A. P. Coleman

“ On a frosty morning scarcely any water flows and one can go far into the ice cave, but in the late afternoon there is a raging torrent loaded with mud and stones spreading into half a dozen channels on the broad flood ground. On a rainy or snowy day when the sun is hidden, the glacial river almost goes out of business, but comes to life again when the clouds vanish and the sun shines. ”

“ MORAINE OF VICTORIA GLACIER
At a sudden descent, where a river would leap as a waterfall, a glacier simply breaks across in what are called “CREVASSES,” fissures which may be several feet wide and hundreds of feet long, going down to blue black depths appalling to the inexperienced climber. As the glacier advances these crevasse are bent out of shape and may be crossed by fresh crevasses, splitting up the ice into wild lumps and pinnacles called “SERACS.” Seen from a distance across some valley such an ice fall looks like a cascade or a violent rapid covered with breakers. ”

“ There are very few parts of the world where fine glacial scenery can be found so close to a great railway as in our mountain parks. If one stops at lake Louise, in Rocky Mountains Park, the splendid Victoria glacier is in view doubled by reflection in its waters, which get their exquisite color from 18 the last remaining particles of mud brought down by the glacial stream. Two miles walk or ride along a good trail brings one into its presence, and often great masses of ice may be seen avalanching down from cliff glaciers above to the surface of the lower glacier. ”

“ One is right in the midst of the workshop bustle where mountains are being carved into pinnacles, magnificent cathedral doors that never open, towers that never had a keeper—all being shaped before one’s eyes out of the mighty beds and blocks of limestone and quartzite that were once the sea bottom. ”

“ Even the humming-birds, with jewels on their breasts as if straight from the tropics, are not afraid to skim up the mountain sides, poise over a bunch of white heather, and pass with a flash from flower to flower. ”

“ If not too high up these cirque lakes are surrounded by evergreen forest, behind which rise the gray or purple walls of rock with some snow in the ravines above, the whole mirrored in the lake, until some catspaw of breeze shatters the reflection. Lake Agnes in the mountains behind lake Louise is an easily reached example of a cirque basin, and there are hundreds of others scattered through the fastnesses of the mountains, all gems in their way, many not yet seen by the eye of a white man. ”

“ Everything full of bustle and haste and of joy, what could be more inspiring than the flowery meadows above tree-line when the warm sun shines in the six weeks of summer! The full splendour and ecstacy of a whole year’s life piled into six weeks after the snow has thawed and before it falls again! ”

“ The plants just freed from their winter covering are all bursting into bloom together, bees are humming, butterflies lazily flutter past and a humming bird poises over a blossom; for it is spring at these altitudes and there is a whole season’s work to be done, seeds ripened and all, before autumn comes in September with its snowstorms burying all under the white silence of a nine-months winter again. ”

“ The névé is always pulling away from the rocks at its upper border, and its general motion follows the direction of the lowest depression beneath, finally extending below snowline as a tongue of ice which reaches down into the valley until it is melted by the increasing warmth of the lower levels. Thus a glacier is born. ”

“ Lovely flowers are opening eagerly to the sun and wind of Spring—in mid August, with September snows just at hand, a whole year’s work of blossom and seed to be accomplished before the ten months’ winter Sleep begins. Bees are tumbling over them intoxicated with honey and the joy of life while it is summer. ”

“ It is a thrilling experience to set foot at last on midsummer snow sweeping upwards, gleaming toward the higher summits, snow that never entirely melts and that is so dazzling in the July sunlight that one needs dark or colored glasses to avoid snow blindness if the tramp is to be a long one. ”

“ There are glaciers in sight during most of the descent by rail from the summit of the pass through the wild Kickinghorse valley to Field, in the Yoho Park, from which the Yoho valley may be visited with Yoho glacier at its head. Descending beyond this into the warm depths of the Columbia valley the alpine type of scenery is lost for a time. As the railway climbs laboriously westward out of the valley into the Selkirks, Glacier Park is entered. Here the scenery grows more striking until at Rogers pass one is once more surrounded by snow peaks—hidden, alas! too often by the long snowshed. ”

“ A trail leads up the Grand Forks through the valley of a Thousand Falls where the main river tumbles 1,500 feet in a wild canyon and reaches the rear side of Mount Robson 5,700 feet above the sea. From some low mountains to the northwest there is perhaps the most splendid view in North America of mountains, glaciers and lakes. The blue seracs of the Tumbling glacier seem to be rushing down thousands of feet from the Helmet and the main peak of Robson to plunge into Berg lake, which doubles them by reflection. ”

“ How strangely the world has been built, bed after bed of limestone or slate or quartzite, pale grey or pale green or dark red or purple, built into cathedrals or castles, or crumpled like colored cloths from the rag-bag, squeezed together into arches and troughs, into V’s and S’s and M’s ten miles long and two miles high; or else sheets of rock twenty thousand feet thick 28 have been sliced into blocks and tilted up to play leap-frog with one another. ”

“ There is, of course, the charm of a virgin and unexplored wilderness in our Rockies and Selkirks, so seductive to one who loves adventure; but there are other attractions as well which make our mountains fully the equal of the famous European range. Every type of Alpine scenery is as well illustrated in Canada as in Switzerland and the area of snow mountains in Alberta and British Columbia is several times that of the Alps. The whole length of the Alps is less than 400 miles and its breadth from 50 to 80 ”

