_Finance._--The finances of Idaho are in excellent condition. The bonded debt on the 30th of September 1908 was $1,364,000. The revenue system is based on the general property tax and there is a State Board of Equalization. Each year $100,000 is set aside for the sinking fund for the payment of outstanding bonds as fast as they become due. The constitution provides that the rate of taxation shall never exceed 10 mills for each dollar of assessed valuation, that when the taxable property amounts to $50,000,000 the rate shall not exceed 5 mills, when it reaches $100,000,000, 3 mills shall be the limit, and when it reaches $300,000,000 the rate shall not exceed 1½ mills; but a greater rate may be established by a vote of the people. No public debt (exclusive of the debt of the Territory of Idaho at the date of its admission to the Union as a state) may be created that exceeds 1½% of the assessed valuation (except in case of war, &c.); the state cannot lend its credit to any corporation, municipality or individual; nor can any county, city or town lend its credit or become a stockholder in any company (except for municipal works). _History._--The first recorded exploration of Idaho by white men was made by Lewis and Clark, who passed along the Snake river to its junction with the Columbia; in 1805 the site of Fort Lemhi in Lemhi county was a rendezvous for two divisions of the Lewis and Clark expedition; later, the united divisions reached a village of the Nez Perce Indians near the south fork of the Clearwater river, where they found traces of visits by other white men. In 1810 Fort Henry, on the Snake river, was established by the Missouri Fur Company, and in the following year a party under the auspices of the Pacific Fur Company descended the Snake river to the Columbia. In 1834 Fort Hall in E. Idaho (Bingham county) was founded. It acquired prominence as the meeting-point of a number of trails to the extreme western parts of North America. Missions to the Indians were also established, both by the Catholics and by the Protestants. But the permanent settlements date from the revelation of Idaho's mineral resources in 1860, when the Coeur d'Alene, Palouses and Nez Perces were in the North, and the Blackfoots, Bannocks and Shoshones in the South. While trading with these Indians, Capt. Pierce learned in the summer of 1860 that there was gold in Idaho. He found it on Orofino Creek, and a great influx followed--coming to Orofino, Newsome, Elk City, Florence, where the ore was especially rich, and Warren. The news of the discovery of the Boisé Basin spread far and wide, and Idaho City, Placerville, Buena Vista, Centreville and Pioneerville grew up. The territory now constituting Idaho was comprised in the Territory of Oregon from 1848 to 1853; from 1853 to 1859 the southern portion of the present state was a part of Oregon, the northern a part of Washington Territory; from 1859 to 1863 the territory was