it than any one else here, had said to us before we started,
"That British Columbia is such a terrible country, very little can ever
be known of it." But there was a great deal that was beautiful too. I
was particularly struck with the manner in which the Pend d'Oreille
springs into the Columbia. Glen Ellis Fall, gliding down in its
swiftness, always seemed to me more beautiful than almost any thing else
I ever saw. But this river is more demonstrative. It springs up, and
falls again in showers of spray, and comes with great leaps out of the
canyon, in a way that I cannot describe. There is in it more freedom and
strength and delight than in any thing else I ever saw. Far to the
south-east, this stream widens into Lake Pend d'Oreille. On this lake
are the wonderful painted rocks, rising far above the water, upon which,
at the height of several hundred feet, are the figures of men and
animals, which the Indians say are the work of a race that preceded
them. They are afraid to approach the rocks, lest the waters should rise
in anger, and ingulf them. There are also hieroglyphic figures far up on
the rocks of Lake Chelan, which is supposed to have once been an arm of
the Columbia. These paintings or picture-writings must have been made
when the water was so high in the lakes that they could be done by men
in boats.

Most of the tributaries of the Upper Columbia are similar in character
to the main stream,--wild, unnavigable rivers, flowing through deep
canyons, and full of torrents and rapids. With Nature so vigorous and
unsubdued about us, all conventionalities seemed swept away; and
something fresh and strong awoke in us, as if it had long slumbered
until the presence of its kindred in these mountain streams called it to
consciousness,--something of the force and freedom of these wild,
tireless Titans, that poured down their white floods to the sea.

Most of these streams rise in lakes, and in some part of their course
spread again into one or more lakes; as, the Arrow Lakes of the
Columbia, the Flat-head, Kootenay, Pend d'Oreille, and Coeur d'Alene,
and the beautiful string of lakes of the Okinakane, and many others.

As we passed through the Upper Arrow Lake and Lower Arrow Lake, which
lie in British Columbia, we had some splendid views of mountain scenery.
The Upper Lake is thirty-three miles long, and three in width,
crystalline water, surrounded by snow-covered peaks and precipices, and
forests of pine and cedar.