“ Shasta, the United States has very little truly alpine scenery except where our Rocky mountain ranges extend for a degree or two south of the boundary. A great many of the mountain climbers of the eastern states come to Alberta or British Columbia when they want to use an ice axe or a glacier rope and 26 most of their experienced climbers are members of the Alpine Club of Canada.
Canadians themselves are often not aware of the splendid scenery and the unsurpassed opportunities for climbing of all grades of difficulty offered by their own mountains. ”

“ Unless whitened by recent storms the glacier is bare of snow in summer with a rough uneven surface of a dirty blue green color, partly covered with rocky debris, and its volume diminishes downward by thawing until at a definite point the whole is melted and flows away as a river of water instead of ice. The lower end is sometimes called the “tongue” or “snout” or “foot” of the glacier—a bad case of mixed metaphors.
CREVASSE ON GREAT GLACIER
Remembering that ice is a hard and brittle solid, it comes as a surprise to find that it can flow like a plastic body under the pull of gravity ”

“ At those heights with a clear sky the heat of the sun may be intense though it is freezing a few feet away where some rock casts a shadow.
The Work of Glaciers.
One of the most interesting points in a glacier is its carrying power. Though it is in motion like a plastic substance it is solid and strong enough to support any weight loaded upon it. Debris quarried by frost from the mountain side buries its edge so that often one may walk 50 yards out before the ice can be seen. This fringe of broken rock carried on the edge of the glacier is called a marginal moraine. ”

“ Since snow falls every month in the year on the névé fields and never melts away one might expect the mountains, especially the Selkirks, to grow as snowheaps into the sky; but of course this does not take place. Under the increasing load of snow the lower beds are compressed into ice; so that the névé, beginning as loose or hard drifted snow above passes downwards into ice banded with blue and white layers, the whole sometimes hundreds of feet in thickness.
The snow accumulates only on the gentler slopes or in the higher valleys. On cliffs it cannot lodge but piles upon the névé beneath ”

“ It is worthwhile to put on warm strong clothes and hob-nailed shoes and fill your lungs with mountain air in a scramble up to the snow fields to see how the glacial machinery works, machinery which some thousands of years ago shaped almost the whole surface of Canada, doing its work on the plains as 4 well as the mountains and leaving it the splendid land of lakes and rivers and fertile prairies and rolling hills which it is to-day. ”

“ It is inspiring to visit the mountains any day in the year, but especially so in the July and August springtime when a fresh start is made, and plants, animals, patient glaciers, hustling torrents, roaring rivers, shining lakes are all hard at work rough hewing or putting finishing touches on an evernew world. ”

“ There is every variety of stream at work, clear or muddy, gentle or furious, including much larger rivers in much longer valleys than any in the Alps. Small lakes are far more numerous and beautiful. Every element of interest and beauty on the physical side is as well developed somewhere in the Rockies as it is in the Alps but from my own observation I may suggest that often the Alpine mountain group is better posed, the picture better 29 composed from the point of view of the beholder, than in the Rockies. ”

“ When two glaciers join, the marginal moraines between them unite to form a medial moraine, and when several tributaries combine to make a large glacier the dark lines of the medial moraines can be followed by the eye for long distances upwards to rocky peaks rising out of the névé, the source from which the train of rocks was derived. ”

“ While tourists from all over the world are being attracted more and more to our glorious alpine region it is especially important that our own people should seek a delightful holiday and gain health and vigor in our mountain parks. ”

“ A row of stakes or of metal plates put across a glacier gradually gets out of line, the middle parts moving fastest as in a river; but the motion is very slow, even in the middle, seldom more than a few inches a day in our mountain glaciers, though some of the great Alaskan and Greenland glaciers are reported to move several feet a day and in one or two cases as much as 60 or 70 feet. ”

“ There is no more exhilarating sport than that of the mountaineer, and there is no more interesting region for the geologist, the botanist or the zoologist than the grand ranges of mountains that run parallel to the Pacific in our western territory. ”

“ It is not only the mountaineer who feels the seduction of the cool, clean solitudes where glaciers are born and do their wonderful work. Every healthy manor woman must yield to the delight of living in those inspiring surroundings. ”

“ As good roads and trails and cabins for shelter are extended to the wilder and more impressive parts of the mountains it becomes easier for the ordinary visitor to study the sublimities of valleys, glaciers and mountain peaks once out of reach without an expensive camp equipment. ”

“ A few good Swiss guides are available at the more important centres in the mountains and the inexperienced climber should not undertake any difficult glacier work nor bad rock climbing without the aid of a guide. ”

“ Our glaciers, like those of other countries, are now almost all in retreat, either because the climate is slowly growing warmer so that thawing goes on faster or because the snowfall is lessening so that the névé fields no longer feed the glaciers as substantially as before. ”

“ The final disposal of the snowfield, turned to ice in its lower parts, comes by a slow creep downwards. That the névé is actually in motion can be seen by following the slope of snow to its upper edge against some mountain wall where a “BERGSCHRUND” generally yawns between the snowfield and the cliff. This may be several feet wide, and may go down many feet to 7 obscure depths. No amount of snow fall can fill the chasm permanently, though it may be bridged with fresh snow for a time, making a risky passage for the climber.
CAVERN ON ILLECILLEWAET GLACIER ”

“ The Victoria glacier is of the alpine type, that is, has its origin in the snow that accumulates at the summit of the Abbot pass, and is fed by snow and ice avalanching from the adjacent slopes of Mts. ”

“ Below these steep descents the crevasses and seracs disappear by the pressure of the moving ice and the glacier becomes a solid mass again. Small glaciers hanging from cliffs may send down avalanches of ice which combine to make a lower glacier, the masses being welded together once more. ”