Below this arête on one side lay the glacier visible from Glacier House, and on the eastern side in a deep hollow, a fine glacier which we named the Sir Donald glacier, commenced its course, and flowed outwards in beautiful fan-like structure, in the direction of Beaver Creek. The cliffs rising at the farther side of this latter glacier, that is in the great buttress supporting Sir Donald from the valley of the Beaver, were so steep that not a speck of snow clung to them. Had we had a rope about 200 feet long, we could have descended from our perch and then easily crossed by the little connecting wall to the main peak, but the face of it looked about as inaccessible a piece of rock as any climber could wish to see. There were a few cracks and ledges which may one day be used by some one, but the quest was not for me."

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During our ascent we had been more troubled by heat than by cold; now however a strong icy wind blew from the north-west. H.'s hat, or rather one of mine that he had affected, fluttered off cheerfully to Beaver Creek, and when we came to the plane tablework I had to slap my arms to get life into my fingers. As the summit we were on is a little peak plainly visible from Glacier House, we fixed a red handkerchief to a crag, and having secured nine photographs, began the descent.

In taking the first snow steps we had to go backwards carefully, as it would not do to slip; the

VI.]

"JEFF" "IN DIFFICULTIES.

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background to our feet, as we cautiously watched them safe into the steps, being the valley of the Illecellewaet, 6,000 feet below. As I was the last in the descent I buried my axe deep, and watched to keep the rope tight. H. cleared the steps below. Mr. Hume was in the middle, and "Jeff" kept just above me, with his nose held low and his legs spread out wide. He wished, I think, to get a grip with his tail too, but as that was impossible, he satisfied himself with the fact that he could not slide farther than against my legs. On returning to the place where we first struck the arête we continued the descent, still keeping our faces to the snow and getting a firm grip with the axes at every step. We took these precautions on account of the crevasses below us, otherwise we might have made a splendid glissade. Now that we were away from the brink of the great precipice "Jeff" got tired of his precautions, and considered a charge down the slope would be pleasanter. It was most ludicrous to see him trying to stop himself. Legs and tail in full action, and he all the while swinging round and round on his vertical axis. He was determined however that no horizontal rotation should follow; if it had, the days of "Jeff's" rambles would have terminated there and then. Having crossed the bergschrund we glissaded in safety, and regained some provisions we had cached. On reaching the flat surface of the glacier I measured a base-line of 300 yards, for

the purpose of fixing the location of some points on the glacier. Then we resumed our descent. Several gl,ssades brought us down to the boulders at the side. of the great glacier fall, and passing our camp without stopping, we reached Glacier House at 5 P.M. after thirteen hours' work.

CHAPTER VII.

"The mountain-ranges are beneath your feet. No trace of man now visible; unless indeed it were he who fashioned that little visible link of highway, here, as would seem, scaling the inaccessible, to unite Province with Province."-CARLYLE.

The railway gangs. The pack-horse again.-Sledging. The valley beyond the snowfield.-Camped on Perley Rock.

THESE mountain railways give employment to a great number of men. About every five miles of the track is under the charge of a special section gang of ten or twelve navvies and their "boss." A snug loghouse is built for their accommodation, and the wives of the married men look after the cooking and washing. The men go to their work, when at all distant, on a truck propelled by a mechanical arrangement worked by pump handles, and the overseers have tricycles which also fit on the rails; two wheels are on one iron and a third small wheel at the end of a slender outrigger rests on the other; the rider sits over the pair of wheels on one rail, and propels himself at

great speed by handles which are worked like rowing a boat. The station agent at "Glacier" had one of these. We used sometimes to take a spin along the track on it, but it came to an untimely end, fortunately when in the owner's charge. He was going up through one of the snow-sheds when he met the train coming down the incline. He had just time to save himself by leaping off, but the tricycle was knocked to bits by the cow-catcher of the locomotive. Besides the section gangs, each trestle-bridge has its special watcher who gets three dollars per day, lives in a little hut by himself, and whose business it is to examine the whole length of the bridge after the passage of each train, to see that no injury has occurred or that it has not caught fire. Along the bridge, on top, are a row of barrels of water which he can use for extinguishing fire. Should however anything serious occur he has a telephone in his hut, by which he may communicate with the section gangs on either side of him. The snow-sheds are also carefully inspected after the passage of every train, and they are usually supplied with a complete system of water-pipes and coils of hose in case of fire. Besides these gangs of men specially connected with the railway company, the contractors for building snow-sheds, cribs, and bastions, or glances as they are called, for protection against avalanches, had their gangs. Some of these men were employed in the dangerous occupation of felling timber on the