Jno. M. Drake to Benjamin Alvord, September 13, 1864

Brigadier-General Alvord will take the necessary measures to keep a company in the district of country of which Canyon City is supposed to be the center, for the protection of the inhabitants from the predatory band of Indians who have been committing hostilities during the past season. No expenditures whatever will be allowed, nor will any citizen be hired in consequence of this order. The company must be instructed to either hut themselves on Rock Creek, where it is understood there is an abundance of timber, or live in their tents. The general will report from time to time the measures he takes in the fulfillment of

this order. IRVIN McDOWELL, Major-General, Commanding.

FORT VANCOUVER, WASH. TER., November 6, 1864.

SIR: The military expedition into the Indian country under my command having returned to Fort Dalles and closed the campaign on the 11th of October, I have the honor to submit herewith to the general commanding the following report of the summer’s operations:

The expedition was directed in Special Orders, No. 33, headquarters District of Oregon, March 19, 1864, to march on the 15th of April, but owing to some unavoidable delays the start was not made until the 20th of the same month. At this time the command was composed of Company D, First Oregon Cavalry, Capt. John M. Drake, First Lieut. John M. McCall, and forty-five enlisted men; Company G, First Oregon Cavalry, Capt. H. C. Small, First Lieut. William M. Hand, Second Lieut. John F. Noble, and sixty-seven enlisted men, and two staff officers, Surg. C. €. Dumreicher, U. S. Volunteers, and Capt. D. W. Porter, assistant quartermaster, U. S. Volunteers, making an aggregate of 119 officers and men. A detachment of twenty-five men of Company D, First Oregon Cavalry, under command of Second Lieut. James A. Waymire, stationed at the South Fork of John Day’s River, pursuant to Special Orders, No. 19, headquarters District of Oregon, February 23, 1864, were to join the expedition en route, and a detachment of twenty-five men of Company B, First Oregon Cavalry, under command of Second

Springs Agency. This last detachment marched from Fort Dalles April 20, was supplied with sixty days’ rations, and Lieutenant Watson was placed under my orders. The outfit of the expedition in the way of transportation consisted of eight six-mule teams, and ninety-five pack mules, enabling the quartermaster to transport ninety days’ supplies for the whole command, including thirty-nine citizens employed in the quartermaster’s and commissary departments, and a party of Wasco Indians that were to accompany the command in the capacity of scouts and spies; also medical stores, ammunition, and camp and garrison equipage for a six months’ campaign.

Notwithstanding the season of the year in which the expedition was taking the field, I deemed it advisable that the troops should be well supplied with tents, as the climate of Fastern Oregon, especially the mountainous regions, was known to be severe at times, even in summer, and always uncertain. Every aid and assistance practicable was received from the commanding officer at Fort Dalles, Col. R. F. Maury, in putting the expedition into the field, and I am desirous of expressing my thanks to him for this as well! as the interest manifested for its success. In your letter of instructions of the 7th of April I was advised that the main objects of the expedition were to protect the whites in mining operations, to explore and occupy the country not included in the Indian reservations, and to afford all the protection practicable to the friendly Indians of the Warm Springs Reservation. The plan of campaign therein indicated was to establish a depot of supplies at some point in the Indian country from which two circuits of sixty days each could be made, one west and south and one east and south, with full authority to select my own route of travel and a site for the depot. By your letter of instructions dated April 12, 1864, authority was granted to make any deviation from the original plan that my judgment might dictate, keeping in view the main objects of the expedition. This was in consideration of recent Indian depredations near Canyon City. A good deal of pains had been taken by myself and others at The Dalies for several weeks prior to the departure of the expedition to collect information relative to the section of country over

