•April igoi.j 
FOREST ~ AND ^ STREAM* 
Two hours after leaving Halcyon, and after a charm- 
ing sail through the cloud-covered mountains — ^which in 
the distance look soft and hazy, but when we near them, 
as we do often, rise like palisades from the water's edge, 
and we find they are of the most rugged description — 
we arrive at Nakusp, where six years before we came 
down frorn Revelstoke. Our steamer towed a barge, on 
which were some passenger cars for the new railroad 
then being built into the Slocan county. We now have 
the pleasure of riding in one of these cars, and in it 
climb up from Arrow Lake* to the divide, on the other 
side of which lies the Slocan country. As we wind slowly 
along up the steep ascent, we get into the same mist and 
clouds that we saw from the lower level, and now we 
look down on them and see stretching away into the 
distance the great Columbia until it is lost like a silver 
thread among the dark green mountains to the south. 
It- is only twenty-eight miles from Nakusp to Rose- 
bery, about half up and half down, and part of the way 
along the shores of Summit Lake and brawling moun- 
tain streams, that make one want to get out and try for a 
trout; and they are there, too, for the brakeman gave 
us some "pointers." We run a short distance along 
the upper end of Slocan- Lake, before we reach Rose- 
bery, where the steamer lands. We arrived" first and saw 
the Slocan City come puffing up the lake out of the mist. 
Slocan Lake is one of the most beautiful bodies of water 
in British Columbia, and ''their name is legion." Here 
at an altitude of 1,850 feet is a lake about thirty miles 
long, surrounded by high mountains on every side, of 
the roughest and wildest description. Dense timber 
covers the mountains to the summits. The country in 
many places is practically unexplored, as it is nearly im- 
possible to travel over some of it. Within a reasonable 
distance of water transportation the miner and prospec- 
tor has been over the territory, but very little has been 
yet done to open up the immense wealth stored in these 
mountains. When the steamer came in we found an- 
other of the C. P. R.'s fine boats, with everything that 
one could wish, and it seemed very strange here in the 
midst of one of the roughest and wildest countries 
in the world, and which a few years ago was a wilder- 
ness, that no human being had ventured into, to find the 
luxuries of civilization. It is a strange experience for 
any one who traveled west in earl3'- days to find such 
rapid and marked changes. 
The sail down to Slocan City is one that can never be 
forgotten. The steamer skirts the mountain sides, cov- 
ered this day and often by misty clouds, that rise from 
the water's edge until their tops are hidden by the vapor 
laden masses. To the eye the effect is magical, and 
tnore than beautiful, but when we try to catch some of 
the fleeting effects with the camera we are tioomed to 
disappointment, for a camera will not take all that the 
eye sees. 
At the lower end of the lake lies Slocan City, the 
metropolis of the Slocan country, a typical mountain 
mining town. There is a fairly good hotel, and we re- 
main a day. The Slocan River flows from the lake and 
runs south into the Kootenay. There is good trout fish- 
ing here. 
The mining interests are all in all to this country, as 
there is not enough level ground for a good garden. 
From Slocan City it is only thirty-two miles to the 
Kootenay River at Clocan Junction, and then we follow 
the Kootenay thirteen miles to Nelson, the metropolis 
of all this section, which really takes in the entire 
eastern part of British Columbia. 
Nelson is beautifully situated on the Kootenay River 
just below where the lake narrows into the river, and 
it is a fine little town. It has good hotels, stores and 
everything needed to make a visit pleasant— electric 
lights, good water works and other city improvements. 
Nelson has a gun club, and we went out to see them 
"kill clay pigeons." One of the best shots in the club- 
was a young boy about fourteen or fifteen, who could 
"down his bird with the best." 
Every one goes fishing in Nelson, and Saturday and 
Sunday afternoons you will see every fellow with "his 
best girl" with rods and nets on the way to the boat 
houses. 
The Kootenay has long been famous for its fine trout 
Pishing, and if one wants to go fishing where it is "easy" 
let him go to Nelson. 
The trout are mostly of the beautiful rainbow variety. 
While down on the dock one day we saw one of the 
railroad men, who had a moment to spare, take a hand 
line with a brown hackle fly on it and cast in out into 
the stream. In a moment he had a pound and a half fish 
fighting for life. A boat was passing with two anglers 
in it. They rowed up. loaned their landing net, and 
we netted the trout. That's easy trout fishing. 
A day or two in Nelson and we were ready for an- 
other sail " 'mid clouds and peaks." So we took the 
C. P. R. steamer Kokawee for the Upper Kootenay 
Lake. We thought Slocan Lake beautiful — and it is — ' 
but after all we think it must in a way yield the palm 
to Kootenay. It may be the mountains do not rise as 
high right from the lake shore, but there are more deep 
indentations, more islands and rocky points, that lend 
picturesqueness. The upper end of the lake is a great 
hunting country for goats and bears. The C. P. R. 
have had built a number of house-boats for the use of 
the sportsmen tourist, and which can be leased for long 
or short periods ; and they will tow them to any point on 
the lake or river that is desired, at a charge of only 
■'four bits," as Capt. Gore expressed it, per mile. 
