EXPLORING KNOX MOUNTAIN 
In the Canadian Selkirks 
BY M. V. B. KNOX 
HE leader of the party, 
4for a dozen years a 
tireless prospector 
among the higher Sel- 
kirks, declared the as- 
i|cent to be very diff- 
‘| cult, and at one point 
: dangerous, unless one 
vii kepta steady head and 
sim careful footing. The 
"Yj field glass showed a 
passage where for fifty 
feet around a shoulder 
to the crest one must 
edge along on a ledge not more than a foot 
wide, with a sheer fall of 3,500 feet into the 
gorge below. Would the two women dare 
that climb? They sturdily declared they 
would go. 
In due time Kirkpatrick, our strong, 
broad-shouldered prospector, had a duffle- 
bag of food packed and we took up our long 
push canes, and the party of five started. 
As often happens in mountain climbing, 
we were compelled to go wide of the direct 
route to reach our objective. An ascent 
of some hundreds of feet in a course away 
from the peak enabled us to attain a sharp 
ridge, along which we clambered toward 
our goal. Here on the open rocks was 
offered a most interesting event. Suddenly 
Kirkpatrick assumed an attitude of intense 
attention, and in a stage whisper explained, 
“See those ptarmigans!”’ Sure enough, a 
couple of these Arctic birds were within 
a few feet of us. The amateur taxidermist 
of the party cried out, ‘‘Oh, I want one of 
those to mount its skin!” With his alpen- 
stock the prospector attempted to reach one, 
but the bird was just a little too shy for 
such an end, and a carefully thrown stone 
from the hand knocked it over while the 
mate flew away three or four hundred yards 
to safety. 

In due time, over summits and across 
snowfields, we came to that particular spot 
where acute danger was possible. Kirk- 
patrick with his boy first made the passage, 
then he returned to aid his wife around the 
ledge. From the near side Dr. Janette 
and I watched. With her face turned 
toward the rock Mrs. Kirkpatrick edged 
along, foot by foot, clinging with her fingers 
to rough places in the cliff, never once 
turning her eyes backward to the abyss. 
Her husband kept beside her to steady her 
if necessary, but not once did she falter or 
grow dizzy, or yield to a grain of fear. In 
two or three minutes she was dancing suc- 
cess on the far side. Now it was the turn 
of my wife. Kirkpatrick sidled along in 
front of her and I close on the other side, but 
as steadily and coolly as Mrs. Kirkpatrick 
she made the passage. 
The top of the mountain, once we were 
on it, we found to be most beautiful. Worn 
smooth by ancient glacial action, it was now 
covered with an indurated, coarse soil, 
growing short, stiff grass with a few stunted 
bushes in a place or two. We were 2,000 
feet above the timber-line in that country, 
the immense growth of the trees in the 
lower valleys and on the hillsides being 
plainly seen from our coign of vantage. 
But the most charming views were those of 
the snowfields and glaciers. 
The snowfall in the Selkirks is something 
astounding. They tell of twenty, forty or 
even sixty feet of fall in a single winter. 
One wholly reliable prospector, holding 
down a ‘‘grubstake,” told us of measuring 
the fall each morning before it settled, 
during two months, February and March, 
and his figures were crowded up to eighteen 
feet. But these immense depths, fluffy and 
feathery, soon settle and evaporate, so that 
it remains as six or eight feet of solid snow. 
Over this depth they go on snowshoes and 
