The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-22

"oe ohiy intensely interesting,
- starting. Startling is the descriptive
"oiu that mas been applied TO it. The great
ioIces It's way between vertical walls
Oiack rock. When repeatedly thrown
Jack upon itself by opposing cliffs, or brok-
en up by ponderous masses Of fallen rock.
| madly foams, its roar being heard above
~ thunder Of the train. We passed tun-
nei AFTER tunnel until we reached Hell Gate.
ten miles from the entrance OF the canvo,
the narrowest point I'm II. The river is held
Oack here by projecting rocks. and I'm time
level. ~
one hundred and thirty miles out we
reached North Bend, where the companv
mas built a beautiful hotel. aud where we
stopped for dinner. And what a delightful
dinner 1t was. The dining room. although il
was the middle OF August, was filed with
"o"ers; the linen could not have been ex-
ceiIed; white=robed walters quickly served
d dinner OF several courses Of excellently
cooked food, such as one seldom fnds out
sIue the dining room Of a great hotel in the
city. There was no hurrying. no anxiety
that the train would move on and leave US.
And this hotel was only like all the rest
maintained at it's eating stations by the
Canadian Pacific Company. Usually it's no.
tells are situated at points Of interest for
the tourists, and often crowded with sight
seers- This was particularly true of Banm,
where. when we passed, no more hotel &C
commodations were TO be had.
An hour after dinner we left the valley
or the Fraser and entered that Of the
Thompson river at it's mouth. All the way
along the Fraser in the mountains were In
dams fishing for salmon, and where they
mad hung them on poles to cure in the pure
atmosphere os this region. Ever and anon
the huts Of the Indians were seen and their
little farms. The Indians in western British
Columbia make very good farm hands; and
In vancouver we saw many dressed as the
whites dress, who. we were told, made good
work hands-a very different Indian from
his brothers east Of the Rocky mountain
range.
THOMPSON RIVER CANYON.
After entering the canyon Of Thompson
river, the mountains drew together. and
the railway wound along their face hun
dreds of feet above the roaring, struggling
river. The gorges rapidly narrowed and deep
ened, and the scenery became wild beyond
the power of man to describe. The frown-
ing cliffs opposite US were notified and
streaked In many singular colors, and now
and then through breaks in the high es-
carpment snow peaks were seen glistening
above the clouds. Soon the scenery be-
came very striking and peculiar. The rail-
way ran upon a sinuous ledge cut out Of
the bare hills on the irregular south side
OF the river, the ravine spanned by lofty
bridges, and the river, i'm the purity of a
trout brook, whirled down, it's winding,
torrent path as green as an emerald. Some
times the banks were rounded, crealn-white
slopes; their cliffs of richest yellow,
streaked and dashed with maroon, jutted
out; then masses of solid rust-red earth,
suddenly followed by an olive green slope
or some white exposure. Over all this was
cast the mellow shades of the long twilight
Of the far north. and added thereto the ad-
ditiOnal interest of great height and breadth
of prospect, and a constantly changing
grotesqueness of form, caused by the wear
ing down of unequal hardness, by water
and wind, into towers and monuments.
COLLINS and griffins.
might closed down upon US, but the
trainmen soothed our regrets by saying
that we had passed the most striking seen
cry for the present, and that until 4 o'clock
in the morning we would not see any as
interesting as that passed. Fortunately, our
train fell behind its time schedule, and we
were up by the time the most interesting
scenery came into view. Just as night came
down upon us we ran into a small town.
The valley Of the Thompson had here
widened. on the opposite side of the river
it being half a mile wide. over on that side
was Thompson Earle's ranch, plainly in
view, where were raised the apples that
took the first prize for apples at the worlds
fair of 1893.
Shortly after waking in the morning we
reached Revelstake, and saw the Columbia
river, that we had left shortly after leav-
ing Portland, Ore, a very different stream
from what it was there. Revelstake is quite
a city for British Columbia, having a pop
ulation of $500 inhabitants. 1t is a divisional
point, and a branch road leaves here. At
this point we were promised an observa-
ton car, but the promise was not kept.
Leaving Revelstake the railroad soon en-
tered the Selkirk range by the valley of the
Ilecillewaet river Ga name that served US
with considerable amusement), the first
portion of which was a gorge in which the
railroad at intervals disputes the passage
through a chasm with vertical and rocky
walls standing but ten feet apart. Twenty
miles further on we passed through Albert
canyon, where our tram ran suddenly
along the very brink of several remarkably
deep assures in the solid rock, whose walls
rose straight up hundreds Of feet on both
sides to wooded crags, above which sharp
distant peaks cut the sky. The river ran
through a boiling natural fume, scarcely
twenty feet wide. Thirteen times we crossed
this river of an unpronOunceable name Qor
u.s.. swept around the base Of Rose peak,
passed over a double loop made by the rail-
road like the letter S, and reached the Gla-
cier House, one of the most interesting
| spots on the Canadian Pacific.
GLACIER HOUSE.
Glacier House is we'll named, for it is
within two and a half miles Of a glacier
that is $50 feet thick. All around IL glaciers
can be seen, and yet it is only APP feet
above the sea level. Just before we reached
the house we saw a bank of ice within one
hundred feet of the railroad. under which a
stream OF water was running. Glacier
House was our station for a breakfast, and
what a delightful breakfast it was! After
eating we had time to view the charming
scenery on every hand. Guides brought
from the Switzerland Alps stood ready to
n us I'D the glaciers if we would stop;
for here was an excellent hotel with many
guests. Coming out Of the breakfast room,