-reate the continental divide. On the other
de was British Columbia.

BALANCE SHEET OF EXPERIENCE

We stayed there for several days, rest-
ng and letting bruises become only one
ayer deep. I summarize my discoveries
yf the trip so far:

(1) After two years of mountaineer-
ing, learned that really good cook-
ing could be done over a camp-fire.

(2) It is possible to wash once a day
on the trail.

(3) It is possible to drive pack-horses
without profanity.

(4) Clean dishes produce tastier food
than dirty ones.

Proceeding on our way, we passed
Lower Kananaskis Lake and ascended
Smith-Dorrien Creek—which gave me
three involuntary baths as I tried the

Mount Assiniboine, 11,870 feet high,

EIGHTEENTH EDITION

fording places. It was a creek with an
evil disposition, and at this time of the
year, swollen with the spring freshets, it
was capable of almost anything.

The next afternoon, on our way to
Mount Assiniboine, we came to the bridge
over the Spray River. There was a broken
pole in the floor of the bridge which made
O'Hara, one of the pack-horses . . . and
always a sceptic about human judgment

decide that the bridge was unsafe.
Despite the fact that the rest of the horses
got over safely, he still! wouldn’t attempt
the passage. I pushed him onto the bridge
several times but each time he turned and
bolted back. Finally, when I had worried
him to the point of desperation, he stood
for a despairing second on the bank of
the flooded river, nickered to his equine
friends on the other side of the flood, and
with a “Tiber, Father Tiber” expression,
leaped in.

And he was carrying our bed-clothes!

He came out on the other side alright,
about a half-mile down, dripping water
like a fire-hose.

Then, rain which had threatened all
day, set in, and in every misery we went
into camp.

We started a fire in the tent to attempt
to dry our blankets, and did succeed to
a certain extent, although the smoke was
terrific and almost worse than the wet.
That night, because her pyjamas were wet,
Ruth slept in a pair of my Stanfield under-
wear, many sizes too big and much too
scratchy. A porcupine came into the tent
and chewed the very devil out of every-
thing. We shouted at it, threw things at
it, but it still kept chewing. If we had had
a flashlight we could have driven the thing
away, but in the pitch dark we were help-
less. The next morning, after a miserable
night, we found that saddles and latigoes
and boots had been chewed, some almost

—Photo Clifford R. Kopas

as we saw it the morning after we arrived there. At the foot ts Lake Magog.

Page Eleven