THE CANADIAN PACIFIC ROUTE.
The Canadian Pacific Railway, crossing the Continent in the Dominion of Canada, west of Winnipeg traverses the prairies of Manitoba and Assiniboia until they gradually blend into the rounded and grass-covered foothills of Alberta, finally rising nearly a thousand miles west of the Red River into the snow-capped peaks of the Rockies. This is the garden region of the Canadian Northwest for wheat-growing and cattle-grazing, and it stretches in almost limitless expanse a fertile empire far northward to Edmonton and Prince Albert, with branch railways leading up there, the rich black soils testifying the wealth in the land. At Regina is the capital of the Northwest Territory, three hundred and fifty-seven miles west of Winnipeg, the headquarters of the Canadian "North West Mounted Police," a superb body of one thousand picked men who control the Indians and maintain order in the Northwest Territory. The Lieutenant-Governor residing here is a potentate governing a wide domain spreading out to the Rockies and up to the North Pole. The town which is his capital is scattered rather loosely over the prairie. In early times a hardy pioneer came to this frontier, and at the crossing of a little stream west of Regina his cart broke down. The Cree Indians watched him mend it, and afterwards spoke of the stream in their language as "The creek where the white man mended the cart with a moose jawbone." This elaborate name has since been contracted into Moose Jaw, a town where a branch line comes into the Canadian Pacific up through Dakota from St. Paul and Minneapolis. The route farther westward is in the land of the Crees, and crosses the South Saskatchewan River at Medicine Hat, a settlement which the matter-of-fact people call "The Hat" for short. The Indians say that the Great Spirit had a breathing-place in the river nearby, where it never was frozen even in the coldest winters. He always appeared in the form of a serpent, and once, when a chief was walking on the shore, the serpent came and told him if he would throw his squaw into the opening as a sacrifice, he would become a great warrior and medicine man. He was ambitious, but did not wish to lose her, so he threw his dog in, but the indignant serpent demanded the squaw. The Indian told her of the conditions, she consented to the sacrifice, her dead body was thrown in, and after a night of vigil the chief received from the serpent a warrior's medicine hat, handsomely trimmed with ermine, and was always after victorious. Thus the locality became the Medicine Hat, and the Indians watch the river in severe winters, glad to find the spot is not frozen and that the Great Spirit still has his breathing-place and remains with them.
To the westward the snow-capped Rockies become visible, and here are the reservations of the Blackfeet Indians, who were the most warlike tribe of the region, and hunted the buffalo as far south as the Missouri. The memory of Crowfoot, their leading chief, is preserved in the name of the railway station. The Bow River, an affluent of the Saskatchewan, is followed up to Calgary, the centre of the ranching district of Alberta, a town at thirty-four hundred feet elevation, having high mountains overhanging its western verge. Here are branch railways north and south, leading along the eastern foothills of the Rockies, which are filled with herds of cattle and horses, the roads going up to Edmonton and down into the United States. The warm "Chinook" winds from the Pacific coast, coming through the mountain passes, temper the cold, making the balmy atmosphere favoring grass and animals alike. The Pacific route follows the Bow River Valley into the heart of the mountains, with magnificent snow-covered peaks all about, their saw-like edges, gaunt crags and almost denuded surfaces justifying their name of the Rockies.
BANFF.
