REPORT OF THE CHIEF ASTRONOMER 37 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 25a 



The mountain group lying southwest of the Pend D'Oreille river was called 

 in the preliminary paper, the Pend D'Oreille mountains. It may further 

 be proposed that the two groups separated by Priest River valley be named the- 

 Kaniksu range (on the west) and the Priest range (on the east). 'Kaniksu' is 

 the old Indian name for Priest lake. Though these names may not prove finally 

 satisfactory, the writer believes that the naming of these groups in an authori- 

 tative and systematic manner would be a geographic gain. In passing, the 

 question may be raised as to the advisability of regarding the mountains lying 

 between Priest river, Pend D'Oreille lake, and the Ivootenay river, as part of 

 the Cabinet mountain range. The bulk of the Cabinet range, as now generally 

 recognized, lies to the southeast of the strong trench running from Bonner's 

 Ferry to Sandpoint. To the writer it seems both easy and expedient to consider 

 this trench as bounding the Cabinets on the northwest and the distinct range, 

 hitherto unnamed, on the southeast. The limits of the latter range are: Bound- 

 ary creek on the north, Priest river valley on the west, the Purcell Trench 

 on the east, and the Bonner's Ferry-Pend D'Oreille trench on the south and 

 southeast. 



COLUMBIA MOUNTAIN SYSTEM AND ITS SUBDIVISION. 



The principal range unit adjoining the Selkirk system on the west is here 

 called the Columbia system. (Plate 3.) It is definitely limited on the east by 

 the Selkirk Valley and by a part of the Rocky Mountain Trench, the latter 

 truncating the northern end of the Columbia system as it does the Selkirk and 

 Purcell groups. On the south the Columbia system is limited by the Columbia 

 lava plain. On the west the limit is determined by the lower Okanagan valley, 

 and, to the northward, less well by the eastern edge of the belt of Interior 

 Plateaus. That edge may be located for about thirty miles in the line of the 

 main Kettle river valley. North of the main line of the Canadian Pacific rail- 

 way, the belt of Interior Plateaus seems to reach, but not cross, Adams lake and 

 Adams river. Still farther north, the western limit of the Columbia system is 

 fixed by a trench occupied by the headwaters of the North Thompson river, and 

 by an affluent of the Canoe river. Northwest of this trench begins the great 

 system including the Cariboo mountains. 



Apparently the first official (Governmental) name for the mountains 

 explored on the Canadian Pacific railway line west of the Columbia river was 

 ' Gold Range.'* The group so named extends from the latitude of Shuswap 

 lake to the narrows between the Arrow lakes. This usage has been adhered 

 to by the Government of British Columbia.! In IS 74, the Dominion Depart- 

 ment of Railways and Canals introduced the name ' Columbia range ' for the 

 much larger mountain group including the ' Gold range,' and extending from 



* Map of British Columbia, compi'led under the direction of the Hon. J. W. Trutch, 

 Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works and Surveyor-General. Victoria, 1871. 



t Map of the province of British Columbia, compiled by J. H. Brownlee by direc- 

 tion of the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works. Victoria, 1893. 



