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[[underlined]] Goldendale to Columbia River [[/underlined]]

[[underlined]] July 8 [[/underlined]] Remained in camp on Klicketat Creek, 3 miles above Goldendale all day, making up specimens setting traps. packing specimens & writing on reports.

[[underlined]] July 9 [[/underlined]] Returned to Goldendale & then across the valley south to the Columbia at Rufus Ferry then followed up the river on the north side about 7 miles and camped at a ranch Loring and Walter Fisher set traps while I crossed the river and hunted for signs of Spermophiles & Perodipus on the south side just above the mouth of John Day River. Found no holes or tracks though the soil is good for them & the young man who took me over who has herded sheep on that side of river has never seen S. townsendi there.

The river is nearly a mile wide and has a rapid current. The canyon rises from a narrow shore strip by 3 steps for the first 200 feet, then gives a wider shelf along each side, then rises with one slope and cliff to the top, over 2000 feet above the river. The top of the canyon is but 2 or 3 miles wide.

The slopes have been eaten bare by sheep and nearly all [[strikethrough]] v [[/strikethrough]] vegetation killed, though fine bunch grass grows on spots inaccessable to stock. The bottom of the canyon is rocky & rough. The cliffs are bassalt. Fine fruit ranches are scattered along the bottom.

Transcription Notes:
"Klicketat Creek": the area around Goldendale is riddled with little creeks, one of which might have been named Klicketat (or maybe Klickitat, like the nearby river and tributary of the Columbia). "Rufus Ferry" would be a ferry across the Columbia River, run by Mr. Rufus Wallis from the 1880s, at what is now Rufus, Oregon (http://columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/rufus.html)