CHAPTER XI. 



Our New Ranch. 



The new ranch is three miles east of Nelson, on 

 the south shore of the vest arm of Kootenay Lake. 

 It occupies a flat, blunted tongue of land that slopes 

 gently from the mountain foot and projects into the 

 lake. In other words, the lake sweeps round it in a 

 semi-circle. Lake Kootenay is throughout a beauti- 

 ful sheet of water, and this place, to which we have 

 given the name of Welland Ranch, is one of the most 

 beautiful anywhere on tlie lake. A clump of tall 

 Cottonwood and other trees bathe their feet in the cold, 

 crystal waters on one side of us, while the ground 

 between the margin of the lake and the mountain 

 behind the house is covered with our orchard, or 

 rather orchards, because we are cut in two by the 

 railway from Nelson, which skirts the southern shore 

 of the west arm all the way to its exit from the main 

 lake at Procter. Opposite our ranch the west arm 

 is about a mile wide, so that we are able to command 

 a fair view of the fruit ranches on the opposite shore. 

 They, too, are backed by mountains, rising 2,000 to 

 3,000 feet above the level of the lake, which itself 

 lies 1,760 feet above sea-level. The mountains on 

 both sides have rounded outlines, but arc scarred and 



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