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[Illustration]
BERG LAKE AND TUMBLING GLACIER
_R. C. W. Lett_
AMONG THE
CANADIAN ALPS
BY
LAWRENCE J. BURPEE
F.R.G.S.
WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
FORTY-FIVE REPRODUCTIONS FROM
PHOTOGRAPHS AND FIVE MAPS
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY
LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
TORONTO: BELL & COCKBURN :: MCMXIV
COPYRIGHT, 1914
BY JOHN LANE COMPANY
THE.PLIMPTON.PRESS
NORWOOD.MASS.U.S.A
PREFACE
_The writer takes this opportunity of gratefully acknowledging his
indebtedness to Mr. J. B. Harkin, Commissioner of Dominion Parks,
Col. Maynard Rogers, Superintendent of Jasper Park, and Mr. Arthur
O. Wheeler, Director of the Alpine Club of Canada, for valued
assistance in gathering material for this book; to Mr. Walter D.
Wilcox, Sir James Outram, Dr. A. P. Coleman, Dr. J. W. A. Hickson,
Rev. George Kinney, Dr. Charles E. Fay and Mr. P. D. McTavish, for
permission to quote from their books and articles on the Rocky
Mountains; and to Miss Mary M. Vaux, Mrs. Mary T. S. Schaeffer, Mr.
W. H. P. Lett, Mr. Arthur O. Wheeler, Mr. H. W. Craver, Rev.
George Kinney, Mr. P. D. McTavish, Mr. James F. Porter, Mr. P. L.
Tait, Mr. John Woodruff, Mr. A. Knechtel, Messrs. G. and W. Fear,
the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and the Grand Trunk Pacific
Railway Company, for permission to reproduce photographs of Rocky
Mountain scenery and climbing and other incidents._
OTTAWA, CANADA
October, 1914
CONTENTS
I PAGE
_The Lure of the Mountains_ 11
II
_The National Parks of Canada_ 29
III
_In and About Banff_ 49
IV
_The Canadian Matterhorn_ 65
V
_Incomparable Lake Louise_ 81
VI
_The Valley of the Yoho_ 93
VII
_Around the Illecillewaet_ 107
VIII
_The Caves of Nakimu_ 125
IX
_Mountain Climbing and Climbers_ 135
X
_Climbing in the Selkirks_ 153
XI
_Afield in Jasper_ 167
XII
_Out of the World_ 179
XIII
_The Monarch of the Rockies_ 197
XIV
_On the Moose River Trail_ 211
_Bibliography_ 227
ILLUSTRATIONS
Facing page
_Berg Lake and Tumbling Glacier_ (in colours) Frontispiece
_Mount Temple_ 14
_Vermilion Lake and Mount Rundle_ 20
_The Three Sisters, Rocky Mountains Park_ 24
_Mount Wapta and Summit Lake, Yoho Park_ 24
_Mount Lefroy and Lake Louise, after a Midsummer
Snowstorm_ 32
_Cathedral Peak, from Kicking Horse Pass_ 38
_Moose Pass, on the Borders of Robson Park_ 38
_The Wall of Jericho_ 44
_Hoodoos in the Valley of the Bow_ 44
_The Valley of the Bow_ 54
_Trail near Banff_ 60
_Mount Assiniboine, the Matterhorn of the Rockies_ 68
_Emperor Falls_ (in colours) 72
_Mount Edith_ 76
_Towers of Mount Babel, Consolation Valley_ 76
_Paradise Valley, from the Saddleback_ 84
_Giant Steps, Head of Paradise Valley_ 84
_Lake Louise_ 86
_Moraine Lake_ 90
_Takakkaw Falls, Yoho Valley_ 96
_Lake O'Hara, Yoho Park_ 100
_Twin Falls, Yoho Valley_ 104
_Mount Sir Donald and Illecillewaet Glacier_ 112
_A Bit of the Illecillewaet_ 112
_The High Frontier of British Columbia_ 120
_On the Summit of Sir Donald_ 120
_The Weird Caves of Nakimu_ 128
_The Assault_ 138
_Victory at Last_ 138
_The Monarch of the Rockies_ (in colours) 144
_Snow Mushrooms_ 150
_Icicles on Mount Robson, 50 feet long_ 150
_Climbing Mount Resplendant_ 158
_Summit of Mount Resplendant, 11,173 feet above the Sea_ 158
_Climbing Among the Seracs_ 164
_Jasper Lake_ 170
_Fiddle Creek Canyon_ 176
_Jack Lake_ 184
_Maligne Lake_ 184
_Breaking Camp in the Mountains_ 190
_Making a Trail through Fallen Timber_ 190
_The Purple Crags of Roche Miette_ (in colours) 200
_Mount Robson, from the Grand Fork_ 204
_Emperor Falls_ 208
_Mount Robson, from the Northeast_ 214
_Moose River Falls_ 218
_Swimming the Athabaska_ 224
_Making Camp_ 224
MAPS
_Rocky Mountains Park, Banff Section_ 235
_Rocky Mountains Park, Lake Louise Section_ 236
_Yoho Park_ 237
_Jasper Park_ 238
_Glacier Park_ 239
_Robson Park_ 239
I
THE LURE OF THE MOUNTAINS
What is the peculiar charm of that mighty, snow-capped sea of
mountains, whose stupendous waves tossed far into the heavens seem
ever about to overwhelm the level wheat-fields of Western Canada? The
lure of the mountains defies analysis, but it is surely there with its
irresistible appeal to all in whom the spirit of romance is not quite
dead. It stirs the blood strangely when, far out on the plains of
Alberta, you get your first glimpse of the Canadian Alps--a line of
white, glittering peaks just above the horizon, infinitely remote and
ethereal, something altogether apart from the prosaic world about you
of grain and cattle, neat farm-house and unsightly elevator.
