Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/172

154 John Minto. this strong difference— the snows of winter flow off in sur- face streams westward, with a rush, under the influence of the southwest (Chinook) wind and warm rain, while on the east side it seems largely to sink out of sight near the summit, and comes to the surface 1,500 to 2,000 feet below, in springs clear as crystal and cold as ice water. There is no other river in Oregon as even in its flow between the seasons as the Des Chutes. It did not vary sixteen inches wdthin a period of sixteen years, according to A. J. Tetherow, who kept a ferry and whose residence stood so near its general level that he must have noted its rise by inches. It is a great power stream. This mountain range is an immense health resort, and homes can, and I hope will, be built close up to the summit on each side — in some places at the summit. On some of the largest lake beds the cover of peat settles as the dry season advances, forcing a continued outflow. Timber growing in peat formation does not reach marketable size; it grows slowly, as spruce does within two to four feet of tide level, but makes no sawlogs. I have seen healthy spruce trees with fifteen feet of clay soil under them, twelve feet in diameter, within pistol-shot of spruce on tide flats not fifteen inches in size, and dying. CHAPTER yil. SOIL-V^ASTAGE. . On the west side of the Cascades, fruit culture, bee keeping and dairying will go throughout the region in connection with forest farming — in my opinion a "forest homestead" of 320 acres, deeded on condition of keeping nine-tenths of it in growing timber and one-tenth of the area in orchard or other crops. All and always under national and State supervision. The beaver ought to be classed as a domestic animal, kept under or within a strong wire fence. Rights in private fish ponds ought to be provided for and their construction encour- aged. Such ponds would be checks against the rapid run-off of streams, and ought to be as much the care of the State as