8 FIELD OPERATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF SOILS, 1912. 



tous to vertical walls of basalt. Above that point nearly to the 

 northern boundary of T. 4 N., R. 10 E., the river has a shallow, 

 rocky bed, and the adjacent land is the sloping and rolling floor 

 of a shghtly elevated, eroded valley. Above the southern part of 

 section 12 of this townsliip the stream is again confined in a nar- 

 row canyon, the walls of which are commonly vertical and from 

 20 to 75 feet in height. 



No streams of any importance enter the river from the west, as 

 the crest of the watershed between the White Salmon and Little 

 White Salmon Rivers is but a few miles distant and there is not 

 enough surface drainage to form large or permanent streams. In 

 the eastern part of the valley there are two streams tributary to the 

 White Salmon — Rattlesnake and Gilmer Creeks, which are of con- 

 siderable size, and drain extensive areas of mountain and hill land 

 along their courses. 



With the exception of a single narrow body of alluvial soil just south 

 of Bingen, the Columbia River, on the Washington side, is bordered 

 either by a steep, rocky slope, or by vertical walls of columnar basalt, 

 which in many places rise directly from the margin of the stream. 

 On the slopes above these cliffs north of Underwood and Hood, sit- 

 uated at the foot of the cliffs in the Columbia River gorge, and near 

 the town of White Salmon upon the bluff, there are areas of relatively 

 level bench or terrace lands, and these, together with the gentle 

 undulations and slopes and level areas of lower lands along the 

 Wliite Salmon River, form practically all of the area that can be 

 called reasonably level. The remaining part of the area in Washing- 

 ton is made up of the mountain and hill slopes, with varying declivi- 

 ties, not uncommonly too steep for cultivation, and often traversed 

 by deep ravines. On the crests of the ridges, where dissection has 

 not reached an advanced stage, there are small, irregular sections of 

 land where the slopes are not pronounced, but such areas are seldom 

 of great extent and are of little importance agriculturally. 



The crests of the mountains, the lower slopes, and the larger part 

 of the floors of both valleys were originally covered with a dense 

 growth of pine and fir. (Pis. I and II.) Along the stream bottoms 

 the native vegetation is so dense as to approach the character of a 

 jungle, Cottonwood and willow being the principal trees, with an 

 impenetrable undergrowth of vines and brush. 



Prior to the advent of white settlers this portion of the Northwest 

 was inhabited only by scattering tribes of Indians, who subsisted 

 u])on the roots, bulbs, and seeds of a variety of native plants and upon 

 fish caught in the Columbia River and tributary streams. More or 

 less opposition was offered by the Indians to the immigration of the 

 whites, but ('xce))ting on two or three occasions, when their attacks 

 were unusually severe and led to organized campaigns against them, 