As you follow the course of the sun, the peaks loom gradually up into
the sky and dominate the scene, but still retain the atmosphere of
another world. The rolling foothills in the foreground, like spent
waves from the storm-tossed sea, seem tangible and comprehensible,
but beyond and above the dark ramparts of the outer range, the
towering outer wave of the mountains, float silvery outlines that seem
to be the fabric of some other and purer world. Doubt may come with
the marvellously clear and hardening light of the western day, but at
sunrise, and peculiarly at sunset, the last shreds of uncertainty are
swept away. Not of this earth is that dream of fairyland poised
mysteriously in the upper air, glowing in exquisite tints, soft as a
summer cloud; a realm of the spirit to which one might hope to journey
over the path of a rainbow.
One who has seen this vision may not resist the insistent call to
explore the mountain world, to discover what lies beyond the frowning
battlements that guard this other realm. The call has been working in
the hearts of men for generations. They came alone in the early days,
each man fighting his way up through some doorway that led into the
heart of the Glittering Mountains. Only the stout of heart might then
win through, for this Wonderland was guarded close on every side.
Pitfalls awaited the unwary. The explorer must cut his own trail
through the wilderness, cross icy torrents, climb alpine passes, find
a way through networks of fallen timber, face perils and
discomforts every hour of the day. And yet there was something
alluring, something that drew him on, and brought him back again to
these high fastnesses; something that he could not understand, but
that was none the less imperative. That same spell is as potent to-day,
but most of the barriers are down, and where once men came singly or
in twos and threes, paying heavily in labour and peril for the joys
they found in the mountains, thousands now follow at just enough cost
to themselves to give spice to the experience.
The history of the Canadian Alps, so far as White Men have had
anything to do with it, dates back to the closing years of the French
Regime in Canada. It is characteristic of the race that gave to the
world such heroic figures as those of Champlain and La Salle and La
Verendrye, that while the infamous Bigot and the egotistical and
brainless Vaudreuil were gambling away an empire in the New World,
tireless and unselfish explorers were carrying the boundaries of that
empire far out toward the setting sun.
It was in the year 1751 that the Chevalier de Niverville, with a small
party of French _voyageurs_, pushed his way up the muddy waters of
the Saskatchewan, and built Fort Lajonquiere in the foothills of the
Rocky Mountains. Niverville was not the discoverer of the mighty range
that runs like a backbone throughout the length of North America. He
had been anticipated some years before by a fellow-countryman, La
Verendrye, son of the patriotic explorer who had devoted his life to
western discovery for the glory of his native land. Niverville,
however, was the first White Man to look upon that portion of the
mountains now known as the Canadian Rockies.
One wonders what his impressions were as he gazed out to the westward
over that bewildering scene. As a Canadian officer he had served in
the expeditions against the New England Colonies, and was therefore
familiar with the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as
with his own Laurentian Hills, but what preparation were these for
such awe-inspiring majesty? Range piled upon range to the westward,
soaring up and up in vast towers and domes and spires, and extending
north and south to the utmost limits of vision, they must have seemed
to Niverville an impregnable fortification designed to bar all further
progress in this direction.
Niverville was not the man, however, to be daunted by even the most
formidable natural obstacle, and he was not without evidence that a
way might be found through the mountains to the shores of that Western
Sea for which he and many other Canadian explorers had been searching,
even since the days of Champlain. While at Fort Lajonquiere a party of
Indians visited him, from whom he learned that they had traded with a
strange tribe whose home was far to the westward, beyond the great
barrier, and who spoke of White Men that they had seen on the sea
coast. Niverville no doubt made plans for an expedition through the
mountains, but they came to nothing. His leader, Saint-Pierre, was
having trouble with the Indians at his fort on the Assiniboine;
Niverville was recalled, and before long the entire party of French
explorers were making their way back to far-off Quebec, to help
Montcalm in his last desperate effort to save New France.
In 1754, and again in 1772, officers of the Hudson's Bay Company made
journeys of exploration from York Factory, on the western shores of
Hudson Bay, to the country of the Blackfoot Indians, among the
foothills of the Rocky Mountains; but it was not until 1793 that any
White Man was daring enough to penetrate their fastnesses. In that
year Alexander Mackenzie, who had four years earlier descended the
river that bears his name, to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, forced
his way through the Peace River Pass, and after suffering great
hardships, stood at last beside the waters of the Pacific, fulfilling
at last the dream of French explorers of an overland route to the
Western Sea.
Within the next few years discoveries followed thick and fast. The
North West Company, the Canadian rival of the Hudson's Bay Company in
the western fur trade, was reaching out eagerly for new fields to
conquer, and the more adventurous of its officers, scouting far ahead
of the main army, became more explorers than fur-traders. Mackenzie
was himself a partner of the North West Company, and where he led
others soon followed, breaking new trails through the mountains,
leaving the level plains and comparatively sparse vegetation of the
eastern side, and coming down into the almost tropical luxuriance of
the Pacific slope.
