30 
Annual Reports of Academy of 
With Westwood, an extensive lumber town, as a base, we made a 
trip to the country southeast of Mount Lassen, through miles of 
splendid forest which has never known the axe of the lumberman, 
up to Juniper Lake, seventy-eight hundred feet, a Sierran gem sur¬ 
rounded by pointed firs, which lies at the foot of Mount Harkness. 
We examined Mt. Harkness from base to summit, over lava of all 
sizes, and glacial moraines as well, the upper slopes being above 
timber line and furnishing arctic alpine conditions. Some grass¬ 
hoppers which we had found at similar elevations on Mt. Shasta 
were there to greet us, and from the summit, far off to the north, the 
snow mantled bulk of that splendid mountain itself overhung like a 
great cloud. To the west, Mt. Lassen dominated the landscape, 
its snow-streaked and eviscerated summit showing the effect of 
the recent eruption; at our feet lay the deep blue waters of Juniper 
Lake, while in every direction were peaks and knobs of lesser ele¬ 
vation, covered with heavy forest. 
Leaving Westwood by automobile, we passed down the Susan 
Valley, past Honey Lake to the dusty saline flats at the little settle¬ 
ment of Amedee. The Susan Valley has great hay and alfalfa 
fields, the sloughs of which harbored large numbers of wild ducks. 
As we neared Honey Lake the ground became more and more 
alkaline, the dust thicker and more pungent, while the sage of the 
Sierran foothills gave way to the Great Basin greasewood ( Sar - 
cobatus). Amedee has as its sole attraction a group of hot springs, 
one of which is a small geyser, gushing every forty-five seconds to a 
height of fifteen to eighteen inches and lasting fifteen to twenty 
seconds. Honey Lake, which we examined at closer range next 
day, was inhabited by thousands of ducks, feeding in the shallows. 
With them were small groups of beautiful avocets, while sandpipers 
and kildeer ran along the shores. A ride of nine hours on a narrow- 
gauge railroad from Amedee, brought us to Alturas, in extreme 
northeastern California. 
Alturas is an historic spot, as it figured prominently in the 
“Modoc War”, and to the north and west of it stretches for many 
miles the great Modoc lava region. The Pitt River, a tributary 
of the Sacramento which works through the Sierran-Cascade axis, 
here meanders through a broad valley flanked by the eight hundred 
foot escarpment of the lava sheet. The scattered cover on the 
lava is made up very largely of juniper, while much of the valley 
