Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/217

Rh ", Sylvaille's river is identical with the present Silver's or Silvie's river of the Malheur Lake region of Oregon.

That this original name still remains in abbreviated form is evidenced by a letter dated May 7th, 1910, from an early settler (1873) of Harney County, Mr. M. Fitzgerald, who says: "The river which flows through the' valley from the North and empties into Malheur Lake was then called Sylvies River. The spelling has since been changed. It was said to have derived its name from a trapper who followed his calling there many years before; just when no one seemed to know."

The journal of this expedition does not cover the movements as closely as could be desired, and it is difficult to follow the party accurately at times. But speaking generally the course deviated from that of the previous year by crossing the Des Chutes at what is now Sherar's Bridge; thence following, probably, the trail which afterward became the Willamette Valley & Cascade Mt. Military Road toward the Malheur Lake country; thence in November returning northwestward across the dry country of Central Oregon to the head waters of the Des Chutes; thence crossing south to the waters of the Klamath and spending the entire winter months on the streams to the East and North of Mt. Shasta, which he named; and probably reaching the Rogue River valley also; thence in the Spring crossing Northeast to the Malheur country again and descending that stream to Snake river, and from there in July returning to Ft. Walla Walla by the usual route.

Although not traveling through much of what we know as the Snake River country, the expedition was designated by the Hudson's Bay Company as the Snake Expedition.

From this journal we learn many interesting things about conditions in Central and Southern Oregon before the coming of the white men; for instance the unusual number and extreme poverty of the Snake Indians near Harney Lake and the evidence that buffalo once ranged there; the dwellings of the Klamaths; the first mention of the Shastas and the giving of that name to the mountain; and negatively the complete silence as to any Indians living in pits.