THE SNAKE RIVER COUNTRY 



13 



current, out of which they lift water up into troughs that 

 distribute it right and left into orchards and gardens. 

 Here may the dwellers well say with the Psalmist, " I will 

 lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my 

 help." 



The Oregon Short Line railroad takes the general di- 

 rection of the old Oregon trail along Snake River through 

 Idaho and Oregon. It is a treeless country, save for the 

 hand of man and the water from the hills. Vast patches 

 of the original sagebrush alternate with vineyards and 

 orchards — orchards of peaches, prunes, and apricots — or 

 with meadows and grain fields. Where the irrigating 

 ditch can be carried, there the earth is clothed with grass 

 or grain or verdure. Baptize the savage sagebrush plain 

 with water and it becomes a christian orchard and wheat 

 field. Now we begin to see magpies from the car win- 

 dows — twinkling black and white wings and a long-tailed 

 body. Lombardy 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 foot- 

 hills 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 Snake River 

 escapes from the 

 deep lava canyon of 

 Shoshone Falls, it 

 flows for many miles 



^^•'%i.' 



AN IRRIGATING WHEEL. 



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 be- 

 tween Oregon and Idaho the Snake plunges into the 