The boat itself costs $5 per day. Man in charge, $2. 
Cook, $2. Each boat is furnished with good linen, 
bedding and table sersdce. The saloon is furnished, as 
well as the kitchen, which has a good range and all the 
necessary cooking appliances. You buy your own sup- 
plies and can have anything you wish, as Nelson has 
excellent markets. There are two sizes of these boats. 
One has four staterooms, with two berths each, accom- 
modating eight people (or at a pinch a few more). A 
baggage room, two toilet rooms, store room, pantry, 
kitchen, combined dining room and saloon. On the 
roof is a promenade deck. What more could any one 
ask? and just think of the joys of a trip on a floating 
cabin of this kind. You can "have your boat towed to 
any desirable hunting or fishing place you wish, and 
*The Arrow Lakes, TJppef and tower, are widenings of the 
Columbia River which have been dignified by name into lakes. 
then with all the comforts and some of the luxuries of 
a good hotel, be in the wilderness of this great Western 
land. And as to many cost is a great obstacle to tlieir 
going where they want, think of how cheap a party of 
ten can have a month's sport and an outing such as 
falls to the lot of few mortals. Taking it for granted 
that they do not go over 100 miles from Nelson, and 
this would take them to the upper end of Kootenay 
Lake, thirty days could be put in for $500, or $50 each, 
or less than the usual cost of a second-class summer 
resort. Of course in figuring on this basis, there is no 
account taken of wines or fancy living, as the individual 
who wants such things can generally do as he likes 
without counting cost. We are only figuring for the 
plain everyday sportsman, who loves to be out of doors 
and loves sport of nature's kind; not some of mankind's 
notion of sport. 
Up above Kasto, forty-five miles from Nelson, the 
scenery on Kootenay Lake is very fine, and north of 
Lardo is a good game country, but very rough. 
On the lower end of Kootenay Lake are marshes where 
in season the duck shooting is fine. The house-boat can 
be towed, if one wishes, up the Kootenay River to 
SUNRISE ON THE ROCKIES AT COLUMBIA LAKE. 
Idaho. The service on the steamers which the C. P. Ry. 
run on these mountain lakes and rivers is so good that 
we cannot forbear mentioning it. Of course he who 
goes into the mountains to "rough it" doesn't care if he 
to do it, but it is a very agreeable surprise to find ac- 
commodations that are equal if not superior to those 
he finds in the efltete East 
No one need stay at home now and fail to see the 
grandeur of the wild West because, forsooth, they might 
have to rough it. 
We won't tell about all the great mining country north 
of Nelson, nor how "Yankee prospectors" have flocked 
into this land and opened up nature's store houses of 
wealth, for their British cousins to come in and reap 
a benefit, but they have, and as the Irishman says, "More 
power to 'em." 
Back at Nelson, and a day or two is spent knocking 
about the hills and at the park, etc., and then we take 
the train for Rossland, that wonderful mining camp that 
WE TAKE THE KOKAWEE FOR 'EHE UPPER KOOTENAY LAKE. 
sprang, as magic cities were supposed to in olden time, 
into existence in a day. The road follows the Kootenay 
River down to the Columbia, passing the falls, where 
great turbines are at work generating power, which 
is turned into electricity and sent speeding over moun- 
tain and valley to light the streets of Nelson and far away 
Trail and Rossland. Many parties of anglers drop off 
the train at various points, for here is some of the best 
fishing water in the world. 
At Robson we cross the river on an old friend, the 
steamer Lytton, that took us down the Columbia from 
Revelstoke six years ago. The advent of finer boats 
has turned the old craft into a ferry. From Robson 
we climb back from the river into the mountains, and 
winding back and forth get higher and higher, until we 
reach Rossland, thirty-three miles way. Here is one of 
the wonders of the West, and if the West was not a 
land of wonders it would be accounted more wonderful 
than it is. A city perched upon the mountain tops, witli 
fine hotels, electric lights and other conveniences, and 
all this came into being in two years. Six years before, 
when we passed through this country a few prospectors 
were digging "gopher holes" in the mountain sides. At 
Trail was one frame building just being erected. Now 
immense smelters and a town are there. 
Back to Robson and then up the Columbia by rail, 
where six years before we had to go in a rowboat (see 
back files), on past our old camp at Deer Park, climbing 
along the mountain side, looking down upon the great 
view hundreds of feet below us, our minds reverted back 
to the day when, in our little boat laden deep with camp 
equipage, we'braved the storm of lower Arrow Lake and 
looked up at the rough and jagged rocks above us as we 
sped by on the crests of the white capped waves, little 
thinking that six years later we would be riding in a fine 
car along the face of these stupendous cliffs — crossing 
the deep canons on spindle-like trestles and crossing ra- 
vines that seemed at that time to be impossible for any' 
thing that did not possess wings. 
