150 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
To those who remember Idaho in their school geographies as a 
small pink block, shaped like an easy chair facing east, it may be of 
interest that this State, which in 1890 added the forty- 
Idaho. fifth star to the constellation on the flag, is nearly as 
large as Pennsylvania and Ohio combined and larger 
than the six New England States with Maryland included for good 
measure. It is divided into 33 counties, the smallest of which is half 
as large as the State of Rhode Island and the largest exceeds the 
combined area of Massachusetts and Delaware. 
Idaho covers an area of 83,888 square miles, divided principally 
between the Rocky Mountain region and the Columbia Plateau, only 
a small part, in the southeast corner of the State, lying in the Great 
Basin. In elevation above sea level the State ranges from 735 feet, 
at Lewiston, to 12,078 feet at the summit of Hyndman Peak. It is 
drained by the Columbia mainly through Snake River and its tribu- 
taries, and has an annual rainfall of about 17 inches, the range in a 
single year at different places being from 6 to 38 inches. 
The industries of the State are chiefly agriculture, stock raising, 
and mining. Hay, wheat, oats, and potatoes are the principal crops. 
A large area is cultivated by irrigation. The mineral production 
includes gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. The output of lead in 
1913 was valued at $13,986,366, that of silver at $6,033,473. 
The population of Idaho in 1910 was 325,924. 
A short distance west of the Idaho line the Newland limestone, 
which has formed the walls of the valley for the last 10 or 12 miles, 
dips below water level, and the quartzites of the 
Cabinet, Idaho: overlying formation (Striped Peak) appear. These 
Elevation 2,173 feet. rocks are so much harder than the limestone that 
St. Paul 1,404 miles, the river has succeeded in cutting through them only 
& nalTow, tortuous passageway known as Cabinet 
’ Gorge (Pl. XXI, p. 143). The river pours its whole volume through a 
crooked defile not over 100 feet wide, and it is estimated that 40,000 
horsepower could be developed here with the natural flow of the 
stream. The gorge is soon passed, so that those who wish to see it 
should keep a close watch on the right’ as soon as they cross the State 
line. Beyond Cabinet station as far as milepost 91 there are many 
a north-south direction. Farther west the rocks dip upstream, and 
at the railway bridge the top of the Newland limestone may be seen 
on the north bank of the river. 
