476 
GEOLOGY OF CENTRAL WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 
This and Mount Baker are the only volcanoes at present active in the chain. Its last considera¬ 
ble eruption was in 1S42, when it covered the country as far as Vancouver and the Dalles with 
ashes, and presented a luminous appearance after the smoke had cleared off. The Indians report 
that there were once three mountains that smoked always, Mount Hood and Mount Adams being 
the others. Respecting Mounts Hood and St. Helens, they have a characteristic tale to the effect 
that they were man and wife; that they finally quarrelled and threw fire at one another, and 
that St. Helens was the victor ; since when Mount Hood has been afraid, while St. Helens, 
having a stout heart, still burns. In some versions this story is connected with the slide which 
formed the Cascades of the Columbia, and by damming up the water inundated the forest, the 
remains of which are now visible along its margin. The date of this event Lewis and Clark 
fixed at about thirty years before their arrival. It is very probable that it ma}'- have been 
due to an earthquake, as they, though not frequent, are known upon the coast. The Indians 
have no tradition of an eruption of lava; they have only seen smoke and ashes come out of 
the mountain. They add that a bad smell came from it, and that the fish in the streams died. 
Around the foot of St. Helens, they say, the ashes lie so deep and soft that horses cannot, travel. 
The state of the weather, and the more urgent business of the survey, prevented an attempt to 
ascend either of the mountains. 
The descent of the Cascade range to the east is far more gradual than on the western side, 
and the slope comparatively uninterrupted. About four miles from Chequoss, and probably 
seven hundred feet below it, there is another lava field, brokenVip into mounds like the two for¬ 
mer. We found on its verge a small lake of irregular form, and occupying, when full, about 
one hundred acres, but at the time very low. It is sunk a few feet beneath the general surface; 
is shallow, and the water clear and cold. There was no visible outlet, nor any motion indi¬ 
cating a sink, though it received three brooks, one of them fifteen feet across. At the lower end 
large piles of drift-wood, including trees two and three feet in diameter, had been washed on 
to the field to the height of some twenty feet at the point of escape during freshets. It was 
somewhat remarkable that this pond was surrounded by gigantic cotton-wood trees, though the 
elevation was not less than three thousand three hundred feet. One of the party, who had 
passed through the woods between the lake and Mount Adams, reported that the lava did not 
extend in that direction; but whether this arose from its being overlaid with soil, or from 
having some other source, could not be decided without further examination. The country 
being covered with burnt forest and uuderbrush, this was not easy to make. The lake itself 
was evidently not the crater from which it flowed. Its course would seem to have been 
from that mountain and towards the Columbia through the valley of the White Salmon, as a 
dividing ridge separates it from the Ivlikatat river to the east. The lava here, and generally 
upon the eastern slope of the mountains, appeared much older than that upon the Cathlapoot’l, 
the sharpness of fracture being lost, and the surface being more decomposed. Leaving the 
waters of the White Salmon and crossing a dividing ridge, the trail descended to the Ivlikatat, a 
larger stream, heading on the east side of Mount Adams, and, like the last, emptying into the 
Columbia between the Dalles and the Cascades. Here we met another field of lava, through 
which ran a line of openings caused by the falling in of the rock covering a vaulted passage. 
Though dry at the time of our journey, this is evidently during the winter the bed of a torrent 
which runs towards the Ivlikatat. Apparently the lava, in overflowing the original bed, had 
come in contact with sufficient moisture to elevate without rupturing it. The upper stratum was 
about eighteen inches thick, and regularly arched ; its semi-columnar structure giving it the 
appearance of keyed joints. The lower were more or less distorted, and varied from a lew 
inches to several feet in thickness. They differ also in structure, being much more compact. 
All of them exhibited a large proportion of feldspar, which seems to be the characteristic ol 
those streams supposed to be traceable to these two mountains, as distinguished from the basalt 
of the plains. The roof of this passage was broken through at short intervals, and large 
