The swampy shores and large extent of water surface in this region fostered many varieties of gnats, mosquitoes, and other insects, though, fortunately, not in such great numbers as to be very troublesome. In fact, the season of the year was approaching that period when the mosquitoes suddenly and regularly disappear, for some unexplained reason. I have always noticed that in the Canadian Rockies the mosquitoes become much reduced in numbers between the 15th and 20th of August, and after that time cause little or no trouble. In order, however, that there may be no lack of insect pests, nature has substituted several species of small flies and midgets, which appear about this time and follow in a rotation of species, till the sharp frosts of October put an end to all active insect life. Some of these small pests are no less troublesome than the mosquitoes which have preceded them, though they afford a variation in their manner of annoyance, and are accordingly the more endurable.
Along the reedy shores of the lake and sometimes over its placid surface, when the air was quiet toward evening, we often saw clouds of gnats hovering motionless in one spot, or at times moving restlessly from place to place, like some lightless will-o’-the-wisp, composed of a myriad of black points, darting and circling one about another. Nature seems to love circular motion: for just as the stars composing the cloudy nebulæ revolve about their centres of gravity in infinite numbers, moving forever, through an infinity of space; so do these ephemeral creations of our world pass their brief lives in a ceaseless vortex of complicated circles.
On one occasion we built a raft to ferry us across the narrow part of the lake so that we might try the fishing on the farther side. The raft was hastily constructed, and, after we had reached deep water, it proved to be in a state of stable equilibrium only when the upper surface was a yard under water. After a thorough wetting we finally reached the shore, and proceeded to build a more trustworthy craft.
On the 21st of August we moved our camp down to the north end of the lake. Here the nature of the scenery is entirely changed. Whereas the lower end of the lake abounds in land-locked channels and wooded islands, so combined as to make the most pleasing and artistic pictures from every shore, the other part of this lake presents regular shore lines, and everything is formed on a more extensive scale. The north side of the lake is curved in a great arc, so symmetrical in appearance that it seems mathematically perfect, and the eye sweeps along several miles of shore at a single glance as though this were some bay on the sea-coast.
As we neared the north end of the lake, a valley was disclosed toward the west, and an immense glacier appeared descending from the crest of the Waputehk Range. Even at a distance of three or four miles, this glacier revealed its great size. The lower part descended in several regular falls to nearly the level of the lake. In the lower part, the glacier is less than a mile in width, but above, the ice stream expands to three or four miles, and extends back indefinitely, probably ten miles or more. This Great Bow Glacier had the same position relatively to the lake, as the glacier we visited at the Lower Bow Lake held to that body of water.
Upper Bow Lake.
Looking west.
A better knowledge of these lakes revealed a striking similarity between them. Each lake occupies a curving valley, which in each case enters the Bow valley from the south. The two lakes are about the same size and nearly the same shape, a long gentle curve about five times longer than broad. At the head of each, though at slightly different distances, are large glaciers. The glacial streams have likewise formed flat gravel washes, or deltas, which have encroached regularly on the lake and formed a straight line from shore to shore, perfectly similar one to another. A further resemblance might be observed in the presence of two talus slopes from the mountain sides, in each case on the south side of the lake, near the delta. The Lower Bow Lake is about 5500 feet above sea-level, while the upper lake is a little more than 6000 feet. The increased altitude has the effect of making the forest more open, and the country more generally accessible, in the region of the upper lake. From one point on the shores of the upper lake, five large glaciers may be counted, the least of which is two miles long, and the greatest has an unknown extent, but is certainly ten miles in length.
Our camp was pleasantly located in the woods not far from the water. After Peyto had put up the tent and got the camp in order, with the horses enjoying a fine pasture, he set off to explore the lake shore toward the Great Glacier. He returned to camp about five o’clock carrying a fine lake trout which he had caught. This fish was taken near the shore, and was probably a small one compared with those which live in deeper water; nevertheless, it measured twenty-three inches in length, and weighed about seven pounds. The Bow lakes have a reputation for abounding in fish of a very large size. So far as I am aware, no boat has ever sailed these waters, and there is no certainty what size the fish may reach in the deeper parts of the lake. Judging by trout which have been caught in Lake Minnewanka, near Banff, it is very probable that they run as high as thirty or forty pounds.
