The Land is Bright

We steamed on up the valley, past peaks nine, ten, and eleven thousand feet high; then we
crossed the river and climbed into a narrower valley. Somebody told me to look out for the Great
Divide. This is the division not only between two provinces, but also of a small stream into two
yet smaller branches. It is a more significant division than it would at first appear; for, of the two
little brooks, one flows back eastward to join the Bow River, bound eventually for Hudson's Bay
and the Atlantic; while the other runs westward into the Columbia and thus to the Pacific. The
Divide is marked by an archway of timber, with small logs nailed in the shapes of letters across
the top to spell the words THE GREAT DIVIDE; on the left, also written in thin logs, is
ALBERTA, and on the right, BRITISH COLUMBIA. I glowed inside; British Columbia at last!