42 



RECREATION 



goodwill. Our road lay along the right 

 bank of the Kicking Horse river. No 

 wonder the horse kicked, for that trail 

 was then horrible. At the junction 

 of the stream with the Emerald river 

 a boat was hauled from the water and 

 fastened over the strongest donkey. 

 Here began our real parting with civil- 

 ization. 



If men could live on scenery, we 

 would have needed no cook and "grub." 

 Mass a dozen Switzerlands, make the 

 peaks a fifth higher, remove the chalets 

 and villages, and you will spell the 

 region stretching away from Field in 

 all directions. 



Right behind us, east by north, and 

 across the railroad track, Mt. Stephen 

 rose, its peak glittering like a visible 

 dream a mile and a half above us. Mt. 

 Field and Mt. Burgess were quite as im- 

 pressive, — hanging glaciers, tremendous 

 crags ! We turn to the right, go around 

 the base of Burgess, and enter a straight 

 and narrow road cut through a forest 

 of white spruces standing a hundred 

 and fifty feet high, and so close to- 

 gether that one may touch two trunks 

 almost anywhere with outstretched 

 arms. At one end of this green lane, 

 Emerald mountain is visible ; Mt. Vaux 

 stands like a sentinel beyond the west 

 end. 



The trail turns to the right, and is 

 yet rougher. Five miles from Field 

 it again strikes Emerald creek. We 

 followed the stream, forded it and 

 traveled along its right bank to our 

 little shanty or "shack" on the west 

 shore of Emerald lake. 



With a boat and a trolling spoon fair 

 fishing may be had there and some very 

 large trout are taken. Its outlet and 

 the Kicking Horse also furnish brook 

 trout for anglers. But while the angling 

 is far better than in most streams and 

 lakes in the States it has little interest 

 for the stranger from the East. For 

 he is awed by the tremendous scenery, 

 right before him are streams of melted 

 ice of glaciers falling from mountains 

 a mile high — crags and precipices with 

 woods skirting their brinks bathed in 



clearest sunlight. Everything sticks 

 up on edge to dizzy heights and in one 

 place on the trail to the Yoho valley 

 a strata of rock set on edges dammed 

 the river until it gradually wore a hole 

 throught the barriers. A three-pound 

 fish taken in such a place seems a mere 

 minnow. 



Royal days and nights I spent alone 

 in camp beside the lake, while my com- 

 rades and the guides toiled on Mt. 

 Burgess to shoot goats and sheep ! The 

 boat was big and comfortable and 

 fine for trolling; the blankets and 

 bough bunks the very home of sleep. 

 It can rain in that country. Pouncing 

 gusts, blackest cloud-rushes, and 

 enough of lightning and thunder to 

 make camping picturesque ! Across the 

 lake was a patch of briers where black- 

 berries were ripe, — a perfect lunching 

 place beside that spring. Once I all but 

 put a hand on a fool-hen which was 

 lunching off the berries. The bird "got 

 up" with a heart-dazing bu-r-r-r-r? not 

 two feet away. These birds are so 

 tame that they will not fly until fairly 

 pushed off their perch. I potted three 

 with a pistol at a distance of six feet. 

 The male bird has a black breast and 

 tail, crimson eyes around dark pupils, 

 mottled brown feathers, and weighs 

 about two pounds. The fool-hen is 

 called Franklin's grouse by the natural- 

 ists. It is delicious when roasted, and 

 has saved many a hunter's and prospec- 

 tor's life. Its young are hatched in 

 June and July. It is found only be- 

 tween six and nine thousand feet above 

 the sea. Emerald lake had its fair 

 quota of fool-hens during our camp 

 life there. 



But to fish, row, shoot, and eat and 

 sleep all alone, grew tiresome ; a hunt- 

 er who was my guest after breaking 

 bread with me, scared me with warn- 

 ings of danger from marauding griz- 

 zlies. "Keep yer rifle ; man killed 

 daouwn thar in ther bushes on ther 

 p'int not six weeks ergo." Friendly 

 Indians later denied this. The hunting 

 party came down Burgess, sore, mad, 

 hungry, and so irritable that it was 



