very rapid stream of water. By means of its winding course it measures
fully a thousand miles in Idaho alone, and drains about two-thirds of
the State. Near the headwaters of the Snake River, in the proximity of
Yellowstone Park, there are very fertile bottoms, with long stretches of
valley lands. The American Falls plunge over a mass of lava about forty
feet high, with a railroad bridge so close that the roar of the water
drowns the noise of the locomotive. For seventy miles the Shoshone River
runs through a deep, gloomy cañon, with a mass of cascades and many
volcanic islands intervening. Then comes the great Shoshone Falls
themselves, rivaling in many respects Niagara, and having at times even
a greater volume of water. The falls are nearly a thousand feet in
width, and the descent exceeds two hundred feet. Many writers have
claimed that these falls have features of beauty not equaled in any part
of the world. According to one description, they resemble a cataract of
snow, with an avalanche of jewels amidst solid portals of lava.

Bancroft, in summing up the great features of this State, says very
concisely that: "It was the common judgment of the first explorers that
there was more of the strange and awful in the scenery and topography of
Idaho than of the pleasing and attractive. A more intimate acquaintance
with the less conspicuous features of the country revealed many
beauties. The climate of the valleys was found to be far milder than,
from their elevation, could have been expected. Picturesque lakes were
discovered among the mountains, furnishing in some instances navigable
waters. Fish and game abound. Fine forests of pine and firs cover the
mountain slopes, except in the lava region; and nature, even in this
phenomenal part of her domain, has not forgotten to prepare the earth
for the occupation of man, nor neglected to give him a wondrously warm
and fertile soil to compensate for the labor of subduing the savagery of
her apparently waste places."