Each year two or three travellers penetrate into the wilderness of snow-clad peaks and rushing glacier-torrents, described in the works named, and some publish accounts of their impressions, but they follow only the beaten paths of the pioneers and see the sights they have seen.
Minor explorations have been made of valleys and passes opening from the main routes along the Bow and Saskatchewan headwaters by members of the Appalachian Mountain Club, among whom may be named: C. S. Thompson, G. M. Weed, Rev. H. P. Nichols, C. L. Noyes, and H. C. Parker;[1] also, at the sources of the Beaverfoot river by J. H. Scattergood. Accounts of these investigations will be found in the various numbers of Appalachia appearing since 1890. There are but two deviations from the beaten line of travel that have given us mapped results: Collie and Stutfield's exploration of the Bush river and vicinity, on the western side of the Main range, and Wilcox and Bryant's expedition to the headwaters of the Kananaskis river.
Notwithstanding the large amount of information contained in the books referred to, our absolute knowledge of Alpine Canada is confined to a strip of little more than ten miles on either side of the Canadian Pacific railway, possibly some five or six thousand square miles, and what may be seen by travelling the paths cut by Collie, Stutfield, Baker, Wilcox and a few others. The books published all cover, practically, the same ground, with the exception of the trips up the Bush river and to the Kananaskis headwaters. The region lying between the Columbia river on the west, the Blaeberry on the south, and the Saskatchewan on the east, is unknown territory except to the pioneers who have published its fame. The only map we have of it is the one accompanying Dr. Collie's book, and
- ↑ Life member of the Alpine Club of Canada.
