Open Collections

 CANADIAN-PACIFIC   RAILWAY' Analysis of
3anff Hot Springs Water
At a temperature of 1270 Jfahr.   Test was made by Prof. Osler9 of
Philadelphia, in 1886.
Sulphuric Anhydrid
Calcium Manoxide
Carbon Dioxide  .
Magnesium   .       Oxide .  .  .
Sodium Oxide   .
51- 26
24.48
16.47
4.14
27 53
123.88
Total solids per 100,000 found by experiment as existing in this water.
Calcium   Sulphate  56.85
Magnesium Sulphate     12.39
Calcium Carbonate .    3.29
Sodium Sulphate 15.60
Sodium Carbonate 35*73
Silica Traces
Organic Matter   Traces BANFF
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Lakes in the Clouds
AND THE
REACHED BY THE
Canadian
THE CANADIAN p.
NATIONAL PARK. HACIFIC
OUTINGS IN THE DaII  \X/A\/
MOUNTAINS. KAILWAY
THE G. P. R. HOTELS.
THIRD EDITION. BANFF HOTEL AND BOW VAIJ_,EY. THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
BANFF THE BEAUTIFUL.
HERE is not a more fascinating resort on all this continent
than Banff, on the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, in
the heart of the Rocky Mountains. It is charmingly situated
in the great Canadian National Park, a large reservation
chosen by the Dominion Government for its beauty and
sublimity and healthfulness as the great breathing place of
the nation. Few places have found such speedy recognition
of their attractive novelties, and none have better deserved the
encomiums of enthusiastic tourists. But it is well that intending visitors should know what they are to see and understand
the nature of the locality they propose to visit. They will
not find the romping gaiety of a closely-packed seaside hotel,
nor the statuary and carpet-gardening of a European palace on
exhibition. Banff is sui generis, but in its kind cannot be
excelled. The Banff Hot Springs are some natural wells of mineral water having peculiar medicinal qualities. Here the Canadian Pacific Railway has erected a large and
luxuriously appointed hotel near the point where the River Spray rushes furiously over
a series of rapids into the Bow River. The hotel overlooks the valley which carries
the mingled waters of the two rivers meandering through the great natural park.
The run to Banff from the last station on the western verge of the great Saskatchewan BANFF.
plains has been described in word painting by many writers, but perhaps by none
more simply or more accurately than by Baroness Macdonald : " Here the pass we are
travelling through has narrowed suddenly to four miles, and as mists float upwards
and away, we see great masses of scarred rock rising on each side—ranges towering
one above the other. Very striking and magnificent grow7s the prospect as we
penetrate into the mountains at last, each curve of the line bringing fresh vistas of
endless peaks rolling away before us, all tinted rose, blush pink and silver as the sun
lights their snowy tips. Every turn becomes a fresh mystery, for some huge mountain
seems to stand right across our way, barring it for miles, with a stern face frowning
down upon us, and yet a few minutes later we find the giant has been encircled and
conquered, and soon lies far away in another direction.''
A well-known writer, speaking of Banff, says :—
"On the sheltered terrace which commands the whole of it, we take our place,
and all day long wonder and worship. The air is balmy with all the fragrance of
these wind swept forests. There is the sound of rushing water for the great falls of
foaming water, the Bow River, hurries on to its junction just below with the Kicking
Horse River. The one is turbid, the other clear, green and swift as the arrowy
Rhone. On either side of this mighty stream, huge cliffs rise, making a granite
gateway. The one mildly defiant, softened at its base and summit with vegetation
which gives it a touch of gentleness. The other stern with all the broodings of the
ages, storm scarred and frost indented, rising four thousand feet, until in serrated
lines as clean cut as the scimitar's edge, it stands against the sky.     What mighty MOUNT  STEPHEN—FIELD   STATION.   ROCKY   MOUNTAINS. THE BANFF HOTEL.
peaks, promontories rising on peaks, stretching backward with mighty reaches, until
the great range merges in the remoter peaks in this great panorama of mountains !
Bringing back our vision and looking down the valley of the Bow we see an amphitheatre indescribable in its grandeur. The mountains concede little to the river ;
room for its channel, a little river of green, a solitary island, forest covered, and then
the mountains. Pile together the Presidential Range, strip them from base to summit
of their forests, scar them with ravines and gullies, set up on their lower peaks the
crag of Drachenfelds, put upon their face the peaks of a dozen Gibraltars and a score of
Storm Kings, build up their summits on great terraces pillared like Fingal and Staffa,
weave all the strata of all the ages into fantastic scar and patches like the disfigurements of a scalded face, and then fleck the ravines with snow and balance the clouds
above them with their dancing shadows, and make background for it all of great clouds
sailing like freighted argosies on sapphire seas, and one can have the outlines of the
vision that lies before us as we sit above the foaming waters of the River Bow."