which the campaign was to be conducted. Two persons were found (Mr. Louis Scholl and Mr. George Rundell) who had been employed as guides with similar expeditions into that country in the years of 1859 and 1860. From them I learned that the natural route of travel into the Harney Lake country—in fact, into any part of the country lying south of the Blue Mountains—was by the road traveled by Captain Wallen in 1859 and Major Steen and Captain Smith in 1860, by the valley of Crooked knowledge of the country acquired during the summer’s operations assures me that it was a judicious selection. On the arrival of the expedition at Cross Hollows April 26 orders and transportation were dispatched to move Lieutenant Waymire’s detachment from the South Fork, to join the expedition at Trout Creek during a temporary halt in contemplation at that place. This detachment did not arrive until the 7th of May, joining at Cedar Springs. Meanwhile Lieutenant Watson’s detachment at Warm Springs had been moved across the Des Chutes River and joined the expedition at Trout Creek on the 2d of May. Lieutenant Waymire’s party was sent over to the Warm Springs immediately on his arrival to take the place of the troops under Lieutenant Watson. This exchange was made in consideration of the hard service performed by Lieutenant Waymire’s men in the early spring, and the jaded condition of his cavalry horses and the necessity of an effective force to guard the depot. The re-enforcement by Lieutenant Watson’s detachment increased the effective force of the expedition to an aggregate of 145 officers and men. At Trout Creek the command was joined by a party of ten Warm Springs Indians, and a few days after by eleven more, making twenty-one in all, who agreed to accompany the command through the campaign to serve as scouts and spies.

On the 27th of April, at Antelope Springs, a letter from the general commanding was received by express from Fort Dalles informing me that Captain Currey, commanding an expedition from Fort Walla Walla, had been advised to march at once to the vicinity of Lake Harney, unless important claims should draw his attention elsewhere, and that he had been instructed, ‘ You must order Captain Drake to effect a junction with you whenever you think it advisable;” and Special Orders, No. 70, headquarters District of Oregon, dated May 6, 1864, ordering a junction of the two expeditions at Lake Harney, was received May 10, at Cottonwood Creek. Under these orders and instructions, and with this arrangement of the troops under my command, the expedition moved forward from Cottonwood Creek May 11 and entered the Indian country a few days afterward. A depot of supplies was established on a small tributary of Crooked River, five miles above the forks of the river and about three miles south of the South Fork, at the foot of a timbered ridge extending from the head of Crooked River to its mouth, on the south side. The distance from Fort Dalles to the depot, known as Camp Maury, is 175 miles by our journals. Owing to bad roads and other causes some delays took place during the march to Camp Maury, and the locality selected for the depot was not reached until the 18th of May. The manner in which Indian depredations had been committed during the previous winter on the white settlements on John Day’s River and the Canyon City road raised the presumption that a small party of marauding Indians inhabited the country about the head of Crooked River. This presumption was sustained by the opinion of our guide, who from previous experience in the district of country in question had acquired some kuowledge, not only of the country itself, but of the Indians who inhabited it.

