Shoshone Falls, Snake River, Idaho, view across top of the Falls - b08e4035b0fd8811c441a93243334112 (page 2)

; On item: War Department, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army. Geographical Explorations and Surveys. West of the 100th Meridian. Expedition of 1874. Under Command of Lieut. Geo. M. Wheeler, Corps of Engrs.; Plate number: No. 23; Descriptive legend of view no. 23: A view across the main or Horseshoe Falls. So great has been the retrogression in the center of the river that the precipice has assumed a contour whose curve is almost semicircular. In the background, on the left, is a cascade of inferior size, which has been called Lace Falls. From upper level water to lower level water, or from the top of Lace Falls to the foot of Horseshoe Falls, there is a descent of 210 feet. The large fall has a perpendicular drop of 185 feet, 20 feet greater than Niagara. The stream is here about 800 feet wide and very deep, imprisoned in a cañon which is 1,000 feet in width and of equal depth, through which the river winds in lonely majesty, whose tranquility is disturbed at last by the plunge of this cataract, the roar of which is heard for miles away. In the far background the black edge of the mesa rises in castellated form, in which the fanciful eye can find all the shapes of a fortress wall. Through this basalt the river washed its way long ago, and is now slowly deepening its channel in the underlying trachyte, the greenish hue of which lends a tinge to the shallow water in the foreground. There, on the brink of the abyss, surrounded by the stream and inaccessible to man, is seen a bare and dry point, half island and half promontory, which has received the name of Bald Rock.