THE OSOYOOS LAKES. 75 
to join the Columbia, a short distance above the 
Kettle Falls, mountains again commence; and 
from this pomt to the summit of the Rocky 
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 
