Canyon City and flows south of the Harney Lake basin. The country immediatthese lakes affords nothing worthy of notice; high, rocky table lands and almost endless fields of sage comprise the hands cape. Thirty miles north of Lake Harney, as Cricket Creek debouches into the valley, a wide alluvial bottom is formed, wet and swampy, subject to periodical overflows, and covered with a rank growth of wild grass. This place called Big Meadows by Major Steen in 1860. It would afford fine grazing grounds during the summer months, and is capable for supplying large quantities of hay if cut in proper season. The Snow Mountains, so called by Major Steen, who crossed it in the month of August, 1860, forms the southeastern portion of the great rim that inclose the Harney Lake basin. It is simply an elevated portion of the chain that forms the connecting link between the Sierra Navad and the Blue Mountains. The altitude was not ascertained, but it approaches close to the snow line, as the summit was covered with snow in June, and large patches were distinctly visible in July and August. The eastern face of this mountain is abrupt and precipitous, broken occasionally by great canons, through which the melting snows of the mountain find an outlet to the desert plain below. The western face descending into Harney Valley wears a barren appearance, is rocky and broken, and entirely destitute of vegetation. From the Snow Mountains eastward to the Owyhee River stretches a broad expanse of desert. It was not crossed by any parties from the command, but was supposed to be about thirty miles in width. From the Main Fork of John Day's River to the Harney Lake basin lies a district of country extremely broken and rugged in character, embracing the main chain of the Blue Mountains and its numerous spurs that shoot out in various directions. The Blue Mountain - so called in the reports of the expedition to distinguish it from the numerous detached ridges in its vicinity - is a single ridge that branches out westwardly from a great mass of mountains east of Canyon City, and terminates in high, rugged table-lands near the mouth of Crooked River. Its northern face, abrupt and precipitous, affords here and there a route of ascent, is densely timbered, and has a most, damp climate. From the base to the table-lands of the Columbia the country is chopped into struggling foot-hills destitute of timber. The southern face of the mountain slopes gently to the Crooked River Valley, is barren in appearance, with a dry climate, and a temperature considerably warmer than the northern side. It is here worthy of notice that the whole country south of the Blue Mountain wars the marks of an arid climate. An extensive district of mountain country is dramed by three small streams - the South Fork of John Day's, Crooked River, and Cricket Creek. The water-courses and springs dry up in the latter part of the summer and vegetation almost ceases to exist. As a mineral country it has afforded thus far nothing that would be at all remunerative to the miner. Gold in small quantities was found by some of the men of the command on Beaver Creek about forty miles southwest of Camp Dahlgren. With this exception no minerals of any kind have been discovered so far as known, although several ladge prospecting parties have devoted a good deal of time to exploring its gulches and canons within the past two years. The water-courses of the country, as before remarked, are small and of no importance. Crooked River, the largest, has its source in the mountains north of Lake Harney, flows northeast through broken table-lands, lying immediately south of the Blue Mountains, to the Des Chutes River. Forty miles above its mouth in enters a great canon marked by precipitous walls of rock on either side, and affording only at long intervals an occasional route of crossing. Its