History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine ...

298 SOUTHEEN OEEGON.
west and southwest sink down as they proceed until they are lost in the hills of the
Umpqua valley. These minor ranges, spreading like a fan, inclose pleasant valleys and
deep canyons drained by clear and rapid streams, which, rising in the upper regions,
run downward toward the sea, rapidly at first, over bowlders and precipices, slower as
they pass through winding valleys and finally approaching and ending in Umpqua
and Rogue rivers. In the mingled mass of mountains around about majestic Theilsen
a number of important rivers have their birth. Almost at its base gush forth waters
which, running in many devious courses, seek the ocean by various mouths. Within
the shadow of the mountain lie lakes Crescent, Odell and Diamond. From the two
former proceed streams which, flowing onward to the DesChutes river, keep a northerly
course and reach the Columbia above The Dalles. From Diamond lake rises the
North Umpqua, and from the gorges southwest therefrom the South Umpqua takes its
rise, the two rivers to come together in the pleasant Umpqua valley and enter the
ocean after flowing a generally westerly course. Again from Summit lake, a dozen
miles north from Theilsen, the Middle fork of the Willamette springs, and after join-
ing the main stream empties into the Columbia a hundred miles from the ocean. Close
by the sources of the Umpqua and springing from the same great water shed which, as
we have seen, nourishes the germs of so many rivers, the headwaters of Rogue river
rise, and find their way down by devious ways to the ocean, the general course of the
upper part of the river being southwest. Nor does this list comprise all the streams
which have their birth in this remarkable region. Certain afiiuents of Klamath river
and Klamath lake, namely. Wood, Seven-mile, and Annie creeks, head in these moun-
tains. Thus the waters which spring forth from the sides of Theilsen and the neigh-
boring peaks flow to every point of the compass. Before their course is run and they
find rest in the Pacific they have traversed and watered the most fertile valleys of
Oregon and Northern California. They have turned the wheels or borne the commerce
of scores of counties and bestowed blessings upon widely different localities. The
Rogue and Umpqua rivers, after rising almost within stone's throw of each other, end
their courses in the broad Pacific at a distance of over ninety miles apart-
As seen from a high elevation the region under discussion does not by any means
jiresent the appearance generally accorded to it. Instead of large valleys or plains of
level land fringed on either hand by the Cascades and the Coast Range, the country
consists of a very large number of small valleys separated by mountain ranges of various
heights and drained by creeks which find their tortuous way into the two principal
streams. The separating ranges, instead of conforming to a general trend, seem to fol-
low no fixed rule in that regard, and do not coincide with each other in any degree.
Thus the country is exceedingly broken and its local divisions are almost innumerable.
The observer would be particularly struck with the extent of the forest-clad surface.
He would see that the trees cover by far the greater part of the entire region, only the
broader valleys, bottom lands, and side-hills being to any extent free from timber and
underbrush. On the west he would observe the extensive system of the Coast Range
covered with dark forests of fir which extend to the sea coast. On the eastern boundary
the Cascade mountains, clothed almost to the summit with noble forests, cut off the
view in that direction.