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 Malhuer River in early spring will be at Goose Lake in midsummer, at Steen's Mountain in the fall, and on CrookDes Chutes the ensuing witner, 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 is little to be paid 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 the may be made available for settlement if the climate does provote too severe. The altitude of these places is generally so great the 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 queseter went down to 24 deg. at sunrise. On the 18th of June, at the head of tributary of the Malheur, the thermometer at sunrise stood at 20 deg. ; at Summit Valley, thirty miles south of Canyon City, the mercury fell to 21 deg., and at the same place on the 9th of July it fell to 19 deg., and on the 18th of July, on Beaver Creek, the mercury went down to 16 deg. 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 direction to the Humboldt Mountains, a distance of 250 miles, and varying in