The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-20
CLIMBING THE PEAKS
AND GLACIERS OF THE
ROCKIES AND THE SELKIRKS
By CHARLES H. STRONG.

Notwithstanding, with glacier at
tachments, is an art. And the prince
nj this art at the present day is Mr..
Edward Whymper, who conquered the
,fatterhorn in Switzerland dosing
three of his companions and a guide
in the attempt), then conquered the
highest peaks of the Andes, and in
these later days has been devoting
himself to the Canadian Rockies. He
if was who made the oft-quoted re-
mark: In the Rockies are fifty or
sixty Switzerlands rolled into one" In
a limited sense this remark is true
But if we bear in mind the immensely
OF these four ranges (Which may be
classed as Rockies" although they
are four distinct ranges, Rockies, Sell
kinks, Gold. and COAST and also do
not forget that their feet are down in
Mexico and their heads up in the Arc
tic ocean, some 1000 or 5000 miles
away from here; if we remember these
facts, then it would be truer to say
that you might strew a hundred Switz-
erlands over this territory and still
have mountains and glaciers to spare.
The Rockies Compared With Swits-
erIand.
Undoubtedly the famous conqueror
of mountains meant 1.-The civilized part
of the Rockies i. e., the belt some 200
miles from the entrance at the gap to
the departure from the Selkirks at
Revelstock, taking some twenty-five
miles each side of the Canadian Pacific
Railroad, the strip of territory which
the foot of man has trod and the rail-
road has civilized. With this COMPARE
lively we'll known strip, the land of the
Swiss may be compared. Comparing
them, you find here the same multitu-
dinous conditions, only more numerous,
less civilized, greater more massive,
rough and barren, "of wonderful gla-
cial fields, of majestic ranges, striking
precipices, snow-crowned peaks, forest
areas, clear lakes, and peaceful val
leys." And there the comparison ends.
There are here twenty peaks to one in
Switzerland, but none $50 far discover
ed the equal of Mt. Blanc, the Mat
terhorn and the Yungfrau; these lat
ter are in the $4,000 feet class. The Ca
madam Rockies are in the 1000 feet
category. The Swiss peaks are clothed
(either with verdure or snow and in
their right mind" The Rockies do not
indulge in much clothing and as to
nina and influence upon our minds,
they are all crazy There is no sense of
order among them. When we come to
compare glaciers with glaciers, the
glociers of Switzerland would slide
down one of these massive glacial
fields and be lost in the lakes or in the
mCulins. Thus the Great Glacier of
Illecillewaet is a part of a glacial field
forty miles square and equal to all the
glaciers of the Swiss frozen up to-
gether. That forty miles of glacier is,
l know, calculated to take your breath
away, but some climbing genius has
been up there and measured it! 1 am
not an authority on glaciers. My hum
BILE part in life is to sit down on the
hotel piazza and look up at them, and
then when the other fellow comes back
I make a Veracious record of what he
chooses to tell me. Just now, l am
looking up at one as I write-a bit of
green lake between me and the feet of
the monster as he dips them in the icy
water. One of these glacial athletes,
pointing up to the summit of these ice
fields, asked me: DO you see that
bank of snow there, at the point where
the rock breaks through" Eyes, I see
it." How deep is the snow in that
bank" About twelve feet" 1 reply
THE ice at that point is 400 feet deep"
he says, with a look that would have
frozen 400 feet more of snow. 1 only
mention the episode lest any of my
friends should imagine that the crazi-
ness of these mountains had gotten in
to my brain and that I had climbed up
5000 feet of ice 20 measure the depth
of 400 feet of snow.
The supply of UncIimbed Peaks
Still Holds Out.
We may be reasonably confident that
the supply of unclimbed peaks and
untrodden glaciers is not in danger of