THE CRUDE STRENGTH OF IDAHO 



marvellous diversity of soil, of climate, and of natural 

 endowments. This diversity must necessarily mark its 

 future industrial life and be reflected in the social side 

 of its civilization. 



The first important item in the material wealth of 

 Idaho is its water supply. Along its eastern boundary 

 nature has piled up towering mountain-ranges, which re- 

 ceive an enormous snowfall. These mountains are cov- 

 ered with forests, ranking among the most magnificent 

 in the world, which treasure the snow within their som- 

 bre depths until the warm weather gradually sends it 

 down to streams which reach out through hundreds of 

 miles of lower valleys. The great river of Idaho is the 

 Snake, which deserves a better name in spite of its tortu- 

 ous meanderings. This is the largest tributary of the 

 Columbia, and drains a vast water-shed, beginning in the 

 Yellowstone Park of Wyoming and including all of 

 southern and much of western Idaho with eastern Ore- 

 gon and Washington. Along its course it receives nu- 

 merous minor streams which drain interior mountain sys- 

 tems. The Snake is nearly one thousand miles long and 

 so deep that in some places soundings of two hundred 

 and forty feet have failed to find the bottom. While 

 incalculably valuable for irrigation, this is by no means 

 its only utility. It is navigable for one hundred and fifty 

 miles above its junction with Clarke's Fork in the north- 

 ern part of the State, and may sometime furnish a 

 water route to the Pacific Ocean through the Columbia. 

 It also has immense possibilities in the way of power, 

 which must some day be harnessed to electricity, moving 

 passengers and freight through the valleys, and perhaps 

 furnishing both light and heat to thousands of homes. 



175 



