270 John H. Mitchell—Oregon 
Coquille, the Nestucca, the Nehalem, the Sandy, the John Day, 
the Link, the Lost, the Deschutes, the Umatilla, the Grande 
Ronde, the Powder, and others of less magnitude and signifi- 
cance, including innumerable streams, pure as the snow of the 
mountain sides whence they spring and filled with trout and 
other edible fishes ; grand lakes, which mirror back in sublime 
beauty their mountain walls of granite, fringed with the waving 
branches of stately firs; extensive caverns, brilliant in stalactites 
and cooled by running mountain streams of living waters ; and 
lastly, voleanic regions, bearing on their encrusted surface the 
very picture of' desolation, thus far successfully defying the 
ingenuity of man and every effort at reclamation. It is grati- 
fying, however, to be able to say that this character of configura- 
tion is confined to a very small area in southeastern Oregon, 
probably in all less than 1,000 square miles, known as the “ Lava 
Beds.” Here it was that General Canby and the Reverend Dr 
Thomas, peace commissioners, lost their lives while treating with 
the Indians, in 1872, an Indian desperado known as Captain 
Jack leading the murderous attack. Peace commissioner Colonel 
A. B. Meacham, an Oregon pioneer, was seriously wounded at 
the same time. 
Oregon is divided north and south by three mountain ranges, 
separating the state into four tiers of fertile valleys. First, the 
Coast range, running parallel with the Pacific ocean the length 
of the entire state, and on an average distant some 40 miles from 
the coast, separating the Nehalem, Tillamook, Alsea and other 
coast valleys from the valley of the Willamette; second, the 
Cascade range, running also north and south parallel with the 
Coast range, distant from the latter on an average 75 to 100 
miles, and separating the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue river 
valleys from the great Inland Empire in eastern Oregon, inelud- 
ing the valleys of Umatilla, Ochoco and other grazing plains 
lying to the eastward ; and, third, the Blue mountains, running 
from southeast to northwest, separating these valleys again from 
the magnificent wheat fields of the Grand Ronde, Powder river, 
Wallowa, Snake river and other valleys in the counties of Union, 
Baker, Grant and Harney, in the region in which are located 
La Grande, Union, Baker City, Ontario, Huntington, Canyon City, 
and numerous flourishing mining and commercial towns. 
Again, the state is divided in the other direction by the Cala- 
pooia mountains, crossing the state from east to west, from the 
