THE OSOYOOS LAKES. 



to join the Columbia, a short distance above the 

 Kettle Falls, mountains again commence; and 

 from this point to the summit of the Kocky 

 Mountains, the Boundary Line crosses a succes- 

 sion of mountain ranges, with narrow valleys 

 (often only rocky ravines) between them. The 

 illustration, taken from a photograph of one of our 

 camps amidst this chaos of rocks and trees, shows 

 how arduous the task of marking and cutting 

 the line through it really was. 



I must linger a short time at the Osoyoos lakes. 

 This magnificent piece of water may be defined 

 as one large lake, or three smaller ones, with 

 equal correctness ; as a narrowing-in, at parti- 

 cular points, gives the appearance of an actual 

 division into separate lakes. The Boundary 

 Line runs through its centre, so that one half 

 the lake belongs to England (its northern half), 

 the southern to the United States. The shore 

 is sandy, like a seabeach, and, strewn thickly 

 with freshwater shells along the ripple line, has 

 quite a tidal aspect. On either side, a sandy 

 treeless waste stretches away to the base of the 

 hills, and so carpeted with cacti which grow in 

 small knobs, covered with spines, like vegetable 

 porcupines that walking on it, without being 

 shod with the very thickest boots, is to endure 



