6 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



tion of what real mountains should be. The foot of 

 these mountains marks the eastern boundary of what now 

 is the great Lewis and Clark Forest Reserve, embracing 

 the whole main range of the Rockies from the inter- 

 national boundary southward, one hundred and thirty- 

 five miles, to the lower end of the Flathead Reservation. 



As you glide smoothly along the south fork of the 

 Flathead River, you are aware of much dead timber, 

 both standing and " down." Unless you are an old cam- 

 paigner, however, the sight of those tracts of " down 

 timber " does not strike any terror to your soul. But 

 wait! One week hence, and you shall learn, by wrench 

 of joint and sweat of brow, by ups and by downs, just 

 how terrible fallen tree-trunks can become. 



From our first entry into the Rocky Mountains, at 

 the edge of the Sweet-Grass plains, until a month later 

 when we left them at that point bound east, we were 

 never out of the highlands. The ride through to Rex- 

 ford is a beautiful panorama of mountain scenery and 

 vegetation. Hour by hour Mr. Phillips devoured it with 

 his eyes, missing not even one rock or tree, or one emerald 

 green pool of the clear mountain stream far below. 



Like a hair-pin on the map, the Kootenay River 

 comes down from British Columbia into the north-west- 

 ern corner of Montana, bends westward for a short dis- 

 tance, then turns and runs north again — as if it had found 

 Montana an inhospitable country. At the extreme east- 

 ern angle of the big bend is the backwoods hamlet of 

 Rexford; and be it known that the section of the Great 

 Northern from Columbus Falls to Spokane direct is no 



