> IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /!> ./^v.^ C v\% S'j 1.0 I.I 11.25 U 11.6 ^, 7 fliotDgraphic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 <^^ s:

r~ a<^j \ i. 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 grows 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 Banfi", 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 fragrnnce 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 chffs rise, making a p-ranite gateway. The one mildly defiant, softened at its base and summit with ve;;eiation 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 amphi- theatre 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 vStorm 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 disfigure- ments 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