The hotel is a short distance from the station. It is situated on an eminence
commanding not only an uninterrupted view of the Bow valley, but of peaks and
stretches of the Rockies in other directions, and in the surrounding country for many
miles science has availed itself of nature's gifts to create out of the wilderness a
mountain park twenty-six miles long by ten wide—a public pleasure ground without
an equal. Streams have been bridged, roads laid out, and trails cut, penetrating for
miles into the solitudes, so that in several directions the visitors may drive, ride or
wander afoot inhaling the health-giving mountain air, or seeking the most favorable w
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spots for pencil, kodak, rod or gun. There is excellent trout fishing in the bright
and rapid Bow, in the valley beneath the hotel, and good trolling on Devil's Lake,
a little distance from the hotel. A steam launch, beside boats and canoes, has been
placed on the Bow River for the use of visitors, enabling them to make excursions
on the river and to Vermillion Lake. There is good duck shooting on and about
the neighboring lakes in the season, and for the more adventurous the mountain
sheep (Bighorns) and mountain goat offer a temptation to wdiich men who have
gained other laurels in the sporting world are glad to yield. In the hotel, at Banff,
a dark room has been furnished for the use of photographers who desire to finish
their pictures before returning home.
THE HOT MEDICINAL SPRINGS
Though Banff is chiefly a resort of tourists and pleasure seekers, its waters have
properties that are commended strongly by medical men. Dr. Danter, president of
the American Health Resort Association, says : "The springs are natural hot sulphur
water, combining other chemical ingredients, and while the air is a restorer to the
pulmonary diseased, the springs are particularly beneficial to rheumatic patients as
to those afflicted in some other ways." Patients are sent here to bathe in the hot
sulphur baths, the annihilatorsof rheumatic complaints; and these are none the less
appreciated from the circumstance of their being an annex of an hotel which, though
situated in the wildest part of the continent, is in its appointments and luxurious
accessories as if in the midst of eastern civilization.    There are many hotels, indeed, in AT LAGGAN.
the leading cities of this continent which, pluming themselves upon being distinguished houses, are excelled by Banff in many things that make the reputation of
an hotel. To say at parting with an acquaintance in the east, "We'll meet again
at Banff," is likely to become one of those addenda to " good-bye," that indicate the
more fastidious class of that ever increasing multitude, the travelling public. It is so
easy to get there, so difficult to tear yourself away until the beauties of its surroundings have been explored.
THE LAKES IN THE CLOUDS.
OT far from Banff are the Lakes in the Clouds. So
near and yet so dissimilar are these two charming
spots that, one having been seen, there is naturally
a desire to visit the other. If Banff is beautiful, these
lakes, a few hours away, are enchanting. They must
be seen, however, for no mere description can do
justice to their loveliness and sublimity. The station
on the Canadian Pacific line for the Lakes in the
Clouds is Laggan, 34 miles west of Banff. It is about
an hour's ride to Laggan, where choice can be made
of driving, riding or walking up to Lake Louise, the
first to be reached of the three sheets of water hidden
%   high up above the valley. io THE FIRST LAKE.
LAKE   LOUISE.
The drive is through a pine forest, in which a good carriage road has been cut,
but the bridle path enables horsemen and pedestrians to take a shorter way. Although
as previously remarked, word painting does not adequately convey the effect of the
approach to Lake Louise and its sudden burst upon the sight of the traveller, for
mental pictures involve themselves with actual sights, it may be worth while quoting
one writer :
1' Nestling at the foot of two great mountains, which seem to guard against the
encroachments of the vast glaciers resting on the sides of a third, canopied by a sky
like the petal of a soft blush rose, its unfathomable waters reproduce with mirror-like
fidelity the green forests, bare peaks and motionless seas of snow-mantled ice—Lake
Louise is a dream of loveliness. To the right is an amphitheatre of spruce, whose tall
heads rise up in a terraced evenness, and through whose intricacies are passes to the
upper lakes. Between the two great mountains is a back-setting of grey and white—
the ice-fields ; the one at the base being covered with the drift of centuries. These
glaciers are of enormous thickness and of great area, and, with the coursing of the
sun, or the passing of clouds, present new shapes and fantastic forms, and as the rays
of old Sol pour down, the stillness of the air is broken by the crunching and grinding
of the ice-beds. The base of Goat Mountain on the left is clad with spruce on one
side, and beautiful fresh foliage embellishes another, which, in the fall of the year, is
rich with the autumnal tints peculiar to American woods, while above there are huge w
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precipices of bare rock, which come sheer down for thousands of feet. These walls are
vari-colored, resembling marble in places, whose tinted hues are in pleasing contrast
with the dull dun and grey rock and the dark slate.''
