Page:The Selkirk mountains (1912).djvu/121

Rh there is a fall of 411 feet; and from the same point to the Wind Crack, 405 feet.

The Valley of the Caves: The Valley of Cougar Brook is divided into two sections with wholly different origins. The Caves are situated where these sections meet on the lower slopes of Mt. Cheops.

The Upper Valley, 2½, miles long, extending from Cougar Pass to Point Lookout, is a pronounced type of the "hanging valley," having, been carved in a shallow, spoon-shaped, cross-section by the glacier once filling it but now shrunken to very small proportions at the valley's extreme head. An old lake-bed half a mile long where some water lies in summer covers part of its floor. It is enclosed by Mt. Bagheera, Catamount Peak and Mount Ursus Major on the north, and by Cougar Mt. on the south, all having small glaciers. At its head, Cougar Pass leads across the shrunken glacier to a steepravine descending to the railway below Ross Peak Station.

Mr. Wheller writes with enthusiasm of this upper valley, none more beautiful among alpine valleys. In every direction silver water falls leap from the snows and glaciers above, uniting in one central stream which falls in foaming cataracts to the little lake-bed whence, continually increased by fresh falls, it rushes through luxuriant meadow-lands in a second series of cascades that have worn down to bed-rock showing the veneer of soil overlaying it. Here the trees are chiefly spruce and balsam attaining at this elevation a freedom and symmetry impossible in the crowded forest at lower altitudes. Singly or in companies they grow high, their lower dark, branches gracefully sweeping above the light green turf.

Throughout spring and summer all the meadows, parks, and mountain slopes are gay with a procession of flowers, profuse and brilliant. In early spring whole acres shine yellow with the lovely exotic-looking lilies, Adder's Tongue (Trollius laxus) growing low and luxuriant; the scarlet crimson Painters Brush (Castilleia) blazing in the open and on the lower slopes; the deep-blue Larkspur (Delphinium bicolor; the pink and purple Asters: the crimson and yellow Monkey-Flower (Mimulus) in the streams' beds and where the turf is wet: the mountain heather, false heaths ('Bryanthus) and Cassiope) high in the valley and on the alps below the rocks: the pink-flowering Moss (Silene acaulis) beautiful in blossom immediately below the ice; all these and many species as beautiful but more rare, bloom in this hanging valley. Truly the immense old mountains have their own charming spring and summer in their wildest ravines.

The fauna of the Upper Valley appeals to both hunter and naturalist. The mountain goat (Haplocerus montanus) is often seen and his tracks are everywhere on the heights; the grizzly bear (Ursus americana) is a frequent visitor. Of the smaller mammals, are notable the hoary marmot or whistler (Arctomys Columbianus) occurring in great numbers and unusual size, their whistles louder and shriller here; Say's squirrel (Spermophilus lateralis) and Parry's marmot ('Spermophilus Parryi): and the "Little Chief hare (Lagomys princeps). There are a few birds, among them the ptarmigan (Lagopus leucurus)—a flock may often be seen; the water ousel (Cinclus icanus) a funny little bird with a very sweet note who flits from stone to stone along the streams, continually dipping