are the soda springs in the Bear River region, of which thousands have tasted on their journey across the continent. Around the springs are circular embankments of pure snow-white soda several feet in height and twenty to thirty feet in diameter. You may count fifty mineral springs within a square mile in Bear River Valley, some of pure soda, some mingled with sulphur, and others impregnated with iron; some warm, some cold, some placid, others bubbling and noisy as steam, the waters of which could be analyzed, but could not be reproduced.12

It was the common judgment of the first explorers that there was more of 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 nestled among the mountains, or furnishing in some instances navigable waters.13 Fish and game abounded. Fine forests of pine and fir covered the mountain slopes except in the lava region; and nature, even in this phenomenal part of her domain, had not forgotten to prepare the earth for the occupation of man, nor neglected to give him a wondrously warm and fertile soil

12 Idaho Scraps, 60-1; Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 1, 1878; Codman's Round Trip, 254-9; Strahorn's To the Rockies, 126. At some springs 4 miles from Millersburg a bathing-house has been built. Hofen's Hist. Idaho Co., MS., 6. In 1865-6 James H. Hutton erected baths at the warm springs near Warren. Statement by Edwin Farnham, in Schultze's Early Anecdotes, MS., 6; Owyhee Avalanche, April 17, 1876. On Bruneau River, at the Robeson farm, are several hot springs, and one of cold sulphur water. Near Atlanta, on the middle fork of Boisé, were discovered warm springs fitted up for bathing by F. P. Carothers in 1877. Silver City Avalanche, May 5, 1877. Near Bonanza, on Yankee Fork of Salmon River, were found sulphur springs of peculiar qualities. Bonanza City Yankee Fork Herald, March 20, 1880. In short, the whole basin between Salmon River and Salt Lake was found to be dotted with springs of high temperature and curative medicinal qualities.

13 Lakes Coeur d'Alêne and Pend d'Oreille are of the navigable class, the former 35 miles long, the latter 30 miles. Steamers ply on the Cœur d'Alêne. Cocolala is a small lake. Kaniskee is a limpid body of water 20 miles long by 10 wide. Hindoo lakes are a group of small bodies of alkaline water of medici nal qualities. And there are a score or two more well worthy of mention.

IDAHO, GEM OF THE MOUNTAINS.

399

to compensate for the labor of subduing the savagery of her apparently waste places.1

What has been said of the Snake Basin and Salmon and Clearwater regions leaves untouched the wonderland lying at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains on the upper waters of the Yellowstone River, and all the imposing scenery of the upper Missouri and the Clarke branch of the Columbia-the magnificent mountains, and grand forests, the rich if elevated valleys, and the romantic solitudes of that more northern division of Idaho as first organized under a temporary government, which was soon after cut off and erected into a separate territory. Once it had all been Oregon west of the Rocky Mountains; then it was all Washington north and east of Snake River; now all east of that stream bore another name, a Shoshone word, signifying "gem of the mountains," or more strictly, "diadem of the mountains," referring to the lustrous rim shown by the snowy peaks as the sun rises behind and over them.15

14 For general description of Idaho, see H. Ex. Doc., i. pt 4, 133-8, 41st ong. 3d sess.; Rusling's Across the Continent, 206–50; Edmonds, in Portland Oregonian, April 19, 1864; Meagher, in Harper's Mag., xxxv. 568-84; McCabe's Our Country, 1092; Browne's Resources, 512-16; Ebey's Journal, MS., i. 253; Campbell's Western Guide, 60-4; Hayden's Geological Rept, in II. Ex. Doc., 326, xv., 42d cong. 2d sess.; Idaho Scraps, 27, 235; Lewiston Signal, Aug. 23, 1873; Elliott's Hist. Idaho, 86-108; Strahorn's Idaho, 7-84; Strahorn's Illustrated New West; and many more miscellaneous sketches of travellers and military men, as well as surveyors of railroad routes and land commissioners. While a volume of description might be written, I have sought only by touches here and there to outline the general characteristics of the country.

15 Pac. Monthly, xi., June 1864, 675. There seems to be no question of the meaning of the word, which is vouched for by numerous authorities. C. H. Miller, in Elliott's Hist. Idaho, 80, affects to give the distinction of naming Idaho to William Craig. I do not see, however, that Craig had anything to do with it, even though he had mentioned to others, as he did to Miller, the signification of the word. It had been in use as the name of a steamboat on the Columbia above The Dalles since the spring of 1860, but Miller says he never heard the word until the spring of 1861, when travelling to Oro Fino with Craig. He also says that the Indian word was E-dah'-hoe, and that he gave it to the world in its present orthography in a newspaper article in the autumn of 1861. It had been painted Idaho' on the O. S. N. steamer for 18 months, where it was visible to thousands travelling up the Columbia. The inference which Miller would establish is that he, with Craig's assistance, suggested the name of the territory of Idaho. See Idaho Avalanche, in Walla Walla Statesman, Dec. 11, 1880. Another even more imaginative writer is William O. Stoddard, in an article in the N. Y. Tribune, who states that the

