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[[underlined]] Desert [[/underlined]]

[[underlined]] June 23 [[/underlined]] Left Christmas Lake at 6:30 and traveled mainly north till 6:15 PM and camped at a dry bed of a slough on the Lake and Crook Co. line. Came about 30 miles over fairly good road, though too stony & sandy for rapid traveling.

An alkali flat extends about 4 miles north of Christmas Lake, then the plain rises slightly but not more than 200 feet in the first 20 miles. In the next 10 miles it rises 500 feet more. Our nights camp is 700 feet higher than Christmas Lake.

The sage plains or "desert" is generally flat and uniform from the Walker Range on the west to low juniper covered ridges far to [[strikethrough]] our [[/strikethough]] the east and from the north end of [[strikethrough]] Sacan [[/strikethrough]] Chewaucau Marsh to 20 miles north of Christmas Lake. This area is strongly Sonoran sage plains. It seems to slope directly into Chewaucau Valley as it does into Silver Lake Valley. The ridges to the east are low and irregular and probably open through by Sonoran gaps to the Harney Country. On the north the lava ridges rise into Transition Zone but with low basins and gulches where Sonoran species could work across over the open, juniper ridges and find congeniel soil. As far as we have come no impassable barrier has appeared to prevent Sonoran species from spreading. The country to the north does not appear higher.

The country itself is all lava through