Pioneering in the Southern Selkirks 



243 



Our knapsacker's camp in the lee of a great boulder was very 

 cold in spite of a big fire of larch stumps. All night we heard 

 the thunder of falling ice and at dawn found a wonderful show 

 prepared for us. The whole surface of the lake was covered 

 with a thin sheet of ice and strewn with new-born icebergs 

 which stood there white and motionless, like a fairy fleet at 

 anchor. The mountain walls shone dimly behind a veil of mist. 

 Utter stillness lay over the whole basin. Even the marmots 

 and little-chief hares, so shrilly remonstrant of our presence 

 the day before, were silent, cowering in their homes before this 

 vanguard of winter. On the low damp ground near the outlet 

 delicate frost-flowers were in bloom, a crystal garden with 

 thread-like stems and branches of iris-tinted ice. 



Gradually, as the sun rose higher, the ice relaxed its hold. 

 The glassy film that mirrored bergs and mountain walls was 

 shivered and broken. With a sharp, crackling, tinkling sound 

 a berg here and there toppled from its motionless stand and 

 set sail toward the outlet, fairly started at last on the final 

 swift lap of its long journey from the mountain summit to the 

 sea. These fairy craft were infinitely varied in form and size. 

 Floating castles with walls and moat and arched entrance ; flat 

 barges, bearing cargoes of broken rock ; giant frogs and turtles ; 

 ships in full sail ; a Lohengrin swan drawing a shell-like boat — 

 all came drifting slowly down the current to wait near the 

 outlet their final release under the kindly action of the sun. 



The morning hours sped by unnoticed as we watched this 

 grand review, and before we even remembered our project of 

 climbing the western wall, it was time to return to our main 

 camp. 



The following day we spent reconnoitering a route to the 

 summit of an unnamed peak, on whose conquest we had set our 

 hearts. It is very likely the high peak seen a few years ago 

 from the Bugaboo Creek region to the north by A. O. Wheeler 

 and Dr. Longstaff and described by them as "Eyebrow," and is 

 probably the highest of the vicinity. This mountain, later 

 named Mt. Bruce in honor of a gentleman of Wilmer, could be 

 approached only over the Starbird Glacier. We had a wonder- 

 ful afternoon on this glacier, one of the largest in the Selkirk 

 Range. An interessting feature is its unusually well defined 



