THE RIVERS OF OREGON 



forty miles long and five miles wide, straight 

 as an arrow and with the beautiful forests of 

 the Selkirk range rising from its east shore, 

 and those of the Gold range from the west. 

 At the foot of the lake are the Narrows, a few 

 miles in length, and after these rapids are 

 passed, the river enters Lower Arrow Lake, 

 which is like the Upper Arrow, but is even 

 longer and not so straight. 



A short distance below the Lower Arrow the 

 Colimabia receives the Kootenay River, the 

 largest affluent thus far on its course and 

 said to be navigable for small steamers for a 

 hxmdred and fifty miles. It is an exceedingly 

 crooked stream, heading beyond the upper 

 Columbia lakes, and, ia its mazy course, flow- 

 ing to all poiats of the compass, it seems lost 

 and baffled in the tangle of moimtain spurs 

 and ridges it drains. Measiu-ed around its 

 loops and bends, it is probably more than five 

 hundred miles in length. It is also rich in 

 lakes, the largest, Kootena,y Lake, being up- 

 wards of seventy miles in length with an aver- 

 age width of five miles. A short distance below 

 the confluence of the Kootenay, near the 

 boundary-line between Washington and Brit- 

 ish Coliunbia, another large stream comes in 

 from the east, Clarke's Fork, or the Flathead 

 River. Its upper sources are near those of the 



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