as many Warm Spring Indian scouts under a leader
named Donald Macintosh, with a small pack train, found himself on the
south fork of Pitt River, in Modoc County, Cal., a few miles below its
junction with the main stream. The {303} country is wild, unsettled,
largely unexplored to this day. There is no railroad even now nearer
than one hundred and twenty-five miles. General Crook had been hunting
and trailing Indians in the Warmer Mountains without success for
several days. On this morning the Warm Spring Indian scouts reported
that a large body of Indians was encamped in the valley upon which he
was just entering.

The general direction of the river here was due north and south.
Perhaps a mile from the bank of the river to the west, rose a high
tableland which terminated in precipitous and generally insurmountable
bluffs of black basalt, extending above the general level of the valley
about twelve hundred feet. Projecting eastward from the side of these
lofty cliffs was a singular rocky plateau, the outer lines of which
roughly formed a half circle. This elevation was bordered on the south
by a deep and broken canon, on the north by a creek which ran through a
forest of scattered juniper trees. The plateau rose in two gentle
slopes to a height of about five or six hundred feet above the valley
level, and was thus half as high as the bluff to the westward, which
formed the base of the semi-circle. Near the northern part of the
plateau the rocks were elevated in a series of irregular broken peaks,
like the jagged ice hummocks of the higher latitudes. The whole
plateau was covered with enormous boulders, over which it was
impossible even to lead a horse. On the lower reaches plots of grass,
dotted with junipers, abounded. The valley of the river proper below
the cliffs and the projecting plateau was a good place for a camp,
although the ground near the banks was swampy and impassable.

The peaks mentioned, it was afterward learned, {304} abounded with
hidden caves and underground passages. By some curious freak of
nature, the volcanic hummocks contained no less than four natural
fortifications of varying sizes, which, supplemented by very slight
efforts on the part of the Indians, had been turned into defensive
works of the most formidable character.

They were connected by a perfect labyrinth of crevasses and underground
passages and caves, so that the defenders could easily pass from one to
the other. The