Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/92

Rh Oregon Hills of Glass. Emigrants as early as 1843 announced the discovery of natural glass along their route of travel in Eastern Oregon. In appearance the glass so closely resembled pieces of dark bottles that it was frequently mistaken for fragments of artificial glass. They soon learned, however, that it was obsidian, a natural rock and form of lava which cooled so quickly that it hardened into glass. Usually it was of a dark or black color; but occasionally phases of it were variegated with streaks of brown, and often vivid red, which gave to it an appearance that was very attractive. And when the Indians showed them spear heads, primitive knives and other useful articles made of this substance, the emigrants became more and more interested in their new discovery.

Afterwards it was ascertained that obsidian exists in vast quantities in various sectons of that porton of Oregon which lies east of the Cascade Range, and that most of the scattered fragments originally came from a group of glass buttes, near the northeast corner of Lake County. The buttes can be recognized from afar because of their dark barren sides with broken glass here and there glistening in the sun.