members of the Appalachian Mountain Club, although none assumed the proportions of those expeditions made by Messrs. Green, Topham, Forster, Huber and Sulzer. Professor Fay may well be regarded as one of the most prominent among the pioneer climbers of the Selkirks.
Triangulation of the Railway Belt (1891-92)—W. S. Drewry, who since 1889 had been conducting a triangulation of the Railway Belt through the Main Range, was occupied on a similar work in the Selkirks during the years 1891-2. All visitors to the Selkirks hear of "The Prairie Hills" and "Bald Mountain" lying along the east side of Beaver River. The following extract from Drewry's report gives an idea of the strikingly impressive views seen from Bald Mountain.
"By the middle of October the snow was knee-deep on the summits and part way down the slopes of the mountains. It was therefore decided to retrace our steps to the Columbia Valley. Before doing so. however, I made an exploratory trip across Bald Mountain to the slopes of the Beaver Valley. From a eoign of vantage on the mountain, a view of solemn grandeur was obtained. I must confess that the feeling of awe and impotence which the spectacle inspired will long remain with me. Facing us and extending to our right was the dark mass of Mt. Sir Donald, rising 10,625 ft. above the sea, with five miles of almost sheer cliffs 3,000 ft. high. To our left, and west of the Beaver for more than twenty miles, peak after peak towered aloft surpassing 10,000 ft., but one and all, from top to base, were clad in glacier and snow. Not a living thing was visible and the sense of desolation and awful loneliness conveyed was overpowering. Nowhere else in the mountains have I seen such immense masses of glaciers and ice-fields and I believe that little of the area in which these lie has yet been trodden by man."
Subsequent Mountaineering.—From 1893 to the present day the Selkirks have surely and steadily come into prominence as an attractive field for the mountaineer, the nature-lover, the artist, the scientist and the holiday tourist. One by one the peaks reached from Glacier House have been conquered, the passes traversed, and the glaciers and valleys explored, until now only one virgin peak of exceptional prominence remains, and that one, very difficult of access, is Mt. Sir Sandford, some thirty miles due north of Glacier. A few of the more important of these exploits are here briefly outlined. (For full details see Wheeler's "Selkirk Range.")
1895—Messrs. Abbott, Fay, Thompson and Little made the first traverse of the ridge bounding the Asulkan Valley on the west, including the ascents of Mt. Afton, Mt. Abbott, The Rampart and Mt Castor, the three latter being first ascents. The remaining two prominent peaks of the ridge—The Dome and Mt. Polhix—remained unconquered until climbed in 1897 by a combined party from the Alpine Club, England, and the Appalachian Mountain Club. This party had with them the first accredited Swiss guide to appear in the Selkirks—Peter Sarbach, who was brought out by the Englishmen.
1869—This year witnessed the advent at Glacier of two properly certificated Swiss guides, employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company—Edouard Feuz and Christian Hasler, of Interlaken. The former has been in the Selkirks every summer since that date
