30 



RECREATION. 



and by the aid of these we climbed up. It 

 became steeper all the time. When we came 

 to an almost perpendicular ice wall the 

 guide would cut deeper steps, and, driving 

 our picks into the ice above, we would pull 

 ourselves up after him, step by step. At 

 last the rear man was high enough, and we 

 untied him on a small level place. Then 

 the guide cut steps out over a narrow ledge 

 of ice to a point where we looked down 

 into a yawning chasm 700 feet deep to water 

 rushing over the rocks at the bottom of the 

 glacier. Stroke after stroke of the guide's 

 adz sent splinters of the ice down over me. 

 Step by step we went up the ice cliffs. Each 

 one scaled brought still others into view. I 

 had said we would go to the top, but now 

 I could not see the top ; it was in fact miles 

 away. 



I recalled that it is much easier to climb 

 a mountain than to descend from it. I 

 looked down. That was fatal. I said I 

 had abandoned the idea of reaching the top 

 and was ready to go down. The guide 

 smiled and said we would better go to the 

 top of the wall on the side of which we were 

 hanging. But my decision was irrevocable. 

 He told me how to set the pick and how to 

 go down ; to turn my face out into space 

 and hanging to ' the pick to put one foot 

 down into the step below and then bring 

 the other foot down and so on. Never was 

 first step harder. When a gust of wind 

 came I had to strain every muscle to re- 

 tain my balance. On the level we step to 

 balance ; there you must balance to step. 

 To lean back against the cliff would throw 

 the feet out of the step, and land you in 

 some unreachable chasm. The weight of 

 the body must be borne by the arms with a 

 firm grasp of the pick during part of each 

 step. A little experience brings some skill 

 and confidence and makes glacier climbing 

 almost delightful. Without accident we 

 reached the rocks below with blistered hands 

 and muscles that gave premonition of sore- 

 ness to appear next day. 



Illicilliwaet glacier is said to cover 200 

 square miles. From there the railroad runs 

 up the Beaver river and then parallels Col- 

 umbia river until it runs out from the Sel- 

 kirk mountains into the Rockies. From the 

 Columbia the railway carries us up the can- 

 yon of Kicking Horse river. This is the 

 wildest of all the canyons on the line. A 

 heavy engine in front and an equally heavy 

 one behind, pull and push us up the steep 

 grade. With all their great power and ef- 

 fort they are sometimes almost brought to 



a halt by the heavy train. So narrow is the 

 canyon that at places its granite sides have 

 been blasted away, and the rocks above 

 overhang the coaches. One rail is some- 

 times supported by outstanding timbers and 

 the coach seems to be hanging over the 

 foaming water hundreds of feet below. 

 Now you look down on great pine forests 

 waving in the winds ; then the walls almost 

 meet and you hear the river below dashing 

 over rocks and falls, with a roar that 

 drowns the noise of the train. 



At the continental divide a sparkling 

 stream separates right at the railway track, 

 one branch flowing to the Pacific ocean, 

 the other to Hudson's bay. Up on the 

 mountain side at one place hangs a glacier 

 with a perpendicular wall of ice 800 feet, 

 thick that is slowly creeping down and 

 overhangs the deep chasm below. Vast 

 stretches of that region are unexplored and 

 unknown. Banff, the great Canadian sum- 

 mer resort in the Rockies, is surrounded 

 on all sides by great jagged mountains. Hot 

 sulphur springs that afford good bathing, 

 lakes, rivers and waterfalls, are the chief 

 attractions, The Canadian government has 

 reserved a large tract there, and on part of 

 it has in an enclosure of many acres, a 

 herd of buffalo that are fine specimens of 

 this almost extinct animal. 



You would not notice but what you were 

 at an American hotel, except when you 

 pay your bill. They give you an item- 

 ized statement and a receipt. Most of 

 the guests are Americans. The air is like 

 a tonic, and you glow with pleasant excite- 

 ment as you climb the mountains or plunge 

 into the waters, row on the lakes or drive 

 over the well graded highways. The Cana- 

 dians, as far as I have met them, are a 

 quiet, polite and kindly people. 



Waving adieu to the hoary headed mon- 

 archs of the ranges we turn from the prov- 

 ince of Alberta to look out over the wind 

 swept bosom of Assiniboia, a vast level ex- 

 panse, covered with a stunted growth of 

 grass. With the exception of an occasional 

 Indian village it is uninhabited. The noble 

 red man, his squaw and the papoose come 

 to the stations in considerable numbers to 

 see the train in and to beg. Farther East 

 you now and then see the house of a white 

 man. The summer is so short and the win- 

 ter so cold that even stock raising is haz- 

 ardous and water is hard to get. At Portal 

 the customs official goes through our lug- 

 gage before we enter the land of Uncle 

 Sam. 



Photographer's Assistant — Mrs. Van Per- 

 kins complains that her portraits don't look 

 like her. 



Photographer — -Complains, does she? She 

 ought to be grateful. — Exchange. 



