OVER THE GREAT DIVIDE
Over the Great Divide and across the mighty ranges of the Rockies!
Hundreds of miles between ice-clad peaks and over snow-covered plains!
Up and down the ragged passes of towering mountains, their heads capped
with blue glaciers, and their faces rough with beards of frosty pines!
For the last week I have been travelling across the western highland of
Canada. I have gone over the backbone of the continent, which reaches
north to Alaska and south to the Strait of Magellan. Here in Canada
the Rockies extend in three ranges from western Alberta throughout the
entire width of British Columbia. The easternmost marks a part of the
boundary line between the provinces and the westernmost range rises
steeply from the Pacific Ocean. All between is high plateaus and broken
mountain chains spotted with glaciers.
This vast sea of mountains is said to be the equal of twenty-four
Switzerlands, and I can well believe it. It is only five hours by
rail across the Swiss Alps from Lucerne to Como, but the fastest
Canadian Pacific trains cannot make the trip from Cochrane, Alberta,
to Vancouver in less than twenty-three hours. Switzerland is noted the
world over for its glaciers, yet here in the Selkirk range alone there
are as many glaciers as in all the Alps thrown together.
I have visited the great mountain regions of the world. I have stood on
the hills of Darjiling and watched the sun rise on Mount Everest. From
the tops of the Andes, three miles above the level of the sea, I have
taken a hair-raising ride in a hand-car down to the Pacific. I have
looked into the sulphurous crater of old Popocatepetl, and I have stood
among the Alpine glaciers on the top of the Jungfrau. But nowhere have
I found Mother Nature more lavish in scenes of rugged grandeur than
right here in Canada not far from our own northern boundary.
The mountains change at every turn of the wheels of our train. Now they
rise almost straight up on both sides of the track for hundreds upon
hundreds of feet. They shut out the sun and their tops touch the sky.
Now we shoot out into the open, and there is a long vista of jagged
hills rising one above the other until they fade away into the peaks on
the horizon. We ride for miles where there is no sign of the works of
man except the gleaming track, the snow sheds here and there, and the
little mountain stations, where the shriek of our engine reverberates
and echoes throughout the valley.
Each mile we cover seems to bring a new wonder. It may be a majestic
waterfall, a towering peak, an over-hanging cliff, a glacier sparkling
under the rays of the winter sun, or a vast panorama of glittering
snow and ice standing out in bold contrast against the dark rocks and
forests. It takes my breath away, and I think of the Texas cowboy who
had made his pile and had started out to see the world. His life had
been spent on the plains, and at his first visit to these Canadian
mountains their grandeur so filled his soul that, unable to contain
himself, he threw his hat into the air and yelled:
[Illustration: In a region of beautiful lakes, the “Lake of the Hanging
Glaciers” is one of the most picturesque in the Canadian Rockies.
Behind it lowers the snowy crest of Mount Sir Donald, some two miles
high.]
[Illustration: Wainwright National Park has the largest herd of buffalo
in America. More than five thousand animals, the descendants of a herd
of seven hundred originally purchased from a Montana rancher, range
over a fenced-in reserve of one hundred thousand acres.]
“Hurrah for God!”
One gets his first view of the mountains at Calgary. As we travelled
through the foothills our train climbed steadily, and at Banff, eighty
miles to the west, we had reached a height of almost a mile above sea
level. The region about Banff has been set aside by the government as
Rocky Mountain Park. It is known as the Yosemite Valley of the North,
and has become the finest mountain resort of Canada. Here the Canadian
Pacific Railway has built a magnificent hotel. It stands high above the
confluence of the Bow and Spray rivers and affords a splendid view of
Mount Assiniboine.
In summer the attractions at Banff include hot sulphur baths, open-air
swimming pools, tennis courts, and golf links, and in winter there are
snow carnivals and ski-jumping contests. The surrounding country offers
mountain climbing of all kinds, from easy slopes for the inexperienced
tenderfoot to almost inaccessible peaks that challenge the skill of
the most expert climber. The region outside the park limits contains
some of the finest game lands on the continent, and is a Mecca for the
fisherman and the hunter.
In addition to the railway, Banff is reached by a ninety-mile motor
road from Calgary. In 1923 this road was extended southwesterly
across the Vermilion Pass to Lake Windermere in British Columbia. The
construction of that stretch completed the last link in the “circle
tour” motor route that now runs from Lake Windermere via Seattle to
southern California, thence through the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone
and Glacier National parks, and back to the Canadian boundary.
Thirty miles west of Banff, and almost six thousand feet above the
level of the sea, is the gem-like Lake Louise in its setting of dark
forests and snow-clad mountains, and not far away is the famous Valley
of the Ten Peaks. A few miles farther on we reach the Great Divide,
which marks the boundary between Alberta and British Columbia. Here we
see the waters of a single stream divide, one part going west to the
Pacific and the other flowing to the east and eventually losing itself
in Hudson Bay.
Between Calgary and the Great Divide the railway track climbs three
eighths of a mile. It goes over the main range through the Kicking
Horse Pass, more than a mile above sea level, and then drops down to
the valley of the Columbia River. It rises again a quarter of a mile
where it crosses the Selkirks through the five-mile-long Connaught
tunnel, and then winds its way downward through the coast ranges to the
great western ocean.
