NI.WMRKY

I

N THE GEOLOGY
I) DOTANY OF THE
COUNTRY BORDERING
THE NORTHERN
PACIFIC RAILROAD

'WfrMs'

University of California • Berkeley

NTOTES O '-IE

Geology and Botany

OF 'ii Y r.<>i;m-:m\<; THK

NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD,

WHERRY

BROS

JtDWARD W. NOLAN

NOTES ON THE

Geology and Botany

"!•' TIIK OM NTKY ]',< H.'l >KI.'I \<I TIIK

NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD,

PBOP, .1. s. \K\\ I:I-;I;KY.

|-'I:UM TIII; . \.\\\i- OJ I in: \. ^. A« \Di:\n <n

VOL, III. No, 8, i-

GREGORY BROS.,

PrlnUrt. 113 Sixth Av«nu«.
NEW YORK.

' \

X I. \iifrs nti tJir Crajuf/t/ miff />'///// ;/v o/' /
///<' \(n-f/n'i'n J'lfifj

Read February 4th. 1884.

Having been several times over the lino of the Northern
Pacific IJ. K., and through the country bordering tin- !••
Columbia and Puget's Sound, and having found some things
that were of interest to me, I venture to offer a few notes upon
them to the members of the Academy.

(ming west from Duluth to Brainerd. t''e line of the mad for
the most part lies in what is evidently the old deserted hcd of a
ward extension of Lake Superior, The ground i<>till 1«»\\
and swampy, and much of the surface is formed of what is un-
mistakably lake sand.

From Chicago through Wisconsin and Minnesota, the road
pamec OTer an almost unbroken sheet of drift, which tlmu^i, ,,f
great interest, has been PO fully illust rate<l in the able repor
Kferan. Chaniherlin. Winchell and rpham. that nothing furihci
need be said here in regard to it. At variou- points the true
till is seen, with its striated pebble-; and one <ueli e\;
within reach of e\ery traxdcr. ;it Aiulubon. He\ond thi^. flu-
hnulder- Are -cattcred OY6F the BUfl the

ditches continue a> evidence of t he t ransport of material '
the eastern highlands. About P>:-marck the boulders. th<-
fcwcr, are .-till not rare, and are gathered in groups. M elsewhere
along the margin of the drift area. Constituting a kind of fringe,
and sugge.-ting their transport b\ ice float-. 'I'he last of these
boulders is seen at Sims, about •.'<> miles from Bismarck, I
this jioint to the rros-iiiL' of the Little Mi -s-.ur i. one eon Id hardly
find to throu at a hinl. or a shrub big enough ton

a tooth-pick. This ivi-ion i< an n DOrthward of that

broader prairie area which I ha\'

343 Geology and Botany of Northern Pacific Railroad.

south. Here, between the eastern drift and that from the
Rocky Mountains, the soil is formed entirely by the decomposi-
tion of the underlying rocks ; and wherever these are shales and
calcareous sandstones, as they are throughout most of the Creta-
ceous formation, there are no outcropping ledges of rock, the
country is smooth, and stone of all kinds is scarce.

This belt, which runs from the Mexican to the Canadian line,
is prairie because of the dryness of the climate, and not on ac-
count of the geological substructure ; for, between the " Cross-
timbers" and the Raton Mountains, with a great variety of geol-
ogy and topography, there are no trees except along the water-
courses ; which, fed by the melting of the snow on the Rocky
Mountains, are perennial, and supply constantly the amount of
moisture that is a necessity for tree growth. The peculiar tine-
ness of the soil of the northern portion of this belt has been sup-
posed to have something to do with the prevalence of grass and
the absence of trees ; since in Illinois and Wisconsin, along the
border line between the forest area and the prairie, the levels
where the soil is fine are .grass-covered, while the swells and ridges,
rocky or gravelly, carry trees ; but as I have shown elsewhere,
these local peculiarities of the soil, favoring, the first grass and
the second trees, have simply caused the interlocking of prairie
and forest along the debatable line.