The display of mountain scenery along the Canadian Pacific line in passing through the Rockies is the finest in North America, coming largely from two causes, each contributing to the grandeur and impressiveness of the view. The width of the Rocky Mountain ranges in Alberta and British Columbia is not much over three hundred miles, while in the United States they are scattered and spread over a thousand miles of space with intervening tameness. The railway passes also are lower in British Columbia, so that the adjacent peaks rise higher above the valleys, making them really grander mountains for the spectator, who is thus brought to the very bases of such stalwart peaks as Mount Stephen and Mount Sir Donald, rearing their snow-covered summits on high for a mile and a half above his head. Both in concentration and elevation, as well as by the terrific wildness of the Kicking Horse and Rogers Passes, by which the ranges are crossed, the magnificence of this part of the Rockies is displayed. Just within the eastern verge of the mountains are the Banff Hot Springs, which, with their environment, make the "Canadian Rocky Mountains Park." This reservation covers the Bow River Valley and adjacent mountains. The winding river comes from its glacier sources in the west through a broad deep fissure. This is crossed almost at right angles by another valley, having the Spray River coming up from the south through it to join the Bow, while to the north the floor-level of this valley is higher, but without any distinctive stream. These valleys and their enclosing peaks are all formed on a scale of stupendous magnificence, yet so clear is the atmosphere that distance is dwarfed, making the views perfect. Going down to the river bank, where the deep, trough-like gorges come together, it is found that the action of the waters has thoroughly displayed the geological formation of these mountains, the enormous rock strata standing up inclined from the perpendicular generally at an angle of about 30°, being all tilted towards the eastward. Where these strata-edges and ends are eroded, they are cut off almost vertically, and thus they rise on high into sharp jagged peaks like saw-teeth. Stunted firs cover much of the lower slopes, but the tops are all bare, being rough, or denuded and smoothed rocks, snow-clad, excepting where the slope is too steep to hold it.
Along the winding canyon from the northwest rushes the Bow River, sliding in noisy turmoil, with ample spray and silvery foam, down a series of cascades, making a most beautiful cataract, then turning sharply at a right angle to the northeast to go around the end of a mountain. The bright green waters in full volume swiftly glide around the bend and away through the narrow gap formed between two towering cliffs into a deep gorge several miles long. The smaller, but even more swiftly-darting Spray River, dashes along rapids and joins the Bow just at the bend. Such is the scene giving the central point of beauty within this grand amphitheatre of high mountains, overlooked from an elevated plateau above the waterfall, where the landscape is finest. The Rocky Mountains Park includes about two hundred and sixty square miles of streams, lakes and enclosing mountains, improved by many miles of good roads and bridle-paths to develop its beauties. The original attraction was the Banff warm sulphur springs, appearing along the side and base of Sulphur Mountain, rising on the southern bank of Bow River above the waterfall. The temperature of the waters changes little from 90°, and they are extensively used for bathing, being recommended for rheumatic troubles. One spring of copious flow is a pool within a capacious dome-shaped cavern, hollowed out of a mound of calcareous tufa. This is the crater of an extinct geyser, the orifice at the top, which had been its vent, being availed of for light and ventilation. High up among the mountains to the eastward is the Devil's Lake, a beautiful crescent-shaped sheet of water much like a river, eleven miles long, and enclosed by towering peaks.
BANFF TO VANCOUVER.
Westward from Banff the main range of the Rockies is crossed at an elevation of fifty-three hundred feet, the Continental Divide. The Bow River Valley is followed up to Mount Stephen, which is encircled to the northward. This splendid duomo-like mountain rises thirteen thousand two hundred feet, being named after George Stephen, Lord Mountstephen, the first president of the railway. In approaching, there are passed scores of towering snow-clad peaks. At Laggan, among them, at more than six thousand feet elevation, are three gems of the mountains, the Lakes of the Clouds—Louise, Mirror and Agnes. At the summit of the pass a rustic signboard bears the words "The Great Divide," marking the backbone of the Continent, whence tiny rills flow alongside the railway in both directions, a little brook leading eastward down to the Bow, whose waters go out to Hudson Bay and the Atlantic, while to the westward another diminutive stream is the head of Wapta River, flowing into the Columbia and thence to the Pacific. Three pretty green lakes start the Wapta or Kicking Horse River, its northern branch coming from a huge glacier nine miles long, and its volume expanding from a hundred cascades and brooks tumbling down from the snowbanks and ice-fields all about. Then it crosses the flat floor of a deep valley, which soon develops into a series of terrific gorges, as with rapids and cataracts the stream suddenly drops into an abyss and foams and roars deep down in an impressive canyon. The railway repeatedly crosses this stupendous chasm in getting down the Kicking Horse Pass, giving grand views of high mountains all around, and after a scene of true alpine magnificence it comes out at the broad valley of the Columbia. This river goes northward between the Rockies and the Selkirks, the next western range, and turning westward penetrates them and flows southward on their western flanks into the United States.
