Technical World Magazine

LAND GIFT TO WILD AXIAFALS 293
extensivel}' crevasscd and pierced by deep
wells into which the brooks which
seamed the surface of the ice poured
with loud roarings. Indeed, the rush of
many waters here was fairly appalling.
The tinkle of the streams above, the
echoing fall
of the plunging torrents and
the hiss of the confi
n e d water
rushinsf
and at length reached a place where a
])oint of solid rock jutted out to within six
feet of the edge of the ice. Here I
sprang across the chasm and landed
safely on the mountain side."
There are some mountains of the
Glacier Park from which the storm
waters and the melting glaciers find their
long way into three seas—through the
Saskatchewan into Hudson's Bay
through the Columbia into the Pacific
Ocean, and through the Missouri into
the Gulf of Mexico. Of course the
glaciers are mere remnants of the
once mighty ice-sheet which
covered this entire portion
of X o r t h
America,
neath the ice,
made up a volume of
sound so great that ordi
nary conversation could not be
heard. Though unprepared for ice
.
work, I was anxious to climb an arm
of the glacier which led directly to
the mountain's crest, and not realizing
the steepness of the ascent, I
set out. Before I had gone half a mile
over the ice I wished myself back on
the rocks again, for the incline was constantly
increasing. I knew that if I lost
my footing and began to slide down the
sloping ice I should not stop until I had
fallen into one of the bottomless pits or
crevasses of the main glacier ; and a man
who has fallen into one of these would
have but scant time in which to think
over his past life. To attempt to retrace
my steps would be greatly to increase
the danger of making a fatal slip. There
was no course exce])t to keep on climbing.
I made my way to the border of
the finger of ice which was embraced by
tw^o shoulders of the mountain ; but next
to the rock it had melted away and I
looked down into a deep trench which
ran back far under the ice, and from the
blackness below came up the roar of the
torrent and the rumble of great rocks
crashing against the stream bed as they
were hurried along by the water. Keeping
near the edge of the ice I slowly
and carefully climbed higher and higher
a n d whose
slow, irresistible,
downward movement
scoured out the original,
sharp, \'-shaped valleys and great
canyons to their present broader U-
shaped forms. Vet there are some sixty
glaciers left, many of them now being
from one to five square miles in extent
and seamed by mighty crevasses which
no man may cross. Hundreds of mountain
peaks in the park rise to a height of
from 6,000 to 10.000 feet, while many of
the canvon walls drop awav a sheer
1,000. or 2,000 or even 3,000 feet, the
roaring torrents in their sombre depths
cutting them deeper, deeper, by their
ceaseless grind, through the slow lapse
of the ages.
The ("ilacier Park is now our second
largest "iilayground," being exceeded
only by the Yellowstone Park, and when
the adjoining region to the north is set
aside as a park by the Canadian government,
as is expected, it will be the greatest
of .\merican parks. At ]ircsent the
park region is reached by a single rail-