126 SO UR CES OF THE SA SKA TCHE WA N 



About five miles up the river a valley comes in from Glacier 

 lake, and our camp was placed on a point of land between the 

 confluent streams. The Saskatchewan at this cold season is 

 clear as a mountain spring and shallow enough to be fordable 

 on foot. In summer, however, it is a raging flood that makes 

 the region of Glacier lake very difficult to reach. From our 

 camp I set out in the afternoon to see the lake, and found it in 

 an hour, though not without a hard scramble through deep snow 

 and fallen timber. The view was well worth the labor expended. 

 The lake, which is three or four miles long, is beautifully set 

 among high peaks, and at the farther end a snow mountain sends 

 down a glacier nearly to its level. The setting sun sinking into 

 a notch of the distant mountains poured shafts of light through 

 gray, misty clouds and tinged their edges with a pale golden 

 illumination. The lake was nearty calm and reflected the beau- 

 tiful picture of mountain and sky from a tremulously moving 

 surface. The water, by retreating from its summer level, had 

 exposed a wide margin of mud-covered boulders and slippery 

 logs — the trunks of trees carried into the lake by snow slides — 

 but in the distance the forested banks seemed to press close upon 

 the water. There was something wonderfully impressive in the 

 awful solitude of such a scene under the spell of evening calm. 



From what had been seen of the country I decided that it was 

 important to reach, if possible, the summit of a high mountain 

 that lay to the east of the lake, which from its position would 

 command a comprehensive view of the whole region and also 

 surely reveal Mt Forbes, which was somewhere west of the lake, 

 according to Palliser's map. 



According^ I was afoot the next morning at nine o'clock, with 

 a camera on my shoulders, ready for the ascent. The mountain 

 appeared to be about 7,800 feet in altitude, or in round numbers 

 3,000 feet above our camp. The weather was bright and cold, 

 nor was there a cloud in the sky, and it proved by far the best 

 day of the trip. It appeared that the walking would be better 

 on the other side of the Glacier Lake stream, and after some 

 ineffectual attempts to bridge the river b} 7 felling trees, Pe} 7 to 

 carried me across on his back in a shallow j3lace, and so the 

 climb was commenced with dry boots. In less than five min- 

 utes a fine trail appeared, which saved a great deal of labor and 

 considerable time in getting to the lake. The trail at length 

 diverged to the east toward the mountain and went in the right 

 direction until the altitude was 600 feet above the lake, effecting 



