Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-07-06

statement. l I0und tnat 1t carried
an immense amount of silt, sand,
gravel and small rock, building up
an inclined plain of that material at
the margin of the valley where the
water all disappeared within very
Railroad from Weed to klamath
Falls crosses this spring and it's
heavy burden was used to make a
large fill there. There is, near the
railroad, what take to be heavy
terminal moraine, and from the foot
of it the same kind of plain ex-
tends down to the edge of the valley.
From the material l take it to have
been built up in the same way that
the present spasmodic stream is con-
tinuing the work on a smaller scale.
81 am told that other volcanic cav
erns than those l saw are known in
the valley and some of them have
been entered, but none explored.
Other evidences of the existence of
such caverns have been discovered in
drilling for wells and currents of air
detected coming from the ground.
There are no springs on the north
slopes of Mt Shasta and not a great
number near the river, and yet the
north slope of that mountain carries
it's heaviest glaciers and greatest
snow banks.
Now here is my query: In the
building up of these volcanic cones
that dot the valley, has the matter
which composes them, when expelled,
left voids under the valley corre-
spending with the mass expelled? If
such is the case, are the caverns
filled with the lost waters from
Shasta? Did Williams tap such a
reservoir in his cluster of artesian
wells? Does the existence of such
subterranear supply of water account
for my getting water with crowbar
along the fracture line at the foot of
these cones?
would it not pay to determine the
facts as they exist? Would it not be
interesting to determine what rela-
ton, if any, exists between the Nc
Cloud River and Lost River? Are
they one and the same stream, inter-
rupted and cut in two by a volcanic
disturbance that gave birth to the
lava beds and created Tule Lake?
That whimsical stream does flow un-
der ground through Langell Valley
and comes to the surface at Bonanza.
Does it do the same thing between
Tule Lake and the McCloud?
"All through that lake country are
interesting things that ought to be
looked into. In the Great Basin
scarcity of water alone holds settle
ment back. There is an abundance
of precipitation and no surface out
let. Where does the water go?
Evaporation alone hardly accounts
for it's disappearance. The whole
country has been broken up by vol
canic action. Are there great vol
canic caverns underlying it? If so,
may they not be accessible sources of
water supply? The use of electricity
for pumping is now available and
believe the chance is worth an effort
for that, If not for other scientific
purposes. In many places is found
sandstone rich in fossils. At the fos-
sill beds north of Summer Lake Val
ley is wonderful deposit, brought
to light occasionally by the shifting
of the volcanic sands that drift about
on the plain. Occasionally masses
Of granite that might have been
islands in that prehistoric sea have
been saved from the cataclysms that
have wrought so many changes.
"one of the most interesting things
to me is the old river bed that cross
es the Oregon desert between Sum-
mer Lake and Bear Creek Buttes.
Some years ago, in a lecture at the
University of Oregon, l suggested
some possibility of connection be-
tween the old river bed and the
boulder cliffs that support the sand
stone on the Cascade side of Rogue
River Valley If such relation ever
existed, then 1t means that long be-
fore the submergence that preceded
the rise of the Cascade range the
country known as the Great Basin
was above water; that this great riv-
er crossed 1t and that the Rogue Riv-
er boulder beds marked a delta at it's
mouth; that afterwards the country
east, perhaps to the Rocky Noun
tains, was submerged and subsequent
ly when the Cascades were raised the
old river bed was cut in two and
came to the surface again, but only a
fragment was left to mark its course
across what we now call the Oregon
Desert 1t produced some comment
at the time, but I'm not aware that
any further thought has been given