1002 Sketches of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. 
Jefferson in elevation. These mountains are two of the four some- 
times called the “Three Sisters.” They were given distinct 
names by the late Dr. Hayden, director of the U. S. Geological 
Survey of the Territories, but his ill health and death prevented his 
issuing any publication on the subject. Mount Condon was dedi- 
cated to Professor Thomas Condon, of the University of Oregon, a 
distinguished teacher of geology, and the discoverer of the Miocene 
beds of the John Day river, of Oregon, which have produced so 
many remarkable vertebrate fossil remains. The Batchelor has an 
obtuse apex and resembles somewhat Mount Etna in its outline. 
A general view of these mountains is given in the accompanying 
sketches, which I took from two of our camps. One of the last 
views I gained of the snow-peaks was in the morning as the sun 
rose, The valley of the Des Chutes was, as before described, filled 
with white clouds, and these rose to such an elevation as to conceal 
all but the summits of the volcanic cones. As the sun’s rays rested 
on them they all glowed with such intensity that they could be well 
compared to masses of red-hot iron suspended in the heavens ; and 
by a stretch of imagination be conceived as once more in their hoary 
age, ablaze with their internal fires, attempting to revive the terrible 
glories of the past. 
Our road took us away from these sublime scenes of the upper 
world, to equally extraordinary, if not as gigantic exhibitions of the 
ancient activity of the volcanoes in the bowels of the earth. We 
descended into the canyon of the Des Chutes and followed its cvurse 
for many miles. The descent could not have been less than 2,000 
feet, and was accomplished by zigzags and stages innumerable. 
Prof. Newberry has described this canyon in his report in the series 
of the U. S. Pacific R. R. Survey volumes. Its walls display & 
remarkable section of the materials which the eruptive forces cast 
far and wide, or forced to flow over this afflicted country. High 
upon the walls of the canyon isa horizontal layer of columnar basalt, 
the columns vertical. Below this, separated by many feet of a 
friable deposit, is a stratum of well defined, apparently sedimentary, 
rock. A deep bed of ash is followed below by another bed of 
columnar basalt, and this again after an intermediate soft stratum, 
by a third bed. In the two lower beds the columns are variously 
disposed, They are frequently curved, forming concentric arcs, 
