Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/146

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140
OREGON AND WASHINGTON.

partially subsist themselves, while being taught to labor.

South-east of the reservation, and beyond the western ridge of the Goose Lake Mountains, is Goose Lake Valley, containing a considerable portion of good agricultural land, with a much larger amount of excellent grazing land. Surprise Valley, on the eastern side of Goose Lake, is similar to those previously mentioned; and all are surrounded by timbered ridges. Goose Lake and Surprise valleys are well settled up. There is, in fact, a succession of settlements lodged in the small valleys of this portion of Oregon, all along the California and Oregon line. It is estimated that ten thousand head of cattle are pastured on the meadows about Clear Lake—a country hardly known as yet.

The Oregon Central Military Road passes through all this region, starting from Eugene City in the Wallamet Valley, and crossing the Cascades at Diamond Peak Pass. From thence it crosses to Owyhee, in Idaho; passing through much valuable mineral country also. The road from Ohico, in California, to Boise City, in Idaho, traverses the south-eastern corner of Oregon; a great deal of freight going that way to the mines. It is hoped to bring a branch of the Central Pacific from the Humboldt Valley, through the Klamath Lake region, into the head of the Wallamet Valley. A scheme is on hand for turning the waters of Lost River, a stream which flows out of Wright Lake into Clear Lake, through a canal, which shall conduct them into the Lower Klamath Lake; thus draining thousands of acres of excellent land, well adapted to settlement.

The northern part of Wasco County contains the valleys of the Des Chutes, John Day, and Crooked