52 TOPOGEAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF KLAMATH MOUNTAINS, [bull. 196. 
EARLIER VALLEY OF KLAMATH RIVER. 
Between Rogue River and the Klamath, Pistol River and Chetco 
River in Oregon, and Smith River in California, are the only streams 
of considerable size, and they all show traces of wide valleys above 
the newer canyons in which the rivers are now flowing. 
Klamath River, heading east of the mountain belt on the low border 
of the Great Basin, breaks through the Cascade and Coast ranges to 
the sea. The Klamath peneplain crosses the range between the 
Siskiyou Mountains and the rugged peaks about the head of Salmon 
River, and at this point is traversed by Klamath River, whose earlier 
vallej^ is well marked in places, as, for example, near Happy Camp, 
where the even crests of the spurs and ridges adjoining the canyon 
are clearly observable. As one ascends to get a general view the 
evenness of the hills becomes more pronounced, and it is apparent 
that here, as on the Unipqua, there is a wide old valley of the river 
above the canyon in which it now flows. One of the best points from 
which to view this feature, in the region noted above, is about 2+ 
miles S. 40° W. of Happy Camp, from a point on the north bank 
of the river, at an elevation of 3,800 feet above the sea or 2,000 above 
the river. Looking east up the earlier valley of the Klamath, one 
sees that its limits are marked by the bordering uplands, where traces 
of the Klamath peneplain may be clearly seen. The earlier valley is 
wide at this point, where it traverses rather soft shales and schists 
in which the late valley (canyon) also widens, and affords benches 
for mining and agriculture. 
Down the river the earlier valley of the Klamath is well marked 
above the mouth of Salmon River at an altitude of about 4,200 
feet. The altitude of the valley at Happy Camp, about GO miles 
farther up the Klamath and somewhat farther east, is only 3,800 
feet. It is possible that the observations were not made upon levels 
of the same age, but although attention was given to the matter 
at the time, no difference of age could be made out. If this is the 
case, as seems probable, an interesting conclusion may be drawn 
from their present relative altitudes. The valley level observed near 
the Salmon at the time of its origin must have been below that of the 
one near Happy Camp, but as it is now higher the Salmon region 
must have experienced greater uplift than that at Happy Camp. 
This differential uplifting accounts, in a measure at least, for the 
prominence of the Klamath Canyon of the Salmon region. 
The same valley was seen again from the northern portion of the 
Hoopa Indian Reservation between Pine Creek and Trinity River 
upon a flat-topped mountain. At this point the ancient gravel bed 
of the earlier valley of the Klamath where entered by the Trinity is 
remarkably well preserved at an elevation of 3,000 feet (about 2,850 
feet above Hoopa Valley), and may be traced along the even crest of 
an adjacent ridge directly to the coast al Gold Bluff. The Govern- 
