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Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters. 
summit on the north side of the pass one might without moving from 
his tracks cast three snow-balls so that one would fall on the Pacific 
slope, another on the Gulf slope, and a third on that of Hudson’s Bay. 
The foot-hills .— The high prairie is separated from the mountains by 
a narrow belt, consisting of a somewhat confused mass of ridges and 
hills. The ridges constituting the foot hills run in all directions, but 
the highest are approximately at right angles to the trend of the moun¬ 
tains. The strata are considerably disturbed being usually tilted more, 
and much more irregularly than the beds in the adjacent mountains. 
The elevation of these hills is usually under 1,000 feet above the plains, 
but sometimes runs up to 1,500 feet or more. The line separating the 
foot-hills from the mountains is quite as sharply drawn in this region as 
that between the plains and the foot-hills. The latter are usually 
wooded and somewhat rounded. The mountains, on the other hand* 
present a frowning battlement of bare and almost vertical walls facing 
the plain and rising 3,000 to 4,000 above it. 
The mountains.— -On entering the mountains by way of the valley of 
the Belly River we found that the range makes makes a sharp bend to 
the west about twenty miles from the boundary, so that, although we 
were now traveling nearly south, we were approaching the main divide 
nearly at right angles to it. The valley is over a mile wide near the 
boundary, but a short distance up the stream it becomes quite canyon¬ 
like. The walls are very steep and rarely less than 2,000 feet high. We 
went into camp just at the lower end of the canyon, in a dense fog which 
shut out from view all objects a hundred yards away. In the morning 
when we looked out of our tents the fog was slowly drifting away and 
glimpses of the lofty peaks could be had through rifts in the fog. The 
effect was quite striking. The foot of the mountains was entirely con¬ 
cealed, but at our camp some two miles away the air was clear. Now 
and then a projecting portion of a mountain side perhaps 2,000 feet 
above us would be clearly revealed, while above and below the white 
fleecy veil hid all and seemed to have taken the mountain up bodily and 
to be about to remove it from our pathway. In other places the upper 
peaks alone rose clear and distinct above the sea of cloud and seemingly 
almost over our heads. Altogether it was a picture long to be remem¬ 
bered by those who saw it. 
Scenery .— The scenery even along the foot-hills is strikingly beauti¬ 
ful. The lower ridges, rounded and tree-covered, rise abruptly from the 
plains, while as a background the bare rocky walls of the mountains cut 
by transverse valleys rise in stately grandeur. A single glance takes in 
a view of level plain, tumbled foot-hills, and lofty mountains, the latter 
softened somewhat in their outline by distance. As the summit of the 
main range is neared plains and foot-hills disappear and the landscape 
is made up only of rocky mountains lifting their jagged summits above 
