enough of hops might be raised in Washington for the wants of
all the world, but it would be impossible to find pickers to handle the
crop. Most of the picking is done by Indians, and to this fine, clean,
profitable work they come in great numbers in their canoes, old and
young, of many different tribes, bringing wives and children and
household goods, in some cases from a distance of five or six hundred
miles, even from far Alaska. Then they too grow rich and spend their
money on red cloth and trinkets. About a thousand Indians are required
as pickers at the Snoqualmie ranch alone, and a lively and merry picture
they make in the field, arrayed in bright, showy calicoes, lowering the
rustling vine pillars with incessant song-singing and fun. Still more
striking are their queer camps on the edges of the fields or over on the
river bank, with the firelight shining on their wild jolly faces. But
woe to the ranch should fire-water get there!

But the chief attractions here are not found in the hops, but in
trout-fishing and bear-hunting, and in the two fine falls on the river.
Formerly the trip from Seattle was a hard one, over corduroy roads; now
it is reached in a few hours by rail along the shores of Lake Washington
and Lake Squak, through a fine sample section of the forest and past the
brow of the main Snoqualmie Fall. From the hotel at the ranch village
the road to the fall leads down the right bank of the river through the
magnificent maple woods I have mentioned elsewhere, and fine views
of the fall may be had on that side, both from above and below. It is
situated on the main river, where it plunges over a sheer precipice,
about two hundred and forty feet high, in leaving the level meadows of
the ancient lake basin. In a general way it resembles the well-known
Nevada Fall in Yosemite, having the same twisted appearance at the top
and the free plunge in numberless comet-shaped masses into a deep pool
seventy-five or eighty yards in diameter. The pool is of considerable
depth, as is shown by the radiating well-beaten foam and mist, which is
of a beautiful rose color at times, of exquisite fineness of tone, and
by the heavy waves that lash the rocks in front of it.

Though to a Californian the height of this fall would not seem great,
the volume of water is heavy, and all the surroundings are delightful.
The maple forest, of itself worth a long journey, the beauty of the
river-reaches above and below, and the views do