Snake River

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

or Lewis River, a stream which rises in the mountains of Wyoming, and flows in a general southwesterly direction into the Columbia. It is formed by the union of two streams called the North Fork and the South Fork. During a part of its course it forms the boundary between Oregon and Idaho, and again between Washington and Idaho. The total length of the river is about 1,000 miles. The Snake runs through a mountainous country. The descent between the union of the Forks and the Columbia is 4,440 feet. A large part of the course lies through wonderful canons 1,000 to 3,000 feet deep. There are numerous mountain springs so large and so deep that they have worn side canons for themselves. In many places the springs issue from precipitous rock faces, down which the water comes in cascades. Among the wonders of the Snake are the Shoshone Falls in Idaho. The canon here is 700 feet wide, and 750 feet deep above the falls. The river flows silently and evenly to the very verge of the rapids, where the water spreads out like a fan, and, after falling over preliminary precipices some half a hundred feet in height, it gathers itself together and leaps 210 feet sheer. The foaming waters continue their course through a canon 1,000 feet deep. The Snake, called the Shoshone by the Indians, is navigable from its mouth as far as Lewiston. The waters are clear and cool and are, it is needless to say, stocked with mountain trout.