The State is also well known on account of the reputation for weird grandeur won by the Snake River, also known as the Shoshone.  This is a very rapid stream of water.  By means of its winding course it measures fully a thousand miles in Idaho alone, and drains about two-thirds of the State.  Near the headwaters of the Snake River, in the proximity of Yellowstone Park, there are very fertile bottoms, with long stretches of valley lands.  The American Falls plunge over a mass of lava about forty feet high, with a railroad bridge so close that the roar of the water drowns the noise of the locomotive.  For seventy miles the Shoshone River runs through a deep, gloomy canon, with a mass of cascades and many volcanic islands intervening.  Then comes the great Shoshone Falls themselves, rivaling in many respects Niagara, and having at times even a greater volume of water.  The falls are nearly a thousand feet in width, and the descent exceeds two hundred feet.  Many writers have claimed that these falls have features of beauty not equaled in any part of the world.  According to one description, they resemble a cataract of snow, with an avalanche of jewels amidst solid portals of lava.

Bancroft, in summing up the great features of this State, says very concisely that:  “It was the common judgment of the first explorers that there was more of the strange and awful in the scenery and topography of Idaho than of the pleasing and attractive.  A more intimate acquaintance with the less conspicuous features of the country revealed many beauties.  The climate of the valleys was found to be far milder than, from their elevation, could have been expected.  Picturesque lakes were discovered among the mountains, furnishing in some instances navigable waters.  Fish and game abound.  Fine forests of pine and firs cover the mountain slopes, except in the lava region; and nature, even in this phenomenal part of her domain, has not forgotten to prepare the earth for the occupation of man, nor neglected to give him a wondrously warm and fertile soil to compensate for the labor of subduing the savagery of her apparently waste places.”

CHAPTER XXI.

IN THE WARM SOUTHEAST.

Florida and its Appropriate Name—­The First Portions of North America Discovered by White Men—­Early Vicissitudes of its Explorers—­An Enormous Coast Line—­How Key West came to be a great Cigar Town—­The Suwanee River—­St. Augustine and its World-Renowned Hotel—­Old Fort Marion.

Florida is the name given to one of the least known States in the Union.  Ponce de Leon was the godfather of this southeastern corner of our native land.  Its baptism took place in a remote period.  The day of the event was Easter Sunday, which in the Spanish language is called Pascua Floria, which is literally interpreted “The Flowery Festival.”  Almost by accident, therefore, Florida received a name which is singularly appropriate and well chosen.  From end to end, in either direction, there is a profusion of semi-tropical beauty and of flowers, some of them entirely peculiar to the immediate vicinity.  There is an abundance of fruit as well, and frequently the blossoms on the fruit trees make a lovely flower show in themselves.