234 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Sept. 26, 1903. 
Klamath and Crater Lakes. — IL 
Forty-six miles north of the Poplars lies Crater 
Lake, the sunken summit of its mountain being plainly 
in view. All who had been there were enthusiastic in 
Zheir praises of this Oregon wonder, and we decided 
to visit it. But our idle life on a rich trout diet for 
the last two weeks had rendered us fat and lazy; we 
did.not relish a pedestrian trip, and started an invesr 
tigation for saddle horses. Most of the best animals 
were engaged in cutting, raking and hauling hay; but 
Griffith soon hustled up a couple of genuine cayuse 
ponies. They could not be called beautiful from an 
artistic point of view, and I could not help thinking 
of Mark Twain's description of the wild steeds of the 
desert in "Innocents Abroad," but they proved to be 
better than they looked, and carried us there and back 
in a very satisfactory manner. When I mounted mine 
of a morning under a cold saddle, he had a habit of ex- 
tending his forefeet and sinking down until his body 
nearly or quite touched the ground. This rather alarm- 
ing peculiarity so suggestive of a fractured spinal 
column gave me some concern at first, but as it was 
never repeated on the same day, I decided it was tlie 
result of early training. 
Our route for ten miles lay tlirough the fir and 
tamarack, with occasional glimpses on our right of 
the great marsh through which winds Crystal creek, 
the lake itself being nearly three miles away. Leaving 
this, we crossed a beautifully clear stream called Seven 
Mile creek, running bank full and well stocked with 
trout. We now entered a large valley with many hay 
fields of several hundred acres under one fence, where 
mowers were running in every direction. Horse flics 
were very numerous, and all the working animals were 
covered from nose to tail with nets or sacking. 
An hour's ride brought us to Fort Klamath, a little 
settlement several miles away from the old fort itself, 
and the supply point for this great valley. This is the 
nearest point to the Poplars, having daily stage con- 
nection with the railroad. We stopped here long 
enough to get a few groceries and then rode several 
miles farther and encamped in a cotton wood grove 
on the bank of a small stream, twentj^-six miles from 
the Poplars. Thirty years before I had often ridden 
all day and. all the ensuing night in a Texas stampede 
without being extremely fatigued, but I must confess 
that I was in a Avorse condition after my first day's 
ride to Crater Lake than I was after the thirty-mile 
.yalk the evening I camped at Rock creek. 
Klamath is fairly well timbered, although the gen- 
eral quality is inferior to that nearer the coast; but 
the wanton destruction by lumbermen was even more 
glaring than I had found elsewhere. Hundreds of 
trees had been felled, and for some unknown reason 
left to rot; making, as fuel for forest fires, a constant 
menace to what remained. This was strikingly illus- 
trated along our route the next day where a late forest 
fire had left scarcely a living thing behind it for many 
miles. 
Ihe altitude rapidly increased as we approached 
our destination that afternoon, going along the banks 
of the Anna, whose swift waters had cut their Avay a 
thousand feet deep through perpendicular cliffs of solid 
rock, which, in places, made it a minature Yosemite. 
When within about six miles of the lake, our horses 
were attacked by a large and very vicious fly, whose 
bite drew blood instantly. They were so numerous 
and bold that several times I killed three or four with 
a smgle slap of the hand on the shoulder of my horse; 
and we passed a white mare picketed, the bare side 
of whose neck was bathed in blood. The Government 
has wisely set aside a large tract surrounding the lake 
as a reservation, and the superintendent, with a gang 
of men, was building a bridge across the Anna and 
laymg out a shorter route, cutting off about two miles 
in the last five by the old route. The park regulations, 
which were posted upon trees in many places, could 
elicit nothing but the warmest commendation from all 
law abiding men. They had been framed with the sole 
view of giving all every possible indulgence that did not 
threaten injury to this great scenic attraction, as rob 
future visitors of some of its charms. The superinten- 
dent was a thorough gentleman, as we found all those 
to be m our southern outing last year, and none but 
'fevildoers will experience anj^thing but the most cour- 
teous treatment. I never before in visiting these parks 
realized how anxious the Government was to give the 
people e.very enjoyment that these great reserves could 
furnish; 
When about a mile from the summit we passed the 
tents of several parties encamped at the last running 
water. The snoAv falls here several feet deep in winter, 
and large drifts of it now began to appear in the deeply 
shaded spots so solidly packed that our horses' feet 
made but little impression upon it. As we neared the 
rim of the crater we left the forest, and when we rode 
■to the crest of a ridge of volcanic sand, Oregon's 
greatest wonder in all its wild, weird grandeur lay 
within one cast of vision, revealed to our view. 
