Pioneering in the Southern Selkirks 241 



English posies of its garden, and above all the cordiality and 

 courtesy shown us by the towns-people. 



On August 28th we started on the trail, accompanied by 

 Dave Brown of Invermere, our packer, soon to become our 

 comrade and fellow mountaineer. Our outfit was carried by 

 three pack-horses, and two saddle-horses and a frivolous two- 

 months old colt completed the party. A wagon road leads 

 from the town of Wilmer up Horsethief Creek as far as an 

 abandoned logging camp at the junction of the North T rk. 

 Here we made our first camp. The lower part of Horsethief 

 Canon has been sadly devastated by logging operations and for- 

 est fires ; but our camp, though on the edge of one of the worst 

 burns, gave promise of the beauty to come. High cliff walls 

 were all about us, and masses of epilobium and delicious red 

 raspberries, and patches of willow and cottonwood were mak- 

 ing brave efforts to cover the ugly traces of forest ruin. 



We made about fifteen miles the second day, most of it up a 

 gentle grade following the river rise. The lofty canon walls 

 were beautifully sculptured, and above the side canons we now 

 and then caught glimpses of wilder and more rugged crests 

 where small glaciers hung. Near the junction of the South 

 Fork we had to ford the muddy glacier river, and here our 

 extra saddle-horse protestingly proved his usefulness as he was 

 led back and forth through the icy torrent till all were ferried 

 across. We soon discovered that we were the first party to 

 travel the upper trail this season, for many wind-felled trees 

 were strewn across it and frequent ax-work was needed to 

 clear the way. As we climbed higher, woods of Engelmann 

 spruce and balsam fir replaced the Douglas fir and larch of the 

 lower canon. Indian tepee poles, brush-built traps for lynx 

 and bear, and wedge-like apertures chopped in tree trunks 

 where marten traps are set in winter gave to this part of the 

 trail an old-time pioneer flavor that added much to its charm. 



Near the head of the canon, about half a mile below the ter- 

 minal of the Starbird Glacier, we made camp on a wooded 

 bench above the river. Close at hand was a spring of clear 

 water ; behind us a high cliff towered ; and a white snow corn- 

 ice crowned the opposite wall. From the river bank the Star- 

 bird Glacier was visible, and above it rose a spur of Mt. Monica, 

 a beautiful peak mantled wholly in ice and snow. 



