criptions rose up as we approached, and my Indian guide gave me a sample of his skill, by firing at a string of pelicans as they flew over his head, and missing them all; much to his dismay, as he had tried to make me understand that he was wonderfully expert with his carbine.

After tying up our horses we visited the Lava Beds on foot, passing on our way a small enclosure filled with the graves of many poor fellows who had fallen in the late conflict. Captain Jack's cave and headquarters and other curious hollows and natural fortifications were next inspected; but as it was getting dark, and we had a tedious return journey to make, I could not devote much time to the examination of the different points of interest in these strangely desolate regions.

I

The country round was full of rattle-snakes. managed to kill two, and was afterwards very careful where I put my foot when walking on the sage-brush. Long before we reached the camp the deep rosepurple of the eastern hills had faded away, and so dark a night set in that even the Indian gave up the attempt to follow the trail. But, fortunately, the unerring instinct of our horses enabled them to find their way in the darkness as well as in the light.

By midnight we were home again, and the follow

ing week I said farewell to my hospitable friends, and in company with an American artist and a German traveller crossed the Klamath river into Oregon; and from Jacksonville set out for the Mystic Lake, in the beautiful Klamath Land.

CHAPTER XVII.

FORT KLAMATH TO THE MYSTIC LAKE.

A custom-Fort Klamath-The agency-Dead Indian country-The Lake of the Woods—An Indian workshop-A cañon-Snow-fields— The crater's rim-A snow-camp-An alarm-O-po-co-ninne-Mystic Lake-A canoe-The medicine man-The island-Law of deathMidnight-Internal fires-Surmises.

6

THE national American custom of drinking at the bar' admits of many forms of invitation. At San Francisco the latest mode of expression was Will you go on a bond?' When we arrived at Jacksonville we found that the form used was much more expressive, and 'Stranger, let's irrigate,' was the one most constantly in use. There is a pastoral suggestion in that invitation which is not possessed by any other, and you feel, when thus addressed, as if a proposal were made to extend a benefit over the country in general, as well as on yourself.

It certainly was excessively hot at Jacksonville, which may have accounted for the perpetual dryness which seemed to prevail there. If the farmers of that part of the country would but irrigate their lands as well as they irrigate themselves there would surely never

be any cause to complain of scanty crops and dry weather.

Jacksonville had few inducements to detain us, and as soon as we could obtain horses and a guide we started for Fort Klamath, which we reached on the third day.'

There we saw the unfortunate Modoc prisoners, and afterwards started on some delightful expeditions into the Klamath country.

The Indian Agency and the military fort occupy a beautiful position on Great Klamath Lake, which lies close under the mountain shadows. Above the lake a lovely prairie reaches to the mountains which enclose the valley on three sides. The Indians call it the 'Beautiful Land of Flowing Water,' and it deserves the name. Streams of the purest water rise from the hillsides; and the water is so clear that the smallest pebble is visible at a depth of ten or fifteen feet. These rivulets wind amongst beds of willows, through green meadows and clumps of evergreens, and at last flow into the lake. From the Agency, which is distant about five miles from the fort, the view is most romantic. The distant snow-peaks encircle the valley with their white walls, as if guarding the home of the Klamaths. To the north, Mount Scott rises to a height of 10,000 feet; to the left, Mount Pitt looks down on the valley from an altitude of 11,000 feet; and nestling at its southern base is Glacier Lake, which is supplied by the melting

snow, and whose shores are bordered by pine forests and fine grazing lands.

Towards the west is discerned the Snowy Chester,' a circle of twelve snowy peaks, enclosing a lava bed twenty miles in circumference, and dotted with small circular lakes, probably the craters from which the peaks were thrown up long before the Indian made it his favourite resort.

To the east lies Dead Indian Country, and beyond it there is a beautiful sheet of water, called the 'Lake of the Woods,' enclosed by a forest so dense and dark that the sun's rays cannot pierce and brighten its gloomy depths. Near this lake, we were shown what must have been the spot used by Indians in olden times as a manufactory for arrow-heads and spears. The remains of a log-hut, and a few circles of stones, evidently fireplaces, from their blackened litter, were all the signs of an Indian camp that we could see. But our guide told us that numbers of chipped arrow and spear heads and the rough rocks on which they had been sharpened, and some pieces of flint and obsidian, had been found there a short time ago.

Now, of course, the Indians use firearms, and when they want arrow-heads and spears they buy metal for the purpose from the white men. But it is not so very long ago that they chipped the agate, jasper, and chalcedony, and laughed and sang in the pine woods by the