As the expedition approached the Indian country the usual methods were instituted for the discovery of Indian signs and evidences of Indian habitation, but no discoveries of this character were made until the 17th of May at one of the crossings of Crooked River, four or five miles below the forks of the river. This led to the action on the morning of May 18, in which Second Lieut. S. Watson and Privates Bennett Kennedy and James Harkinson, Company B, First Oregon Cavalry, were killed, and Corporal Dougherty and Privates Weeks, Freeman, Level and Henline, same company and regiment, wounded. One of our Indian scouts was killed, Stock Whitley, chief of the Warm Springs Indians, . mortally wounded, and a citizen of Salem, Oreg., named Barker, severely wounded. When Po li-ni’s camp was discovered by our Indian scouts on the 17th of May it was thought to be a small squad of marauders who had made a temporary camp at the place then occupied for the purpose of carrying on their thieving operations. Such was the opinion of the scouts themselves, who reported that a close examination of the camp had been made. For the purpose of breaking up this camp and chastising the Indians I sent out, under command of First Lieut. John M. McCall, First Oregon Cavalry, a detachment composed of two commissioned officers, thirty-nine enlisted men, and twenty-one friendly Indians, with orders to make a night march and surprise the hostile camp at daylight on the morning of the 18th. On making the attack Lieutenant McCall found the Indian camp not only far superior in numbers than had been reported, but well prepared for defense. Three hundred yards above their camp was a semicircular ledge of rocks that had been turned into a fortification with a good deal of labor and skill. The upper side of the ledge was protected by a low wall hastily thrown up along its entire length, and the lower side was thoroughly and effectually barricaded with the large bowlders and loose rocks broken from the face of the cliff by the action of the elements. The place was large enough to contain with ease sixty or seventy men, nearly inaccessible on account of the extremely rugged character of the surrounding country, and could not be attacked except by direct assault. The movement of the troops was sufficiently sudden to surprise the Indian camp, but not to prevent them from taking shelter in this ledge of rocks, when Lieutenant Watson’s platoon was received with a fire that repulsed the attack, and forced the assailants to fall back to cover, leaving their gallant leader and 2 of his men killed and 5 wounded upon the ground. The original plan of attack was to surround and capture the hostile camp. With this purpose in view the troops were divided into two parties, to march by different routes and attack opposite sides of the camp, while the party of friendly Indians were to attack midway between the two. The escape of the Indians from their lodges somewhat disconcerted the plans and precipitated the fight with one portion of the attacking forces and caused a repulse before the remaining fraction were within supporting distance. On the arrival of Lieutenant McCall with the remaining platoon it was determined after an examination of the place to secure the wounded, place them in safety, draw off the troops, and send for assistance. The messenger was started at 6 a.m. and re-enforcements arrived on the ground at 9 a. m., to find the fortification abandoned and the Indians dispersed into the mountains. The losses of the Indians amounted to 3 killed, and judging from evidences on the ground, 5 or 6 wounded. These they succeeded in carrying away. Our own wounded were brought away from immediately under the fire of the intrenched savages and carried to a spring nearly a mile distant. Our dead were not recovered until after the

22 R R—VOL L, PT I flight of the Indians. On the arrival of re-enforcements Lieutenant McCall’s force was found collected at the spring above mentioned, where the wounded had been carried with a great deal of exertion. Their wounds were immediately attended to by the surgeon, and on the discovery of the flight of the Indians measures taken to get them to camp. This proved to be a laborious and tedious task. The camp was fifteen miles distant, over a rugged country, and no means of transportation for wounded men. Two of the wounded had to be carried on hand – litters; the others managed to ride their horses. Before removing the killed and wounded the stock captured from the Indians were sent to camp, and the Indian camp, with its lodges and stolen property, destroyed. At 2 p.m. on the 19th of May the command was formed in procession to render the last office which the living may administer to the dead. On a small hillock 300 yards in rear of Camp Maury, at the edge of a grove of pines three graves were dug side by side, and into these were deposited the earthly remains of our fallen comrades. Let us hope that the wave of civilization as it rolls over that desert country in future years may not swallow up the memory of men whose lives were so nobly sacrified in its cause. The numerical strength of Po-li ni’s band developed by this affair induced an apprehension on my part that the Indian marauders living in this region had been underrated. This was particularly the case when our small scouting parties sent out daily from camp into the surrounding neighborhood reported fresh Indian signs of almost every character, in great abundance. During the few days consumed in burying our dead, providing for the wounded and establishing and rendering secure the depot, they appeared to be hovering about the neighborhood in considerable numbers at night. This state of affairs rendered the utmost vigilance necessary for the protection of the large quantity of stock belonging to the expedition, and required that measures should be taken to destroy or drive off these prowlers, and to explore thoroughly the surrounding country before the expedition could move forward to Harney Lake with safety to the depot. With this object in view the country within a radius of twenty or thirty miles of Camp Maury was thoroughly scoured, and what was ascertained to be a small band of night prowlers driven across the Blue Mountains. These operations consumed twenty days and developed the fact that except the small party that had been annoying us at night, the only Indians about the head of Crooked River was the party concerned in the affair of the 18th of May, and that these had dispersed into the mountains lying between Crooked River and the Canyon City road. During this time I ordered forward Lieutenant Waymire’s detachment from Warm Springs, which arrived May 29, thus increasing the strength of the command to 165 officers and men. Of this force fifty-seven men, including an escort of twelve men with the wagon train, were detailed as a guard for the depot, and Captain Small placed in command, preparatory to moving forward to Harney Lake in execution of the orders to that effect. The command left Camp Maury on the 7th of Juneasa movable column, with an aggregate of 108 officers and men, and supplies for forty days. Our cavalry horses and pack animals were in better condition for hard service than at any time since leaving The Dalles, and no apprehensions were felt as to the safety of the depot and line of communications. It was supposed that Captain Ourrey’s command with which I was to effect a junction would reach Harney Valley by the 10th of June, and I was particularly anxious that the junetion of the two expeditions should not be delayed on our account, and consequently moved forward from Camp Maury with all rapidity that circumstances would permit. The command arrived at Big Meadows

