242 PRACTICAL FORESTRY 
Westward in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and 
California there is an area of perhaps 250,000 square 
miles called the ‘Columbian Lava.” Through this the 
Snake River has cut a deep cation, which is surpassed 
only by that of the Colorado River. This soil is very 
valuable for the production of wheat. The Yellow- 
stone River, which flows from Yellowstone Lake in 
Yellowstone Park, empties into the Missouri and 
thence into the Mississippi. On the other side of the 
Great Divide the Snake River begins and_ flows 
through lava plains and plateaus of great extent. 
Some distance south of the town of Shoshone are the 
Shoshone Falls of the Snake River, where a National 
park has been proposed. These falls are 950 feet in 
breadth, and fall from a height of 210 feet. 
In the far Northwest there are extensive reserva- 
tions. There are two in western Montana, two in 
northern Idaho, three in Washington, and one large 
and two small reservations in Oregon. Throughout, 
these reservations are covered with fine timber, and 
the present time is none too early to institute a thor- 
ough system of protection. The four reserves located 
in western Montana and northern Idaho are the 
Priest River, Flathead, Lewis and Clarke, and Bit- 
ter Root Reservations. These are large in area, ex- 
tremely rough and mountainous in nature, containing 
beautiful scenery and the sources of many streams 
