i6c TRANSACTIONS iSgg-'oo 



This was the most favorable portion of the work, part of the line 

 passing over rolling prairie country interspersed with wood ; but 

 very considerable portions were also mountainous, rugged and 

 heavily timbered, though more accessible from the valley of the 

 Newhoialpitkw (Kettle) river than were the Cascade Mountains. 

 Two cairns stand within 129 yards of each other on the east bank 

 of the Columbia (one having been placed by each Commission) and 

 the average distance apart of the remainder is i mile 679 yds. 

 From the hill tops the line of boundary defined by cairns and 

 cuttings can be traced for many miles. For the remaining 16 1.8 

 miles between the eastern cairn on the left bank of the Columbia 

 river and the terminal point on the watershed of the Rocky 

 Mountains in west longitude 114° 03' 28", the boundary passes 

 over successive mountain ranges intersected only by the valley of 

 the Kootena}^ River at two points 7sH miles apart and by the 

 adjacent valleys of the Flathead river and its tributary Kishenehu 

 creek. This portion of the line is marked in the vicinit}^ of 9 

 astronomical stations, by 26 cairns and one bench mark cut in the 

 face of the rock at the Kootena}^ Mountain Station, and by a 

 cairn fixed by survey on the trail between Kootenay west a-ad 

 Mooyie station ; and the usual forest vistas were cut at the usual 

 defined points, besides longer cuttings of 7 and 10 miles at the 

 eastern crossing of the Kootenay, and between the Flathead and 

 Kishenehu rivers. On the summit of the Rocky Mountains the 

 monument consists of a pyramid of dry stones, situate on a 

 narrow saddle with precipitous sides connecting two lofty 

 mountains, serving to identify the locality between the Columbia 

 and the Rocky Mountains, exclusive of the Mooyie trail cairn, 

 and the intervals between the Kootenay mountain and Kootenay 

 west stations, and Mooyie and Yahk stations, the distance be- 

 tween the consecutivel}^ marked points at the several astronomical 

 stations averages about 13^ miles; but between the stations 

 named they extend to 25 and 24 miles owing to the inaccessible 

 nature of the intervening country which is quite as bad as the 

 Cascade Mountains. 



As already stated, the Boundary Commissioners had agreed 

 to understand the boundary laid out by them, to consist of a 

 series of straight lines between the successively marked points, 

 without regard to the distances between those points or the curve 



