476 GEOLOGY OF CENTRAL WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 



This and Mount Baker are the only volcanoes at present active in the chain. Its last considera 

 ble eruption was in 1S42, when it covered the country as far as Vancouver and the Dalles with 

 ashes, and presented a luminous appearance after the smoke had cleared off! The Indians report 

 that there were once three mountains that smoked always, Mount Hood and Mount Adams being 

 the others. Respecting Mounts Hood and St. Helens, they have a characteristic tale to the effect 

 that they were man and wife ; that they finally quarrelled and threw fire at one another, and 

 that St. Helens was the victor ; since when Mount Hood has been afraid, while St. Helens, 

 having a stout heart, still burns. In some versions this story is connected with the slide which 

 formed the Cascades of the Columbia, and by damming up the water inundated the iorest, the 

 remains of which are now visible along its margin. The date of this event Lewis and Clark 

 fixed at about thirty years belbre their arrival. It is very probable that it may have been 

 due to an earthquake, as they, though not frequent, are known upon the coast. The Indians 

 have no tradition of an eruption of lava; they have only seen smoke and ashes come out of 

 the mountain. They add that a bad smell came from it, and that the fish in the streams died. 

 Around the foot of St. Helens, they say, the ashes lie so deep and soft that horses cannot travel. 

 The state of the weather, and the more urgent business of the survey, prevented an attempt to 

 ascend either of the mountains. 



The descent of the Cascade range to the east is far more gradual than on the western side, 

 and the slope comparatively uninterrupted. About four miles from Chequoss, and probably 

 seven hundred feet below it, there is another lava field, broken up into mounds like the two for 

 mer. We found on its verge a small lake of irregular form, and occupying, when full, about 

 one hundred acres , but at the time very low. It is sunk a few feet beneath the general surface ; 

 is shallow, and the water clear and cold. There was no visible outlet, nor any motion indi 

 cating a sink, though it received three brooks, one of them fifteen feet across. At the lower end 

 large piles of drift-wood, including trees two and three feet in diameter, had been washed on 

 to the field to the height of some twenty feet at the point of escape during freshets. It was 

 somewhat remarkable that this pond was surrounded by gigantic cotton-wood trees, though the 

 elevation was not less than three thousand three hundred feet. One of the party, who had 

 passed through the woods between the lake and Mount Adams, reported that the lava did not 

 extend in that direction ; but whether this arose from its being overlaid with soil, or from 

 having some other source, could not be decided without further examination. The country 

 being covered with burnt forest and underbrush, this was not easy to make. The lake itself 

 was evidently not the crater from which it flowed. Its course would seem to have been 

 from that mountain and towards the Columbia through the valley of the White Salmon, as a 

 dividing ridge separates it from the Klikatat river to the east. The lava here, and generally 

 upon the eastern slope of the mountains, appeared much older than that upon the Cathlapoot l, 

 the sharpness of fracture being lost, and the surface being more decomposed. Leaving the 

 waters of the White Salmon and crossing a dividing ridge, the trail descended to the Klikatat, a 

 larger stream, heading on the east side of Mount Adams, and, like the last, emptying into the 

 Columbia between the Dalles and the Cascades. Here we met another field of lava, through 

 which ran a line of openings caused by the falling in of the rock covering a vaulted passage. 

 Though dry at the time of our journey, this is evidently during the winter the bed of a torrent 

 which runs towards the Klikatat. Apparently the lava, in overflowing the original bed, had 

 come in contact with sufficient moisture to elevate without rupturing it. The upper stratum was 

 about eighteen inches thick, and regularly arched ; its semi-columnar structure giving it the 

 appearance of keyed joints. The lower were more or less distorted, and varied from a few 

 inches to several feet in thickness. They .differ also in structure, being much more compact. 

 All of them exhibited a large proportion of feldspar, which seems to be the characteristic of 

 those streams supposed to be traceable to these two mountains; as distinguished from the basalt 

 of the plains. The roof of this passage was broken through at short intervals, and large 



