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some six miles east of the town of Gervais to the Willamette 

 River near Wheatland. It is only a few hundred feet wide at the 

 northern end, but broadens gradually until it reaches a width of 

 about a quarter of a mile. At no point is its surface more than 

 thirty feet below the level of the surrounding country, and toward 

 the northern end not more than ten feet. Its origin is somewhat 

 doubtful; but I am inclined to think that it represents an old 

 river-channel. At the point where it approaches Pudding River, 

 the latter stream makes a sharp bend to the north, and may have 

 been turned from its original channel by some slight local up- 

 heaval, or even by the agency of beavers, which were at one time 

 very abundant in this basin. 



Within the memory of the present generation the lake was an 

 actual body of water; but extensive drainage operations have 

 drawn this off in the direction of the Willamette until there is 

 standing water only at the northern end, which remains an al- 

 most impenetrable tangle of brush and hydrophytic vegetation. 

 The drained area affords a deep black peaty soil of almost in- 

 exhaustible fertility, and is largely devoted by Japanese market- 

 gardeners to the production of onions. 



This drainage and cultivation has tended to destroy the 

 original vegetation, and the region is rapidly losing its charac- 

 teristic flora. It seems to have been discovered botanically by 

 that pioneer collector, Thomas Howell, who refers to it fre- 

 quently in his Flora of Northwest America; but of recent years 

 it has not received the attention which it deserves. 



In an attempt to verify Howell's work, and to become as famil- 

 iar as possible with the rapidly-vanishing flora before it is en- 

 tirely extinct, I have explored the whole area of the original 

 lake-bed, and have secured specimens of a number of plants that 

 so far as I know are not found elsewhere in this county — some 

 perhaps not in the State. The following selections from the list 

 may serve to indicate the surprising character of the flora. It 

 will be observed that we have here a strange conglomeration of 

 maritime and mountain species, assembled in a region remote 

 from either habitat; and the problem of how they found their 

 way into this district is one that still awaits an answer. 