David Thompson, the astronomer of the North West Company, was the
first to find a way through the mountains in the neighbourhood of the
Kicking Horse Pass route, or the main line of the Canadian Pacific
Railway. In 1800 he made his way over to the Columbia Valley, perhaps
by what was later known as the Simpson Pass; and the same year Duncan
McGillivray found a route farther north by Howse Pass, named after
Jasper Howse, another Rocky Mountain explorer. Simon Fraser, who had
followed Mackenzie through the Peace Pass, in 1808 explored the river
that bears his name from the mountains to the sea, descending its
terrific canyons in a frail canoe.
At the very time that Fraser was making his way down this river,
Thompson was exploring the Kootenay and the Columbia. Two years
afterward the latter discovered the Athabaska Pass, which for many
years was to remain the principal highway of the fur-traders back and
forth through the mountains. Often enough the mountains above the pass
must have looked down upon the picturesque cavalcade of traders,
carrying goods over to the posts in New Caledonia or down the
Columbia, or bringing back the "returns" as the cargoes of furs were
called. One can picture the long string of pack-horses climbing up the
pass, with the cheerful philosophy (or diabolical cunning) of the
Indian cayuse, urged forward by fluent traders. One can see, too, at
nightfall, the camp-fires in the mountains; horses, browsing
contentedly; men lounging about waiting for their supper, perhaps
fresh venison, or the old stand-by pemmican; and later, pipe and story
and song--the beautiful old _chansons_ of French Canada with their
haunting refrains:
A la claire fontaine
M'en allant promener,
J'ai trouve l'eau si belle
Que je m'y suis baigne.
_I' ya longtemps que je t'aime,
Jamais je ne t'oublierai._
or--
Derrier' chez nous, ya-t-un etang,
_En roulant ma boule_.
Trois beaux canards s'en vont baignant,
_En roulant ma boule.
Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant,
En roulant ma boule roulant,
En roulant ma boule._
After this initial age of exploration, most of the credit of which
belongs to the men of the North West Company, we come to a period of
travel. Some of the rarest and at the same time most interesting books
of travel in Northwestern America are those which describe overland
journeys to and from the Pacific by way of one or other of the famous
gateways through the Canadian Rockies. Such a book is Gabriel
Franchere's narrative including an account of his trip through the
mountains in 1814; another is that of Ross Cox, who with Franchere was
concerned in the dramatic events connected with the history of
Astoria, of which Washington Irving wrote such an entertaining and
thoroughly unreliable account. Ross Cox crossed the mountains three
years after Franchere.
Another little-known narrative is that of Sir George Simpson's
expedition of 1825. Sir George Simpson was then Governor of the
Hudson's Bay Company, and like Jehu he drove furiously. He travelled
in what was known as a light canoe, manned with picked boatmen famous
for speed, skill and endurance; they were off at daylight or earlier,
and did not camp before nightfall. In his journeys across the
continent, by the great water routes of the fur-trade, the Governor's
canoe bore about the same relation to the regular brigades that the
Twentieth Century Limited does to a freight train.
One of the most fascinating of the narratives of this period is Paul
Kane's _Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America_.
Kane was a Toronto artist, who travelled across the continent studying
the manners and customs of the various tribes, and making a series of
most delightful sketches of them and of their country. His comments
on the natives and their habits are shrewd and entertaining, and if
written to-day would sometimes be thought much too frank for
publication. Kane crossed the Athabaska Pass in 1846, and returned the
same way the following year.
Five or six years earlier Sir George Simpson again traversed the
mountains, by the pass that bears his name, in the course of his
famous journey around the world. The journeys of Father De Smet, the
western missionary, of the Earl of Southesk, of Milton and Cheadle,
and of William Francis Butler, to mention only a few of the more
prominent, belong to the same general period.
Butler went through the Peace River Pass, and at its eastern entrance
climbed a steep hill known as the Buffalo's Head to get his first wide
view of the mountains. He tried to describe what he saw, but admitted
the futility of the attempt.
"Not more wooden," he says, "are the ark animals of our childhood,
than the words in which man would clothe the images of that higher
nature which the Almighty has graven into the shapes of lonely
mountains! Put down your wooden woods bit by bit; throw in colour
here, a little shade there, touch it up with sky and cloud, cast about
it that perfume of blossom or breeze, and in Heaven's name what does
it come to after all? Can the eye wander away, away, away until it is
lost in blue distance as a lark is lost in blue heaven, but the sight
still drinks the beauty of the landscape, though the source of the
beauty be unseen, as the source of the music which falls from the
azure depths of the sky.
"That river coming out broad and glittering from the dark mountains,
and vanishing into yon profound chasm with a roar which reaches up
even here--billowy seas of peaks and mountains beyond number away
there to south and west--that huge half dome which lifts itself above
all others sharp and clear cut against the older dome of heaven! Turn
east, look out into that plain--that endless plain where the
pine-trees are dwarfed to speargrass and the prairie to a
meadow-patch--what do you see? Nothing, poor blind reader, nothing,
for the blind is leading the blind; and all this boundless range of
river and plain, ridge and prairie, rocky precipice and snow-capped
sierra, is as much above my poor power of words, as He who built this
mighty nature is higher still than all."