June 13, and it was ascertained the same day that Captain Currey’s command had not yet arrived at Harney Lake. The junction was effected July 1 at a point about thirty miles northeast of Lake Harney, after some considerable marching and countermarching over the eastern part of the valley and adjacent fcot-hills. From the Ist of July to the 2d of August the two expeditions operated together under Captain Currey’s command, and a detailed account of operations within that period could not be properly embraced within this report.

On the return of the expedition to Camp Maury, July 18, a removal of the depot became necessary on account of the failure of the grass at that place. A site for a camp was selected five miles west of Camp Maury, the removal effected July 21, and the new depot named Camp Gibbs. A second removal became necessary a month later for the same reasons as the first, and a depot was established at Camp Dahlgren, twenty miles northeast of Camp Gibbs. From these two camps the scouting and exploring operations were conducted for the remainder of the campaign, after the departure of Captain Currey’s command from Camp Gibbs on the 2d of August. The operations of the two expeditions under Captain Currey’s command during the month of July had driven Po li-ni’s band of Indians to the south side of the desert. This fact, connected with Captain Currey’s proposed plan of operations in returning to his depot, indicated the only practicable course to be pursued during the remainder of the summer for the protection of the frontier settlements, a thorough and continued scouting of all that region of country lying south of the Blue Mountains, and embraced within the boundaries of the mountains on the north, the desert on the west and south, and the Canyon City Mountains on the east. The primary object of this plan was the quick discovery and pursuit of any parties of Indians that the presence of the other command in the country farther south might drive into this region. To carry it out effectually required cavalry horses in good condition, and transportation and other facilities for rapid movements. Our means of transportation was still im good condition for hard service, but the cavalry horses were somewhat exhausted, partly from hard service and partly from a distemper raging amongst them during the summer. Notwithstanding this defect in means, the plan was carried out successfully, beginning with a scout of Captain Small with thirty-two men of Company G into the Blue Mountain Range about the head of Bridge and Rock Creeks, and a scouting party commanded by myself, consisting of Second Lieutenant Waymire and forty-two men of Companies B and D, First Oregon Cavalry, into the mountainous country lying between the Blue Mountain Range and Harney Valley. These parties marched from Camp Gibbs, the first on the 4th of August and the second on the 5th of August, each supplied with fifteen days’ rations. The second of these parties returned to camp August 16, having been absent twelve days, and the first returned August 21, naving been absent seventeen days. These parties traversed districts of country previously unexplored by either of the military expeditions, acquired a considerable amount of information regarding the country, and confirmed previously entertained opinions that the Indians had entirely abandoned the country. Some other parties were sent out during the month of August into the country west and south of Camp Gibbs, all productive of a like result. ye l

