3891.] NEW YOKE ACADEMY OF SOIENCES. Gl 



abruptly turns northward, and will run parallel to the river to a 

 point about eight miles from Bonner's Ferry. 



At present this most interesting Kootenai region is best 

 reached by the Northern Pacific line to Kootenai Station, about 

 thirty miles east of Spokane Falls, whence a stage ride of thirty- 

 three miles brings one to Bonner's Ferry. 



The natural commercial outlet of Kootenai Lake is south. 

 ward into the United States, and the Northern Pacific has al- 

 ready made several surveys from their line to Bonner's Ferry, 

 which IS at present the head of navigation on the Kootenai 

 River; but it is hardly likely that this line will be built, since 

 the Great Northern will be running to within eight miles of 

 this point next year. 



The Kootenai River is navigable for one hundred and twenty 

 miles above the lake to Bonner's Ferry, and is singularly free 

 from shoals, bars, or similar impediments. It is a sluggish, 

 very winding stream, from two hundred to five hundred feet in 

 width, flowing through rich bottoms which grow hay, grain, and 

 potatoes in the greatest luxuriance, but which are liable to over- 

 flow when the river is swollen by the melting snows of the 

 spring. 



Kootenai Lake is ninety miles long and of unknown depth; 

 soundings are said to have been made at points to a depth of 

 fifteen hundred feet without finding bottom. This is quite 

 likelv from its situation, as it lies between two of the ranges of 

 the Selkirks, which are quite precipitous at these points and 

 slope directly into the water. Indeed, it is not possible at high 

 water to walk for any considerable distance along the shore, as 

 the rocks come perpendicularly into the water at many points. 

 Kootenai L;ike never freezes, but navigation on the river is 

 interrupted for about three months in the winter by ice; al- 

 though it is said that a strong boat could readily keep the 

 stream open during the whole season, at least as far south as the 

 boundary. 



The mountains of the Selkirk range consist of a hard gray 

 granite, their peaks rising from five thousand to nine thousand 

 feet above the sea. The mountains in the immediate vicinity 

 of the lake are not higher than six thousand feet, but beyond 

 and to the north, on a clear day, a wilderness of summits 

 rising one above another is visible, snow-capped and glacier- 

 covered. The Canadian Geological Survey have published a 

 special bulletin on the geology of this region, based on a visit in 

 1889, and the data then obtained have convinced Dr. Dawson 

 that the lake occupies a depression largely formed by the wear- 

 ing away of the more recent stratified rocks, which are still 



