Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/39



THE SOUTH ROAD EXPEDITION 29

them a chance to feed and rest, while we explored the defile on foot. We found it a very remarkable chasm, extending nearly due east. The gateway was about sixty yards in width and the canyon was, at some places, a little wider than that perhaps, and at others, was only wide enough for a wagon road. The little bottom was grassy and almost level, and, in- deed, a remarkable track for a road. In many places, the cliffs on either side towered to a height of several hundred feet, and, in some places actually overhung the chasm. Those over- hanging cliffs afforded excellent sheltering places for the In- dians, and the signs betokened that it was a great place of re- sort for them. Sage hens and rabbits were plentiful, also mountain sheep, but the latter were so wild that we did not succeed in killing any of them. After making quite an ex- tended trip into the canyon, we returned to the little meadow and spent the night.

On the morning of July 11, we again entered the gorge and traveled ten or twelve miles to a place where the stream formed quite a pool, and nooned. At this season, the stream ran no further than the pool. Here another canyon comes in from the north, and at the junction there is quite an area of level ground perhaps two acres mostly meadow, forming an excellent camping place. After noon we proceeded on our way, following the dry bed of the stream, and, after a march of perhaps ten miles, came out on the east side of the ridge. Here we found a lake basin of several acres in extent, where there was but a little water and a great deal of mud, hence strongly suggesting the name of Mud Lake, which it has since always borne. Earlier in the season, when the little stream that feeds it flows all the way through the canyon, this is doubtless quite a lake. The country eastward had a very for- bidding appearance. Rising from a barren plain, perhaps fif- teen miles away, was a rough, rocky ridge, extending as far as the eye could reach towards the north, but apparently ter- minating abruptly perhaps fifteen miles south of our course.