a) 
ing of soil is also one with which this report has little concern. “Within 
the reserve the damage from this source up to the present time is prac- 
ically nothing. 
On the eastern slope the reserve is drained chietly by the Deschutes 
River; partly, toward the south, by the tributaries of the Klamath 
River. Thesouthern sources of the Deschutes and the principal sources 
of the Klamath River in the Caseades are in a peculiar country, geolog- 
ically. The soil in this region consists chiefly of pulverized pumice 
stone or voleanic ashes. Neither melting snow nor rain falling upon this 
soil is drained off upon the surface, but sinks rapidly and appears in the 
form of enormous springs near the base of the mountains or upon their 
lower slopes. These springs are of nearly uniform flow throughout the 
year, and it is very questionable whether the denudation of these pumice- 
soil areas through forest fires or other causes would have a material effect 
upon their flow, and therefore upon the flow of thestreams that depend 
upon them. These waters are comparatively little used for irrigation 
purposes, but assuming that they will be used to a far greater extent 
hereafter, it is doubtful whether special provisions for the preservation 
of the forest covering in this portion of the Cascades will ever prove 
necessary in this connection. 
In other types of soil, however, such as those which exist from the 
Three Sisters northward—soils in which the water does not at once 
penetrate, but usually flows away on or near the surface—the conditions 
are entirely different, and while no positive and conclusive evidence 
can be presented that such denudation as has taken place up to the 
present time has caused a deficiency of irrigation water, it is clear that 
further denudation might readily do-so. Changes might result which 
would be of serious detriment to the interests of the country, including 
all the area from Tumelow Creek northward to the Columbia. At the 
present time this area is only beginning its development as a grain- 
raising country, and whenever better methods of transportation are 
secured, such as are now promised by a railroad system the construc- 
tion of which has already been begun, the importance of water for irri- 
gation purposes will become constantly greater. 
It was stated by Mr. W. R. Booth, keeper of the toll gate on the 
eastern slope of the Santiam-Prineville road, a man violently opposed 
to mountain sheep grazing, that many of the mountain streamlets that 
formerly flowed throughout the season were now drying up in summer. 
He cited as examples that Cache Creek carries less and less water 
every year, and that a streamlet four miles northwest of the toll gate, 
emptying into Blue Lake and finally into the Metolias, in 1893 flowed 
a full stream, in 1894 less, and in 1895 ‘“‘ went dry.” It was dry in the 
fall of 1896 and again in 1897. Mr. O.C. Yocum, who has lived at 
Government Camp on thesouthwestslope of Mount Hood for fifteen years, 
stated that on areas burned within that period, streamlets that before 
ran all the season now become dry almost as soon as the snow has 