On the 4th of September a scouting party, consisting of a subaltern officer and forty-two men, under command of Capt. H. O. Smali, marched with twenty days’ rations from Camp Dahlgren, with instructions to proceed to the head of Beaver Creek; thence south to the hilly country ying west of Lake Harney. As the campaign was drawing to a close, and arrangements for the return of the expedition to Fort Dalles would have to be made by the 25th of September, it became important to know something of the whereabouts of Po-li-ni’s band. At this time it was supposed that the troops stationed on the Canyon City road would be recalled about the Ist of December, leaving the road unprotected, hence the absolute necessity of procuring some informa. tion in regard to the movements of the Indians before they located themselves for the winter, in order that their plans for winter depredations, if any were contemplated, might be counteracted. Captain Small’s scout was intended to accomplish this purpose. His cavalry horses and means of transportation were the best in the command. He received full instructions and clearly understood the object of the enterprise and the importance attached to it. Proceeding with his party to the head of Beaver Creek, about forty miles from camp, the trail of a small party of Indians traveling in a northeasterly direction, evidently a hunting party from all accompanying signs, was discovered, and the main object of the scouting party abandoned for the pursuit of this party of hunters, women and children. This pursuit was kept up in an irregular manner over the rugged and almost inaccessible country about the South Fork of John Day’s River for twelve or fourteen days, the Indians, resorting to their habitual tactics in such cases, dispersed, each individual to take care of himself. During this chase some of Captain Small’s scouts approached to within twenty miles of Camp Dahlgren, and the whole detachment rejomed the command at camp on the summit of the mountain September 22. It was a matter of serious regret that the principal object of this scouting party was not attained, as the campaign closed with its return to camp, and the expedition was compelled to return to The Dalles without being able to communicate any information whatever regarding the abiding place of the Indian marauders, or intelligence concerning their plans and purposes for the future.

It was generally believed by officers who had performed scouting service in the main range of the mountains north of Crooked River that a practicable route for a wagon road could be found across from Camp Dahlgren. Accordingly, in the early part of September, an exploring party crossed the mountains for the purpose of examining in detail the surface of the country with the view of opening a road if a practicable route could be found. This party returned to camp September 9, having ascertained beyond question the practicability of a route running north from Camp Dahlgren and intersecting the Canyon City road at the Mountain House. The distance was estimated at twenty-three miles. On the 11th of September Captain Porter was sent out in charge of a working party, and by the 18th the road was opened and the party returned to camp. The object of the road at first was to march the expedition over it on the return to Fort Dalles, and to secure an open route of communication between the Canyon City road and the open country at the head of Crooked River for the benefit of the settlements in that neighborhood and to facilitate military operations in the future. The more immediate usefulness of the road became apparent when the orders were received to establish Captain Small’s company for the winter at Camp Watson. These orders were received September 18, and recognizing the necessity for immediate action in carrying out the purposes of the general commanding as indicated in those orders, preparations were at once made to move the expedition to the north side of the mountains, Camp Dahlgren was abandoned on the 20th, the command marching to the summit of the mountain, there to await the return of the detachments of Captain Small and Lieutenant McCall, then absent. These detachments joined September 22, when the expedition moved down to the foot of the mountain on the north side and encamped at Alder Creek September 24. The near approach of cold weather and the absence of any kind of shelter for the troops other than tents at Camp Watson rendered it necessary that Captain Small’s company should be relieved at once, that necessary steps might be taken to prepare their camp for winter. This was accordingly done on the 25th of September. Our surplus commissary stores and every article of property in the quartermaster’s and commissary departments not absolutely needed on the march to The Dalles was transferred to Lieut. John F. Noble, acting assistant quartermaster and acting commissary of subsistence at Camp Watson, and our surplus transportation sent to Fort Dalles. According to the original instructions arrangements were to be made for the return of the expedition to Fort Dalles by the 15th of October. With this purpose in view the command, now reduced to Company D and the detachment of Company B, with transportation reduced to five teams, broke up the camp on Alder Creek on October 4 and started for The Dalles. At Bridge Creek October 5 authority was received by letter from headquarters District of Oregon for the expedition to move forward to The Dalles with dispatch. Accordingly the march was accomplished in eight days, and the command arrived at Fort Dalles on the 11th of October after an absence of six months, less a few days.

