124 SOURCES OF THE SASKATCHEWAN 



wind in the forest there was presently heard the roar of a water- 

 fall, and half a mile beyond we saw a large stream apparently 

 bursting from the top of a fine precipice and falling in one mag- 

 nificent leap down a great height. Through a notch in the 

 mountains there was another fall visible some miles distant fully 

 twice as high as the one near us. It was learned later that 

 every stream descended into the canyon by a fall and a succes- 

 sion of cascades. 



We camped in a beautiful wooded valley with much open 

 country at an altitude of 6,300 feet above the sea. Near our 

 tents was the river, which at this place is a comparatively small 

 stream of crystal clear water. In the afternoon I ascended, with 

 one of the men, a small mountain which lay to the west of our 

 camp. From this summit two passes were visible, one five miles 

 to the north and the other more distant and toward the north- 

 west. The view to the west was more extended. There was a 

 large straight glacier^, directly before us, the one we had seen 

 earlier in the day, which supplies the greater part of the water 

 of the North Fork. At least six or seven miles of this glacier is 

 visible, and it may extend much further behind the intervening 

 mountains. The glacier has no terminal moraine, and slopes by 

 a very even grade to a thin knife-like edge, in which it terminates. 



The next day Mr Barrett went off to climb, if possible, a moun- 

 tain over 11,000 feet in altitude, north of our camp, while one 

 of the packers and I started to explore the pass to the northwest. 

 The other packer spent part of the day investigating the other 

 pass. This division of labor was a great saving of time. At 

 our conference that evening, which did not occur till midnight, 

 when the last member came into camp, it was decided that the 

 pass to the north seemed unfavorable as a route to the Athabasca. 

 Mr Barrett failed in his ascent because the mountain was more 

 distant than it appeared. The pass to the northwest was more 

 favorable, and on the next day we moved our camp so as to be 

 almost on the summit. The last and longest branch of the North 

 Fork comes from a small glacial lake on one side of a meadow- 

 like summit and at the base of a splendid mountain, a complex 

 mass of rocky aretes and hanging glaciers. 



Upon further inquiry we learned that the valley as it descended 

 to the northwest was blocked by a glacier that came into it, and 

 beyond that a canyon, which made this route altogether out of 

 the question. A high valley on the right, however, offered the 

 last and only escape for us, and after reaching an altitude of 



