eastward over the rocky juniper ridge, between Langell Valley and Clear Lake, then to Goose Lake, round the southern end of which they continued, encamping the 8th on a small stream coming in from the southeast, and where game was found in abundance.
Ascending a spur of the mountains bordering Goose Lake Valley, a view was obtained of another beautiful valley, with trees and streams, beyond which was a mountain ridge supposed to be a part of the California sierras. This was Surprise Valley, into which a good pass was found, with grass and water plenty, in the gap.[1]
The party had now come to the dividing ridge between the waters of the lake-basin of the Pacific coast and that other great basin which contains the Humboldt Liver and the great inland sea of Salt Lake. Their horses had worn out their shoes on the rocks of Klamath land; the sandy desert that lay before them beyond the borders of Surprise Valley seemed to stretch interminably, with no indication or water or grans as far as the eye could see, and unbroken except by rocky ridges; and the prospect for the future looked gloomy. But pressing on to the close of the day over sand, gravel, and rock, at evening a little spring was most unexpectedly found. Proceeding in an eastward course over a sage plain, by the middle of the afternoon of the 10th the weary travellers found themselves confronted by a sheer wall of solid granite, varying in height from twenty or thirty to several hundred feet, and entirely impassable. Separating into two divisions, the country was explored to the north and south, where was found a gap varying from two hundred feet to the width of little more than a single wagon. It was about twenty miles in length. A stream ran through it in places under overhanging cliffs. After examining this strange
- ↑ The small stream spoken of as coming into Goose Lake, and the pass into Surprise Valley, have taken the name of Lassen, from Peter Lassen who two years after the discovery by the Oregon company, led a party of California immigrants through, it on to the waters of the Pit and Sacramento rivers.