Yet so insistent is the charm of the mountains, as he makes his way
ever deeper into their secret recesses, that he must try once more to
put his impressions into words:
"Wonderful things to look at are these white peaks, perched up so high
above our world. They belong to us, yet they are not of us. The eagle
links them to the earth; the cloud carries to them the message of the
sky; the ocean sends them her tempest; the air rolls her thunders
beneath their brows, and launches her lightnings from their sides; the
sun sends them his first greeting, and leaves them his latest kiss.
Yet motionless they keep their crowns of snow, their glacier crests of
jewels, and dwell among the stars heedless of time or tempest."
Up to the year of 1858 travel in the Rocky Mountains was confined to
one or other of the passes. Men did not wander off the beaten trails,
but hurried through east or west. Between 1858 and 1860 the members of
the Palliser Expedition, and particularly that tireless explorer, Dr.
James Hector, pushed into the very heart of the mountains, discovering
new passes, tracing rivers to their sources, and for the first time
giving the world some idea of the wonderful region of peaks, lakes and
valleys that lay beyond the western prairies. Among many other
familiar place-names in the Canadian Rockies, that of Kicking Horse
Pass was given by Dr. Hector, who on his first journey through the
pass was nearly killed by a vicious horse. It has before now been
suggested that a more appropriate name for this important route
through the mountains would be that of the explorer himself.
The task so splendidly initiated by Captain Palliser and his
associates of exploring and mapping the Canadian Rockies was afterward
taken up by the officers of the Canadian Geological Survey and the
Topographical Survey of Canada, and is still in progress.
One may round out this very brief survey of the opening up of the
Canadian Alps, the Wonderlands of the Canadian West, by mentioning
some recent expeditions of a group of explorers whose object was
rather recreation than science; who saw in these mountains a boundless
playground where tired men and women of the cities might find rest and
pleasure, where unclimbed peaks rise on every side to tempt the more
energetic and repay them with marvellous impressions of unforgettable
splendour, where snowbound passes lead one over into green valleys
holding in their embrace lakes of the most exquisite colouring, where
the mountain goat and the bighorn gaze down upon you from dizzy
heights or scamper up the face of impossible precipices, and the
silvertip lumbers off the trail with ponderous dignity, where the
day's tramp brings endless variety of towering cliff and snowy summit,
cathedral aisles in the primaeval forest, falling curtains of mist from
gigantic glaciers, chaotic slopes of rock and alpine meadows dressed
in all the colours of the rainbow, where the camp-fire brings perfect
content and a spirit of comradeship unknown in the cities, where the
mountain air puts new life into you, fills you with wholesome
optimism, makes you realise as you never did before that the world is
good, good to look upon and good to live upon.
One need only mention the titles of some of the books in which these
expeditions are described to suggest the spirit that animates them:
Hornaday's _Camp-fires in the Canadian Rockies_, Schaffers's
_Old Indian Trails_, Outram's _In the Heart of the Canadian
Rockies_, Green's _Among the Selkirk Glaciers_. If we add the
wonderfully-illustrated work of Walter D. Wilcox, and the narratives
of Stutfield and Collie, Coleman, Baillie-Grohman, and a few others,
we have a little library of Canadian Alpine literature that will be a
revelation to any one who has not yet become familiar with the
irresistible appeal of this land of pure delight.
A word remains to be said, and it may as well be said here as
elsewhere, as to routes--how to get to the Canadian National Parks.
From Eastern Canada, and the Atlantic seaboard, probably the most
convenient route is the direct transcontinental line of the Canadian
Pacific Railway from Montreal, and by that route unquestionably the
most comfortable train is the well-known "Imperial Limited." From
Toronto, or points south of Toronto in the United States, the "Pacific
Express" of the Canadian Pacific Railway offers a direct route to the
Mountains. If your starting-point is in the Middle West, it will be
well to take the route from Chicago to Winnipeg and join the "Imperial
Limited" there; or the more direct line from Chicago to the main line
of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Moosejaw. All these routes will
bring you to the eastern portal of the mountains at Calgary, and on to
Banff and other points in the Parks. If you are bound for Jasper Park
in the north, any of the three transcontinental railways, the Grand
Trunk Pacific, Canadian Pacific, or Canadian Northern, will take you
direct from Winnipeg to Edmonton, and you can get in to the Park by
either the Grand Trunk Pacific or Canadian Northern.
If your starting-point is on the Pacific Coast the Canadian Pacific
Railway from Vancouver is the direct route, or you may join the main
line from the south at several points east of Vancouver. By the autumn
of 1914 the Grand Trunk Pacific will be completed to its Pacific
terminus, Prince Rupert, and the Canadian Northern may also be ready
for traffic to Vancouver before the end of the year. Round trips will
then be possible taking in all the Canadian Mountain Parks: From
Calgary by Canadian Pacific Railway to Rocky Mountain Park, Yoho Park
and Glacier Park, and on to Vancouver. From Vancouver north by boat to
Prince Rupert, and by Grand Trunk Pacific east to Robson Park and
Jasper Park; or possibly direct from Vancouver by Canadian Northern to
the same parks. From Jasper Park the return to Calgary would be by
Edmonton and the Canadian Pacific Railway branch line.
