Mount Assiniboine.
CAMPING IN THE
CANADIAN ROCKIES
AN ACCOUNT OF CAMP LIFE IN THE WILDER PARTS OF THE CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS, TOGETHER WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE REGION ABOUT BANFF, LAKE LOUISE, AND GLACIER, AND A SKETCH OF THE EARLY EXPLORATIONS
BY
WALTER DWIGHT WILCOX
WITH TWENTY-FIVE FULL-PAGE PHOTOGRAVURES, AND MANY TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK
27 West Twenty-third Street
LONDON
24 Bedford Street, Strand
The Knickerbocker Press
1896
Copyright, 1896
BY
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
PREFACE.
The Canadian Rocky Mountains offer exceptionalattractions to those who enjoy natural scenery,sport, and camp life. Few regions of the worldcombining mountain, lake, and forest scenery possess theadditional advantage of a delightful summer climate, suchas obtains in the Canadian Rockies.
The extremely wild character of this part of the RockyMountains, and the very short time since it was openedup to travellers, are probably, in great part, the reasonsfor the lack of literature and the absence of any thoroughlyillustrated publication concerning this region.
During a period of four years, the author has madecamping excursions into many of the wilder parts of themountains and effected a considerable number of ascents.An excellent camera has been an almost inseparable companionin every excursion, so that photographs of thetypical scenery have been obtained from every possiblepoint of view. Moreover, throughout all the processes ofphotographing, no expense of time or labor has beenspared in order to obtain true and artistic representationsof nature. Nor have these results been obtained withoutivconsiderable sacrifice, for in many cases the proper lighteffects on lakes and forests required hours of delay, andfrequently, on lofty mountain summits, high winds madeit necessary to anchor the camera with stones; while thecold and exposure of those high altitudes made the circumstancesunfavorable for successful work.
A map is not included in the volume, as, owing to thewildness of the country, there are no detailed maps coveringthis region that are entirely satisfactory. The bestmap, and, in fact, the only one available, is published inDr. Dawson’s Preliminary Report on this part of theRocky Mountains.
The author makes grateful acknowledgment of theassistance received from many friends in the preparationof this book. Special thanks are due to Prof. J. H. Gore,of Columbian University, and to the Hon. Chas. D. Walcott,Director of the United Sta