Further west, with every kind of soil, geological structure and
topography, there are no trees, but everywhere grass ; while east
of the Mississippi and beyond the battle-ground between the two
forms of vegetation, all kinds of topography, soil and geological
substructure are covered with forest. No one who has traversed
the continent, as I have done, along several parallels of latitude,
and has studied the relations of vegetation to soil and geological
structure, will fail to find conclusive evidence that the influence
which has determined the kind and quantity of vegetation in the
varied topographic and climatic districts of the West, is the
rainfall.

The valley of the Little Missouri is deeply cut in a table-land
composed of the Laramie coal-measures, of which 200 or 300 feet
are exposed in the cliffs, with several seams of coal. Thousands
of silicified tree-trunks lie scattered over the surface, and innu-
merable stumps are standing apparently where they grew ; but
no foreign material is anywhere visible.

Geolo and //"/</////<>/ Northern /'//r-v/v //>////••«///.

A few miles helow tin- railroad crossiiiu'. tin- \all<-\ expand-
and opens into tin- famous / .,- " had land- «>f

tin- Missouri." TlieCOnrteof that >trcam Mlijettfl

: and I In- \ alleys of t he trihutaries ninninir imri h and ><mtli.
co.de.-ce. and form in tin- old lakc-hcd a picture-Mine l-nt ilai,
ous lahyrinth.

A- -""ii as one enters the vallev of the Yellowstone, he find*
himself MiiTounded l»y t ransportcd material. ( \ ravel and hould-

• !' cry-talline. sedimentary and \olean :««nn tin

and hars of tin- river, inciva>ini: in OOUrseneM and «|tiantitv all
the way to Livingston : hnt in all this material I was unahle In
tind anything that was to me even pivsumahlv of ea.-tern or
Dr. ('. A. White. (Am. .lonrnal of Sci.. vol. \\V. 1
reports lindini: what he consider- ea-tei'n glacial drift aloni: the
valley (»f the Missouri and that of the Yellow-ton,- : hut my
>eareh for sueh material was vain. As will In- seen further "ii.
1 found in the \alley of the M i»oiiri ahout the Fall-. ian-

tities of drift with houlder- of f, .>>ilifrroii> lin

'id granite, all reinarkahly like the Kastern drift, hut
which 1 subseijuently traced to tin ir jilaco «\' origin in the 1
Mountain.-.

The surface ^eolo^v of the Yellow>toiie Park ha- hr«-n «le-
scnhed in con.-iderahle detail hy Mr. \V. II. Holme.- and Mr.
A. ('. Peale : hut 1 was surpri.-ed to find the trace- i.f i1!
action BO \\ ide-.-pread and unmistakah e. It is jirohahly not
too much to say that every \alley of the Pal ':lled

with ice: for moraine-, h.-ulder-. -la< lal lak. •-. and more rarely
-lacial >tri,-e. irive le.-t imony t hat cannot he disjiuted. I
hlock- are -een on the >ides of the Yello w-!«. ne valh
the mouth of dardnei'.- Iii\er : and ahmit Mam mot li Hot Spi

\ de)M-e-- held a glacier. S\\an Lakt irial

and is h.,unded on the.-oinh li\ a moraine, wl),:

and ,-triated nn-k->urface> mark the ..Id
hi-h up on tin dlej, I H^. tin-

road lr;id- over a - ;m'l

houhler-. \\hich i-mitinue to and around the ! n H
and pm\e that i tilled with ic.

all that I could learn. ' i.

portion of the Park, n ' "II

245 Geology and Botany of Northern Pacific Railroad.

Between Livingston and Bozeman, the railroad passes over a
spur of the Rocky Mountains composed chiefly of Palaeozoic lime-
stones, part of which are Carboniferous. Above these are red
beds which probably represent the Jurassic and Triassic, and still
higher Laramie rocks with coal, apparently the same section ex-
posed in Cinnabar Mountain, in the valley of the Yellowstone
just north of the Park. The strata are very much disturbed,
the coal much crushed and twisted, so that it works small, but
it is extensively mined for use on and along the railroad, and is
esteemed a good fuel. Fossil plants associated with the coal,
prove it to be of the same age with that exposed in the cliffs at
the crossing of the Little Missouri. One feature of the Bozeman
coal it has in common with some of that from much disturbed
beds in Washington Territory and Colorado. It contains a large
quantity of yellow, translucent amber-like resin, in seams and
patches. As this occurs in the joints of.the coal, it is evidently
a secondary product resulting from its partial distillation.

