294 Canadian Record of Science. 



has long been a much travelled Indian route, and takes its 

 name from copious chalybeate springs, which deposit large 

 quantities of ochre. The Kicking Horse Pass was little 

 known and scarcely used by the Indians, probably on 

 account of the thickness of the woods and rough character 

 of parts of the valley for horses. About fifty miles north 

 of the last named pass is the Howse Pass, and thence to the 

 Athabasca Pass, a further distance of sixty-three miles, no 

 practicable route is known across the axis of the range. 

 In 1884 I learned from the Stoney Indians that a hunting- 

 party, having heard reports of abundance of game in the 

 region, had during the summer tried every valley between 

 the Athabasca and Howse Passes, but had been unable to 

 get their horses over, being repulsed either by impassible 

 rocky mountains or by glaciers and snow-fields which 

 filled the intervening valleys. It is in this part of the 

 range that Mounts Brown and Murchison occur, with 

 reputed altitudes of 16,000 and 13,500 feet respectively, and 

 Mount Hooker, also reported to be very lofty. This is 

 probably the culminating region of the range, but as yet 

 we have no accurate or detailed knowledge of it. 



In the region here particularly described, Mount Lefroy 

 (of Hector), with an altitude of 11,658 feet above the 

 sea, appear to be the highest' peak, but Assiniboine 

 Mountain, the height of which, as seen from a considerable 

 distance, I estimated at 11,500 feet, may prove to be 

 higher. A number of the mountains, however, are known 

 to exceed 10,000 feet in elevation, and whole ranges and 

 groups of peaks surpass 8000 feet. Considerable as such 

 elevations are, the height of the adjacent plains and the 

 yet greater altitudes of the valleys within the range, 

 reduces the apparent dimensions of the mountains, which 

 seldom rise much more than about 5000 feet above the 

 point of view. Though thus lacking in the impressive 

 magnitude characteristic of some other mountain ranges, 

 the scenery has a character of its own, and what it may 

 want in actual size is compensated by its extreme rugged- 

 ness and infinite variety, its massive, broken escarpments 

 and bare cliffs, which rise often from valleys densely filled 

 with primaeval forest. 



