ing Horse. This important river of his discovery he so named from a serious accident of that kind to himself at the time and the place. Various legends obtain concerning the origin of this curious name, but Hector tells how he was laid up by a kick from one of the pack-horses, and how hunger alone spurred him on after one day's delay. Now turning eastward he ascended the Kicking Horse Valley, crossing the Great Divide to the Bow Valley scarcely 25 miles west of his halting place at Castle Mountain while travelling westward. He had come a long way round but he had discovered that high wide pass where a granite monument now stands to his memory.
The next year, starting from Old Bow Fort at the eastern Wall of the Rockies, Hector followed the Bow River to Pipestone Creek which he explored, crossing Pipestone Pass to the Siffleur River and on to the North Saskatchewan; then across Howse Pass to the Blaeberry River, proceeding to the Columbia Valley. It is interesting to note in Hector's reports which are incorporated in Palliser's Journals, that so early as 1858 the following well known mountains were already named: Ball, Goodsir, Vaux, Lefroy, Balfour, Forbes.
The year following Hector's second traverse of the lower Bow Valley, Lord Southesk and his party travelled that way and passed the site of his camp, reading the inscription on a tree: "Exploring Expedition, August 23, 1859. Dr. Hector." His name is now affixed to a mountain, a lake and a station. It is a place-name familiar to all visitors; also Palliser's and that of M. Bourgeau who was the botanist of the Expedition and for whom Bourgeau Mountain is named. Bourgeau secured a valuable collection of alpine plants. Dr. Hector received a knighthood for his services to geographical and geological science. He revisited the Rockies in later years and died in New Zealand
The next notable expedition to cross the Rockies was one led by Viscount Milton and Dr. Cheadle in 1862. They entered by way of Jasper House and the Athabasca River but crossed the Divide over the Yellow Head Pass some 60 miles north of the Athabasca Pass. The object of their expedition was to find a direct route by British territory to the far-famed goldfields of Caribou in the heart of the British Columbian mountains. Their book makes interesting reading to-day when these wide northern valleys are being so successfully exploited. Other travellers penetrated the fastnesses of the Rockies, but no outstanding journeys were made until the movement was on foot for the first Canadian Transcontinental railway.
THE SELKIRKS.
Geographical Position: The Selkirk Mountains, noted for splendour of alpine scenery, form a section of the Canadian Rocky Mountains belonging to the great North American Cordilleras, which stretch from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean.
The Selkirks themselves constitute an immense mountain system over 300 miles long, of interlocking ranges some 400 miles inland from the Pacific Coast. They are richly forested, vegetation being almost tropical in its rank growth, and bear innumerable