DRIFT OF THE UPPER MISSOURI.

The Missouri River, formed by the union of the Madison, the
Gallatin and the Jefferson, at Gallatin City, traverses with a
north-westerly and then northerly course, the valley between the
Rocky and Belt Mountains, and finds its way out to the plains
by a long circuit around the northern bases of the Belt and
Crazy Mountains, which belong to the Rocky Mountain system,
and constitute their eastern outliers. Cutting through barriers
formed by low interlocking spurs, at the "Gate of the Mount-
ains," the river enters an undulating prairie country which ex-
tends from the north side of the Belt Mountains to and beyond
the Canadian line. All this region is occupied by a sheet of
drift that in thickness and extent rivals that of the plains sur-
rounding the Canadian highlands ; but as far my observation
extended I found this to be of local origin.

At the Great Falls of the Missouri, the underlying rock is
fully exposed, but the drift sheet comes up to the edge of the
gorge and forms the low hills which stretch away to the east and
north like the long swells of the ocean. In the valleys of the
streams which come down to the Missouri from the Belt Moun-

«/// '///'/ lint, i nit Of Y(W ''» in I '.' 1 1,

fains, tin- rock substructure is visible: hut tin- int-
plateaus are covered with a sheet of drift clay and boulo
that varies greatly in thickness, as it is spread over a rock-sur-
face that was once deeply and irregularly eroded. For example,
near the Upper Falls of the Missouri, where the banks of the
river are perhaps a hundred feet high, of solid rock, a trihutarx
coinini: in from the south cuts across an old valley tilled with
drift which extends almost to the promt river channel. A
mouth, this tributary has hi^h rocky banks : but a few hundred
yards above, they are altogether composed of drift. This drift
is a true till, thickly set with boulders, some of which are two
feet or more in diameter. They are usually rounded, somet
subangular, and are composed of gray or red granite, quart /He.
palaeozoic limestone, and a variety of eruptive rocks. Th.
semblance of this drift to that from the Canadian highlands, is
so great that I was only convinced of its local origin when I
found all of its constituents in place in the Kelt and Kock\
Mountains. The granites were to my eye indistinguishable from
those of the eastern Laurentian series ; they are of An-ha-an a-e.
as I subsequently learned ; and nothing but careful microscopic
examination will show them to be distinguishable, if they are so.
These facts lead me to suspect that even the very careful and
experienced observers who have reported the finding of east tin
Laurentian boulders on the flanks of the Rocky M«>n
feet above the sea, may have been misled by this striking resem-
blance.

On the undulating surface of the table-lauds between the tribu-
taries of the Missouri, large boulders are occasionally seen, a
the States bordering the Great Lakes ; and one of thes-
wliat angular in form, has served so long as a rubbing-pout for
the buffaloes which recently abounded in that region, tlur
sides are all polished and a deep furrow is worn around it.

Immediately south of the Falls of the Missouri, an extensive
coal-basin of Cretaceous (?) age is opened b\ the \ the

Oil which come down from the Kelt and Ih-hwood Mount-
ains. Two coal seams are exposed, one thin. • fmm ]-.'
to is feet in thickness, the latter a compound soaro, some of tin-
benches of which are bright, pure coking coal.

The Falls of the Missouri, caused by beds of sandstones b

247 Geology and Botany of Northern Pacific Railroad.

ing to this coal formation, consist of a series of cascades having
an aggregate height of over 200 feet ; the lower fall is 98 feet,
the next 25, the next 40, the next 20, etc. They occupy the
whole breadth of the river, which is here about 1500 feet ; and
as the volume of water is large, they are exceedingly beautiful
and also furnish a water-power rivalling in magnitude that of
Niagara, and far more available.

