Westward with the Prince of WalesNewton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)
History
Westward with the Prince of Wales
Newton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)
Canada -- Description and travel; Windsor, Edward, Duke of, 1894-1972
Up on one of the shoulders of the lake, hidden away in a screen of
trees, is the home of an English woman. She used to spend her days
working in a shop in the West End of London until happy chance brought
her to Lake Louise, and she opened a tea chalet high on that lonely
crag. She has changed from the frowsty airs of her old life to a place
where she can enjoy beauty, health and an income that allows her to fly
off to California when the winter comes. The Prince went up to take
tea in this chalet of romance and profit during his walk of exercise.
There is another kind of romance in the woods about the Chateau, and
one of the policemen who guarded the Prince made its acquaintance
during the night. In the dark he heard the noise of some one moving
amid the trees that come down to the edge of the hotel grounds. He
thought that some unpleasant intruder on the Prince's privacy was
attempting to sneak in by the back way. He marched up to the edge of
the wood and waited in his most legal attitude for the intruder--and a
bear came out to meet him. Not only did it come out to meet him, but
it reared up and waved its paws in a thoroughly militant manner. The
policeman was a man from the industrial East, and not having been
trained to the habits of bears, decided on a strategic withdrawal.
His experience was one of the next day's jokes, since it appears that
bears often do come out of the woods attracted by the smell of hotel
cooking. On the whole they are amiable, and are no more difficult than
ordinary human beings marching in the direction of a good dinner.
From Lake Louise the Prince went steadily west through some of the most
impressive scenery in Canada. The gradient climbs resolutely to the
great lift of petrified earth above Kicking Horse Pass, so that the
train seemed to be steaming across the sky.
A little east of the Pass is a slight monument called "the Great
Divide." Here Alberta meets British Columbia, and here a stream
springs from the mountains to divide itself east and west, one fork
joining stream after stream, until as a great river it empties into
Hudson Bay; the other, turning west and leaping down the ledges of
valleys, makes for the Pacific.
Beyond "the Great Divide" the titanic Kicking Horse Pass opens out. It
falls by gigantic levels for 1,300 feet to the dim, spruce-misted
valleys that lie darkly at the foot of the giant mountains. It is not
a straight canyon, but a series of deeper valleys opening out of deep
valleys round the shoulders of the grim slopes. Down this tortuous
corridor the railway creeps lower, level by level, going with the
physical caution of a man descending a dangerous slope.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account