[Illustration: MOUNT TEMPLE. _Mary M. Vaux, W. S. Vaux and G. Vaux,
Jr._]
[Illustration: VERMILION LAKE AND MOUNT RUNDLE. _John Woodruff_]
[Illustration: THE THREE SISTERS, ROCKY MOUNTAINS PARK. _Canadian
Pacific Railway Company_]
[Illustration: MOUNT WAPTA AND SUMMIT LAKE. (_Yoho Park_) _Canadian
Pacific Railway Company_]
II
THE NATIONAL PARKS OF CANADA
The last spike in the first of Canada's transcontinental roads, the
Canadian Pacific Railway, was driven at Craigillachie, British
Columbia, in 1885. Two years later, after a memorable debate in the
House of Commons, an Act of Parliament was passed setting apart for
the use and enjoyment of the people of the young Dominion a national
park in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Thus was initiated a policy
which has since been developed upon broad and generous lines, and
which will ultimately give Canada an unrivalled system of magnificent
natural playgrounds.
The first park, as created in 1887, covered an area of 260 square
miles, with the little station of Banff, on the Canadian Pacific
Railway, as headquarters. In 1902 the area was enlarged to 5,000
square miles, but reduced again in 1911, under the terms of the Forest
Reserves and Parks Act, to 1,800 square miles. The object of the
reduction was apparently to confine the park to an area that could be
efficiently administered with the existing staff. It is understood,
however, that in view of the extraordinary popularity of this
wonderful mountain region, steps will be taken before long to
re-establish the boundaries of 1902. The wisdom of such a move cannot
be doubted. The increased cost of maintenance would be comparatively
slight, and the advantages would be enormous. It would make accessible
the exceedingly interesting country north of the present park
boundaries with its great alpine peaks, snow-fields and glaciers, its
beautiful valleys, lakes, mountain streams and waterfalls; it would
help to preserve from destruction by vandalism or sheer carelessness
many of the scenic beauties of the region; and would give to the wild
animals of the mountains a further lease of life.
Since the establishment of the first reservation, known officially as
Rocky Mountains Park, and popularly as the Banff Park, several other
similar districts have been set apart. Immediately west of Rocky
Mountains Park, but on the British Columbia side of the main range, is
Yoho Park, with an area of about 560 square miles. The boundaries of
this park also will, it is hoped, be enlarged in the near future. West
again, and still following the main line of the Canadian Pacific
Railway, we come to Glacier Park, in the Selkirk Mountains, with an
area of 468 square miles. Farther north, on the main line of the Grand
Trunk Pacific Railway, the Canadian Government has lately established
Jasper Park, with an area of 1,000 square miles. This, too, may be
expanded to several times its present dimensions within the next few
years.[1] It is possible also that a new park may be created between
Rocky Mountain Park and Jasper Park, to embrace the little-known
Brazeau River country and possibly the upper waters of the North
Saskatchewan, with the great peaks that lie up toward the continental
divide. Down near the International Boundary, at the extreme
southwestern corner of the province of Alberta, is Waterton Lake Park.
The present area is only sixteen square miles, but the Government is
being strongly urged to extend its boundaries so as to make the
reserve conterminous with Glacier Park on the United States side,
thereby creating what would in effect be an international park.[2]
North again, but still in the province of Alberta, are Buffalo Park
and Elk Island Park, the former of 160 square miles, a little south
of Wainwright, on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and the latter,
about the same area as Waterton Lake Park, near Lamont, on the
Canadian Northern Railway. The former is the home of the famous herd
of buffalo, now numbering over 1,200, most of which were purchased by
the Dominion Government in 1907 from Michel Don Pablo of Missoula,
Montana. The latter is a reservation for elk, moose and other large
animals.
[1] Increased in 1914 to 4,400 square miles.
[2] This has since been done, the present area of the park being 423
square miles.
In addition to the proposed Brazeau Park, access to which would be
provided by the Canadian Northern Railway, plans are being formulated
for a new park west of Glacier, to include Mount Revelstoke and the
surrounding region, and another on the Pacific Coast not far from the
city of Vancouver, to include the country between the north arm of
Burrard Inlet and Pitt River.
The somewhat peculiar boundaries of the Canadian National Parks may
call for a word of explanation. It will be noticed that on their
western, or rather southwestern, sides Rocky Mountains and Jasper
Parks stop at the continental divide, or in other words at the
boundary between Alberta and British Columbia. The explanation is
this: when British Columbia came into the Dominion she retained
control of the public lands within her borders; on the other hand when
the province of Alberta was created her land remained vested in the
Dominion. Consequently the federal authorities may establish national
parks wherever they will on the Alberta side of the mountains, but
have no jurisdiction on the British Columbia side except in one
particular region. This is a strip of land forty miles wide, or twenty
miles on each side of the Canadian Pacific Railway main line,
extending from the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
When British Columbia entered Confederation in 1871, one of the terms
of union was that the new province should be given railway connection
with Eastern Canada. In fulfilment of this agreement, the Dominion
granted the Canadian Pacific Railway a subsidy of $25,000,000 and
25,000,000 acres of land. British Columbia was also to give a money
subsidy to the company, but finding it impossible to meet its
obligations the Dominion assumed the burden in consideration of a
grant of this forty-mile strip across the province. It is in this
strip, therefore, that the Yoho and Glacier Parks have been located,
as well as the proposed park at Burrard Inlet.
