RELATION OK LAKES TO CLLMATIC CONDITIONS. 65 



and limpid as the melting snows of mountain valleys can furnish. .Vnaly- 

 ses show that they contain onl}" O.OToO [lait [)er thousand of mineral 

 matter in solution, but the lakes inti> wliii-h they How and df which thev 

 form almost the sole sup[)ly, are alkaline and saline owin<" to lono- 

 concentration.^ 



An exam[)le of an isolated drainage system is here furnished, emln-ac- 

 ing the cool summits of lofty mountains where the moisture of the atmos- 

 [)here is condensed ; a mountain reservoir where the waters are stored : a 

 swift, clear stream formed l)y the overflow of the reservoir ; and the bitter 

 lakes where the stream empties and from wliirh thei'e is no escape except 

 by evaporation. Such an attractive held for geographical stud}'^ should 

 not be long neglected. A careful investigation of the various problems 

 here assembled in narrow bounds, Mcndd form a tliesis of unusual interest. 

 Will not some student or some class of students in our universities tell 

 the world what the mountains and streams in this fascinating region are 

 doing, explain how the present conditions came into existence, and point 

 out the results towards which they are tending? 



Lako Ciiolan. — Our second example of mountain lakes, selected from 

 the large number that shimmer in the sunlight amid the highlands of the 

 Far West, lies hidden in the embrace of the eastward-reaching spurs of 

 the Cascade mountains in the State of Washington, and until recently 

 was so remote from the paths ordinarily followed l)y man, that its very 

 name will sound strange to many of my readers. 



Where Columbia river crosses the arid region between the Rocky 

 mountains and the Cascade range, making a vast sweep about the north- 

 ern and Avestern margins of an ancient lava flood, it washes the bases of 

 the jnountains to the Avest and receives the tril)Ute of a inimber of lakes, 

 fed by tlie melting snow on the higher portions of the range. One of 

 these lakes, named in honor of Chelan, an Indian chief of considerable 

 local renown, whose village stands on its shore, empties into the Columl)ia 

 through a deep tortuous gorge of recent origin and sends a swift stream 

 of clear, greeiiisli-tinted water aljout two miles long, to join the great river 

 in the adjacent canon. The lake is a narrow, rivi'rdike sheet of Avater, 

 with gentle windings, i!Xtending westwaid from the ( 'olumbia, seventv 

 miles into the mountains, and is bordered on either liaml bv a continuous 

 series of rugged peaks tliat lise fiom live to over seven thousand feet 

 above its surface. The deej), narrow, trmeli-like valley, now partially 

 ' For analyses of the watcn-s of these lakes, see p. 72. 