The Kicking Horse Pass was so named from an incident that occurred
when the surveyors for the railway were searching for a route over the
mountains. At this point one of the men was kicked by a pack horse and
apparently killed. His companions had even dug a grave for him, but
just then the supposedly dead man showed signs of life. He soon was
fully recovered and the party proceeded onward. Later, his curiosity
led him to revisit the scene of his narrowly averted burial, and in so
doing he discovered this gap in the mountains.
The Kicking Horse was Canada’s first, and for years its only, railway
pass over the Rockies. The construction of the railway through it
was considered a great feat of civil engineering, but it has been
much improved. In 1909 two spiral tunnels were built for the descent
to the Kicking Horse River, twelve hundred feet below. Here the
track, sloping downward, makes two almost complete circles inside the
mountain, and the tunnels have so cut down the steep grade that the
number of engines required for a train has been reduced from four to
two.
Another line of the Canadian Pacific climbs over the mountains through
the Crow’s Nest Pass, not far north of the United States boundary. A
third gateway to the ocean is the Yellowhead Pass, west of Edmonton,
by which the Canadian National lines cross the Rockies. Beyond that
pass the tracks branch out, one section ending at Prince Rupert and
the other at Vancouver. The Yellowhead, though the lowest of the three
passes, is under the very shadow of some of the loftiest of these
mountains. Near it is Mount Robson, the highest peak in Canada, which
rises in a mighty cone almost two miles above the surrounding range and
more than thirteen thousand feet above the sea.
The Yellowhead route passes through Jasper Park, the greatest of
Canada’s western game and forest reserves. That park is almost four
times the size of Rhode Island, and much larger than Rocky Mountain
Park, which we saw at Banff. It contains the beautiful Lac Beauvert,
on the shores of which a hotel and several lodges are operated by the
Canadian National Railways. Mount Robson Park adjoins Jasper Park at
the west, and farther south are Yoko, Waterton Lakes, and other great
national playgrounds.
One of the most interesting of Canada’s twelve Dominion parks is that
at Wainwright, Alberta. I saw something of it on my way from Saskatoon
to Edmonton. There a hundred thousand acres of land is fenced in as a
reserve for the largest herd of buffalo in America. The seven hundred
and six animals of the original herd were purchased by the Canadian
government from a Montana rancher. That was less than twenty years ago,
but the herd increased so rapidly that it soon numbered between seven
and eight thousand. This was more than could be provided for on the
ranging grounds of the park, and it was found necessary to slaughter
two thousand of the animals. Some of the meat was sold as buffalo
steak, and the rest was dried and made into pemmican for the arctic
regions. An animal called the cattalo, a cross between buffaloes and
domestic cattle, which is noted for its beef qualities, has been raised
in large numbers at the Wainwright Park.
When a transcontinental railway to the Pacific coast was first
proposed, the objectors to the project sarcastically called British
Columbia and western Alberta a “sea of mountains.” To-day these same
mountains, once considered merely an expensive barrier in the path of
the railways, have proved to be one of the largest factors in building
up what is said to be the fourth industry of Canada--its tourist
traffic. The business of “selling the scenery” has been developed to
such a degree that it is estimated that the national parks of the
Dominion yield an annual revenue of twenty-five million dollars. In a
year, more than one hundred thousand people travel over the C. P. R.
route alone. It is interesting to note that eighty per cent. of them
are Americans, and that there are more from New York City than from the
entire Dominion of Canada.
The Canadian Pacific has for years led in exploiting the scenic wonders
of Canada. It carries tourists over the mountains in summer in open
observation cars, and adds to their comfort by using oil-burning
locomotives on its passenger trains. It has a half dozen resorts in the
Rockies where one may enjoy all the comforts of a modern city hotel
or the rugged pleasures of a wilderness camp. It has established a
colony of Swiss mountaineers brought from the Alps to act as guides for
mountain climbers. It has cut new trails through the country and has
sent out geologists to map the unexplored territory.
Even the names of scores of peaks and valleys originated with the
Canadian Pacific. Mount Sir Donald, one of the mightiest of the
Selkirks, was so called in honour of Lord Strathcona, who was a power
behind the building of the railway, and who drove the final spike
uniting the east and west sections of the transcontinental line. Mount
Stephen was named after the first president, and Mount Shaughnessy
after a later one. The Van Horne Glacier in the Selkirks and the Van
Horne Range have the same name as the famous builder of the Canadian
Pacific, and Mount Hector was named after the intrepid explorer who
discovered the Kicking Horse Pass.
Indeed, that railway has become so great a booster of the Dominion’s
natural show places that it has even been given credit for
supplementing nature in the matter of scenery. The story is told of a
woman who had just had her first view of the mighty crystal mass of the
Illecillewaet Glacier towering thousands of feet above the railway. She
stared in open-eyed and incredulous wonder. Then she exclaimed:
“It ain’t real! The Canadian Pacific put it there for advertising!”