but no one is sorry. Occasionally the whistle
is sounded and the boat heads in toward the land, where some camping
party is on the lookout for mail or a supply of provisions.

[Illustration: FIG. 58.--LOOKING DOWN ON LAKE CHELAN]

The lake averages less than two miles in width, and seems all the
narrower for being shut in between gigantic mountains. For some
miles we pass under the precipitous cliffs of Goat Mountain, where
formerly numerous herds of mountain goats found pasturage.

At every bend in the lake the views become more grand and inspiring.
Here is a dashing stream, roaring in a mad tumble over the boulders
into the quiet lake--a stream which has its source perhaps a mile
above, in some snow-bank hidden from sight by the steep, rocky
walls. Next a waterfall comes into view, pouring over a vertical
cliff into the lake. Occasionally snow-clad peaks appear, but only
to disappear again behind the near mountains. What pleasant spots
we notice for camping by the ice-cold streams! They are full of
brook trout, while larger fish are to be found in the lake.

At the head of this body of water there is a little hotel for the
accommodation of visitors, and the Stehekin River, which is steadily
at work filling up the lake, hurries past its doors. Since the
melting of the glacier which once filled the canon, the river has
built a delta fully half a mile out into the water.

The lake has the appearance of filling an old river valley or canon.
Perhaps the latter is the better name because the bed is so narrow
and deep. This canon winds among the mountains just like other
canons in which rivers are flowing, but it has no outlet at the
present time. In some way a dam has been formed, and the canon,
filling with water to the top of the dam, has become a lake.

Soundings have shown that the water is fourteen hundred feet deep;
that is, a little more than a quarter of a mile. With the exception
of Crater Lake, in Oregon, this is the deepest body of water in
the United States. It is also interesting to note that the bottom
of the lake is fully three hundred feet below the level of the
ocean.

How could a river cut a channel for itself so far below the ocean
level? Rivers cannot do work of this kind unless they have a swift
current; moreover, as they empty into the ocean, their beds must be
above sea level. Some people think that the great glacier, which
certainly at some time occupied the depression in which the lake
lie