On the evening of the 3d of December Mason, left Portland by special train, accompanied by captains George H. Burton and V. M. C. Silva, and lieutenants W. H. Boyle and H. De W. Moore. On arriving at Roseburg, the roads being very heavy with mud and the transportation of baggage difficult, the remainder of the march to Jacksonville and over the mountains in rain and snow occupied nearly two weeks, so that it was past the middle of December when Mason reported to Green at Crawley's. It was not until about the same time that Wheaton, having recovered from his indisposition, reached Green's headquarters from Camp Warner by the way of Fort Klamath, where he found the supply of ammunition nearly exhausted by issues to the settlers on the day after the battle at Jack's camp, necessitating the sending of Captain Bernard with a detachment and wagons to Camp Bid well for a supply.
Meantime neither the Indians nor the troops were idle. Captain Perry was still at Van Bremer's with forty cavalrymen. Colonel Ross, in command of the Jacksonville volunteers, was at Snell's place, near Whittles' ferry. On the 16th of December detachments from both companies made a reconnoissance of Jack's position, approaching it within a mile, and being led to believe that it could be surrounded so as to compel him to surrender. Of the strength of the Modoc position the military authorities knew nothing except by rumor up to this time, and had not yet learned definitely much. Few whites had ever visited this place, the access to which was extremely difficult. It was known that the lava beds contained an area of ten miles square, broken by fissures and chasms from ten to a hundred feet in width, many of them a hundred feet deep, and that it abounded in caves, one of which was said to contain fifteen acres of clear space, with an abundance of good water and many openings, the largest of which was of the size of a common door. There were places in the lava beds where grass grew
