﻿BOTANICAL GAZETTE 



Topography 



The general topography of the region will be understood by 

 keeping in mind the course of the Columbia River. The first 500 

 miles or so of its course are in the form of a huge acute angle whose 

 apex is directed northwest and whose western arm extends south- 

 ward. The upper or eastern arm flows northwest parallel to the 

 Continental Divide, and the "bend " is just above 52 0 north latitude. 

 The mountains east of the river and forming the Divide are the 

 Rockies proper; those nearly surrounded by the Columbia, espe- 

 cially those above 51 0 , are called the Selkirks; while west of the 

 river, and separating its basin from that of Fraser, is the Gold 

 Range. It will thus be seen that the Columbia River rises in 

 the midst of the continental mass of mountains, in the midst also 

 of the cordilleran forest which at this latitude extends from the 

 Great Plains to the dry interior of British Columbia. The area 

 dealt with in the present paper is that of the Selkirks proper, 

 taking 51 0 north latitude as an arbitrary southern limit; the rest 

 of the boundary being formed, of course, by the river itself. The 

 area thus delimited is practically untouched by human influences. 

 The Canadian Pacific Railway indeed passes through it, and has 

 opened up some wonderful spots to the traveler, but in most places 

 the influence of the railroad has not made itself felt a gunshot from 

 the tracks. North of the railroad there is neither wagon road nor 

 village, store nor post-office, white woman nor child. A scattered 

 line of settlements along the railroad, half a dozen or less inhabited 

 cabins on the river, a mining camp or two, and a few wandering 

 trappers or prospectors constitute the sum of its human influences. 

 From the naturalist's standpoint these have no importance in rela- 

 tion to the broad leagues of wilderness. The phenomena of plant 

 life which may now be seen represent, therefore, the results of 

 conditions operating through a long series of generations, beginning 

 with the last retreat of the ice. 



The entire area is extremely mountainous, and in the character 

 of its topography young. The mountains are lofty and precipitous, 

 the streams narrow and swift. Innumerable snowfields and glaciers 

 cover the high summits, tongues of ice not seldom reaching down 

 into the forest. A certain roundness of contour of the lower 