Imagine a mountain that may have been as large as 
Shasta with the upper two-thirds blown entirely away 
by sorne tremendous internal force and the remaining 
base disemboweled to an unknown depth until it re- 
sembled a gigantic mush bowl, rather longer from east 
to west than from north to south, with an area of 
five by seven miles, but so deceptive because of the 
purity of both air and water that it does not look 
one-quarter as large; partially fill this great cavity with 
water so. pure that Tahoe, which has always been con- 
sidered the standard in that respect, must take second 
place; put near the western end a lone cone-shaped 
island 800 feet high, sparsely covered with firs— and 
you will have s®me idea of what we saw at the first 
glance. 
The water, which is a most beautiful shade of blue 
has been sounded by the Government surveyors to the 
depth of 2,600 feet without finding bottom, and its 
surface was 2,000 feet below the point upon which we 
were standing. This was about the average height of 
the rim, which was quite uniform, very few spots were 
any less, but at two or three points "high and almost 
perpendicular bluffs of solid rock rose to 3,000 and even 
3,500 feet. Facing any point of the crater from where 
we stood, nothing else was in sight except to the 
northwest, where a singular finger-like peak of rock 
about twenty miles distant rose nearly 2,000 feet 
higher. 
The sides of the crater were, for the most part, too 
steep for vegetable growth; but in places a few scrubby 
trees were clinging to its sides, and in others snow 
drifts extended to the water's edge. There are two 
places where the water can be reached by going down 
rifts or waterways, and a boat that made trips to the 
island was in use in former years, but we saw nothing 
of it during our stay. To reach the island from this 
shore requires half an hour's pull by a good oarsman, 
although from appearance five minutes would be a lib- 
eral estimate. It looked about a good gunshot away, 
but a rifle ball fired at it struck the water less than half 
the distance. In the top of the island is a small crater 
300 feet wide by 100 deep, its sides composed of ashes, 
cinders and volcanic scoria, having an angle of about 
45 degrees. It has no water in it, and is evidently the 
result of the last expiring throe of the great convulsion 
that left this section in its present condition. 
No living thing of fin, fur or feather ruffled the 
glass-like surface of the water; no song birds caroled 
upon its banks or winged their way from shore to 
shore. I looked for the little water angel so common 
elsewhere, thinking that he at least for such water as 
this would ignore any surroundings, however uncanny; 
but I looked in vain. The silence was that of the 
desert. The probable cause of this was not far to 
sprung into view; but the coming of the white man. may 
have exorcised the spirits of darkness, for nothing of 
the kind occurred. Over our heads the moon, now 
in her first quarter, gradually replaced with her un- 
certain radiance the light of the departing day; but still 
we lingered, finding it difficult to leave a spot that 
aroused emotion so foreign to those engendered in 
the more prosaic walks of life. 
Before leaving the Poplars, we had been warned 
of the insect pests of Crater Lake. The horse flies, 
we had already discovered, came fully up to the de- 
scription. The mosquitoes were represented to be of 
a brand superior to any that could be found elsewhere. 
Unaffected by any temperature above zero, they were 
said to be so persistent that the ordinary safeguards 
were of no avail, and their bite was so venomous that 
it resulted in something very much like a carbuncle 
boil. Now, as the Poplars had an article of its own 
of that kind, which had commanded our most profound 
respect, a warning from such a source was not to be 
disregarded; and we had provided ourselves with bars 
of dorble thickness and elaborate construction, which 
we felt would be equal to any emergency. But no 
mosquitoes came near us, as we sat upon the bluff in 
the gloaming, where we could take in the whole weird 
landscape; for they, too, like all other living beings, 
except ourselves, seemed to shun a locality whose sur- 
roundings constantly reminded one of the unhallowed 
abode of goblins and satyrs. 
