250 Notes on Upper California. 



The Peak is oije of the lofty volcanos of the Cascade range. 

 It had two summits as seen from the southwest, and between 

 them there seemed to be a depressed plain ; but no distinct cra- 

 ter could be made out in the distant view. Each summit had 

 probably been a separate place of ejection ; the smaller appeared 

 as if it might bear the same relation to the larger, as Vesuvius to 

 Somma. The sides were covered with loose fragments, without 

 vegetation where in sight, and had the ashy color of the trachytic 

 rocks passed on our route. The snow was in banks or patches 

 about the more sheltered parts of the top, and not in an unbroken 

 coat, as about St. Helens. The declivities were in general but 

 little broken ; but the southwestern face, from the summit down 

 three or four thousand feet, was intersected by projecting ridges 

 of rock that stood out in points and walls and cast long shadows 

 over the slopes ; these shadows indicating a height of at least 

 some hundreds of feet. They were evidently walls or dikes 

 of volcanic rock filling former fissures in the crater, and now 

 projecting owing to the removal of the rock material that enclo- 

 sed them. 



No time was allowed for closer exploration, as the party con- 

 tinued its course without stopping. 



The only traces of existing fires in the vicinity of the Shasty 

 volcano are found in a hot spring described to me by Mr. Mac Kay, 

 as occurring to the east of the Peak, near a track sometimes ta- 

 ken by parties to California. It is said to issue from among the 

 rocks, and my informant assured me that he had boiled eggs in 

 its waters. The stream running from it had worn the rocks 

 smooth and formed a small basin below, which was much tre- 

 quented by the mountain sheep. 



Obsidian or volcanic glass is said to occur in some parts of the 

 Shasty region;" but we met with none of it. The Shasty In- 

 dians use this material for their arrow-heads, which they work 

 out with great skill and delicacy. 



Within eight or nine miles of our preceding encampment a 

 tributary of the Sacramento was flowing at our feet, and half an 

 hour beyond, our camp was pitched on another of the streamlets 

 flowing from the Shasty mountains and forming one of the be- 

 ginnings of the large California river. 



October 4. — The thermometer at 2 A. M. on the morning 

 of the 4th, stood at 32£° F. We were off on our way through 

 dense forests of evergreens, and soon left an undulating country 

 by a descent into a gorge two hundred and fifty feet in depth. 

 The rock thus far trachyte and evidently pertaining to the Shasty 

 eruptions, soon changed to the talcose rock formation, and ] b- 

 bles of quartz and talcose slate were abundant along the bed ot 

 a rivulet. Again we passed for a few miles to trachyte, and be- 

 fore finally leaving this rock, we came upon a small Chalybeate 





