Exploration in the Rocky Mountains North of the Yellowhead Pass Author(s): J. Norman Collie Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Mar., 1912), pp. 223-233 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1778435 Accessed: 12-06-2016 07:31 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wiley, The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Sun, 12 Jun 2016 07:31:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms EXPLORATION IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 223 overtures to Bhutan and Nepal, which have been rejected by these states, and I am very glad they have been. The Chinese should not be allowed on the Indian side of the Himalayas. The President : We will conclude with a vote of thanks to Mr. Rose for his excellent paper. EXPLORATION IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS NORTH OF THE YELLOWHEAD PASS.* By J. NORMAN OOLLIE, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S., F.R.G.S., etc. The part of the Koeky mountains, that run north through what is now the Dominion of Canada, have only in the last twenty-five years been made accessible to the ordinary traveller. In 1886 the trans-continental railway, the Canadian Pacific Eailway, was opened. Before that time it would have taken many months journeying across the prairie to reach even the outlying foothills, whilst from Vancouver on the Pacific it is impossible to say how long would have been spent fighting with the canyons of the West, that are filled often with the densest forest, and down which the waters of countless rivers ruD. The history of this " Great Lone Land " is practically the history of the fur trade ; of late years the prospector has wandered through many of the valleys leading up to the main chain, but still most of the country lying within 20 miles of the watershe'd is almost unknown. No human beings live there, Indians seldom penetrate into these mountain fastnesses, the land is deserted. It is not a country that appeals to the settler; narrow valleys filled with pine forests, with swamps or muskegs; rapid rivers, and not too much arable land; it would yield no crops, neither is there grass except in a few isolated spots. The snow, too, begins to lie in October, and it is not till the following May or June that it clears away. The first man who crossed the continent in these latitudes was Sir Alexander Mackenzie in 1793; he crossed the mountains at the head- waters of the Peace river. From 1799-1814, Alexander Henry, one of the hunters of the North-West Company, kept a diary of his journeys in Western Canada; f in it one can find much information of the wild life of the pioneers of those days. During the same period David Thompson collected an immense amount of knowledge about the same districts. He discovered the source of the Columbia river; he was the first to cross the mountains by more than one pass; but his greatest achievement was " a Map of the North-West Territory of the Province of Canada." In 1809 Simon Fraser and Jules Quesnel explored the Fraser river to its mouth. * Royal Geographical Society, January 29, 1912. Map, p. 312. f ' The Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry, Fur-trader of the North-West Company, and of David Thompson, Official Geographer of the Same Company.' Edited by Elliott Coues. 3 vols. 1897. This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Sun, 12 Jun 2016 07:31:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 224 EXPLORATION IN THE ROCET MOUNTAINS Alexander Ross a few years later describes the life of the first settlers on the Columbia river in his book on c The Fur-hunters of the Far West.' From that time till 1858, when British Columbia passed out of the hands of the Hudson Bay Company and became a Crown Colony, few people visited these western valleys. In 1858 a great influx of miners took place into the Cariboo country in northern British Columbia; most of them, however, came north from California and the States,- and so did not have to cross the Rocky mountains in Canada. In 1857 Captain J. Palliser was sent out by the Government to explore "that part of British North America which lies between the northern branch of the river Saskatchewan and the frontier of the United States, and between the Red river and the Rocky mountains;" the Government also wanted information about passes over the mountains, and i; wished him to ascertain whether any practical pass or passes, available for horses, existed across the Rocky mountains within British territory, and south of that known to exist between Mount Brown and Mount Hooker," i.e. tho Athabasca pass. From the explorations of Dr. Hector and others working under Palliser, several passes over the mountains were discovered, but Palliser came to the conclusion that "a line of communication from Canada across the continent to the Pacific exclusively through British territory" was impracticable. In 1871 British Columbia entered the Dominion of Canada, and at once a survey was started for a trans- continental railway. It was amongst the Rocky mountains that the difficulty of selecting a route was encountered. No less than eleven different passes were surveyed from the Peace river in the north to the Crow's-nest pass in the south. The railway was opened in 1886, and as a result access to the Rocky mountains was at last made easy for the ordinary traveller. But as a matter of fact very little advantage was taken of the opportunities offered, at least as far as exploration of the main chain of the Rocky mountains was concerned. Dr. George M. Dawson, head of the Canadian Survey, was the first to utilize the facilities offered, and published a very full "Report on the physical and geological features of that portion of the Rocky mountains between latitudes 49? and 51? 30" (1886)." In 1886 Mr. R. G. M'Connell made a detailed examination of the Bow river pass and the vicinity. In 1898 Mr. McEvoy surveyed the Athabasca river valley for about 150 miles east of the Yellowhead pass, and down the Fraser river on the west side of the pass for another 80 miles. In 1892 Prof. Coleman explored the country from Morley, on the Canadian Pacific Railway, to the head of the Athabasca river, and was the first to authoritatively show that Mount s Brown and Hooker, on the Atha? basca pass were not 16,000 feet high, but merely the sarae altitude as all the neighbouring peaks. Nearly all our knowledge, therefore, of the Rocky mountains up to This content downloaded from 155.69.24.171 on Sun, 12 Jun 2016 07:31:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms NORTH OF THE YELLOWHEAD PASS. 225 about 1897 had been obtained in the early part of last century from the fur-traders, and later by those looking for passes over the main range. The exploration, therefore, was restricted to the chief river valleys and the low passes; the great snowfields, the high peaks, and the glaciers that form the backbone of the continent remained to be discovered. The large area of unknown country in Canada at the present day is hardly appre- ciated. Dr. Dawson wrote only twenty years ago, " In Canada there are 3,470,000 square miles, of which 954,000 square miles (exclusive of the inhospitable Arctic portions) is for all practicable purposes entirely unknown." It was in the year 1897 that I first went to the Eooky mountains. Starting from Laggan, on the Canadian Pacific Eailway, I went north with Mr. Baker as far as the source of the Saskatchewan river. The country was almost unknown; the only man who had been there and left any record was Hector, in 1860. Far in the north we saw an endless series of high snow mountains. In 1898 I returned with H. E. M. Stutfield and H. Woolley. We went north to the sources of the Athabasca, and dis? covered a great snowfield, the source of the north fork of the Saskatche? wan and the Athabasca rivers, and probably at one time the source of the Columbia river as well. This great snowfield, therefore, drains into three oceans, the Pacific, the Arctic, and the Hudson bay (or the Atlantic). As a result of this expedition and two more I made in 1900 and 1902, to the same district, I was able to make a sketch-map that the Royal Geo? graphical Society published in 1903. I should not have been able to explore this country if it had not been for the Canadian Pacific Eailway that brought me to the door of the mountains. It was obvious, therefore, that as soon as a railway was built westwards from Edmonton to the mountains and the Yellowhead pass, I eonld use it for approaching the main chain of the Eocky mountains north of the Yellowhead pass, and explore them in the same way as I had done north of the Kicking Horse pass.