Glaciers of the Rockies and Selkirks, 2nd. ed. / With Notes on Five Great Glaciers of the Canadian National Parks

FRONT OF TUMBLING GLACIER ON BERG LAKE
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR DOMINION PARKS BRANCH
By A. P. Coleman, M.A., Ph. D., F.R.S. President Alpine Club of Canada Author of “The Canadian Rockies”
With Notes on Five Great Glaciers of the Canadian National Parks
By A. O. Wheeler, Director Alpine Club of Canada
Re-Published under the direction of Sir James Lougheed Minister of the Interior
First Edition, 1914 Second Edition, 1921
The traveller going westwards from the prairie finds the way blocked by a grim wall of cliffs rising 7,000 or 8,000 feet above the sea and justifying the name of the “Rockies” given to our greatest chain of mountains. Toward the end of the summer these desolate precipices are snowless and except for a glimpse of white peaks through some pass there is scarcely a suggestion of the glacier region within. Then the train enters the “Gap” and before long the summits around show fields or patches of midsummer snow; and as one draws nearer to the heart of the Rockies there is blue ice to be seen clinging to the cliffs or reaching as glaciers down into the wooded valleys, and one is thrilled with the wild charm of alpine scenery.
However, engineers are strict utilitarians and always choose the lowest pass for a railway, so that the passenger in the observation car catches only tantalizing glimpses of the wonders and beauties of the ice world a few miles away and a few thousand feet above the valley. One must stop at some place like lake Louise in the southern Rockies or Tête Jaune in the north or Glacier in the Selkirks to come into real contact with snow fields and glaciers. What a joy it is to get rid of the hot and dusty everyday world of cities for a while and come close to Nature in one of her wildest moods! 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.