On the Atlantic and the Pacific, and on the Great Lakes, you will find seamen working for Canadian Pacific. Curious as it may at first seem, you will also find them deep in the valleys created by the Rockies, the Selkirk, Monashee, and Coast ranges. They are the men of the British Columbia Lake and River Service.

The tug and barge operation maintained by Canadian Pacific on Okanagan, Slocan, and Kootenay Lakes provides a freight car ferry connection with areas not served by rail lines, and is a direct link between the CPR main line and Crowsnest lines to the south.

On Slocan Lake an entire wayfreight, cars, caboose, engine, and crew takes a twice-weekly "cruise" from Slocan City to Rosebery, B.C., providing further service on the Rosebery Nakusp branch line.

The Okanagan Lake service is provided by the Company-owned tugs MV "Okanagan" and SS "Naramata", the latter supplementing the service during the peak August-October fruit movement.

On the other two lakes privately-owned tugs, the "Iris G." on Slocan Lake and the "Melinda Jane" on Kootenay, operate under contract hauling Canadian Pacific barges. It is on Kootenay Lake that the Company is hauling carloads of cement and bentonite for the Duncan dam, part of the Columbia River power project.

This page of photographs by Nicholas Morant depict the tug and barge service. Δ