At the close of a long and arduous campaign it becomes me to speak of the troops which I have had the honor to command. For them I have none but words of praise. Without the opportunities of personal distinction that mark the history of more serious warfare, they have been patient and enduring in long and fatiguing marches over a mountain and desert country, brave and vigilant in times of danger, and obedient always. Instinctively observing a high standard of discipline, every kind of service was pertormed with alacrity, as a matter of duty unmixed with hopes of reward. They are entitled to the highest commendation. The district of country explored by the expedition lies between the parallels of 42° 30′ and 44° 30′ north latitude, and between 118° and 121° west longitude, and is inhabited by a few bands and some scattered families of Snake Indians, who roam over a vast expanse of mountain and desert unmolested. It would be difficult to estimate their numbers. Migratory in their habits and averse to intercourse with white men or other tribes of Indians, not much is known of them. Of these bands Po-li-ni’s is the largest and most formidable to the white settlements, numbering probably fifty or sixty fighting men, and some women and children—it would be impossible to say how many—and is composed in part of Snake Indians proper, who have united themselves under able leadership for the purposes of plunder, and in part of renegades from other tribes actuated by alike motive. Their home is the upper part of the Crooked River Valley, shifted occasionally to other localities to suit their nomadic tastes and to seek shelter and protection for their families and stolen property after an incursion into the settlements. These are the Indians who have committed the depredations on the Canyon City road, John Day’s River, and the Warm Springs Reservation within the past two years. Some other small parties of a few families each, roaming over the country, live concealed in the most rugged and inaccessible places to be found, are possessed of the instincts of the wolf or panther more than those of humanity, rendering all efforts to hunt them from their lairs almost futile. Lieutenant Waymire found in April last at the eastern base of Steen’s Mountain these Indians collected in quite considerable numbers. From the appearance of their camps in the latter part of June they. evidently abandoned that section of the country soon after Lieutenant Waymire’s attack upon them. No signs were found that would indicate the route taken in their departure, and no information obtained to show where they went. It is probable that on the approach of warm weather they dispersed in all directions. The experience derived from the campaign just closed leads me to believe that these Indians have been vastly overestimated in numbers. Their habits of life enable them to multiply evidences of their existence indefinitely, and at the same time to evade successfully all attempts on the part of the whites to hunt them out and open intercourse with them. A squad of eight or ten families encamped at a small spring about the head of Malheur River in early spring will be at Goose Lake in midsummer, at Steen’s Mountain in the fall, and on Crooked River or the Des Chutes the ensuing winter, occupying at least five or six different camps in each locality, and as many more on their route of travel from one place to another. They are indisposed to fight if it can be avoided, and seldom take risks of that nature unless advantages are largely on their side. Their strength lies in the extent and character of the country in which they live and their activity and address in availing themselves of the advantages afforded by nature. To subdue or exterminate them would require time and means beyond the advantages to be gained by such a course. To protect the settlements from their inroads a small military force stationed at the most assailable points is all that is necessary. The rapid advance of the white settlements in Eastern Oregon has so circumscribed their territory that they will be obliged to abandon their country entirely within a year or two at the outside, or go upon some reservation and live at peace with the whites.

