Page:The Selkirk mountains (1912).djvu/51

Rh the east side of Albert Creek, its close boundaries being high wooded mountain-spurs and frowning cliffs which rise to snow-clad slopes and snow-capped summits. The population is about 50 ur 75 persons, some of whom do a little farming. Here the Railway Company keeps several heavy engines ready to push overburdened trains up the steep grade to Rogers Pass. From the village a path leads through the forest of giant fir and cedar, devil's club, skunk cabbage and other thick underbrush, up a slope south of the track for half a mile to a warm spring said to contain mineral properties. The water has a temperature of from 75 to 80 degrees and the spring is used as a public bath.

Alder Creek—Name: By the C.P.R. Co., from the growth of alder bushes along its margin.

Altitude: 2,(580 ft. at railway crossing.

Location: It joins the Beaver River 7 miles south of Beaver-mouth station.

Asulkan Brook and Valley—Name: By W. .Spotswood Green with reference to the wild goats seen on the pass at the head of Asulkan Glacier. (Asulkan. Indian for wild goat.)

Altitude: 4,100 ft. rising to 6.600 ft.

Location: Asulkan Brook flows from the Asulkan Glacier about 4 miles south-cast of (ilacier House. A good trail leads up the valley terminating within a few yards of the ice. Saddle ponies can travel its full length. For 3 miles the grade is imperceptible, and for the remaining mile it is steep. Time required to the foot of the glacier and return, 4 hours. Unless one wishes to go on the glacier, no Swiss guide is required.

Route: The Asulkan Valley is a magnificent alpine glen. On the main path to the Illecillewaet Glacier about a quarter of a mile from the hotel, a sign-board points the way. The trail branches off, winding through a tall, close forest, whose bearded fir and hemlock and cedar, with luxuriant mulergrowth (blossoms and berries in their season and the bright green foliage of the Devil's club) make a perpetual tropic gloom. Leaving the forest the trail crosses Asulkan Brook by a log bridge and follows its eastern bank, now through woods of spruce high above its margin and now along its very edge, almost touching the turbulent waters. Frequently through the openings in the trees the sable walls of Mt. Abbott, the Rampart, the Dome, and the snowy heights of Castor and Pollux come into view overhanging the valley on the west, their snows showing white against the azure sky. in clear and cloudless sunshine. These snows are the fountain-head of a series of cataracts in sight at intervals, that fall in silvery spray down the mountain-side and over high precipitous ledges to the stream below. In one place seven may be counted, variously named—"Asulkan Falls," "Seven Falls," "Menotah Falls." It is an enchanted valley. "The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep," and the sunlight is the light of no common day. The gloom and the glory of mountain beauty meet in the valley. This feeling is intensified by the continuous sound of rushing waters, now faint when the path enters the woods, now filling the air as the torrent sweeps by at your feet.

At the upper end of the valley the trail, rising high above the brook, has been cut from the mountain side. Here the tongue or