Among the Canadian AlpsBurpee, Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone)
History
Among the Canadian Alps
Burpee, Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone)
Canadian Rockies (B.C. and Alta.)
The Springs themselves we did not find particularly interesting. We
listened respectfully to the information that their temperature
ranged from 112 to 128 degrees Fahrenheit, and that they possessed
valuable curative properties. After testing the upper pool we were
willing to believe that the temperature was even worse than that, and
not being rheumatic we accepted the curative properties without
question but without enthusiasm. Still it was a pleasant enough place
to loaf for a day or two, scrambling about the hills and exploring the
upper waters of Sulphur Creek, and the lower pool turned out to be
rather an agreeable thing to roll about in for a time before turning
in to our tent for the night. The big mountains, however, were still
ahead of us, and we saw the last of the little group of springs
without much regret. Within a year or two the primitive pools that
have cured the rheumatism and other ailments of generations of traders
and trappers for a hundred years or more, will be confined in neat
concrete basins, and a pipe line will carry the water down the valley
of Fiddle Creek to the Chateau Miette, one of a series of great hotels
that the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is to build through the
mountains. Never mind, the tourists are welcome to the Miette Hot
Springs, and they may build an automobile road along the face of
Buttress Mountain if they will, so that they leave us for a time
unspoiled some of the wild spots that lie beyond.
We started back to Pocahontas rather late in the afternoon, and the
sun went down as we climbed the last hill from Fiddle Creek. Over the
shoulder of Buttress Mountain a graceful spire soared into the sky,
and as we turned in our saddles to take a last look at it before
following the trail into the woods, it grew so strangely and
wonderfully luminous that we unconsciously pulled in our horses and
stood there in silent amazement. Momentarily the light deepened, and
golden shafts shot out into the velvet sky. Then as we gazed
spell-bound, from the very heart of the golden crown, and immediately
behind the glowing peak, there rose the silver moon, and hovered for
an instant on the very summit of the mountain, a vision so glorious
that it almost brought tears to one's eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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