Of the district of country embraced within the theater of the summer’s operations there 1s little to be said beyond the mere fact that it is worthless. Presenting to the explorer alternating sections of mountain and desert, it is destitute of attractions for the settler or traveler. A few small valleys occurring at long intervals are to be found in traveling over this vast region that appear to be susceptible of settlement and cultivation. Having a good soil and water and timber in abundance, some of them may be made available for settlement if the climate does prove too severe. The altitude of these places is generally so great that frost, snow, and ice are matters of common occurrence even in midsummer. In the little valleys amongst the Blue Mountains it was found to be so frosty that the mountain grass was bitten off in September, and at Silver Creek on the 11th of June snow fell to the depth of three inches on the low hills inclosing the valley, and covered the bottom of the valley itself. At this place on the day in question the thermometer went down to 24° at sunrise. On the 18th of June at the head of a tributary of the Malheur, the thermometer at sunrise stood at 20°; at Summit Valley, thirty miles south of Canyon City, the mercury fell to 21°, and at the same place on the 9th of July it fell to 19°, and on the 18th of July, on Beaver Creek, the mercury went down to 169. The instances here cited are the extremes of cold experienced during the summer, but will indicate the rigors of climate to which the country is subject. It is questionable whether any of these valleys can be made useful for anything but grazing. A marked feature of this part of Eastern Oregon is found in “The Desert,” a strip of country extending from the mouth of Crooked River in a southeast direetion to the Humboldt Mountains, a distance of 250 miles, and varying ın width from 30 to 100 miles. It separates the Klamath Lake country from the Crooked River and Harney Lake basins, is an undulating plain, ridged irregularly with high ledges of voleanic rock, and covered with a stunted growth of sage and juniper, presenting to the eye a picture of desolation seldom seen in our country. It was crossed in July by a scouting party from Camp Gibbs at a point opposite the Three Sisters, when the distance across was found to be thirty miles, the route pursuing the old emigrant trail of 1845. Southeast of this trail the desert becomes wider and more impassable. From Silver Lake to Mountain Springs by the Yreka trail it is seventy-two miles, and from Saline Lake to Pleasonton’s Butte, by the Red Bluff trail, it is ninety miles in width. Another trail crosses it from Goose Lake to Owyhee. The distance across by this route I did not learn, but it is much reduced below the distances by the other routes. These trails are traveled by people emigrating from California and Southern Oregon to the Boisé and Owyhee countries. As routes of travel they are practicable for loose stock only, except the first and last named, which may become practicable routes of transportation. It is said by some parties of prospectors somewhat familiar with that country that the route by Pleasonton’s Butte can be improved by a slight deviation to the west, thus touching at some small brackish lakes that occur somewhere near the middle of the desert. Since the return of the expedition information has been received that leads me to believe that a route could be found from the Des Chutes River, twenty miles above the Three Sisters, to intersect the military road at Spring Valley twenty miles south of Camp Maury. This supposition is based upon the fact that a small Stream empties into the Des Chutes twenty miles above the Three Sisters from the east. It is probable that from the head of this stream not more than twenty-five or thirty miles of desert would have to be crossed to the chain of hills south of Crooked River. This if found correct would afford a route of communication from the Willamette Valley to all points east of the mountains, nearer than any now known. Should a military force be sent into that country the ensuing summer an examination of this part of the desert with a view to the opening of this route, if it exists, would be altogether practicable, and attended with but little expense.

Next to the desert the Harney Lake basin naturally presents itself to our consideration as a feature worthy of notice in a description of the country. Inclosed on the north and east by some rambling spurs of the Blue Mountains, on the southeast by the Snow Mountains, and on the west by a chain of ridges and isolated peaks that rise out of the desert, the basin is simply a depression on the very apex of a large district of highiands, circular in form, with a diameter of fifty or sixty miles and no outlet; with its sterile, rocky slopes cut into chasms and gorges by voleanic action; with its wide tracts of sage desert and general want of everything that renders a new country attractive, it forms a fitting climax to a most worthless part of our country. The two lakes, which for some unaccountable reason are called the Malheur Lakes on all the old maps of the country, are near the center of the basin and separated from each other by a narrow sand bank. Lake Harney, the smallest of the two, is about ten miles long and four or five miles wide; its waters are clear, but brackish from evaporation. Tule Lake, the most easterly of the two, is a little larger than Lake Harney, and communicates with it by means of a channel or slough. Its waters are shallow and muddy. It is in reality nothing more than the sink of

