II 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 16. 



The south aiui east sides, except the deep cauyoiis of Mud, Ash, and 

 Bl•e^Ye^ creeks, ;ire fair travoliiiji' for mountain liorses. The north side, 

 below the great glaciers, is interrupted by exceedingly rough lava 

 ridges and the terrible canyons of Bolani and Whitney creeks. The 

 west side, though scored by only a single notable canyon — Dillcr Can- 

 yon (1)1. II) — is by far the most <lifticult. After crossing the tremendous 

 slopes of steep and sharp slide rock, very dangerous lor horses, on the 

 northwest side of Shastina, and surmounting the two i)rincipal lava 

 ridges west of Shastina Creek, the way to Diller Canyon is comparatively 

 easy. But l)etwecn Diller Canyon and Cascade Ciulch, a mile or so north 

 of Horse Camp, and extending from timberline downward several thou- 

 sand feet, is a chaos of lava the like of which I have never seen. It 

 suggests the worst i)arts of the Snake Kiver and ^Modoc lava beds 

 turned up on end — basins, ridges, and tumultuous piles without order 

 or direction, witliout beginning or ending — dry basins that empty 

 nowhere, drier ridges that lead nowhere, until one is worn out with 

 thirst and eflbrts to escape. The whole is hidden in a dark forest of 

 Shasta firs whose hardy tiunks force themselves out between the lava 

 blocks in ways that almost surpass belief. Finally all this stops as 

 suddenly as it began, and one emerges from the dark inferno to slake 

 his thirst in the refreshing i)o<)ls of Cascade Gulch — known only to the 

 deer — and. with a sense of infinite relief, reenters the area of pumice 



sand and gray shale 

 which stretches away 

 to the southeast and 

 thence onward around 

 three (juarters of the 

 mountain. 



The timbered valley 

 at the west base of 

 Shasta falls away both 

 to the south and to the 

 north. On the south 

 it drains immediately 

 into the Sacramento 

 Iviver; on the north 

 into the Shasta liiver, 

 wliich traverses Shasta 

 \'alle\' and empties 

 into Klamath liiver. 

 Shasta Valley is an 

 ()l)en plain northwest 

 of the nu>untain; it is lowest at the north, and its northwestern cor- 

 ner ends in a pocket or basin containing the mining town of Yreka, 

 whi(th is doubtless the hottest part of northern (California west of the 

 axis of tiie Sierra-Cascade system. 





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X3 



(• .s.iiiil .ili.N'.u \wlli ;:r.i> \(jliaiiic sliiilc. Touiiji 

 ill loriMiiiiiiiKl ; wliilc-liiiiU iiiiii'.H in (li,staM(('. 