The policy of the Dominion Government in administering its national
parks is to throw them wide open to the people, to provide convenient
means of access to every point of interest within their boundaries, to
preserve intact their natural beauties and safeguard their wild life,
and to grant all visitors the widest liberty consistent with these
objects and with the interests of the people themselves; in fact to
provide the maximum of convenience and protection with the minimum of
interference. Thanks largely to the intelligence, broad-mindedness and
genuine enthusiasm of the officials in charge of the Parks, from the
Commissioner in Ottawa to the Forest Ranger on duty in some remote
corner of the reservation, the administration has been conspicuously
successful, as every one will admit who has had the good fortune to
visit any of these magnificent national playgrounds.
The extent to which the Parks administration is prepared to go in
insuring the comfort and convenience of those who seek rest or
pleasure in the mountains is admirably illustrated in the following
extract from the Commissioner's Report:
"The Parks Branch policy necessarily relates to the quality of the
service of whatever kind rendered by those dealing with the tourist:
character of accommodation, avoidance of congestion, protection
against extortion, provision of minor attractions to fill in between
the nature trips, construction and maintenance of good roads and
trails, special care in the matter of the dust nuisance and rough
roads, supervision over sanitary conditions, water supply, horses and
vehicles, guides, drivers, charges and rates, furnishing of full and
reliable information, and, generally, the reduction of discomforts to
a minimum and the administration of affairs so that the tourist shall
be as satisfied with the treatment received while in the parks as he
inevitably must be with the scenic wonders he has viewed."
The accommodation of the hotels in the parks is excellent in every
way. In spite of their out-of-the-way situation they provide all the
comforts and luxuries of city hotels, and at very moderate rates.
There are several good hotels at Banff in the Rocky Mountains Park,
the best of which is the Banff Springs Hotel, maintained by the
Canadian Pacific Railway. The railway company also owns the very
comfortable Chalet at Lake Louise, in the same park, as well as the
hotels at Field, in Yoho Park, and Glacier, in Glacier Park. The Grand
Trunk Pacific Railway has also decided to build hotels at Jasper and
Miette Hot Springs, in Jasper Park, as well as at Grand Fork in Robson
Park, within full view of the monarch of the Canadian Rockies, Mount
Robson. Robson Park has recently been set apart by the Government of
British Columbia. Its boundaries extended to the height of land where
they run with those of Jasper Park.
One of the admirable features of the administration of the Canadian
National Parks is the leasing of lots on nominal terms, so that those
who prefer home to hotel life may build their own cottages. At Banff
you can obtain a lot for from $8.00 to $15.00 a year, according to
position and area. The leases run for forty-two years, with the
privilege of renewal for an equal period. The same privilege may be
obtained in Jasper Park.
One of the principal activities of the Park administration is of
course the building of roads and trails to the various points of
interest, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and so forth. The Canadian
parks are still in their infancy from an administrative point of view,
and an immense amount of work remains to be done before their
innumerable points of beauty and grandeur are made conveniently
accessible. Still it is possible to-day to reach all the principal
peaks and valleys with a moderate expenditure of time and energy. In
the four principal parks, Rocky Mountains, Yoho, Glacier and Jasper,
there are now, 163 miles of good carriage road, and nearly 300 miles
of trail, and this mileage will be largely increased within the next
few years. It is the intention also to provide foot-paths to all the
nearer points, with rest-houses, for those who prefer to wander about
afoot.
An ambitious project closely associated with the parks is the
automobile road from Calgary to Vancouver. This is being built through
the co-operation of the Dominion Government, the provincial
governments of Alberta and British Columbia, and the Canadian Pacific
Railway. Portions of the road are already completed, and the balance
has been surveyed and the necessary appropriations provided. The
present coach road from Calgary to Banff will be improved to form the
first link; and the Banff to Laggan road will be utilised as far as
Castle Mountain. Here the automobile road turns up Little Vermilion
Creek to Vermilion Pass, the boundary of Rocky Mountains Park on this
side. From Vermilion Pass the road will cross the Briscoe Range by
Sinclair Pass to Sinclair Hot Springs, and ascend the valley of the
Columbia to Windermere Lake and the source of the Columbia. Crossing
the spit of land that separates the Columbia from its mighty tributary
the Kootenay, the road will follow the latter stream to Wardner, then
turn west to Kootenay Lake and Nelson, cross the Columbia again after
its huge bend to the north, and swing down to the international
boundary at Grand Forks, where connection will no doubt be made some
time with automobile roads from the south. From Grand Forks the road
will follow a general westerly direction, crossing Okanagan River near
Fairview, ascending the Similkameen, traversing the Hope Range and
coming down the Coquihalla to Hope on the Fraser River, and descending
the Fraser to Vancouver.
An alternative route runs west from Windermere, over the Wells Pass,
crosses the Lardo country to Killarney at the head of the Lower Arrow
Lake, thence up Fire Valley to the present wagon road near Monashee
Mines, follows the road to Vernon and Grand Prairie, and by way of
Douglas Lake to Merritt and a junction with the route already
described. The main road from Calgary to Vancouver will have a total
length of about six hundred miles, and will provide one of the most
magnificent scenic routes in the world.
