Hector's JournalHector's JournalOther explorations by the Palliser Expedition
Thomas Blakiston Exploring the Rockies in 1858
John Palliser Exploring the Rockies in 1858
Modern day explorers will find more information
along with trail mileages in the book Following Historic Trails: James Hector - Explorer
August 7, 1858
In the afternoon the road was very bad at some places, but with the help
of the Indians, who were very well disposed, we reached the site of the
Old Bow Fort at sunset... 
As we were to be here for some days and to make
our arrangements for travelling in the mountains without the carts, we induced
our Stoney Indian friends to camp beside us in order to get them to trade
leather and pack saddles with us for tobacco and ammunition.
August 11, 1858
I started 
... with M. Bourgeau, 
up the valley of Bow River.
My party consisted of Peter Erasmus, Sutherland, and Brown, all Red River
men, and also my Stone Indian friend, who had promised the previous winter
to serve as my guide in the mountains, and who had just turned up in time
to keep his word. As he is known to be one of the best hunters in the tribe,
and his Indian name, which signifies " the one with the thumb like
a blunt arrow," is so unpronounceable, I called Nimrod, which name
has stuck to him ever since.
I had with me eight horses, three of which served to carry all the little
baggage I cared to take, consisting principally of instruments, bedding,
ammunition, and tobacco; for as I was assured that in the part of the mountains
I intended to explore, there was abundance of game, I did not take any provisions
excepting a little tea and a few pounds of grease.
Crossing the deep ravine,
beside which the expedition had been encamped for
the last five days, we skirted the left bank of Bow River, and soon the
valley became hemmed in by the precipitous cliffs of limestone that form
the mountains of the outer range
It was quite dark before we descended into the valley by a faint trail leading
through burnt woods to an open rocky spot beside one of the lakes, where
we encamped. Bourgeau has named the lakes Lacs
des Arcs, and the peak opposite Pigeon Mount,
the one behind our
camp, Grotto Mountain, 
and a high peak to the west, on which the clouds were gathering
and curling about Windy Mountain. 
August 12, 1858
At dawn started with Bourgeau to ascend Grotto Mountain... we found a large
cave, with a high arched roof
and narrow mouth, and like Robinson Crusoe's one, with its old goat for
a tenant, but in this case he had long been dead. The floor was quite battered
hard by the tracks of sheep and goats.
Turning from this point, which was 1,000 feet above our camp, we descended
by another spur of the mountain to breakfast. I did not start till noon...
and having taken leave of Bourgeau, who did not intend to proceed much further
up the valley but to cross to Windy Mountain, I continued on with my own
party. Our track led over the spur of Grotto Mountain, from the limestone
of which I procured some fossil-shells. We then entered the great valley,
which runs N.W. and is several miles in width.
At dark we camped by some old Indian wigwams where the valley is wide and
flat, and with fine patches of level prairie along the river for our horses.
Just opposite to our camp there is a mountain
with three peaks which form a striking group.
Started early this morning...travelling on the terraces we kept well from
the river till we reached a beautiful little prairie at the base of the
" Mountain where the water falls," as the Indian name has it,
or the Cascade Mountain. 
An old Stoney, from the Indian camp we had left at the old Bow Fort, joined
us this evening, having come through the first range by a pass to the south
of the " Devil's Head," in which he says there is a lake the length
of half a day's march, where they catch the finest trout and white fish
in the country.
This old " Stoney " told me that he once guided Mr. Rundel, the
missionary, to this place, and that he lived here for many days camped in
the little prairie. 
August 16, 1858
At 8, I started up the mountain. For the first 300 feet I climbed up through
dense woods and then came to an escarpment ... While resting here a humming
bird, blown by a strong west gale, flew against my face, but I did not succeed
in capturing it. This is the first I have seen since leaving Red River settlement,
and it certainly seemed quite out of place among the alpine vegetation.
Following the base of the precipice soon led me to a point beyond which
I could not pass without descending into an immense corrie, from which I
started a large band of sheep. These animals are singularly matched by nature
with the colour of the grey limestone rocks, so long as they are looking
towards the observer, when it requires a very skilful eye to detect them;
but the moment they turn to flee they become very conspicuous, as every
part of their body as seen from behind is pure white. It is often quite
startling in ascending a mountain and gazing as you suppose at nothing but
the grey rocks, when suddenly a flock of white objects appear fleeing away
from you, and as suddenly they seem to vanish when their inquisitive habits
make them wheel in a mass to have another look.
August 17, 1858
We started early this morning... The men with the pack-horses followed the
track which they had cleared the previous day, while with Nimrod I set off
to see a fine fall on the river, which lay about three miles out of the
direct course.
A high hill stands out in the centre of the valley,
and it is in breaking past this that the river is compressed into a very
narrow spout-like channel, and then leaps over
a ledge of rocks about 40 feet in height. 
As we returned from the visit to the falls
we saw a band of ewes, and succeeded in killing two of them.
Above the rocky contraction of the channel the river is dilated and sluggish,
and the valley is filled up with large swampy lakes, just like those in
the canyon through the first range. This obliged us to keep along the side
of the hills, where the fallen timber forms a much greater impediment than
on flat ground.
Looking up the valley to the W.S.W. we had before us a truncated mountain,
evidently composed of massive horizontal strata, and which I named Mount
Bourgeau.
The pass that Sir George Simpson crossed the Rocky Mountains by in his journey
round the world lies to the south of this mountain, and I half thought of
crossing the river and following it, but we found so much " white water
" in the streams from the south, showing that they were in flood, that
the old Indian who still travelled with us said we would fail in getting
through that way, as the valley is so bad at one place as to require travelling
actually in the stream, between perpendicular walls of rock, for half a
day, and if it is flooded this becomes impossible.
I, therefore, determined to continue up the same side of Bow River, until
opposite an old neglected pass that used to be used by Cree war parties,
and known as the Vermilion Pass. Shortly after noon we came up with the
packhorses just at the turn of the river, where it enters the second range.
Here we halted and cooked some of the mountain sheep.
The meat was in fine order, and had no particular flavour, yet it made not
only myself but also other two of the party very sick. This, however, was
the only time I ever saw this kind of meat disagree with the stomach, so
it may have been due to some ailment in that particular animal, as we all
soon came to consider the wild mutton of the grey sheep as the finest food
we could get.
After a halt for two hours during the most intense heat, we again started
and crossed over a low point of rocks, close to the river, where we entered
the second great valley, which is of magnificent proportions. Along the
eastern side runs a wall of vertical beds, of light grey limestone, the
serrated edges of which at once suggested the name of Sawback
Range for them. 
Seeming to stand out in the centre of the valley is a very remarkable mountain,
still at the distance of 12 miles, which looks exactly like a gigantic castle. 
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