NORTHERN PART. 213 



Timber of the best kind may be procured, in any quantity, from the ad- 

 joining mountains, and, to a limited extent, from the valley. 



Trappers speak of the Grand Rond with an enthusiasm which is cordi- 

 ally responded to by all who have hitherto visited it. So far as soil and 

 climate are concerned, a better section of country than this is rarely 

 found. 



Southeast from the place last described, sixty miles or more, lies a long 

 stretch of desolate country which bears a strikingly volcanic appearance. 

 This region is thickly paved with vast piles of lava and igneous rock, 

 strown about in confused fragments, as if the mountains had been rent 

 asunder and dashed in horrid medley upon the adjoining plains, and earth, 

 itself, had undergone all the indescribable contorsions of more than 

 agony, — now opening in frightful chasms, — now vibrating with unheard- 

 of violence, oversetting hills and rooting them from their foundations by 

 the impetuosity of its motion, or elevating half vertically, the immense 

 layers of subterranean rock forming the valves of distorted fissures, and 

 depressing the opposing ones in frightful contrast, — in haste to complete 

 the picture of destruction by an imposing array of wild and savage scenery. 

 Numerous boiling springs are also found among these wide-spread heaps 

 of ruined nature whose waters are frequently so hot that meat may be 

 cooked in a very few minutes by submersion in them. 



Several streams trace their way through this region, affording occasional 

 bottoms of fertile soil and luxuriant vegetation, that smile with bewitching 

 enchantment upon the relentless havoc surrounding them. 



Upon Clarke's river and its tributaries, as well as the numerous lakes 

 adjacent to them, there are large quantities of excellent land, well adapted 

 to agricultural and grazing purposes. The hills, too, are generally studded 

 with dense forests of pine and fir, some of them of gigantic growth, while 

 the intervning plateaux and high prairies present frequent intervals of 

 lusty grasses. 



The same may be said, though in a more restricted sense, of most of the 

 country lying between Clarke's river and the Columbia. 



The streams of water and lakes are most of them skirted with bottoms 

 and valleys of greater or less extent, tolerably well timbered, while the 

 neighboring hills afford frequent groves of heavy pines, diversified with 

 openings of grass-clad prairies or of denuded barrenness. 



Many interesting localities lie along the Columbia, above the confluence 

 of Clarke's river, as well as upon the several tributaries finding their way 

 into it. A tract of country circumjacent to the Lower Lake possesses a 

 rich /5oil, with other advantages, which in due time will command the atten- 

 tion of emigrants. 



The section lying still north of this is but little better than a barren 

 waste of frost and snow, with now and then choice spots of rank vegeta- 

 tion and rich floral beauty, shut up in their stern recesses, in wonderful 

 contrast with the savage sublimity and wild disorder of the masses of naked 

 rock that surround them. 



Frasier's river has an extensive valley of excellent and well timbered 

 land, skirting it in variable width, from mouth to source. The same may 

 be said of many of its tributaries. The Chilkeelis, also, possesses many 

 choice spots. 



