164 Canadian Record of Science. 



the Alps do not, while the highest of the British moun- 

 tains are but babies in comparison. The vastness of their 

 number and the greatness of the territory over which they 

 extend, as beheld from one of the higher peaks, well 

 earned for the scene the description of one of our eloquent 

 statesmen as a " sea of mountains." What with the 

 admirably conducted hotels established by the Eailway 

 Company at Banff, Field, Glacier, North Bend, and at 

 other points of interest, a stay at any or all of these 

 places affords an incomparable holiday, even for the 

 ordinary tourist. When to the attractions of the superb 

 scenery of the route there is added the element of scien- 

 tific interest, a visit to the Eockies and Selkirks becomes 

 an unforgettable, a perpetual joy. It may be taken for 

 granted that the botanist is not insensible to the general 

 beauties of nature, although he has an eye for detail. But 

 while he drinks in as much as others of the delight which 

 fine scenery yields, he alone is sensible of the enchant- 

 ment proceeding from the rich flora which decks the 

 mountain slopes and valleys bordering on the railway 

 track during the summer months. Eoaming among those 

 blooming treasures affords a delight, of which the unini- 

 tiated have no conception. 



From a scientific point of view, the flora found on 

 mountains everywhere is of special interest. Geologists 

 tell us that the lofty portions of the world were the first 

 to emerge from under the primeval waters ; and it follows 

 that the earliest vegetation that took root on the earth 

 was on the mountain tops and sides. The ambition of 

 every collector of plants, in consequerjce, is to visit 

 mountain ranges and possess himself of the species to be 

 found thereon ; and the favorite excursions of botanical 

 societies are always to hills. The mountain flora has 

 characteristics of its own, and long before there was any 

 thought that a railway would skim over the western 

 prairies and penetrate the passes of the Eockies and 



