A halt beside the lake 



amusing and I knew at once that they 

 had not seen a sheep or goat. 



After one night of sound sleep, the 

 mystery of the hills to the north lured 

 us into breaking camp. Our burros 

 and packhorses filed around the north 

 end or head af the lake, and began to 

 ascend an outrageously rough trail. 

 Streams from melting ice fell along the 

 face of the mountain to be dashed into 

 mist five and six hundred feet below. 

 After mounting 2,000 feet, we turned 

 into heavy forest, passing an exquisite 

 little pond called Yoho lake, beyond 

 which, in the east, we could trace the 

 curving buttresses of hills that formed 

 that canyon, and could hear the Yoho 

 river raging down its gorge. Of all 

 ideal camping places, surely that grassy 

 spot beside the water at the edge of 

 the magnificent spruces seemed to be 

 the best. Again we found fair fishing 

 in the pond; plenty of ten-inch brook 

 trout in two brooks across which one 

 could step. We camped there for the 

 night. What a dining-room ! Be- 

 spangled ceilings, mountain ranges for 

 dadoes, and frescoes of summer cloud- 

 palaces above them. We were ashamed 

 of our appetites. No butter, milk or 



sugar, but tea, hardtack, mountain 

 trout fried with bacon, the inevitable 

 orange marmalade made in London, 

 spring water and the best of air. Then 

 sleep, with the drone of a distant cata- 

 ract in our ears. 



A rapid march of twenty minutes the 

 next morning brought us to Point 

 Lookout. 



Across a wild valley, whose nearest 

 side bore a spruce forest whose trees 

 were often four feet through at the bot- 

 tom, and a mile across that gorge a 

 thousand feet deep, an astounding river 

 of glacier water leaps from half way 

 down the opposite mountain ! 



Its first fall is about 400 feet. Al- 

 ready snow-white before it plunges, 

 writhing as if knowing it had got into 

 an awful scrape, thundering, raging, 

 protesting, it strikes a shelf of rock and 

 is spilled outward into space, falling 

 down, down, absolutely white in hue 

 1,200 more feet! A fierce wind deflect- 

 ed the spume and mist ; sunshine wove 

 rainbows through that veil ; cloud- 

 shadows gave it ever changing hues 

 and sharpness of detail. And with that 

 marvelous view and the thunder of the 

 fall always present, we went down a, 



43 



