The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-06


! extremely wild character of the Canadian
Rocky Mountains, and the very short time
| since they were opened up to travellers, are the
probable reasons for the lack of literature and
the absence, heretofore, of any thoroughly
illustrated publication concerning that region.
Mr.. Wilcox, during period of four years. made
camping excursions into many of the wilder
parts OF the mountains in question and effected
y a considerable number of aseents. camera
was his inseparable companion, and he OBJ
| tanned photographs OF typical scenery from
! every possible point of view. No expense of
time or labor, he tells us, was spared in order
to obtain true and artistic representations of
nature. In many cases the proper light effects
on lakes and forests required hours of delay,
! and frequently, on lofty mountain SUBMITS,
! high winds made it necessary to anchor the
camera with stones; while the cold and ex-
posure OF the high attitudes made the cIrcum-
stances unfavorable for successful work. New
ertheless, the photographers in the volume
reach rare degree of excellence and make
! superb, artistic adornment of work that ably
describes the comparatively unfrequented
mountain wilderness OF the great Northwest.
Speaking particularly with reference to the
forest primeval of the Selkirk range of noun
tains, Mr.. Wilcox allows himself to indulge in
some interesting cogitations, word-etchings,
contrasts and comparisons:
1.-The Idea that is at length developed in the
mind by long rest in one of these deep and
somber forests is that of the majesty and silent,
motionless power of vegetation. The creations
OF the vegetable world stand on all sides They
we'll nigh cover the ground; they limit the
horizon and conceal the sky. The tall cedars
have shreddy bark that hangs in long strips
on their tapering boles and makes the strong
est contrast with the rough bark of the frs.
| What could be more unlike, too, among ever
greens than the spreading, fan-like foliage of
the cedars, the needle-like leaves of the frs
and the delicate spray Of the hemlocks7
What vast amount of energy has been
preserved in the forest giants; with what
crash would they fall to the ground, and what
a quantity of heat which they have stored up
from the sun through hundreds of summers
would they give out when burned slowly in
freplacel five examine single needle or a
thin shaving of wood under the microscope
and obtain glimpse of the complexity of the
cells and pores with which this vegetable life
is carried on, or consider the wonderful pro-
| cesses by which the flowers are fertilized and
the cones mature, so that the species may
never die out, and then regard the immensely
of the whole forest, stretching boundless in
every direction, all constructed from an in
| fnity OF atoms, the mind and the Imagination
are soon led beyond their depth.
''Trees have all the qualifications of living
forever. There is no reason why tree should
ever die, were it not for some unnatural
cause, such as the fury of a storm, the rending
power of lightning or the destructive in
! fuence of insects and parasites. In California,
! In the Mar1posa grove, some OF the giant red
wood trees are $500 years old. They began to
] grow when Scion was making laws for the
/ ancient Greeks These wonderful groves of
/ California are, however, exceptional, and
/ have survived by reason of the clemency OF the
climate and the fact that the aromatic red
] wood is avoided by insects. In most forests
| he Of oh Ohah
allow the sturdiest trees 10 run the gamut of
more than few hundred years, and if they
attain thousand years it is their fourscore
! by reason of strength.
"In the Selkirks one sees the ground covered
with huge tree trunks in all stages of decay,
slowly moldering away into a newer and
richer soil; some have yielded to the natural
| processes OF decay, others to accident or forest
| fires, while in some places winter avalanches
have cut off the tops of the trees forty or fifty
feet above the ground, and left nothing but
maze of tall stumps where once stood noble
forest
1.-THE Selkirk forests are dense and some
| times almost magnificent in their luxurlance,
and vastly surpass the forests of Eastern
ranges in the variety of species, the size of the
trees and the luxuriant rankness of vegetable
growth. At the same time they do not APP
proach the almost tropical Vigor and grandeur
of the Pacific Coast forests, where green car
pet of moss covers the trunks ana branches of
the huge trees, and even ferns find nourish-
ment in this rich covering, aided by the reek-
ing, humid atmosphere, on branches forty or
fifty feet above the ground. In such forest
the ferns and brakes reach q height of six or
eight feet above the ground the various
moses attain a remarkable development and
hang in long green tresses a yard in length
from every branch and exaggerate the size of
the SIN aller branches, while the beautiful
/ inf 0f no HInO
fronds of small ferns, so large do they become.
"The forests of the Summit range, the Sell
kinks and the Pacific Coast are almost perfect
indexes of the humidity of the climate. The
Selkirk forests are less vigorous than those of
| the Pacific Coast but more so than the light
/ and comparatively open forests of the Sum-
nit range, where the climate is much drier.''
CaliforDians in the valleys, where snow
rarely. if ever, appears, and where, if it does
come down for a few moments in the midst of
| winter, it is regarded a remarkable phe-
nomenon, are hardly in a position to appre-
ciate the beauties OF snowstOrm in midsum-
mer, which Mr.. Wilcox found delight in near
the base of Mount Assiniboine. The pictures
of mountain lakes in this region resemble
| miniature arctic seas. The scenery about
Mount Assiniboine is sublime. From the
snowfields the bare rock cliffs rise about 5000
feet; the angle of slope on either side being
little more than 81 degrees-s slope which is
| OUCH CdleQ 1u6
proper is IL, $50 feet in height according to
measurements made by the author.
The book contains $50 pages, printed in the
very best style of the bookmaker's art, and the
perfectness and finish of the twenty-five full
/ page photographers demand more than pass
| ing mention. The illustrations alone are worth
the price of the volume. And by this express
sion let it not be imagined that the work as a
contribution to descriptive literature is under
valued The reader will find entertainment
and instruct on in the authors account of
camp life in the Canadian Rockies and es-
pecially in his chapters relating to the regions
about Banff, Lake Louise and Glacier; whileAa
sketch of early explorations in the British
Northwest gives to the volume some of the
merits of a history.
The leading article in the Critic of August
% is as striking one might expect it to be
from its unusual g-"Hullabaloo." 1t
is a story OF the convention as the billboard
OF modern thought" on which are advertised
our noble desires or posted our national SINS