TOPOGRAPHICAL REPORT ON WESTERN DIVISION. 207 



basaltic, and there are frequent occurrences of craters, some of which are very deep ; and basaltic 

 columns, which have yielded to time and the atmosphere, are crumbled into huge irregular masses. 

 The lower table-lands are well timbered (where they have not been burnt over by fire) with fir, 

 spruce, and pine ; but the higher ones are too elevated for flourishing vegetation, and are only 

 covered in patches with a few dwarf fir trees and stunted pines. The fir and hemlock are 

 generally replaced by pine on the summits of mountains and other elevated positions, the former 

 flourishing best and growing larger in the low countries and along the streams. The latitude 

 of Chequoss is north 45 56 ; the longitude is west 121 23 11&quot;; variation of needle is east 

 16 5 34&quot;. From a high, elevated point, one mile west of CKequoss, a fine view of the Cascade 

 mountains presents itself. From this point I was able to get a pretty accurate plan of the mount 

 ains and the general lay of the chains. From this point Mount Rainier bears north 1 west, and 

 is about sixty-two miles distant in a direct line. Mount St. Helens bears north 46 west about 

 forty miles off&quot;. Mount Adams bears north 40 east at the distance of twenty-four miles. Mount 

 Hood bears south 9 30 east ; Mount Jefferson south 45 east. There appears to be one con 

 tinuous high range running from near the Cascades of the Columbia north to St. Helens, and 

 proceeding on to the northeast, connecting this mount with Mount Rainier. There seems to be a 

 lower point in this connecting range just north of Mount St. Helens, as if some river, emptying 

 into the sound, passed through it. It is not a gorge, however, and there are five distinct parallel 

 ranges running into Mount Rainier, and lying between Chequoss and St. Helens. A second main 

 range commences about the mouth of the White Salmon river, and runs up to Mount Adams, and 

 continues on to the northward, connecting Adams with Rainier. A third chain commences at the 

 mouth of the Klikatat river, a light fork of which runs up to Mount Adams on the north, and the 

 heavier chain bears off to the north of east, and proceeds to the mouth of the Yakima. The 

 eastern branches of the Klikatat river head in this last range. 



Chequoss is on the second chain from the White Salmon river north to Mount Adams. There 

 are several sharp needle-points to the south of Mount Rainier, and the mountains in that, vicinity 

 are very irregular and thrown together in every variety of manner. There is also a curious 

 cathedral-shaped mountain to the south of Mount Adams, on the chain leading to Chequoss. 

 Looking towards the south, there are four parallel ranges between Chequoss and Mount Hood; 

 and thence, allowing one of these to be the river chain, on its southern bank, we have three ranges 

 between Chequoss and the Columbia. The intervening country between these chains is mount 

 ainous; in some places rough and broken, in others high rolling table-land. 



From Chequoss the trail bears north of east for fourteen miles to the Hoolhoolse river, descend 

 ing the whole distance; abrupt descent in first two and a quarter miles, the rest of the distance 

 being gradual. There is a small lake, a quarter of a mile long, in a lava district at the foot of the 

 abrupt descent, and on the left of the trail. It is surrounded by a large growth of cotton-wood 

 and poplar. 



The main branch of the Klikatat river comes in from the north, and crosses the trail four miles 

 beyond the lake. This stream is bold and rapid, thirty feet wide and two deep fording good. 

 This stream may at one time have been a branch of the Nikepun. As the country descends 

 towards the Hoolhoolse, from it, and an old dry bed is frequently crossed by the trail between 

 these points. The last five or six miles of this dry channel before reaching the Hoalhoolse is 

 basaltic, the basalt arching the channel and making it subterranean depth of the key of the arch 

 from four to six feet, and bottom of channel from twenty-five to thirty feet below the surface. 

 The arch has fallen in in places, forming natural shafts at irregular intervals, by which you are 

 enabled to trace on the surface the course and direction of the channel underground. The Indians 

 have a curious tradition concerning this subterranean passage. Once upon a time a great chief 

 of the &quot;Eliptillicum&quot; had a wife who was changed into a mouse at his request by one of the 

 learned medicine men of the time, as a just punishment for some misdemeanor or other that the 

 women of those days were always committing. But the woman s soul, not profiting by the lesson 



