142 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, 
valley bottom in long, graceful curves. The walls are rugged and 
picturesque, but there is little or no variety, and one soon tires of 
watching the selfsame combination of river, talus slopes, and cliffs. 
The river, however, is really worth attention and presents many 
charming views of the clear water, almost turquoise-blue, sweeping 
around willow-covered islands and between the stately pines that 
dot the river’s bank. (See Pl. XX.) The terrace of soft material 
doubtless once continued throughout the canyon, for-here and there 
can be seen remnants of the white clay that vary the monotonous 
red of the valley walls. 
At milepost 62 Flathead River unites with Clark Fork, sometimes 
called Hell Gate or Missoula River. The low-grade line of the railway, 
= which leaves the main line at De Smet, follows the 
Peete winding course of Clark Fork and at Paradise, a short 
St Paul iioaie distance below this milepost, connects with the main 
line. Paradise is a district terminal and so becomes 
the stopping place of many of the freight crews. The traveler, like 
others who have gone over this road before him, may wonder 
for what reason the name Paradise was given to this narrow, rugged 
valley. The writer has no suggestions to offer, except that even 
this valley may have looked like a paradise to some unfortunate 
individual who had been obliged to cross the adjacent mountain 
country, or who had perchance been lost in the intricate mazes of 
its deeply cut ravines. 
At Paradise the change is made from Mountain to Pacific time, 
one hour earlier. 
The valley of Clark Fork between Paradise and Plains has about 
the same character as that of Flathead River above Paradise. The 
lake whose surface was at the level of the terrace. The lake must 
have = eed — to have left no other evidence of its exist- _ 
— nee, anc probably it was merely a low stage of the body of water 
_ called glacial Lake Missoula = e a 
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