70 
THE OREGON NATURALIST. 
Inside measurements, 3% inches across 
by 234 inches deep. 
Four grayish eggs, spotted with brown, 
average size I.12 x .79 inches. 
These birds are also called ‘‘Meat Hawks”’ 
and ‘‘Tallow-heads.’? They are quite 
tame in winter and will feed within a few 
feet of wood choppers. 
I also found the Oregon Robin building 
in the same locality about five feet up in a 
small hemlock, but they left the nest be- 
tore completed. 
| examined a nest of the Water Ouzel 
which had a swing door of moss, evident- 
ly made for the purpose of a door to con- 
ceal the opening. 
One day while out ‘‘observing’’, a 
Chestnut-sided Chickadee looked inquisi- 
tively at me from a branch, then hopped 
onto my hatand busily examined it. | 
presume wondering ‘‘what a dry: stump 
that was anyhow.”’ 
At another time a Rufous Humming-bird 
alighted about fifteen inches from my hand 
and looking around a few moments was 
soon away. 
May 7, 1895 Saw the Red-breasted Sap- 
sucker (Sp4yrapicus ruber) feeding on the 
wooly aphis. This was an especially in- 
teresting note as the sapsuckers are not 
generally considered insect eaters, and ‘I 
had never seen or heard of any bird be- 
fore that would eat the wooly aphis. 
Saw the Evening Grossbeak near Ore- 
gon City as late as May 23. 
C. W. Swallow 
MOUNT SAINT HELENS 
Mt. St. Helens, an extinct or nearly ex-, 
tinct volcanic peak,* once alive with the 
terrible force of the volcano: Now cover- 
ed with perpetual snow, is 9.550 feet high, 
was discovered by Broughton of. Vancou- 
ver’s party, Oct. 20 1792, and named in 
honor of His Majesty’s ambassador at 
Madrid. In 1846 known among Americans 
as Mt. Washingtont alsoas Mt. John 
Adams,t and named by the Indians ‘‘Lou- 
wala-clough,”’? meaning Smoking Mount- 
ain. It lies to the north of Mt. Hood in a 
region almost as wild and free from the 
advances of civilization as when first dis- 
covered. 
A steamboat ride down the placid Will- 
amette and the broadening Columbia to 
Woodland on Lewis riveris the first and 
easiest partof a trip to Mt. St. Helens, 
followed by a stage or horse-back ride, or 
walk up the valley of the turbulent Lewis 
river. Leaving the wagon road on the 
north fork of the Lewis river which it has 
followed for 35 miles from its confluence 
with the Columbia through a fertile re- 
gion, we take the trail and single file clam- 
ber over.a seemingly exaggerated hill, and 
descending the other side, emerge’ upon 
the shores of Trout lake, since renamed 
Lake Merrill and cailed by the Indians 
Qual-i-as, meaning Trout. A truly won- 
derful sheet of clear water it is, about two 
miles long by a mile at the widest point. 
It is hemmed in on all sides with the ex- 
ception of a gap at the lower end, by a 
circle of high hills sloping abruptly down 
to the edge of the lake with their splendid 
forests of hemlock, spruce and cedar. 
A plausible supposition is that in place 
of this body of water, there existed a very 
deep canyon and that during an eruption 
of Mt. St. Helens (10 miles distant) the 
flow of moltenlavaformed a dam across 
the mouth of the canyon, and the small 
mountain streams contributed to the for- 
mation of the lake, which they still con- 
tinue to replenish. This theory is further 
strengthened, by the untold depth of its 
waters, the absence of a visible outlet and 
the presence of lava about the supposed 
dam. Excellent fishing may be had here, 
the trout are beautifully spotted and are 
marked under the gills with deep red gashes 
