soubriquet in railway circles was 'The Railway Pathfinder;" and some of that company who blazed the trails and measured the valleys were wont to speak of him affectionately as the "swearing Major."
From its inception in 1871 until 1880, explorations and surveys for the railway were carried on by the Dominion Government, with Mr. (now Sir) Sandford Fleming in charge as Chief Engineer. It was proposed to cross the main divide by the Yellow Head Pass. But in 1880 a radical change was made and the enterprise transferred to a private syndicate. Its promoters were: Mr. George Stephen (now Lord Mountstephen), Mr. Donald Smith (now Lord Rtrathcona and Mount Royal), Mr. James J. Hill and others. Mr. W. C. Van Horne (now Sir William Van Horne, K.C.M.G.), was appointed general manager and Major A. B. Rogers engineer in charge of the mountain division.
The decision of the new Company to find a more southerly route led to an examination of the Bow River and Kicking Horse Passes and the valley of the Columbia River. Mr. Moberly had already established the accessibility of the Eagle Pass through the Cold Range and of the Columbia Valley north round the Big Bend. But this entailed an enormous distance, whereas an air-line across the Selkirks was only 60 miles. Hence every effort was made to find a more direct line through these apparently impenetrable Selkirks.
Major Rogers was a man of few words but vast practical energy. He lost little time in getting into action, and in April, 1881, commenced his famous expedition across the Selkirks which resulted in finding the pass that bears his name. In 'The Selkirk Range," appendix E, an interesting account of the expedition is given, written by Albert Rogers, nephew of the Major, who accompanied him. The expedition was made from Kamloops to the Columbia River across the Gold Range and then up the Illecillewaet River to the summit of the Selkirk Rnnge, with ten strapping Indians to carry the necessary supplies. The following extracts from the story will give some idea of the difficulties encountered. "Although at this season the days were very long and we travelled from early till late, we were five days making sixteen miles and arrived at the Forks of the Illecillewaet which was the farthest point white man had ever reached. (Walter Moberly, 1865). Our course was up the east fork and. one mile and a half from its mouth, we came to a most wonderful box canyon or gorge, which three yearslater was named by the Rev. George M. Grant—Albert Canyon—in honour of the writer. There must have been heavy snows in the mountains the preceding winter, for snow on the level was several feet in depth in shaded places, and the next five days our course was across avalanches, some of which had started from the very peaks and had left a clean path behind them, crushing the timber into matchwood for several hundred feet on the opposite sides of the mountains. We crossed several snow-bridges, under which the river passed, which were one hundred and fifty feet above the river's bed.
"On May 27th, we found snow in the valley about five feet on the level and, it being too soft to hold us, we waded the river most of the day ..........On the 28th of May, we came to where the stream seemed to fork and in front of us appeared the backbone or main range of the Selkirks. The whole success of our trip and the
