Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/328

 in Idaho and the Wallowa Mountains in Oregon. This section of the canyon is from 6.000 to 7,000 feet deep and about seven miles wide on top. At one place there is a sheer slope from a snow-capped peak of the Seven Devils Range, having an elevation of 9,000 feet to the river, which itself has an elevation of 1,600 feet, in that section of the gorge which is locally called "Box Canyon," a vertical wall rises directly from the river on both sides to an elevation of 2,000 to 3.000 feet. To the student of geology Snake River Canyon presents another feature of interest in the cross section of 7,000 feet of the earth's crust. The uppermost layers of the section are composed of lava rock known as basalt, which but a comparatively recent geologic time ago poured out over this northwestern country in enormous fiery floods, filling the valleys that existed at that time, and here and there covered mountain peaks. The older rocks are mineralized in many localities. Hence there are mines and prospects on both sides of the river in these old formations—one of which is the Iron Dike Mine, at Homestead, which produces $1,000,000 worth of copper, gold and silver annually.

Difficult of Access. When the first white men came to Oregon, Indians cautioned them against descending this portion of the Snake River by rafts or boats. In this the SNAKE RIVER CANYON Vista of the River 2000 Feet Below