This ride along the Columbia is a very fine one. As the 
train twists and turns along the" mountain side, ever get 
• ting higher and higher, one catches glimpses of the great 
river, here widened into the lower Arrow Lake, as it loses 
itself in the great mountains beyond. And you look across 
at the opposite shore, which from the great height you 
look down upon, and there spread out before you is a 
panorama of forest and mountain stretching away into 
the blue distance, until' one range joins the other and the 
Slocan Mountains rise dim and misty upon the horizon. 
At Deer Park, our old camping ground, the railroad 
' turns to the westward, and we climb up the divide to- 
ward the Kettle River country, passing over the summit 
and down to Christina Lake, We are now in what was 
only a few years ago one of the finest game countries of 
British Columbia, and where yet the sportsman can get 
good shooting. Right across the lake from the railroad 
deer still roam in abundance. 
From Christina Lake the road follows the Kettle River 
through a beautiful country to Grand Forks. In all the 
water courses we see plenty of ducks which have not yet 
gone south. The pine forests through this section are 
fine, and a good wagon trail follows the river. Westward 
to Greenwood, which was at this time (August, 1900) the 
terminus of the C. P. Ry., we travel. This is called 
the "Boundary Country," as the mining region here is 
adjacent to the United States line. Greenwood, built up 
by the miners in this section, had been booming, but was 
rather quiet when we arrived, but a very good hotel made 
up for any lack of excitement, and our wait was a 
pleasant one. A trip from Greenwood up through the 
Kettle River country would take the sportsman through 
a beautiful rolling country, and one well stocked with 
grouse, but from which the game is fast disappearing. 
When the prospectors first go into a country they usually 
find game; when the miner follows, game begins to be- 
come scarce, and when rancher and miner both get into a 
country, game soon becomes a thing of the past. The 
ranchers have begun to settle in the Kettle River coun- 
try, and it will not be long before another great game 
section will be missing. 
It is the intention of the C. P' Ry. to build on up to 
Penticton at the foot of Okanogan Lake,* and then to 
the coast, thus opening up to easy excess another fine 
game country. The trouble is, however, that as soon 
as the country becomes easy to get into, then there is no 
object in going into it, from the sportsman's standpoint. 
However, the country is a beautiful one, game or no 
game, and well worth seeing. 
From Greenwood we return to Nelson and take a trip 
down into the United States to Spokane Falls and note 
the rapid strides' civilization has made in the six years 
since we rode over this section. On the train out from 
Nelson in the morning we had the society of a number of 
anglers who were going up into the mountains and on to 
Salmon River for a day's sport, and as it was Sept. i 
there were a number of shooters going out for a try 
at the grouse. Nelson has a large number of Englishmen 
in its population, and they have brought their love of 
sport from home into the new country. As was noted 
before. Nelson is a good point for the sportsman. Spo- 
kane, with its surroundings, was written of before, and 
suffice it to say that there has been no loss of prestige in 
this live city. 
As we had been tjver all of .the C. P. Ry. excepting the 
new "Crow's Nest Pass" route, we determined to go home 
that way. So we return to Nelson and take the steamer 
to Kootenay Landing, which takes us to the lower end 
of the lake and gives us another "sail wind, clouds and 
peaks." The distance is only 55 miles, but the C. P. Ry. 
prefers to run steamers and tranship cars to building the 
connecting link of railroad through these rugged moun 
tains. So one can imagine that the scenery is not "tame." 
Of course the railway is bound to come, and when com- 
pleted through it will be a fine winter route, as there is 
not as much snow in this section as on the main line 
north. 
From Kootenay Landing eastward through a fine tim- 
bered country we climb upward toward the Rockies. 
There is rnuch fine scenery, but it must be confessed that 
the main line is superior. At Goat River, just as the sun 
gilds the crests of the distant peaks, the train pauses long 
enough for the passengers to walk out on the platform 
and gaze down into the depths of Goat River Cafion. 
Way down below us in a deep and terrible gorge, with 
vertical walls and pine crested sides, flows Goat River, a 
dashing, turbulent stream, foaming over rocks and whirl- 
ing its spray high into the air. It is one of the sights of 
the road, and the complaint of all is that one does not 
have time enough to enjoA^ the wonderful sight. 
Winding in and out among the jack pines, crossing huge 
trestles, and skirting great deep cations, we pass little 
moimtain lakes, and at Moyie a larger body of water 
called Moyie Lake, which is skirted by the railroad for 
some distance. At Fort Steele Junction we again ap- 
proach the Kootenay River, which we left at Nelson, and 
later cross it as it flows southerly on its way down into 
the United States. We came cross lots, the river has to 
go round. When we get to Fernie wc are in the Rockies 
again, and the scenery is fine and of a more rugged char- 
acter than we had been traveling through. The peaks rise 
high and bare, their sharp outlines marked distinctly 
against the blue sky. 
We are no^y nearing the pass, and the range stretches 
away on all sides. It seems at times as if we were in a 
cul-de-sac, and that the huge mountain in front barred 
our passage, and much speculation was indulged in as to 
which way the road would turn to reach the plains below. 
At last we turn, and through a narrow valley catch a 
*See back numbers. 
