28 JOURNAL AND F ROC EE DINGS 



Thus this one little pool sends part of its waters to the Arctic 

 and the other part to the Pacific. And there are man}' other strik- 

 ing examples of the division of the waters. A little farther up 

 streams enipt}- into the Saskatchewan, and a little farther south 5'OU 

 find the Milk River. This region is the greatest water parting in 

 the world. 



If 3'ou go to the Pacific coast 3'ou find a ver}' different type of 

 rivers. The others, the Saskatchewan, etc., are not very rapid. 

 These have a gradual slope and pass through muddy country. The 

 moment j'ou cross the mountains, however, you come across rivers 

 which are in a hurry because the}' have only a short distance to 

 travel. They have more than five thousand feet of fall and only 

 three or four hundred miles to do it in. So they must be rapid. 



The Kicking Horse Creek I referred to before is a very nice 

 river. It acts like a boy at plaj', jumping, dancing and leaping 

 over its course — a very striking river indeed. As it appioachcs the 

 Columbia, of which it is a tributary, it seems to be put on its good 

 behaviour before joining the great river. 



The Columbia has one or two very curious features that must 

 be brought out. There is a very wide valley between the Rockies 

 and the Selkirks. You find that all the greatest rivers in Western 

 Canada seem to take their rise in that ravine. The Columbia flows 

 north-west for a while, then goes south two or three hundred miles, 

 wuth a lake or two on the wa}^, then turns out into the United 

 States. It "has a tributary called the Kootenay, which starts about 

 a mile and a half from the Columbia in the same valley, flows south- 

 east and goes down into the United States, gets tired of the United 

 States and comes north and joins the Columbia^ practically enclos- 

 ing the Selkirks. The Fraser has the same peculiarity. 



When I first reached the Columbia the water was not very 

 high. However it was a fine bright season and all the snow fields 

 began to thaw. It depends on these snows for its supply of water, 

 and it began to rise, the hotter the sun became, the faster it rose." 

 I was at what is now the town of Revelstoke. It is where the 

 Canadian Pacific crosses the river the second time. I wanted to go 

 to see some mines at the Big Bend, but the question was, how could 



