he motion was very like that of soldiers dressing ranks.

A more spirited dance is done by braves holding weapons stiffly, and
following each other in file round the circle, now bending knees, or
bodies, now standing upright. As they pass round and dip they loose
little snapping yelps. All the time their faces remain as impassive as
things graven.

The dancing was followed by racing. Boys mounted bareback the springy
little horses, and with their legs twisted into rope-girths--with
reins, the only harness--went round the track at express speed. Young
women, riding astride, their dresses tied about their knees, also
raced, showing horsemanship even superior to the boys. The riding was
extremely fine, and the little horses bunch and move with an elastic
and hurtling movement that is thrilling.

The ceremony had made the bravest of spectacles. The Indian colour and
romance of the scene, set in a deep cup rimmed by steep, grim
mountains, the sides and icecaps of which the bright sunlight threw up
into an almost unreal actuality, gave it a rare and entrancing quality.
And not the least of its picturesque attractions were the papooses in
bead and fringed leather, who grubbed about in the earth with stoic
calm. They looked almost too toylike to be true. They looked as
though their right place was in a scheme of decoration on a wall or a
mantel-shelf. As one lady said of them: "They're just the sort of
things I want to take home as souvenirs."

II

Banff is an exquisite and ideal holiday place, and I can appreciate the
impulse that sends many Americans as well as Canadians to enjoy its
beauties in the summer.

It is a valley ringed by an amphitheatre of mountains, up the harsh
slopes of which spruce forests climb desperately until beaten by the
height and rock on the scarps beneath crests which are often
snow-capped. Through this broad valley, and winding round slopes into
other valleys, run streams of that poignant blueness which only glacial
silt and superb mountain skies can Impart.

The houses and hotels in this Switzerland of Canada are charming, but
the Banff Springs Hotel, where the Prince stayed, is genius. It is
perched up on a spur in the valley, so that in that immense ring of
heights it seems to float insubstantially above the clouds of trees,
like the palace of some genii. For not only was its site admirably
chosen, but the whole scheme of the building fits the atmosphere of the
place. And i