From Grande Prairie a branch is projected to Kamloops, and south to
Nicola. By way of Kamloops and Ashcroft, also, connection may
eventually be made with the famous Caribou Road to the north country,
and in the far north, the Caribou Road may be extended to Fort George
and up the Fraser to Robson and Jasper Parks, bringing the traveller
back to the eastern side of the Rockies at Edmonton. From Kamloops,
again, a road may be built up the North Thompson to Robson Park.
Another alternative route, and one that has already been practically
decided upon, will swing east from Wardner and traverse the Crow's
Nest Pass to the Alberta side of the mountains, where it will follow
the foothills to Calgary. Still another branch of the main motor road
will run from Castle Mountain through Rocky Mountains and Yoho Parks
to Field and Golden, thence up the Columbia Valley to a junction with
the main road. Portions of this branch road have already been built by
the Dominion Government in the two parks. Apart from other advantages,
the completion of this branch and of that portion of the main road
from Castle Mountain to the Columbia Valley, will provide a motor road
with easy grades through beautiful valleys and over several mountain
passes, completely encircling the famous region of magnificent peaks,
snow-fields, glaciers, lakes and waterfalls centring in Lake Louise, a
region which in its combination of majesty and beauty, and its variety
of colouring and composition, is surely without a peer. From the main
road trails will lead inward to Consolation Valley, Moraine Lake and
the Valley of the Ten Peaks, Paradise Valley, Lake O'Hara, the
Ottertail Range, and a perfect galaxy of great peaks many of which
have never yet been climbed or even visited.
As already mentioned, the administration of the Canadian National
Parks is designed to interfere as little as possible either with the
natural features of the parks or with the liberty of those who come to
enjoy their beauty. There are in fact only two important MUST NOTS
addressed to visitors in the Parks, and these are that they must not
destroy trees, and that they must not kill wild animals. Even in these
cases the policy is rather one of education than prohibition. People
are being taught to appreciate the scenic as well as material value of
the forest areas in the parks, and the simple precautions that are
necessary to protect these areas from destruction by fire; and they
are also learning to protect rather than destroy the wild life that
seeks sanctuary here. One suggestion only remains of police
supervision. If you bring a gun into any of the National Parks, it is
sealed as you cross the boundary, and severe penalties are provided
for breaking the seal while the sportsman remains within the park.
The marvellous effect of protected areas on the increase of wild life
has been often commented upon, but the instinct which seems to draw
all wild creatures, and particularly the more timid and shy animals,
to these sanctuaries must always be a matter of interest and
astonishment to visitors. To one who has watched the rapid increase in
Rocky Mountains Park and the other reservations of animals which a few
years ago were rarely seen, the situation is exceedingly gratifying.
The diaries of park officers in this regard make interesting reading.
Deer are now found everywhere in the park, and have become so tame
that "numbers wandered into Banff town and remained there for days."
Mountain goat are constantly met with along the trails, and were
lately found on the east side of the Spray River, which had not
occurred for many years. Flocks of twenty-five or more may be seen any
day along the Banff-Laggan road. What is even more satisfactory,
bighorn which had entirely disappeared from most parts of the Canadian
Rockies are now increasing rapidly in the Parks. Black bear have
become numerous, and a number of grizzlies and cubs have been seen, as
well as red fox, wolverine, marten and lynx, and tracks of mountain
lion. Large flocks of wild duck are reported on Bow Lake, as well as
ruffled grouse, partridge, rabbits and other small game in the woods.
Cinnamon bear are reported in Jasper Park, as well as a marked
increase of beaver.
A word or two may not be out of place as to some of the plans for the
future of the Parks administration. The Zoo at Banff is to be moved to
a much more suitable location on the lower slopes of Tunnel Mountain,
and systematically developed with the object of making it a complete
exhibition of the wild life of Western Canada. A special reserve is to
be set apart in some suitable place for antelope, which do not appear
to thrive in any of the existing parks. It is proposed to establish a
protected area in the Fort Smith country about seven hundred miles
north of Edmonton, for the preservation of the herd of wood
buffalo--the only buffalo still living in the wild state. This
would also be used as a sanctuary for other animals of the northern
regions. It is also proposed, following the very successful
experiments in Alaska, to provide reservations for reindeer in the
Yukon. Another suggestion, which it is earnestly hoped may be adopted,
looks to the setting apart at various points throughout the Dominion
of small sanctuaries for the preservation of bird life.
One other plan that is being earnestly advocated by the progressive
Commissioner of Dominion Parks will appeal with peculiar force to
those who are labouring to bring the physical, mental and moral
advantages of out-of-door life within reach of the masses of our
city-dwellers. The plan is simply to bring National Parks to the
people--a step distinctly in advance of the old policy of providing
parks, and letting the people get to them if they were able. The
Commissioner recognises the fact that the great mountain parks of
Canada are for the most part accessible only to the comparatively
well-to-do. To the majority of those who live in the cities the cost
of the railway journey is of course prohibitive. He proposes, then,
that the Dominion Government should secure a suitable tract of wild
land within easy reach of each of the principal centres of population
throughout the country, make it accessible by means of roads and
trails, put it in charge of competent wardens, make it a sanctuary for
the wild life of the neighbourhood, and throw it wide open to the
people. Probably no other country is so favourably situated for such a
measure at the present time. Wild land, with every variety of
delightful natural scenery, may still be set apart or secured at no
great cost within an hour or so's journey of most of the Canadian
cities. At the same time these cities are growing at a phenomenal
rate, and in a few years' time when the need of these natural
playgrounds of the people will be much more acute than it is to-day,
the cost of the land would probably be prohibitive. An illustration of
what may be done for other Canadian cities is the proposed park on the
British Columbia coast between Burrard Inlet and Pitt River. This park
will be of great benefit to the present people of the city of
Vancouver, but it will be of infinitely greater moment to the
Vancouver of fifty years hence with its population of a million or
more.
