THE RIVERS OF OREGON 



d'Alfine Rivers. The lake is about twenty 

 miles long, set in the midst of charming scen- 

 ery, and, like Pend d'Oreille, is easy of access 

 and is already attracting attention as a sum- 

 mer place for enjoyment, rest, and health. 



The famous Spokane Falls are in Washing- 

 ton, about thirty miles below the lake, where 

 the river is outspread and divided and makes 

 a grand descent from a level basaltic plateau, 

 giving rise to one of the most beautiful as well 

 as one of the greatest and most available of 

 Water-powers in the State. The city of the 

 same name is built on the plateau along both 

 sides of the series of cascades and falls, which, 

 rushing and sounding through the midst, give 

 singular beauty and animation. The young 

 city is also rushing and booming. It is founded 

 on a rock, leveled and prepared for it, and its 

 streets require no grading or paving. As a 

 power to whirl the machinery of a great city 

 and at the same time to train the people to a 

 love of the sublime and beautiful as displayed 

 in living water, the Spokane Falls are unri- 

 valled, at least as far as my observation has 

 reached. Nowhere else have I seen such les- 

 sons given by a river in the streets of a city, 

 such a glad, exulting, aboimding outgush, 

 crisp and clear from the moimtains, dividing, 

 falling, displaying its wealth, calling aloud in 



335 



