SHASTA ROUTE SEATTLE TO SAT^ FRANCISCO. 47 



+ 



r 



Northwest of Glendale there are two prominent peaks of green- 

 stone— Grayback, 4,033 feet above the sea, and Panther Butte, 3,517 



feet. On leaving Glendale the train passes over a 

 Glendale. mass of siliceous reddish lava (rhyolite), and beyond 



Elevation 1,437 feet, this IS the greenstone that forms the divide between 



Seattle 449 miles. Umpqua and Rogue rivers. The crest of the divide 



also forms the bomidary between Douglas and Jose- 

 phine counties. The dividing ridge is penetrated by a straight 

 tunnel (No. 8), 2,828 feet in length and 420 feet below the summit. 

 Tlie basin of Rogue River is traversed by the railroad to the summit 

 of the Siskiyou Mountains, a distance of 93 miles. Be3^ond the 

 tunnel the railroad descends by a long sweepmg curve into the 

 Wolf Creek valley. 



The station of Wolf Creek was formerly one of the hostelries 



on the old California-Oregon stage Ime. The small 

 Wolf Creek. power house on the left (south) is the northernmost 



Elevation 1,319 feet, station ou the power line from Gold Ray, 50 miles 



se^t^de 455"^!^. ahead on the edge of the Rogue River valley. Wolf 



Creek runs through a gold coimtry, and in the early 

 days many gold placers were worked in this vicinity. 



Much of the primeval timber along Wolf Creek has been pine 

 and oak, but madrona and other broad-leaved trees are now taking 

 the place of the conifers. Buck brush (Ceanothus velutinus), with 

 its broadly ovate or elliptical shiny leaves, and tree myrtle {Ceanothus 

 sorediatus)j with its small oblong ovate light-green leaves, are common 

 in the thickets of chaparral in southern Oregon. Blue brush or 

 California lilac {Ceanothus thyrsifiorus), with its tiny leaves and 

 blue to white lilac-like flowers, which are good for cattle, soon appears 

 in incrcasmg numbers. By the roadside in June plants of the so- 

 called Oregon grape or Mahonia {Bcrhcris aqiiifolium) , the State 

 flower of Oregon, are full of bluish berries. 



At milcpost 497 the railroad crosses Grave Creek close to a placer 

 mine, where water-supply pipes for hydraulicking and the gravel 

 dumps left from former operations can be seen. Beyond Grave 

 Creek is a broad belt of slates, probably for the most part Mesozoic. 

 The name Grave Creek is suggestive of the old rough days of gulch 

 mining, and the gravels along the creek did in fact yield considerable 

 gold to the early placer miners. The metal in the placers is thought 

 to have been derived by erosion from the Greenback lode, on the 

 divide north of the creek. This lode was worked years ago, but the 

 mine is now idle. 



