It will have been noticed that Mr. Wheeler’s map, breaking off abruptly along most of its southern margin in the very middle of untrodden snow fields, is itself a challenge to further exploration. His work has been carried a short distance further by the ascents of Mount Beaver and Mount Duncan, and some climbs in the Battle Range, but the regions beyond are still, so far as I am aware, a terra incognita, and I am quite unable to say how much further the southern portion of the Selkirks proper continues its alpine character.
The Purcell Range.
Between this southern portion and the main chain of the Rockies is another large mountainous tract forming part of the Selkirks system and known as the Purcell Range, comprising the Dogtooth, Spillimacheen and South Purcell Ranges. A rough idea of its extent and situation may be obtained from the sketch map accompanying Dr. Longstaff’s paper in the Canadian Alpine Journal,[45] bearing in mind that Mounts Beaver and Duncan rise close to the watershed between the two rivers which also bear those names.
The Dogtooth Range appears to be sub-alpine, and is disposed of in chapter v. of the Guide; but from the Beaver-Duncan divide to the neighbourhood of Wells Pass there is a continuous stretch of alpine country, which rivals in height, beauty and general interest the main Selkirk Range itself. The Spillimacheen Range has as yet hardly been touched, but south of Bugaboo Pass a series of energetic campaigns have, since 1910, been carried on from the Upper Columbia Valley. The district is far from being an ‘exhausted’ one, but the remarkable group of mountains situated between Horse Thief Creek and Toby Creek has been thoroughly explored and mapped.[46]
Some Minor Ranges.
It has been said that the range rapidly loses its interest to the south of Wells Pass, but it is rash to make such a statement in Canada, where the alpine area is being continually enlarged by fresh discoveries so rapidly that it is difficult to keep pace with them. In illustration of this, reference may here be made to an entirely unexpected alpine region found in 1912 in Vancouver Island, and to Dr. A. P. Coleman’s recent explorations in the Torngats (Labrador) on the other side of the continent.[47]
Another outlying district which deserves mention, though not so recent a discovery, is the Garibaldi Range, near Vancouver City.[48]
The Main Chain from Laggan to Jasper.
Returning now to the main chain, there is nothing to be added, so far as the south side of the C.P.R. is concerned, to what has been already said. There remains the main chain to the north, which falls naturally into two sections—that lying beyond the G.T.P. railway, and that situated between the two railways, the largest, and in many respects the most interesting, of all the areas with which we have to deal. This section, or rather that part of it lying south of the Athabasca Pass, was divided by Dr. Norman Collie[49] into four main groups: (1) The Balfour (or Waputik) group, between the Kicking Horse Pass and Howse Pass; (2) the Forbes group, between Howse Pass and Thompson Pass, 30 miles farther north; (3) the Columbia group, extending over the 35 miles from Thompson Pass to Fortress Lake Pass; (4) the Mount Hooker group, between the Fortress Lake Pass and the Athabasca Pass, 25 miles farther. Sir J. Outram’s divisions and subdivisions,[50] so far as they are carried, practically coincide with those of Dr. Collie. To these must now be added a fifth group, the mountains between the Athabasca and Yellowhead Passes, which may be called the Edith Cavell group. As far as the Athabasca Pass the range has a very definite western boundary consisting of the great trench of the Columbia River, and it is this portion of it which Sir J. Outram refers to when he says the Rockies are 60 miles in breadth. At the Athabasca Pass the range connects with the mass of mountains that separate the Columbia and Fraser River basins, and from this point northward no precise statement as to the breadth of the chain is possible.
Of the groups above mentioned the first falls within the C.P.R. district, and has been already dealt with; the second and third were the scene of much climbing and exploration from 1898 to 1902, in which the leading part was played by Dr. Collie. He and Mr. Stutfield have described his three expeditions in Climbs and Exploration in the Canadian Rockies, one of the Alpine classics of Canada. The whole of this exploratory work is well summarized in the second half (chapters x.-xv.) of Sir J. Outram’s book. Since that time the energies of pioneers have been diverted in other directions, and few, if any, additions have been made to our knowledge of the region.[51] The credit of having mapped it belongs to Dr. Collie; all subsequent maps are based on his; the only extensions of importance are due to Dr. A. P. Coleman.[52] A study of the records will show that there is still plenty of scope for exploration in groups 3 and 4, and if first ascents are not the principal object, groups 2, 3 and 4 probably offer as fine a field for climbing as any district in Canada.