The natural food resources of Idaho were not those of a desert country. Sturgeon of immense size were found in the Snake River as high up as Old's ferry. Salmon crowded that stream and its tributaries at certain seasons. The small rivers abounded in salmontrout. The lakes were filled with fish of a delightful flavor. One species, for which no name has yet been found, belonged especially to the Payette lakes, of a bright vermilion color, except the fins, which are dark green. They probably belonged to the salmon family, as their habit in respect of ascending to the head waters of the river to spawn and die are the same as the Columbia salmon.18

The mountains, plains, and valleys abounded with deer, bear, antelope, elk, and mountain sheep. The buffalo which once grazed on the Snake River plains had long been driven east of the Rocky Mountains. Partridge, quail, grouse, swan, and wild duck were plentiful on the plains and about the lakes. Fur

word 'Idaho' was coined by an eccentric friend of his, George M. Willing, 'first delegate to congress.' As no such man was ever a delegate, and as the territory must have been created and named before it could have a delegate, this fiction ceases to be interesting. See Boisé Statesman, Jan. 8, 1876; Idaho World, in Ibid.; S. F. Chronicle, May 1, 1876. There is a pretty legend connected with the word 'Idaho.' It is to the effect that E. D. Pierce met with an Indian woman of the northern Shoshones who told him of a bright object which fell from the skies and lodged in the side of a mountain, but which, although its light could be seen, could never be found. Pierce, it is said, undertook to find this Koohinoor, and while looking for it discovered the Nez Percé mines. Owyhee Avalanche, March 10, 1876. Another reasonable story is that when W. H. Wallace was canvassing for his election as delegate from Washington in 1861 with Lander and Garfielde, it was agreed at Oro Fino that whichever of the candidates should be elected, should favor a division of the territory. The question of a name coming up, George B. Walker suggested Idaho, which suggestion was approved by the caucus. From the fact that the first bill presented called the proposed new territory Idaho, it is probable that the petitioners adhered to the agreement. There appears to have been three names before the committees, Shoshone, Montana, and Idaho. See Cong. Globe, 1862-3, pt i., p. 166; and that Senator Wilson of Massachusetts, when the bill creating the territory of 'Montana' was about to pass, insisted on a change of name to Idaho, on the ground that Montana was no name at all, while Idaho had a meaning. In this amendment he was supported by Harding of Oregon. Wilson's amendment was agreed to.

is Strahorn's To the Rockies, 124; Olympia Wash. Democrat, Dec. 10, 1864; Idaho World, Aug. 15, 1874; Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 1, 1878.

17 A new species of carnivorous animal, called the man-eater,' was killed near Silver City in 1870. Its weight was about 100 lbs, legs short, tail bushy and 10 inches long, ears short, and feet large-a nondescript. Silver City Idaho Avalanche, March 12, 1870.

numerous.

ANIMALS, FRUITS, AND PLANTS.

401

bearing animals, once hunted out of the mountains. and streams by the fur companies, had again become The industrious beaver cut down the young cottonwood trees as fast as they grew in the Bruneau Valley, depriving future settlers of timber, but preserving for them the richest soil. The wolf, red and silver-gray fox, marten, and muskrat inhabited the mountains and streams.

Grapes, cherries, blackberries, gooseberries, whortleberries, strawberries, and salmon-berries, of the wild varieties, had their special localities. Blackberries and grapes were abundant, but, owing to the dry climate, not of the size of these wild fruits in the middle states. Camas root, in the commissary department of the natives, occupied a place similar to bread, or between wheat and potatoes, in the diet of agricultural nations. It resembled an onion, being bulbous, while in taste it was a little like a yam. The qullah, another root, smaller and of a disagreeable flavor, was eaten by the Indians when cooked. In taste it resembled tobacco, and was poisonous eaten raw. The botany of the country did not differ greatly from some parts of Oregon, either in the floral or the arboreous productions. The most useful kinds of trees were the yellow pine, sugar pine, silver pine, white fir, yellow fir, red fir, white cedar, hemlock, yew, white oak, live-oak, cottonwood, poplar, mountain mahogany, and madroño. The great variety of shrubby growths are about the same as in southwestern Oregon.

Two years previous to the passage of the organic act of Idaho there had been but two or three settlements made within its limits, if the missions of the Jesuits are excepted. It was not regarded with favor by any class of men, not even the most earth-hungry. Over its arid plains and among its fantastic upheavals of volcanic rocks roamed savage tribes. Of the climate little was known, and that little was unfavorable, from the circumstance that the fur companies, who spent

HIST. WASH.-26

the winters in certain localities in the mountains, regarded all others as inhospitable, and the immigrants judged of it by the heat and drought of midsummer.

But early in 1854 a small colony of Mormon men was sent to found a settlement on Salmon River among the buffalo-hunting Nez Percés, who erected a fort, which they named Lemhi. In the following year they were reënforced by others, with their families, horses, cattle, seeds, and farming implements; and in 1857 Brigham Young visited this colony, attended by a numerous retinue. He found the people prosperous, their crops abundant, the river abounding