The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-02
SIGHTS ALONG THE
 BIC SNAKE RIVER An Impressive But Little Known Waterway
 in Idaho. OLD VOLCANIC ACTION. Magnificent Cascades and Waterfalls Marvellous
 Canons.
OLD VOLCANIC ACTION

other river of importance in the United States; and yet it is our seventh larg- est river-more than 1000 miles long. It is one of the most wonderful and impressive waterways in the world. The few who have tried to follow it's winding course through wild and for bidding extents of lava pla4eaux do not wonder that so little is known of it, writes William Howard Kirkbride in the Worlds Work, for no railroads traverse the lifeless desert that borders it, and no boats, for hundreds of miles
 at a stretch, dare ply it's waters. It is navigable for only 100 miles from
 its junction with the Columbia to the Idaho boundary, and in several isolat-
 ed sections of the interior. For the greater part of it's course it flows through old and magnificent canyons
 Of its own making, through desolate
 and awful wastes the result of vomit- ing craters and of convulsions of the
 earth
 It dashes and roars, in whirlpools and rapids, through forests of mighty pines, between snow-capped peaks, be- sida extinguished craters, through gloomy chasms, amid an indescrlbable chaos of weird and fantastic masses of molten rock, crags peaks and preci- pices, through naked deserts; and, again, broad and tranquil, 1t ripples through smiling meadows and green fertile valleys, past prosperous towns and thriving communities-and is lost again in the deep and solemn canyons.
 It rises in the Rocky Mountains, on the southern slope of the great divide, and flows southeast and then west in great serpentine curve through southern Idaho. In the western part ward and for 25O miles forms the boundary line between Idaho, Oregon and Washington and finally empties in- to the Columbia, 20 miles below the Oregon boundary
 At first 1t is mere mountain tor rent made up of melted snow from the Teton range. Then for many miles 1t flows majestically through silent will | derness of primeval forests, mirroring an endless chain of rugged peaks. Then great and awful change begins to take place. The deep woods grow less and less dense, the mountains decline into endless rolling hills and deep ra- vines. At every turn the country grows fatter and more featureless, until a great plain stretches out indefinitely, the gloomy barrenness of which is en- phaslzed by the few pyramid-like comes which stand there, solitary reminders of dead and terrible period. It is the great Snake River desert. After an observers first shock and his feelings of isolation have passed, the boundess plain loses it's monotony. The expenses seem to awaken and throb with life. the silent sentinels of the desert tell a tale of long ago, when mysterious | forces were at play. For this is the field of the most gigantic volcanic ac- ton that ever occurred in America.
 Curious evidences of the terrific movements that once took place are apparent at "Cinder buttes," 50 miles west of Blackfoot, in many wel-pre- server volcanoes of comparatively re- cent date. The plains are strewn with | vast numbers of cinders, bombs and | other volcanic relics. For $50 miles af- 1 ter passing the Backfoot river, which l joins the Snake river from the south | east, not a stream reaches it from the north. Many streams rise in the Sal | mon River mountains of central Ida 1 ho, all tending toward the Snake River | canyon, but all sooner or later, are swallowed up in chasms or are evapor- ated by the intense heat and dryness of the desert The Big Lost" and Tit tie Lost" rivers, both of some mag { nitude, which rise In the mountains | and flow in southerly direction Into | the great desert, vanish there. But | after travelling many miles beneath the | lava beds of the desert, the pent-up l waters break from their bondage into | series of remarkable cataract springs farther down the river. For 20 miles | thay gush at intervals from the can yon will, in overfowing streams, The greatest and the most beautiful | is near the town of Hagerman, and Is known as Thousand springs. For a 1 | half-mile, and from an elevation of | | from 75 to 200 feet, whole rivers gush forth from the roots of the sage brush, l sometimes in broad white sheets of | waving mist, superb Tn color, like small Niagaras, but more often in series of glittering cascades which leap from rock to rock, and finally dissolve in spray as they dash upon the rocks be- heath.
 The seepage from the lost rivers has wrought other astonishing results in 1 the canyons of the desert. Tn several places great side alcoves extend north- ward from the main canyon. These in no way owe their existence to the ac- ! tion of tn Snake or other streams. The most noted is the Lost" or Blue Lake canyon. It is an immense semi-circular chasm, some two miles long. with per pendicular walls more than 800 feet 1 high. No streams enter from any di- rection, but at its head and mouth are mammoth springs, discharging many cubic feet of water. per second, which have formed two dark blue lakes. The water from these spring-fed lakes, by
 erosion and by concentration of ener- gy, has eaten it's way through solid basalt rock, forming a deep-cut can
 von.
 No other river has as many magnih-
 cent cascades and waterfalls as the
 Snake. The greatest is Shoshone Falls.
 Its volume is less than that of Nj
 agara, but the fall is 30 feet greater,
 and during the spring flood it is as