FAR AND NEAR 



see magpies from the car windows, — twinkling 

 black and white wings and a long-tailed body. 

 Lorabardy poplars stand like rows of sentinels 

 around the lonely farmhouses. These trees appear 

 to be the only ones planted in this section. The 

 near-by foothills are of a yellowish earth color, 

 speckled as a thrush's breast with sagebrush. In 

 other places lupine and wild sunflowers cover the 

 land for miles, the latter giving a touch of gold to 

 the hills. 



After vSnake River escapes from the deep lava 

 canyon of Shoshone Falls, it flows for many miles 

 between level banks, with here and there a slowly 

 turning irrigating-wheel lifting the water up to be 

 emptied into troughs or ditches. Near the boundary 

 between Oregon and Idaho the Snake plunges into 

 the mountains ; plump, full-breasted, tan-colored 

 heights close about it on all sides, now dotted 

 with sagebrush, then lightly touched by the most 

 delicate green, the first tender caress of May. All 

 the lines are feminine and flowing, only here and 

 there a touch of ruggedness as the brown rock 

 crops out. Cover these mountains with turf, and 

 they are almost a copy of the sheep fells and green 

 ranges of northern England. They are marked by 

 the same fullness and softness of outline. For many 

 miles the Snake flows north, through these treeless, 

 rounded, flower-painted, green-veiled mountains, 

 until it enters the terrible canyon between the Seven 



16 



