Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1888-08-16
EWISTON IDAHO TERRITORY, THURSDAY AUGUST 6,
LEWISTON, IN NORTHERN
IDAHO.

You may travel in all lands, on both
sides of the Atlantic, and experience no
such striking and delightful surprise as
that which awaits you when the journeys
across the high, rolling, and productive
plateau on the southern border of the
Palouse country, and coming out upon
its verge, where the land drops off
suddenly in precipitous bluffs, sees the
pretty village Of Lewiston, lying two
thousand feet below, and two mighty
rivers, the Clearwater and Snake, meet.
ing at the end Of its long, poplar bor-
dered, business street. You are not at
all prepared for this singular landscape.
You have been passing over a region of
rich wheat farms and pastures, upheaved
in great, green swells, with farm houses
nestled in the narrow valleys. and
nothing indicates that there is close at
hand another region, nearly half mile
perpendicularly below you, in the depths
Of the earth, where there are farms
and orchards, and smiling town, and
where swelling waters flow and steam.
boats come and 20. You are reminded
of Bulwer's story of "The Coming
Race" in which man finds a strange
land in the center of the globe. You
have ascended no mountain, but you
must descend one as high as the Catskills
by zig. gag road five miles long, to
reach tho valley lying at your feet, into
which you can almost toss a stone. The
road is an admirable piece of engineer.
ing, with an almost uniform grade of
400 feet to the mile. How it looks
from the ferry over the Clearwater, and
how the brown, buleing mountains look
which it climbs, our artist shows in his
sketch. To under stand the singular
topography of this region, bear in mind
that at the top Of these mountains, and
as high as their cres.s, begins the rich
plateau of the Palouse country, which
reaches northward through Eastern
Washington and Northern Idaho for
more than a hundred miles, and is all
good farming land.
Before you begin the descent of the
five mile grade you make long halt to
look at the wonderful landscape to the
south and east. That verdant, sloping
plain, beyond Lewiston, with it's alter.
nate squares Of grain and pasture, is the
Clearwater country, rising to the long
t;mbered ridge called Craig's mountain.
Beyond the mountain and out of view is
Camas Prairie, famed for ito fertility.
Looking around to the east, north Of the
Clearwater, lies the Potlatch country,
an extension Of the Palonse country and
equally fertile. The turbid Snake,
coming out of those tremendous canyons
which you see in the far blue southern
distance, turns sharply to the west after
receiving the clean food of the Clear
water and crcloses the high ridges and
profound, crease like valleys Of the
Aso,in country. Furhet to the west
you can look over the older and richer
farming region where lie the towns Of
Pomeroy, Dayton aud Waitsburg, and
the most distant part Of the horizon line
in that direction, formed by the Bloc
mountains, is beyond the city OF Walla
Walla aud it's fruitful valley.
Let US begin to descend, for the night
ia approaching and il is good hours
drive down the grade to reach the ferry.
How attractive the town looks, far below
us, with its white walls nearly hidden
behind the foliage Of the poplars and the
apple trees. Once across the wire cable
ferry, how welcome is the hospitality Of
the Raymond House. with its wide
piazza and its hot supper of fresh
salmon and juicy chops. Then comes an
evening walk by the shores Of the Snake
river, up to the steamboat landing. to
look at the banners Of crimson, purple
and gold which the setting sun aings
across the blue sky from tho western
mountain tops, and later chat with old
acquaiutances, last seen six years ago.
Among them are Judge Buck, who has
just retired from the bench after eight
years Of service, MI. Howe, the leading
attorney Of the town, Mr.. Vollmer,
whose big brick store feeds with goods
i've branches in the little trading villages
twenty or thirty miles distant, and Editor
Leland, Of the LEWISTON TxLLER, who
has for ysars kept up an agitation in
favor ofa railroad up the Clearwater
and across The Bitter Root mountains to
form short line TO the Northern and
Union Pacific in Montana. Mr.. Leland
npnf1ueoa tha .r;tt.r ..>-x - A.