Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/178

 160 John Minto. Looney, M. J. Alphin, William Fulbright, John Walker and E. L. Ma^sey penetrated into the range as far as Mount Jef- ferson without regard to traditional passes. They went in search of gold and the line of travel seems to have been east- ward near the north border of subsequent discoveries to and onto Mount Jefferson; thence south, just west of the true summit, over a country of filled up lake beds, coarse, weedy grass-lands, and dry ridges, between which good timber is found, as a rule, only in the narrow, deep valleys. Mr. Massey's descriptive powers do him credit. "Standing at the base of the rock that crowns Mount Jefferson, he says, "we had with us an excellent mariner's glass by which we had an excellent view of the Willamette Valley as well as that still more beautiful valley of the Des Chutes River, and a very extensive, great plain stretching at great length south of the head of the Des Chutes. South and west of Jefferson is seen at a glance a large body of flat country with many small lakes and prairies ; and here, it is obvious, is the natural route, for the emigrant trail is plainly marked out." The outline doubtless is. Mr. Massey is here not to blame for the imperfection of his near view, in that looking from above he sees only dry tops of ridges and the lake beds; he does not see even the outline of the pass across the summit as well as I did from the tree-top eighteen years later, nor the number of lakes, in September, 1864, Hon. John Bryant counted from Red Butte, which stands on the summit three miles south of Mount Jefferson. Standing on this butte with seven other men, Mr. Bryant wrote in his journal: "From this butte we count sixteen lakes ; twelve on the west side of the summit and four on the east. ' ' Yet Mr. Bryant did not see Marion Lake, within four miles of where he stood. The truth is, the surface on the east side of the summit is very dry ; the water seems to sink away out of sight, leaving the surface dry and loose ex- cept two small lakes near together about 500 feet below the summit tree of the pass. The water sinks down to the level of the Des Chutes plain, 1,500 to 2,000 feet. The slope from the summit to the crystal Malolla being such light and fluffy soil