Jricket Creek, a stream that has its source in the high peaks near

Canyon City and flows south to the Harney Lake basin. The country immediately surrounding these lakes affords nothing worthy of notice, high, rocky table lands and almost endless fields of sage comprise the landscape. Thirty miles north of Lake Harney, as Cricket Creek debouches into the valley, a wide alluvial bottom is formed, wet and swampy, subject to periodical overflows, and covered with a rank erowth of wild grass. This place was called Big Meadows by Major Steen in 1860. It would afford fine grazing grounds during the summer months, and is capable of supplying large quantities of hay if cut in proper season. The Snow Mountains, so called by Major Steen, who crossed it in the month of August, 1860, forms the southeastern portion of the great rim that incloses the Harney Lake basin. It is simply an elevated portion of the chain that forms the connecting link between the Sierra Nevada and the Blue Mountains. The altitude was not ascertained, but it approaches close to the snow line, as the summit was covered with snow in June, and large patches were distinctly visible in July and August. The eastern face of this mountain is abrupt and precipitous, broken occasionally by great canons, through which the melting snows of the mountain find an outlet to the desert plain below. The western face descending into Harney Valley wears a barren appearance, is rocky and broken, and entirely destitute of vegetation. From the Snow Mountains eastward to the Owyhee River stretches a broad expanse of desert. It was not crossed by any parties from the command, but was supposed to be about thirty miles in width. From the Main Fork of John Day’s River to the Harney Lake basin lies a district of country extremely broken and rugged in character, embracing the main chain of the Blue Mountains and its numerous spurs that shoot out in various directions. The Blue Mountain—so called in the reports of the expedition to distinguish it from the numerous detached ridges in its vicinity—is a single ridge that branches out westwardly from a great mass of mountains east of Canyon City, and terminates in high, rugged table-lands near the mouth of Crooked River. Its northern face, abrupt and precipitous, affords here and there a route of ascent, is densely timbered, and has a moist, damp climate. From the base to the table-lands of the Columbia the country is chopped into struggling foot-hills destitute of timber. The southern face of the mountain slopes gently to the Crooked River Valley, is barren in appearance, with a dry climate, and a temperature considerably warmer than the northern side. It is here worthy of notice that the whole country south of the Blue Mountain wears the marks of an and climate. An extensive district of mountain country is dramed by three small streams—the South Fork of John Day’s, Crooked River, and Cricket summer and vegetation almost ceases to exist. As a mineral country it has afforded thus far nothing that would be at all remunerative to the miner. Gold in small quantities was found by some of the men of the command on Beaver Creek about forty miles southeast of Camp Dahlgren. With this exception no minerals of any kind have been discovered so far as known, although several large prospecting parties have devoted a good deal of time to exploring its gulches and cañons within the past two years. The water-courses of the country, as before remarked, are small and of no importance. Crooked River, the largest, has its source in the mountains north of Lake Harney, flows northeast through broken table-lands, lying immediately south of the Blue Mountains, to the Des Chutes River. Forty miles above its mouth it enters a great canon marked by precipitous walls of rock on either side, and affording only at long intervals an oceasional route of crossing. Its waters are warm, strongly impregnated with the alkalies of the soil on its banks, and unwholesome for man or beast. The broken table-lands about the head of this stream, called the Crooked River Valley, are characterized by unexampled ruggedness of surface, so rough and rocky that a cavalry horse losing a shoe would be unable to travel in a few hours. This is a fair grazing country early in the season, these rocky table-lands producing bunch grass of superior quality and in great abundance, that ripens in July and parches and dries up in August. The South Fork of John Day’s River heads in some rocky ridges about thirty miles north of Lake Harney, and flows north through a great gorge in the Blue Mountains to the Main Fork. The stream in July was a mere brook. Running through a deep cañon nearly its entire length, there are no valleys of any size or consequence on its banks. Cricket Creek, sometimes. called Selvie’s River, heads near Canyon City and flows south through some straggling spurs of the Blue Mountains to Harney Lake Valley. It has two quite large valleys near its source, and forms the large meadow bottoms in the valley before mentioned. Its course until it reaches the Harney Lake basin is through a densely timbered country, wild and rugged, and abound. ing in game of all kinds. It abounds in beaver. and other animals of that kind, and was a great deal frequented in times past by the employés of the Hudson Bay Company. A few smaller streams of trifling importance complete the history. Among these may be mentioned Bridge Creek, Rock Creek, and Cottonwood Creek, all heading in the Blue Mountains, the two first flowing north to John Day’s River and the last west to Crooked River. Silver Creek heads about fifty miles south of Camp Dahlgren and flows south to a brackish lake near Pleasonton’s Butte. It forms a valley fifteen miles from the butte of considerable size, with a rich alluvial bottom, producing an abundance of grass.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,