Viewing page 41 of 47

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[left page blank]]
[[end page]]
[[start page]]

[[underlined]] Rattlesnake Hills [[/underlined]]

Camped late & did not get out many traps.

At North Yakima the barometer read 1500, on the divide 20 miles east of town 2500, at Tub Spring 1800 and at camp in foothills of Rattlesnake Hills 2550. East of the agricultural flat along the Yakima River the valley is all sagebrush with dry soil & the full set of Columbia Valley [[strikethrough]] plants [[/strikethrough]] Sonoran Zone plants. For a short distance on the summit Sonoran species are in the minority but some range across no real break in the continuity of the zone occurs. The country is all "sagebrush" and "bunch grass". both in valley & overhills. No trees were seen. The hills are in high, parallel ranges running east & west, the Rattlesnake Hills south of us & the Cold Creek Hills north. both run through with slight breaks from the Cascades to the Columbia and seem to be old lava streams.

Numerous artesian wells with immense streams of flowing water have extended the farming part of the Yakima Valley ten miles east of the river. From the last well to Tub Spring is a distance of 20 miles without water & the spring is only a small, dirty pool in an old creek bed. 5 miles farther east we camped where a fine spring flows out and 8 miles to the north a good creek boils out of a gulch. The country is not well watered and is intirely uninhabited west of the artesian wells. Road good, very dusty, hot. Came 45 miles.