On our right the sickly rays of the half-grown moon 
threw the uncertain outlines of the overhanging cliffs 
far out into the liquid depths below. On the left lay 
the island, whose somber summit darkened all that end 
of the lake. On the opposite side long, narrow banks 
of snow, like groups of shrouded ghosts, stooped to the 
1 1 1 1 u' * • 
A BIT OF LINKVILLE, DESCRIBED BY FORKED DEER IN HIS FIRST PAPER. 
seek. Its great depth and ice cold waters precluded 
the growth of either aquatic vegetable or insect life; 
there was no food there. Some enthusiastic sportsmen 
two years before had at great trouble and some ex- 
pense placed some trout there, but they were never 
seen nor heard of afterward; pumice stone, lava, ashes 
and scoria were too much for their delicate stomachs, 
and there was little else.* 
The sun was now fast sinking in the west; neither 
the horses or their riders had eaten anything since 
early morning, and reluctantl}'- we withdrew from the 
strangely fascinating spectacle into the edge of the 
timber, where we made our camp for the night after 
putting trail ropes to our horses and turning them 
loose to enable them to fight the savage flies to better 
advantage. 
The dearth of water at this elevation' was n.ot a seri- 
ous condition; the grass was green and succulent, and 
for our cuisine we went to the neighboring snow 
banks. As soon as we had cleared away the supper 
dishes and arranged the blankets for night we hurried 
back to the lake. For all who visit it there is a strange 
attraction in that mysterious sheet of water and its 
unique environment that is as strange as it is inexplica- 
ble. To the primitive and superstitious redmen, who for 
ages had dwelt beneath its shadow, it was the abode 
of an evil spirit, which at dark arose to the surface 
ready to destroy the unlucky mortal who had the 
temerity to linger upon its shores; and to-day they 
speak of it with awe, and none can be persuaded to 
tarry there after nightfall. 
It was after sunset when we seated ourselves on a 
prominent point that commanded a view of every por- 
tion of the lake. The walls of the crater were falling 
into the shadow and the water had changed to an 
indigo color. No sound came from its depths. Dark, 
motionless and awe inspiring it lay far below the side 
of the "House of Usher." 
The hoot of an owl, the croak of a raven, would 
have been a welcome sound, but even these birds of 
evil omen shunned the sinister shores. Something like 
this I fancy may exist on the verdureless mountains 
of our satellite, but it did not seem quite to belong to 
our own planet. We would hardly have been surprised 
had the waters parted and the friend of Indian imagery 
[*PossibIy Lewis' woodpecker (,Melanert"'s torqmtus (Wilson)), 
Ed.*] . ,^ , 
water's edge; and away beyond them all arose the 
silhouette of that strange finger-like peak, an isolated 
but harmonious landmark in a region exactly suited 
for the brewing of the witches of Macbeth or the in- 
cantations of Herzog. 
As we entered the timber on our return to camp, 
the Crater Lake brand of mosquitoes met us in force. 
To use a western expression, they were there with 
both feet; and from their enthusiastic reception we in- 
ferred that nothing quite so satisfying as we were had 
come that way for some time. In vain did we try to 
rout them with a smudge. Clouds of smoke that 
nearly suffocated us were to them as the spicy gales 
of "Araby the Blest," only the double netting saved 
lis from extermination or an ignominious retreat; and 
beneath its sheltering folds we sank calmly into slum- 
ber, with a hum about us like that from a swarm of 
enraged bees. When we awoke the next morning, we 
found that some of the more enterprising ones had 
succeeded in getting through one thickness, but had 
then become entangled and had miserably perished. In 
the vast marshes that surround Klamath Lake, we 
could easily account for their abundance there; but 
where they came from on this steep mountain side 
was a mystery we could not solve: It is certain that 
they did not breed in the icy waters of the lake. There 
were no stagnant pools or in fact water of any kind, 
in quantities very near, and we finally decided that 
they must be of the Alaska variety that breed in the 
snow drifts. 
Fifteen miles north of Crater Lake is one of the 
most extraordinary huckleberry patches in the world. 
It is situated in a very wild and rugged section on the 
crest of a spur of the Cascades, and is fifteen miles 
long by about three in width. In quality and size, 
some being as large as hazelnuts, the berries are ex- 
ceptionally fine and so plentiful are they that it is 
nothing uncommon for one person to gather thirty or 
forty gallons during a week's stay. During the tjerry 
season the ranchers visit it in large numbers, some 
coming from more than 100 miles away; making a 
festival of it similar to the shore parties of the Atlantic 
•seaboard, , . . „ 
Our return trip to the Poplars was ratke.r barren of 
incidents of special interest. Game was not plenty, 
we saw no deer and but little sign; we found a few 
grouse and saw two of the California gray tree squirrels, 
which are larger and finer than their congeners in the 
East. While these are scattered g,bout throqgh all the 
