TRAMPS ACROSS GLACIERS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 461 



For the past two summers the writer 

 has had the good fortune to spend his 

 vacations in wandering through this Sel- 

 kirk wilderness. In company with two 

 friends. Prof. F. W. D. Holway and Mr 

 Frederick K. Butters, of Minneapolis, he 

 has "packed" all necessities for extended 

 trips across the passes and glaciers, push- 

 ing even into previously unvisited por- 

 tions of the range. 



geikie; glacier 



One of our early excursions was a 

 visit to the Geikie Glacier, which drains 

 the southwestern portion of the lUecille- 

 waet neve as the "Great Illecillewaet" 

 does on the north. The trip promised 

 to be unusually interesting, as the glacier 

 had been traversed only once previously. 

 That, however, was made along its 

 southern margin, while our plan was to 

 keep to the ice itself as much as con- 

 ditions allowed. 



Starting from Glacier, we "trailed it" 

 up the Asulkan Valle}^ and over the pass 

 at its head, 3,700 feet above the hotel, 

 then down 2,800 feet into the further 

 valley, where our glacier lay. Camp was 

 set up near its lower ice-fall shown in 

 the photographs. 



This ice-fall was especiallv remarkable 

 for the way in which the pure white ice, 

 upon reaching the sharp decline, broke 

 up into long, flat-topped ridges or ranks 

 like huge sections of some ancient cas- 

 tle's wall, extending nearly across the 

 glacier. Lower down these were con- 

 solidated by the pressure into deep wave- 

 like channels, gradually smoothing out 

 toward the tongue. 



Through one of these convenient trans- 

 verse grooves we crossed the glacier a 

 day or two later. Then, skirting along 

 the steep rocks of its northern margin, 

 we surmounted the fall and took to the 

 smoother ice higher up. After passing 

 over a broad terrace we approached the 

 highest fall of all, where the tremendous 

 mass of ice tumbles down from the neve 

 in a hopeless confusion of splintered 

 seracs. 



Glittering towers of ice the size of a 

 city building, grotesquely fashioned and 



tilted at impossible angles, had been 

 reared aloft by the mighty force from 

 above until the mile of crescent skyline 

 resembled a huge wave frozen by some 

 mystic power as it breaks into thousands 

 of splashes. 



It was this great chaos of ice that 

 turned back the Rev. W. S. Green, 

 pioneer explorer of the Selkirks, in 1889! 

 Gazing down upon it from the Illecille- 

 waet neve, he describes the scene as fol- 

 lows : "In its bottom (valley of Fish 

 Creek) a fine glacier wound its sinuous 

 course till lost to sight beyond a bend. 

 Grand precipices flanked it on either 

 hand, and piles of avalanched snow lay 

 half covering the crevasses which were 

 in a regular network over its entire sur- 

 face. Cautiously we crossed a few snow 

 bridges, but it became too evident that 

 this was no road for the sledges."^ 



After admiring the impressive specta- 

 cle for some time we turned back, for 

 the sun was well down in the west and 

 our position not exactly suitable for a 

 bivouac. We followed our route of as- 

 cent to the middle terrace, and then, 

 crossing this, continued to camp along 

 the southern bank. 



On the way rather emphatic proof of 

 the glacier's movement was afforded us. 

 During a halt by a tiny stream trickling 

 down a crevice in the ice. one of the 

 party knelt down to drink. His surprise 

 may be imagined on seeing the crack 

 open slightly and the whole stream dis- 

 appear bodily into its depths. 



The movements of the Geikie Glacier, 

 as far as the writer is aware, have never 

 been measured. In all probability they 

 are comparatively small, for the stream, 

 as above mentioned, contains a sharp 

 bend with closely constricting walls, 

 which would greatly retard the motion 

 by their excessive friction. 



The Illecillewaet and Asulkan glaciers, 

 however, have been carefully studied, the 

 former from as early as 1888. when the 

 Rev. W. S. Green set out a line of stakes 

 across the ice to measure its rate of flow. 

 His maximum result was 12 feet in 20 



* Proceedings of the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety, vol. XI. 1889. p. 160. 