Our railway route next goes up the Beaver River gorge to cross the Selkirks through the Rogers Pass at forty-three hundred feet elevation, where Mount Sir Donald guards the Pass. It traverses a region displaying grand scenery, mounting high above the streams, the gorge filled with giant trees between Mounts Sir Donald and Hermit, with frequent airy bridges thrown across the subsidiary ravines, down which come sparkling cataracts. This narrow gorge has frequent avalanches, so that much of the road is covered by ponderous snow-sheds. This is the Rogers Pass, displaying savage grandeur, and was first entered by white men from British Columbia under Major Rogers in 1883, when the railway route was surveyed. It is also reserved for a Canadian National Park. The Hermit Mountain overlooks the pass from the north, while on the south side a range extends westward to the ponderous and lofty pyramidal top of Mount Sir Donald, rising ten thousand seven hundred feet, named for Sir Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona, President of the Bank of Montreal. Alongside is the great glacier of the Selkirks, whose waters flow into the deep valley of the Illecillewaet River, the "Dancing Water," by which the railway goes westward out of the mountains. Having crossed the summit of the pass, the railway makes a short curve into this valley, and gives a grand view of the great glacier covering all of its head. Here is the Glacier House, on a flat surface of delicious greensward alongside the line, having a silvery cascade pouring for a thousand feet down the opposite mountain. Beyond, the Illecillewaet descends rapids and the railway has a difficult task in getting down the steep and contorted gorge by startling loops until, finally emerging from the mountain fastness on the western slope of the Selkirks, it comes a second time to the open Columbia Valley, the river now flowing with greater volume southward towards the United States. Across the Columbia is the Gold range, the third mountain ridge to be crossed. This is done by the Eagle Pass, less difficult than the other passes through the Rockies, the crossing being made at two thousand feet elevation, and the route descending westward along Eagle River and several pleasant lakes that make its source and cover the floor of the higher valley. This stream leads into the Great Shuswap Lake, the largest body of water in British Columbia, spreading its sinuous arms like an octopus among the mountain ridges. This lake has over two hundred miles of coast-line, and is drained westward by Thompson River. To the southward it has a tributary flowing out of the long and slender Okanagan Lake, a sheet of water among the mountains extending seventy miles and having fertile shores.
The Coast range of the Rockies is still beyond us, the fourth and last ridge of these wonderful mountains, through which the Canadian Pacific makes its way by going down the remarkable canyons of Thompson and Fraser Rivers for nearly three hundred miles. At the junction of the two forks of the Thompson is the town of Kamloops, its Indian name meaning "the confluence." It is in a good ranching district, and like all the settlements in British Columbia has quite an elaborate "China-town." Beyond Kamloops the Thompson canyon is entered, a desolate gorge almost without vegetation, through which a rapid torrent rushes, the high steep shores being composed of a rotten rock which water and frost have moulded into strange and fantastic shapes, while the stream constantly burrows more deeply into it. The mud-colored banks are thus carved into massive turrets, cones and pyramids, with groups of impressive columns standing on high, having colossal ranks of ghostly statues looking down from above. In one place a grand semicircular group of cowled and hooded monks with their backs to the river are kneeling apparently around a gigantic altar. Almost every conceivable form has been wrought by the running waters on these precipitous bluffs. Not a tree is seen, and all seems bleak desolation. At the Black Canyon the scene is mournfully terrific, the walls composed of an almost black sand, wherein the whirling river rapids have scooped out immense amphitheatres mounting almost perpendicularly for a thousand feet. Then a change comes, the steep and barren walls developing varieties of color, being streaked with creamy white, red, purple, yellow, maroon, dark brown and black in richest form, as the waters have run the different hued soils over them from top to bottom, the rushing river below being a bright emerald. It is a picture of parti-colored desolation, the gaudy hues and strange forms of these precipitous cliffs being the gorgeous exhibition of a most beautiful desert. This remarkable canyon is followed nearly a hundred miles until the Thompson flows into the Fraser River.