On th Rocks
August 2007

Constellations of Fossils
by Leopold Hayden Powell

For a moment at night we have a glimpse of ourselves and our
world islanded in its stream of stars -- pilgrims of mortality, voyaging
between horizons across the eternal seas of space and time.
Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1928

The weather was not pleasant or promising of better. We had been hiking for five kilometers, in cloud with the wind spitting sleet. In late September, winter is beginning high in the Continental Ranges. About a hundred meters above the main trail, I struck out, across the talus slope. My pack was nearly empty, so it was searching the rock that bent me low. There they were -- Ostracods -- not the usual millimeter-size bean shapes, but centimeter scale, fringed with lacy swimmerettes. Yes, this is it! How often have you had that peak experience feeling: weak knees, tight across the hips and up your belly, stars exploding, not in vision, but in the brain? I shouted, "Tom, up this way!" We worked our way up, on all fours, searching each rock. The fossils were everywhere and marvelous kinds: entire trilobites, intact sponges, arthropods with gills exposed, priapulid worms, complete polychaete worms, filamentous algae. It was long past noon, by the time that we sat in an indentation in the slope, to break out lunches. This little road bench to nowhere is the Wolcott fossil quarry. In field seasons of 1910 through1912, Charles Dolittle Wolcott supervised quarrying blocks of the dark, silica rich shale. Mules carried the blocks to a nearby processing camp. The marvels, which we had thrilled us, were the small rejects, tossed down the slope.

This was not just finding fossils. There was an entire constellation. The fossils were legendary. Hundreds of books have illustrations of fossils, labeled with the locality, "Burgess Shale Field, British Columbia". Many of the fossils were unique in their preservation. Bone and shells of lime, silica or chitin are often preserved. The Burgess fossils have soft parts and delicate appendages. The place was caught in a sort of dark age. From 1885 to 1920, C. D. Wolcott had built a paleontological career, and become a pillar of the scientific establishment. When some of his early work was found to be in error, his whole opus became suspect. There are many exposures of the Burgess Shale Member of the Mount Stephen Formation. They are all difficult to get to, high in the President and Cathedral Ranges. My friend had an old edition of the Lake Louise topographic map, bearing x's locating fossil sites. Several inter-library loans later, we had geologic maps and journal articles describing and re-classifying fossils. The mountain setting was thrilling, with Canada's highest waterfall and thousand meter cliffs.

The trek, the relic and connection with the spirit of history and ancient life are a pilgrimage. Our adventure was in a different age. Only a few poachers had visited the site, since the 1930's. Until 1980 there was no special regulations by Parks Canada. About the same time, Derek Briggs had discovered better specimens on the dump slope than in the Royal Ontario Museum collection. Two palaeontologists, in England, were reassessing Wolcott collections, at the Smithsonian and Cambridge University. Simon Conway Morris and Harry B Whittingtion published their findings in Scientific American, and the spotlight clicked on. Wonderful Life by Steven Jay Gould brought the full import of new knowledge to a wide audience. All of the 2007 reservations for supervised trips will have been made by the time you read this. By all means, try next year.

The fossil quarries are far from the only delight in Yoho. The 750-meter cliff opposite Kicking Horse Campground is spectacular, but look carefully. Mine portals open half way and higher on the sheer face. Piping, ladders and staging have fallen from their rock bolts. A few kilometers north, on the Yoho River Road, stop above the switchbacks to watch the tour busses navigate, railroad fashion, backing up the middle pitch. Takakkaw (TA-ka-ka) Falls are the third highest in North America. They double in size, on a sunny afternoon, with melt from an ice field. A day hike takes you near the quarries and back to Whisky-jack Hostel, or on to Emerald Lake. Don't try the 104 switchbacks down from Burgess pass, with a heavy pack. For a luxury apres to a hike, there is the four-star Emerald Lake Lodge.

Yoho has a peak for everyone.

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