 |
| Photo by Sidney S. Walcott |
| THE AUTHOR READY TO TAKE A PANORAMIC VIEW FROM SUMMIT OF MOUNT FIELD |
4 inches in thickness. When the latter is used the tripod head is a 12-inch graduated circle with the revolving bed above. A ratchet, driven by springs, moves the camera around the circle, the speed being governed by fans. Our lens is a Bausch and Lomb Zeiss Protar, Series VII.
The long panoramic view had an exposure of one-tenth of a second over each part of the film. The film moves past a vertical half-inch aperture from right to left as the camera is revolving from left to right. With this instrument a view can be taken 8½ inches in height and of any desired length up to 10 feet. Two persons can readily carry the outfit anywhere that one can ordinarily climb. Under unusually difficult conditions the camera can be drawn up by a rope.
Often in the Canadian Rockies days will pass in which the atmospheric conditions are unfavorable for an extended view—dust blown in the plains, smoke from forest fires, or the indefinite summer haze and cloudy weather interfering. The best conditions usually occur just after a heavy storm of either snow or rain has cleared the air.
One really great panoramic view and a half dozen fine smaller views is a successful season with the camera when it is used as an adjunct to hammer and compass in geologic work.
From the vicinity of the Burgess Pass camp the views were most beautiful and varied, and changed from hour to hour during the day and from day to day with the varying atmospheric conditions. Emerald Glacier, directly facing camp (page 513), was always attractive, whether in the bright sunlight, the gray light of early morning, the shadows of sunset, or when snow and fog were sweeping over the range, giving only now and then a glimpse of the ice and cliffs. The light-colored moraines on either side of its foot and the dark rocks afforded a beautiful setting for the glacier. Across the Yoho Pass the cliff of Mount Wapta stood in bold relief, with a steep slope of broken rock on the western side and a huge bank of snow on the eastern side of its south ridge.
Rising back of camp was the beautiful cliff of Mount Burgess, a favorite haunt of the mountain goat. At its eastern foot on the narrow ridge is the point where the great panoramic view was
