oad Dawson, Birds of Okanogan Co., Wash. 169 
and Okanogan, all flowing south-east or south into the Columbia, 
whose high water mark here is only 600 feet above the ocean. 
Of these rivers, all but the Okanogan occupy narrow mountain 
valleys unimportant for migration. The Okanogan River, how- 
ever, coming from far up in British America, and flowing due 
south, is a very old stream and has worn out a comparatively 
broad valley, a mile or so in width, along which there is a con- 
siderable movement of birds. 
Of the lakes, Chelan is the most remarkable, occupying as it 
does, through a stretch of seventy miles, a narrow mountain fis- 
sure, varying in width from one-half to three miles. This body 
of water, together with the short, rapid river which drains it, 
furnishes a winter retreat for the hardier water-fowls, although 
its precipitous shores offer small inducement to the Limicolz. 
Other lakes and water-filled kettle-holes abound, especially in 
coulées, — narrow, rocky defiles once scored out by glaciers. At 
the lower level these are often alkaline, and little frequented 
except by Coots and Grebes; but the mountain lakes are of the 
purest, and attract the Loons and Golden-eyes, while even the 
water-filled cirques in the highest ranges are sometimes tenanted 
by alpine forms. 
The vegetation of the lower hills and benches, comprises 
bunch-grass, sage-brush, and scattering pines, while every brook 
or spring is eagerly surrounded by dense growths of willow, birch, 
poplar, syringa (Philadelphus gordonianus), and wild-rose. As one 
leaves the semi-arid foothills, and goes up Lake Chelan, and 
climbs the western ranges, the vegetation becomes very luxuriant, 
partaking largely of the character of the Puget Sound flora, and 
so on up to the limit of the trees. One might thus divide the 
county rudely into two avifaunal regions: the semi-arid, or lower 
levels, and the mountains proper, or higher ranges. The first 
division would include all well sunned river valleys, benches, 
rolling hills, and upland prairies, from 600 feet elevation on the 
Columbia to the 3500 found in some such districts as those which 
flank the Okanogan and Methow Rivers. The higher ranges 
comprise the wilder portions of the west and north, including 
deep, heavily wooded valleys, whose mean elevation may not 
really equal certain highland prairies of the semi-arid portion, 
22 