It is worth while to read the debates in the Canadian House of Commons
of a quarter of a century ago, when the first of Canada's National
Parks was set apart for the benefit of the people of the Dominion, and
note the practical unanimity of sentiment among statesmen on both
sides of politics, Sir John Macdonald, Sir Richard Cartwright, the
late Lord Strathcona, Peter Mitchell, and many others, most of whom
have since gone beyond the reach of worldly problems, as to the
manifold advantages of such a policy. Equally significant are the
words of the present Governor General, His Royal Highness the Duke of
Connaught, at a meeting in Ottawa in March, 1913. "I do not think," he
said, "that Canada realises what an asset the nation possesses in the
parks. These areas have been preserved from the vandal hand of the
builder for the use and enjoyment of the people, who may take their
holidays there and keep close to nature under the most comfortable
conditions, assuring a store of health which will make them the better
able to cope with the strenuous life to which they return after their
vacation."
Even more significant are the words of Lord Bryce, late ambassador to
the United States: "Let us think of the future. We are the trustees of
the future. We are not here for ourselves alone. All these gifts were
not given to us to be used by one generation or with the thought of
one generation only before our minds. We are the heirs of those who
have gone before, and charged with the duty of what we owe to those
who come after, and there is no duty which seems to be higher than
that of handing on to them undiminished facilities for the enjoyment
of some of the best gifts the Creator has seen fit to bestow upon His
people."
[Illustration: MOUNT LEFROY AND LAKE LOUISE. (_After a midsummer
snowstorm_) _Mary M. Vaux, W. S. Vaux, and G. Vaux, Jr._]
[Illustration: CATHEDRAL PEAK. (_From Kicking Horse Pass_) _Canadian
Pacific Railway Company_]
[Illustration: MOOSE PASS. (_On the Borders of Robson Park_) _R. C. W.
Lett_]
[Illustration: THE WALL OF JERICHO. _J. F. Porter_]
[Illustration: HOODOOS IN THE VALLEY OF THE BOW. _John Woodruff_]
III
IN AND ABOUT BANFF
Banff is probably one of the most cosmopolitan communities in the
world. Although its permanent population hardly exceeds one thousand,
about 75,000 visitors registered during the season of 1913, coming
from every out-of-the-way corner of the globe, Finland and Tasmania,
the Isle of Man and the Fiji Islands, Siam, Korea and Japan, Norway,
Egypt and the Argentine, New Zealand, Mexico, Turkey and Borneo. In
fact, one is rather surprised to find no representative here from
Greenland or Terra del Fuego. The bulk of these tourists of course
come from other parts of Canada, from the United States, and from the
United Kingdom, but practically every country in the world sends its
quota, large or small, to this wonderful playground in the heart of
the Canadian Rockies.
To accommodate all these visitors there are several comfortable hotels
in Banff, notably the Banff Springs Hotel, and the Chateau Rundle.
The Banff Springs Hotel, which has been repeatedly enlarged to meet
the ever-increasing requirements of tourist traffic, stands on the
summit of a rocky butte above the junction of the Bow and Spray
Rivers, and commands a strikingly beautiful view to the eastward where
the Bow has forced a passage between Tunnel Mountain and Mount Rundle.
Bow Falls lie immediately beneath, and in the distance the Fairholme
Range makes a splendid background.
Of the large number of tourists who visit the Canadian Alps, the
majority do not get very far away from Banff. The reason is perhaps
not hard to seek. At Banff they find, without any particular effort,
delightful views of mountain scenery, with all the comforts and
luxuries of eastern pleasure resorts. Comparatively short carriage
drives over good roads take them to a dozen points of interest in the
immediate neighbourhood. One of the most popular of these is the Cave
and Basin, a mile or so up the valley of the Bow, where one may enjoy
a plunge into the clear green waters of the pool. Other springs, with
a much higher temperature, boil out of the upper slope of Sulphur
Mountain, flowing over a series of brilliantly coloured terraces into
natural limestone pools. Here, as well as at the Basin, bath-houses
have been provided with every appliance for those who seek health or
merely pleasure. The drive up to the springs, through the pines, and
with ever-widening views of the enchanting valley, is well worth while
for its own sake.
A much finer view, however, is to be had from the summit of Tunnel
Mountain. One may drive, ride, or if he prefers a little moderate
exercise, walk to the summit. The southern face of Tunnel Mountain
drops in a sheer precipice nearly a thousand feet to the valley of the
Bow. Beyond rises the rugged bulk of Rundle, with the Goat Range in
the distance, the Spray winding as a silver thread down the valley,
the Bow sweeping down from the northwest, a noble circle of peaks
filling the horizon to the northwest and north, the Vermilion Lakes
sparkling in their emerald setting, and around to the northeast, a
glimpse of Lake Minnewanka.