Description of the Valley of the Caves, by A. O. Wheeler. “The valley of Cougar creek is divided into two parts of distinctly different characteristics. The upper valley, a great spoon-shaped basin extending from Lookout point to Cougar pass, is a most pronounced form of the type known as ‘hanging valley,’ or one that has been carved out in a U-shaped cross section by the eroding power of a glacier at one time filling up its bottom. This glacier has now shrunk to very small proportions at the extreme head of the valley. The floor is on a comparatively low grade and, at one point, is covered for about half a mile by a small lake-bed in which some water lies during the summer. The entire length of the upper valley may be put at 2½ miles. It is inclosed by the rocky steeps of Mount Bagheera, Catamount peak and Mount Ursus Major, on the north, and of Cougar mountain on the south. On the sides of these massives are small glaciers, busy at work tearing down the entire structures. At the head of the valley, Cougar pass leads across the shrunken glacier to a steep ravine descending to the railway at some distance below Ross Peak station. [Illustration: On the road to the Caves—Showing Cougar Valley; Mts. Ursus Major and Bagheera in distance.] [Illustration: Douglas Falls—Near the Caves.] “It would be difficult to find a more beautiful example of the alpine valley. In every direction silver water-falls leap down the sides from the glaciers and melting snows of the surrounding peaks. These collect at the bottom of the valley in one central stream which bounds in foaming cascades to the little lake-bed mentioned above. It leaves this, and, continually augmented by falls from above, rushes through luxurious meadow-lands in a second series of cascades that have worn down to bedrock, showing where a thin veneer of soil is overlaying it. The alpine meadows and park-lands, as well as the open mountain slopes of the valley, are throughout the spring and summer decked with a gorgeous array of flowers of varied hues which, in places, are so profuse and brilliant that it seems as though nature had spread a carpet of rainbow colours for the delight and wonder of her visitors. In early spring, the giant Adder’s Tongue (_Erythronium gigantium_) covers whole acres with a brilliant yellow. These flowers are the first, and may be seen pushing their heads up through the snow. Like all spring flowers in this region, they follow the melting snows, and may be found higher up in the valley as late as August. Almost coincident with them is the Globe flower (_Trollius laxus_), a plant of much beauty and great wealth of blossom. Next come the scarlet and crimson Painter’s Brush (_Castilleia_), showing everywhere in the open and on the lower slopes with a blaze of glory. Later still, the blue Larkspur (_Delphinium bicolor_) and purple and pink Asters replace the earlier series, the crimson and yellow