y to have waged war against the whites, it was
thoroughly understood that secretly he favored it. But had his father
lived and retained his health and power there is little doubt but that
the open conflict would have been averted, and many precious human
lives on both sides saved.

The Truckee River has its rise in Lake Tahoe, flows northward and
breaks through the Mount Pluto ridge in a narrow canyon, one thousand
to two thousand feet in depth. While the canyon is narrow and its
slopes, especially on the east, are rocky and steep, it is not exactly
gorge-like, except for the space of a mile or so, a short distance
below Tahoe. For twelve miles the river follows a northerly course,
and it is then joined by Donner Creek flowing from Donner Lake.
The united streams then turn eastward and take a course across the
northern end of the gravelly flat of Martis Valley, in a channel two
hundred to two-hundred-fifty feet below the level of the plain. At
Boca it cuts through the eastern range with a canyon one thousand to
three thousand five hundred feet in depth and emerges on the plains
of Nevada between Verdi and Reno. It returns again to the north below
Wadsworth, having run sixty-nine miles from Donner Creek, and then,
flowing sixteen more miles, it discharges into Pyramid Lake. At Tahoe
the river begins at an elevation of 6,225 feet above sea level; at
Pyramid the level is 4,890 feet, thus giving the river a fall of 1,335
feet in ninety-seven miles.

The Truckee River receives a number of large tributaries; the
principal ones being Little Truckee River and Prosser Creek, the
former heading in Webber Lake, the latter in the main range of the
Sierras, most of its sources lying in small lakes held in hollows and
basins excavated by glaciers.

Until it was contaminated by the refuse of civilization its waters
were pure and healthful, but legal enactments have been necessary to
protect the stream from sawdust and other pollutions.

As elsewhere explained the Truckee River being the only outlet of Lake
Tahoe, and therefore its natural outflow channel, together with the
facts that its origin is in California and it then flows into Nevada,
and that part of Lake Tahoe is in each state, has helped complicate
the solution of the question as to who is entitled to the surplus
waters of the Lake. This is discussed somewhat in a later chapter
devoted to the subject.

It may be interesting to recall that in 1900 Mr. A.W. Von Schmidt,