274 John H. Mitchell— Oregon 
ica. This conclusion is based by scientists on well known geo- 
metric and geographic principles. It is determined in part 
by ascertaining the extent and angle of the rim of the crater 
and taking into consideration the general configuration and com-. 
position of all its surroundings. According to the Geological 
Survey the depth of this crater is 4,000 feet and of the water 2,000 
feet over the greater portion—that is, from the rim of the lake it 
is from 1,500 to 2,000 feet down to the surface of the water, and 
the water is 2,000 feet deep. To add to the strange conforma- 
tion and beauty of this phenomenal lake, located in a mountain 
cup whose rim is indeed in nubibus, there is a second crater 
within the main one, which looms up in a hollow cone 650 feet 
above the surface of the water. This is called “ Wizard island,” 
while still two more similar craters exist which do not reach the 
surface of the water, the top of the one being 450 feet below the 
surface and that of the other 825 feet. 
One writer, Mrs Frances Fuller Victor, in her interesting and 
instructive book entitled “Atlantis Arisen,” in speaking of this 
lake says: 
“One cannot, owing to the sunken position of the lake, discover it 
until close upon its rim, and I say without exaggeration that no pen can 
reproduce its image, no picture be painted to do it justice, nor can it for 
' obvious reasons be satisfactorily photographed. At the first view a dead 
silence fell upon our party. A choking sensation arose in our throats, 
the tears flowed over our cheeks. I do not pretend to analyze the emo - 
tion, but if I were to endeavor to compare it with anything I ever read I 
should say it must be such a feeling which causes the cherubim to veil 
their faces before God. To me it was a revelation.” 
Captain (now Major) C. E. Dutton, in his report of the survey 
of this lake to the Director of the Geological Survey, says: 
“Tt was touching to see the worthy but untutored people who had rid- 
den a hundred miles in freight wagons to behold it vainly striving to 
keep back tears as they poured forth exclamations of wonder and joy akin 
to pain, nor was it less so to see so cultivated and learned a man as my 
companion hardly able to command himself to speak with his customary 
caimness.” 
Did time permit, attention might be attracted to the many 
other interesting characteristics of this wonderland in Lake and 
Klamath counties, in southeastern Oregon. I might point to 
Upper and Lower Klamath lakes, to Link river uniting the two, 
with its valuable water power, having a fall of sixty-four feet in 
