Our Northern Rockies 



3 6 7 



Erosion of Limestone near Silvertip Peak 



"A pavement not calculated to increase our rate of travel many miles per day ' 



side streams join the main river, and to 

 cross the river in these canyon districts 

 is impossible. When the water is high, 

 traveling in this valley is out of the 

 question. At one point the whole river, 

 when at low stages, flows in two chan- 

 nels, each not more than five or six feet 

 wide, which ma}- be crossed dry shod 

 by springing over them, though the 

 water is 50 feet or more in depth. 



Unlike the Swan River, the South 

 Fork is doing much work in cutting a 

 way through the limestones and shales 

 which it encounters, the canyons being 

 picturesque in the extreme. 



The ridge next to be scaled to the 

 east of the South Fork is the Continen- 

 tal Divide — the watershed of the Rock- 

 ies, which is flanked by numerous spurs 

 or parallel " rampart " ridges, shown in 



the views taken from the Silvertip 

 Peak. This peak we have found to be 

 easily climbed, the pack-mule carrying 

 instruments to within 500 feet of the 

 top. It is a huge mass of limestone on 

 top of a plateau guarded by long lines 

 of cliff, with sentinel peaks at every ap- 

 proach. The plateau is almost devoid 

 of vegetation, the surface being worn 

 into innumerable channels by the waters 

 running from huge snow banks, a pave- 

 ment not calculated to increase our rate 

 of travel many miles per day. 



Upon reaching the summit of the Di- 

 vide we discover that the cliffs which 

 we have continuously scaled or circled, 

 and which face southwest, are replaced 

 b}- similar ones facing northeast, so that 

 our difficulties, which have been of as- 

 cent, become ones of Ascent, and may 