On the margin of the lake the railway company have built a chalet, at which
visitors rest and lunch. It is not precisely an hotel, though rooms and meals are
provided for those who desire to remain either to fish or hunt.
MIRROR LAKE.
The majority of visitors, however, prefer to go on to the remaining lakes and
return in time to catch the eastbound train to Banff. The ascent to Lakes Mirror and
Agnes, the one on the breast and the other on the shoulder of the mountain that
confines Lake Louise on the southern side, is usually made on Indian ponies, but with
sturdy climbing powers one can scramble up the steep ascent without any great waste
of time or exertion. These sure-footed little animals occupy about an hour in
reaching Mirror Lake, the first of the two, and the offspring of Lake Agnes still
higher up the mountain. A beautiful view of the Bow valley and the surrounding
country is obtained during this ascent. Mirror Lake has no visible outlet, its waters
escaping through some underground channel into Lake Louise. They rise and fall
as the inflowing streams pour their floods more rapidly than they are carried off. Its
still and clear surface, differing in color from that of Lake Louise and of Lake Agnes,
reflects in a peculiarly effective way its encircling walls, and suggested the appropriate
name of Mirror Lake.    Anxious to reach the highest point, the visitor shortens his IvAKF; agnes. H
THE THIRD LAKE.
stay at the intermediate water, and, remounting his pony or grasping his alpenstock,
continues his ascent to Lake Agnes, around the sloping side of the mountain which,
while not at all dangerous, is attended with all the pleasurable sensations of excitement.
LAKE AGNES.
^ARE is the beauty of the crystal pool known as Lake
Agnes, although its surroundings do not possess
that loveliness which characterizes its sister lakes.
It is about a quarter of a mile in length, with half
that breadth, and its great depths have not yet been
ascertained. It is fed by several waterfalls dropping from the heights above and from numerous
springs and great banks of snow which line the
mountains that enclose it. Where you reach its
outlet is a clump of trees, in whose shade is Table
Rock, affording a splendid dining table for pick-
nickers. Like a sentinel on the other side stands a
grim mountain, and irregular peaks running back,
tell of the succession of violent irruptions in that awful day of the great upheaval far
back in the dim, misty ages of antiquity. To the south is a remarkable cleft in a
rocky peak, in the centre of which is suspended in mid-air a large boulder, but at such
a height that it looks no larger than a cannon ball.    The peaks rise up in terraces MOUNTAIN WILD FLOWERS.
15
reaching far above the  timber  line,  and  at  the base are huge  heaps of moraine.
Further on is a vast amphitheatre-shaped basin, in which lie the accumulations of the
snows of ages past.
Here  even  in  the
warmest  day it is
always    cool    and
pleasant and, by a
few   further   steps
(for you are nearing
the verge of vegetation) the pastime
of   a   snow-balling
match  can   be  indulged in, not five
minutes after revelling   amongst   the
mosses, the forget-
me-nots    and    the
gentian bells which
with the heather of
pink and white, dot
the mountain side.
BOW RIVER AND MOUNT RUNDLE, BANFF. 16 LAKE MINNEWANKA.
Beyond the snow basin again the spruce, mixed with the tamarac, which here first
shows its head, clothe the hillside at this height; the wood anemone, the sweet little
blue berry of the Scottish highlands, the fern, the Alpine idelweiss—the bridal flower
of the Swiss mountaineer—and the heather that reminds the sons and daughters of
bonny Scotland of their native land, and other brilliant hued flowers, add beauty
to the scene.
The shortest and not the least pointed description of these lakes was given by the
lady who called them " A necklet of gems on the bosom of the mountain."
The return to Laggan is of course made in, comparatively speaking, short time,
and the eastbound transcontinental train is there taken for Banff, to which the tourist
returns charmed with his day's excursion, and thoroughly appreciative of the comfortable home that awaits him.
ROUND ABOUT BANFF.
Eight miles from Banff is Lake Minnewanka, or the Devil's Lake, a drive to which
over an excellent road affords a pleasant outing. There is a yacht, and there are boats
on the lake, and the fishing is particularly good. These are some of the more noted
points that attract the tourist who rests a while at Banff, but it is needless to say that
those who like making little scenic discoveries for themselves, or fishermen who love to
work in solitude without fear of companionship, can find numerous spots where they
may indulge in unbroken reveries, and by a little exercise of fancy imagine themselves
discoverers of the wilds before and around them, and monarchs of all they survey. BETWEEN BANFF AND THE PACIFIC.
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THE C. P. R. CHALET HOTELS.
