34 
THE SPORTSMANS AND TOURIST’S GUIDE. 
of the camp, jealous of their cousins, 
sound the alarm and are upon them. 
A grand saturnalia ensues, and for 
about half an hour the night is rendered 
hideous 
On a calm Summer morning the lake 
presents one of the finest views that can 
well be imagined. Everything seems so 
peaceful and calm that one feels he could 
lay himself down on the sandy shore and 
rest forever, As the sun comes over 
the eastern hills and glitters on the 
surface of the placid waters, scarcely 
rippled by the gentle morning breeze 
which is hardly felt, the solemn silence, 
broken only by the far-off lonely ery of 
the loon, makes itself felt, and the mind 
of the poor mortal goes up in prayer of 
adoration and thanksgiving to the Most 
High. It is a beauty that can be felt, 
not expressed. The solemn, pine-clad 
mountains, the deep shadows in the lake, 
the perfect quiet, the impression of 
majesty and power, the awful stillness, 
the wreaths of mist on the lake, tinted 
with the beams of the morning sun, the 
tall pine on yonder point with gilded 
head gracefully bowed as the sunbeams 
kissed his brow. What wonder that 
those Kastern clime bend in mute 
adoration as their Deity lifts his gorge- 
ous crest above the horizon. 
The country round about Lake Coeur 
D’Aléne is chiefly mountainous, with here 
and there a small plateau or valley, geu- 
erally on the bank of some sequestered 
lake. 
Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton, and 
built by Captain Mullan, formerly of the 
army) comes up the Spoken River, and 
skirting the foot of the lake, passes over 
the mountains. Wolf Lodge, a small 
hay ranche on Wolf Lodge Creek, which 
empties into the lake, is about fifteen 
in 
The Mullan Road (running from | 
| never freezes. 
further on is the Ceeur D’Aléne Mission 
on the river of the same name. Here 
the good Jesuit Fathers reside, and have 
managed to Christianize the Cceur 
D’Aléue Indians. 
About six miles from Wolf Lodge 
and about due north, is a lake some 
three or four miles long by half a mile 
wide, which is celebrated for the abun- 
dance of its fish and the amount of game 
on the mountains surrounding it. There 
is no outlet to the lake, nor are there 
streams of any great size, though 
several small ones, flowing into it. But 
it is always full. It is fed by springs, 
and the water is clear, pure, and always 
icy-cold. 
That there are underground passages 
and caves throughout this country is 
certain. Often, when riding, the drum- 
like sound of the horse’s feet or deep 
rumble of the heavy wagons indicates 
the existence of vast hollows under 
ground. The Spokan River, which flows 
from the lake, over a hundred yards in 
width, has apparently no affluent above 
the great falls; yet, about fifteen miles 
below the lake, the volume of water is 
In Winter, 
above this place, the river freezes over; 
but below, between it and the falls, it 
In Summer, when the 
lake becomes warm, the water of the 
river is always the same until it arrives 
at this place, when a very marked in- 
crease of coldness is at once perceptible. 
Undoubtedly some underground curreut 
joius the main body of the river at this 
place, having its exit among the rocks, 
suddenly almost doubled, 
| which are scattered around in the wild- 
est profusion. 
The hunting around Cceur D’Aléne 
Lake is super-excellant, and the fishing 
“the best in the world.” In the numer- 
miies distant, and some fifteen miles | ous small lakes in the vicinity; and in 
