Exploration in the Canadian Rockies 197 



packed with skins of wild animals and 

 leather thongs. They speak very 

 quietly, or make a gentle, hissing noise 

 to their horses, when they go wrong, 

 as they all did at suddenly seeing our 

 camp. This manner of driving is en- 

 tirely different from the vociferous 

 shouts and curses of the average white 

 packer. Fully fifteen minutes elapsed 

 while this interesting procession was 

 passing. 



The canvas boat had been carried to 

 the upper lake, where we were now 

 located. After several preliminary ex- 

 cursions, Bryant and I made a visit to 

 a valley directly across the lake. Our 

 chief object was to see a large water- 

 fall, which, though fully four miles 

 distant, could be easily seen and heard 

 from our camp. Our course down the 

 lake lay between some heavily wooded 

 islands, and as the water was perfectly 

 calm the views on every side were most 

 attractive. The other side was reached 

 after 35 minutes steady rowing, and a 

 landing was made near where the Kana- 

 naskis River enters the lake We were 

 drawn a little out of our course by heating 

 the sound of falling water coming mys- 

 teriously from a densely wooded bank. 

 Here a curious spring bursts out of the 

 ground and discharges enough water to 

 make a fair-sized stream. To ascend 

 the valley we had first a ridge to cross, 

 involving a climb through an almost 

 impenetrable forest. With our heavy 

 cameras and other necessaries it was ex- 

 ceedingly trying work, pushing aside 

 stout, young trees, crawling under logs 

 or over great windfalls, all so closely 

 set together as to resemble a hedge. 

 After half an hour of this we reached 

 the top and were descending the other 

 side when a lake appeared below. 

 Though surrounded by wocds, the trees 

 all ceased to grow at a level about 20 

 feet above the water, and the interven- 

 ing space was thickly overgrown by cow 

 parsnips and tall grasses. Across this 

 sheet of muddy water a large stream 



could be seen foaming into the lake from 

 a canyon. Skirting the shore, we fol- 

 lowed a kind of trail made by elk 

 through a dense wood. In half an hour 

 we were well up an open valley into 

 which the falls plunge. Though the 

 volume of water in these falls is large, 

 we were somewhat disappointed by 

 their height, which, according to an es- 

 timate by aneroid and level, is only 150 

 feet. 



While I was photographing, Bryant 

 had nearly reached the top of the cliff 

 by a narrow couloir. Thinking he in- 

 tended to explore the upper valley, I fol- 

 lowed, but upon reaching the top it was 

 impossible to follow his tracks in the 

 heath-like moss and through open 

 woods The country was park-like, but 

 many limestone ridges and miniature 

 cliffs, alternating with Alpine flower 

 gardens, giving a wonderful display of 

 purple asters and bright yellow erige- 

 rons, made progress slow. On one slope 

 of broken stones I saw a great number 

 of curious fossils, resembling a goat horn 

 in appearance and lying loose in the 

 debris. Similar ones were seen later 

 embedded in almost every cliff, together 

 with many fine coral fossils, one of which 

 was 18 inches in diameter. Finding no 

 accessible valley to the south, from which 

 I had hoped to get a view into the un- 

 seen valley, where the Elk River heads, 

 I turned west and found a lake half a 

 mile long at the base of a long glacier. 

 This mass of ice covers the north and 

 west slopes of the high mountains east 

 of the Palliser River which had caused 

 us to travel so far south. One glacier 

 is about five miles long. The lake rests 

 in a basin of solid rock and the outlet 

 stream rushes into a small canyon and 

 is very swift and full of cascades all the 

 way to the great falls which we had seen 

 below. 



A storm was coming up and I hastened 

 back to the falls, which were reached in 

 an hour. Here I saw Bryant on the 

 opposite side of the stream trying to 