(iTHIN the mountain ranges there are three chalet hotels, as
they are called, between Banff and Vancouver, at any of
which a tourist wrill find such comfort as is not generally
dreamed of in the mountains. The first of these is Mount
Stephen House, at Field. These chalets, unlike that at
Lake Louise, are hotels at which tourists may, and do, stop
for some time. Some do so to break their journey, knowing
that the resources of civilization have been taxed for their
comfort, while others select the Mount Stephen House as a
convenient base for hunting the Bighorns and the Mountain-
goat. In the background of the hotel is Mount Stephen, the
highest point of the Rockies along the line (8,000 feet), and
artists, amateur and professional, find ample choice for the
exercise of their brush ;   and near-bye Lake Emerald is a
scenic gem of rarest beauty.
At the  Banff Hotel the charge is from $3.50 to $5 per day, a moderate rate for
such an hotel in such a locality,   and at the other three hotels mentioned the charge
is $3 per day. DINING ROOM "MOUNT STEPHEN HOUSE," FIELD, B.C. HOTELS. 19
THE  GLACIER   HOUSE.
Within fifteen minutes' walk of the great glacier of the Selkirks is the Glacier
House, at a station eighty-six miles beyond Mount Stephen. The popularity of this
spot is such that the company has found it necessary to build a large annex to the
original hotel, and it can now accommodate a considerable number of guests. Paths have
been cut through the woods from the hotel to the edge of the glacier so that ladies and
children may go up to its edge, and even upon the icy accumulation itself, without
danger. Opposite the hotel is a lofty chain of the Selkirk range, of which the chief
peak, the highest of the Selkirks, is Sir Donald. On fine days the top of this peak, as
of its neighbors, shows clear against the sky, but its great altitude involves its frequent
eclipse by passing clouds. Its disappearance and reappearance, howrever, only adds to
the effect of the view that is obtained from the verandah of the hotel. This, too, is a
hunter's base, for Bighorns and mountain-goat and black bear.
THE FRASER CANON HOUSE.
At North Bend, on the Fraser River, is the last of these hotels. It is called Fraser
Canon House, and is in all respects similar to the two that have been spoken of. It is
in the neighborhood of some of the most remarkable and furious reaches of the Fraser
River, which for over fifty miles rushes through narrow and picturesque canons before
reaching the fertile country of its delta below Yale. 20
VANCOUVER.
HOTEL VANCOUVER.
At Vancouver, at a short distance from the harbor and commanding a series of views
of the bay and the surrounding country, is the Canadian Pacific Railway Company's
" Hotel Vancouver," the principal hotel of the city, and one unsurpassed in its
appointments and general comfort by any on the Pacific Coast. It is at all times well
patronized, summer and winter, but at the times of arrival and departure of the Japan
and China or Australian steamers, is more than usually bright and busy. Almost
adjoining it is the Opera House, one of the most charming theatres outside of New York,
and this with other attractions has served to make the hotel so popular that it was
found absolutely necessary to increase the size of the building.
This series of hotels, with the Chateau Frontenac, on the famed Dufferin Terrace
at Quebec, enables the tourist to cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific through Canada,
and to spend whatever leisure time he chooses to afford fishing, shooting or wandering
amidst the magnificent scenery of the Rocky Mountains, in all the comfort that capital
and enterprise have provided for the tourist by this route.  Cy     /C"*      -v~s>      TfOR further particulars or information, apply to any
fj     Agent of the Canadian Pacific Railway, or to
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W.  R.  CALLAWAY,
District Passenger Agent,
1  King Street East, TORONTO
A\   c. e. Mcpherson,
Asst. General Passenger Agent,
197 WASHINGTON St., BOSTON, AND ST. JOHN, N.B.
E. V.  SKINNER,
General Eastern Agent,
353 Broadway,  NEW YORK
C. SHEEHY,
District Passenger Agent,
11  Fort St. West,  DETROIT, Mich.
C. B.   HIBBARD,
General Passenger Agent,
Soo and South Shore Lines,
MINNEAPOLIS,  Minn.
BURNS, PHILPS & CO.,
SYDNEY, Australia
D. E.  BROWN, General Agent,
CHINA, JAPAN,  Etc.,
HONG KONG
C.   E.  E.   USSHER,
Asst. General Passenger Agent,
MONTREAL
ROBERT  KERR,
General Passenger Agent,
W. & P. Divisions,
WINNIPEG,  Man.
G.  McL.  BROWN,
District Passenger Agent,
VANCOUVER,   B.C.
J.  F.  LEE,
District Passenger Agent,
232 Sou^H Clark St.,  CHICAGO,  III.
M.  M. STERN,
District Passenger Agent,
chronicle building, SAN  FRANCISCO, Cal.
FRAZAR & CO.,
Agents for Japan,
YOKOHAMA, Japan
ARCHER  BAKER,
European Traffic Agent,
67 & 68 King William St. E.C, ano 30 Cockspur St. S.W ,
LONDON, Eng.
7 james St.,  LIVERPOOL,  Eng.
D.  McNICOLL,
General Passenger Agent,
MONTREAL
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