Among the Selkirk Glaciers, London, 1890. (This book I h.id not at niy 

 disposal). Climbing in the Selkirks and the adjacent Rocky Mountains, the Alpine Journal XVIL, 1895. p. 289. 



tim Hochgebirg von British Columbia, Jahrb. Schwci/er Alpen-Club. XXVL, 1890-91, p. 258. 



tBergfahrten im Far West. Ibid., p. 290. 



§Back Ranges of the Selkirks. Appalachia VII., i893. P- ""• 



II Up to the Crags of Sir Donald. Ibid., p. 157. 



