Canada -- Description and travel; Canadian poetry -- History and criticism
The onward route is enthralling. There comes in sight La Riviere au
Shuswap, a tributary of the Fraser, with a vanishing view of three
peaks close together, far up the valley, as the train rushes past.
For it is not every mountain that can have a station to itself, as
has Mount Robson, thus giving the passenger time to see its wonders
with no little satisfaction. Before the junction of the Bulkley and
the Telkwa Rivers is reached, the railway passes Lakes Decker and
Burns; and at the junction of the rivers mineral deposits of copper,
silver, lead, and coal have been discovered that promise rich
leading. Hudson Bay Mountain is a prominent peak, 9000 feet in
height, and in this mountain also silver and silver lead, copper, and
anthracite coal are found; and the Hudson Bay Glacier lies only four
miles from the railway track, easily reached on horseback. The train
runs close to the shore of Lake Kathlyn, a lake filled with a
black-spotted trout, and Hudson Bay Mountain is repeated in the lake
as in a mirror.
[Illustration: Charles Melville Hays]
Bulkley Gate is something to see, if one may judge by the contagious
enthusiasm of the young train agent who proceeds to announce it, with
the pride of a showman displaying his wares. By just what necromancy
a railroad system magnetises every employé, from the most important
officials to the youthful recruit, with its own courtesy and {177}
unanalysable charm in all the relations of service, may not be
revealed; but the result is very much in evidence.
In all the hotels of this line, as well as upon railroad lines, the
duty, grace, and charm of courtesy of manner are constantly
inculcated. To make the service the best on the continent seems to
be the ideal of the staff through every grade and department.
Bulkley Gate proves itself quite worthy of its young champion--a
wonderful gate indeed, formed by a dyke that formerly crossed the
valley, and at last gave way before the power of the river. The
Skeena and the Bulkley Rivers unite near Hazleton, and in close
vicinity is the Rocher Deboule Mountain, which is known as the
Mountain of Minerals. It is extremely rich in copper ore, large
quantities of which have already been taken from it. All along the
picturesque and turbulent Skeena River are quaint Indian villages,
with the totem poles of their tribes. Here also mountain peaks are
much in evidence, and in the spring of 1916 one of these, 9000 feet
in height, was chosen to bear the name of Mount Sir Robert, in honour
of the Premier of the Dominion, Sir Robert Borden. A large glacier,
which seems to be at least a mile in width, has been named Borden
Glacier, and both the peak and the glacier can be seen from Doreen
station.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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