I.
Notes on the Glaciers of Bute Inlet, British Columbia
Authors: Whymper Frederick 
Published: December 2013

A glance at the map of British Columbia will show that the coast is indented by numerous inlets, into each of which one or more rivers usually fall. These rivers, having their sources in or near the Rocky Mountains, or the Cascade Range, pass through a succession of valleys or canôns (
i.e.
, gorges), in the lower coast ranges, and are fed by numerous streams from those mountains. The rivers are very unequal in volume. In autumn and winter they are moderate streams, but in spring and summer they become rushing torrents.

A first glimpse of the Olympian and Cascade ranges leads one to infer that among them numerous glaciers might exist. The general character of these mountains is alpine, and there is perpetual snow on a large proportion of their summits. Vague accounts of such glaciers, particularly those of the Stekin river, had reached the author, but he had not seen any printed account of them, and the present description, though meagre, may lead to a more extended investigation of them.

A short route from the coast to the mines of Cariboo had been anxiously desired, and one was commenced by an English gentleman, Mr Alfred Waddington, from the head of Bute Inlet. The writer, taking the first opportunity which presented itself of visiting that part of the country, left Victoria, Vancouver Island, on March 16, 1864, for Bute Inlet; and, through the politeness of Mr Waddington, he obtained a passage in the schooner conveying the working party and stores to that point.

After a passage of six days (though sometimes performed by a steamer in sixteen hours) the vessel entered the inlet. On entering it, the transition from the low, rocky islands of the gulf, to the precipitous, snow-capped mountains of the mainland, appeared very marked. Bute Inlet is about 35 miles long, with an average width of at least 3 miles. It contains no islands or sand-banks, but innumerable bays, affording safe anchorage. The captain informed Lieutenant Whymper that it bore a very close resemblance to the fiords of Norway. The ‶town site″ of Bute Inlet consists only of a few log buildings. The site, however, is really a good one, with room enough for a city, and immediately in the rear there is a magnificent waterfall 900 feet in height.

Lieutenant Whymper there procured several attendants and pack-animals for prosecuting his journey to the glaciers. For the most part the country is thickly wooded, the trees consisting chiefly of the Douglas fir, hemlock, and cedar, and near the banks of the principal river alder and maple are abundant. The circumference of one of the cedars measured was 45 feet. The party then ascended the higher grounds by a zig-zag route, in order to avoid one of the canôns; and, on descending, they had great difficulty in constructing the ‶trail″ over ‶bluffs,″ mighty boulders, and rocky ground.

On April 11 they arrived at Bluff Camp, and remained there examining the district until the 19th, when Lieutenant Whymper started, with an Indian as guide, to discover the ‶Great Glacier.″ To those who have not seen the ‶virgin″ forests of the Far West, it is difficult to give a clear idea of the many difficulties in the traveller’s way. At one time he comes to an immense fallen tree over which he must climb, at another a tree under which he must creep; here a tangle of brushwood, there an accumulation of fallen trees interlaced with saplings, round which he must travel. This is troublesome travel at all times, but more so when the trees are covered by a coating of snow.

Lieutenant Whymper could not find the glacier, and he returned to the camp on the 21st. On the 23d he determined to try the journey again with another guide, Tellot, an intelligent but rather sly-looking Indian. By following the course of the river, they arrived in the afternoon at one of the streams which flow from the glacier. The streams which flow from the ‶Great Glacier″ run with much force, and it is extremely difficult to cross them. The glacier is belted by woods, and shut in by cliffs more or less precipitous. Its presence is very obvious from the noise caused by the cracking of the ice, and from the shooting up of the stones from its surface. The latter is incessant, now a shower of pebbles, again a hundredweight of boulders, and again a thimbleful of sand, but always something coming over the front of it. Below it there is an immense plain of rounded boulders covered with snow.

The length of the Great Glacier is about 8 or 10 miles from east to west, ‶the sun
setting
behind it.″ Its surface is strewed with boulders, sand, &c.; and both the lateral and medial moraines, rising from 60 to 100 feet, are strongly marked features. Here and there a sapling, either detached from the side precipices, or which may have grown from a seed wafted on the surface, is slowly travelling to its destruction. The crevices and holes which abound are large and deep. Square masses of ice, probably forced up by the closing of the crevices, are found in many parts. Towards the upper end there are peaks and pinnacles of ice backed with lofty precipices, and one immense pillar with precipitous sides stands out black in the midst of the surrounding snow. The dripping lower edges of the glacier in many places looked like wet, smooth rock, caused by the quantity of dirt and grit embedded in it. A considerable quantity of snow remained on the glacier, although it was fast melting, and numerous streamlets trickled from its surface. From icy depths underneath several torrents poured, one of which could not be waded, it was so deep and swift. The day was warm, and Lieutenant Whymper considered that the glacier must have been then in full activity and motion. In advance, and between some of the streams, islands and pyramids of boulders were observed, some of them a quarter of a mile in front of the glacier, plainly pointing to a former period when it extended thus far. These are evidently terminal moraines.

On the 25th Lieutenant Whymper returned to the camp, and then the party travelled downwards. On the 29th he visited the Lower Glacier, about 11 miles from Bute Inlet. There are a considerable number of streams, on a minor scale, that flow from this glacier, and all are of extreme velocity, but the principal one is a perfect torrent. The ice of this glacier is purer than that of the former; the water is also purer, and altogether it is a much more beautiful sight. The mountains behind it are much more beautiful, and are more rounded in form. The cliffs and hills among which it is shut in are more precipitous than those around the Great Glacier. The woods here extend almost to its surface. The level ground in front was strewed by trees swept from the banks at times when the streams were unusually swollen, or at times, possibly, when they were brought down on the glacier itself. The boulders on the flat space in front were neither so large nor so abundant as those in the space in front of the other glacier. There was more sand, however, and the direction of this glacier is about east and west, the sun
rising
behind it.

On the same evening Lieutenant Whymper reached the Inlet. He was greatly annoyed by the Indians during the whole of his journey. Indeed, he learned ten days afterwards in Victoria, that the whole of the working party which left with him in the schooner, with three exceptions, were massacred by the Indians. This occurred on the morning that he left Bute Inlet, and he himself had a narrow escape. Tellot, the Indian guide who accompanied him to the Great Glacier, was one of the murderers, and was afterwards hanged for his participation in the crime.

Note
.—Lieutenant Whymper and party reached Victoria safely on 5th May, having been absent about seven weeks.