GEOLOGY OF THE BELT MOUNTAINS.

The streams which flow into the Missouri from the Crazy and
Belt Mountains, form valleys which are remarkably picturesque
and of great geological interest. The coal-basin to which I
have referred is underlain by palaeozoic limestones more than
two thousand feet thick. These rise toward the south, where
they rest upon the Cambrian and Archaean nucleus of the
mountains. Deeply cut by the draining streams, they form the
walls of a series of narrow valleys or cafions, which, though less
impressive in magnitude, are more beautiful than those of the
Colorado. The limestones are sometimes blue, more generally
cream-colored, and lie in massive beds of 100 to 200 feet in
thickness ; these form a series of steps in the precipitous walls of
the valleys, from which project spires, castles, fortifications,
and other colossal imitations of human architecture. The light
cream tint of the prevailing limestone contrasts charmingly
with the dark green of the fir-trees that crown the summits and
cluster in picturesque groups wherever they can find a foothold
on the declivity. Add to these elements a variety of minor
plants, which with varied colors decorate the cliffs, and the
whole forms a combination which in beauty surpasses anything
that I have elsewhere seen in somewhat extended wanderings
through the far West.

Cutting through the limestones and in places the coal-bearing
rocks, are eruptive dykes of three distinct kinds, which Mr. J.
P. Iddings has been kind enough to examine for me microscopi-
cally. He reports them to be, first, a typical augite-andesyte,
which forms the Bird Tail Divide and the upper portion of
" Square Butte," a conspicuous landmark on the west side of the
Missouri ; second, a true trachyte, with large crystals of feldspar.

'/"//// mnl lintiuiil <>f' A'"/7//r/-/i

nnich like that of tin- I h achenl'cK. at tin- head of Belt ('reek :
ami thinl, a rhyolitc. on tin- >iiiiui,it of I. nil. I'.rlt Mom.

At Neihart, the centre of the Archa-an nudru- of tin- Little
Belt Mountains is reached. The prevailing granite is nddi-h
and somewhat handed with brown and irivrii, ami though \
ma.-.-ivc is imli.-tinctly bedded and apparent Is nietamorphie. It
is cut hy enormous dykes of a \.r. ,md mottled irranite,

consisting of obscurely rounded masses of feldspar : h\

hornhlende and black mica. Thc.-c -raniie rock- are :
hy a irreat number of fissure-veins, generally \\itli \
<|iiartx, heavy spar, and oxiik- of i nd can \IH.L' *nl-

pbides of silver and lead : the orea an- rich but the \eins small.

On the south side of the valley at Neihart the ditT> of Lrrai
L200 feet in height, are covered with a >heet of pot-dam >aiid-

stone several hundred feet in thickm-ss. the contact heini: fll
for miles. The sandstone is red, ^cnerallN -soft, hut soim-tim.-
a coarse and hard conglomerate. It here contain.- no fossils, but
is full of annelid borings (Sw?i//tnti), and has the aspect —
has the geological relations — of the Potsdam in the Black Hills
and in the Adirondacks. On the summit of the mountain. I
of the upper beds of sandstone are tilled with, and larircl\ com-
posed of, primordial trilohites.

The evidences of former glacial action in the Belt Mountains
an- abundant but are not of a striking character. T:
sist of beds of boulder clay, and in some of the higher \ al-
leys. of nir/tffs mnuftuim'vs or smoothly planed -urfac.
ciai striae were not observed, having been obliterated b\
thering.

All the upper portion of the Belt Mount. •« d with a

dense forest composed of Dou-la.-'s and Knp-lmann'-
.l///rx Dninjltisii. and A. En ', the bal-am tir. .1

"A//-, and rinns runtnrtn. In J'lace>. t he 1 1 cos are heanl\
draped with tufts and streamers of the jet black libiv.-
////•/// sarmeniosa : while man\ treei and partioa]

branches are decorated with bunchis of the lemon

///// ruljiinn. Lower do\\ii on the mountain are -cattiTed tree*

of /'tin/* fiinn /!•/••

The valley of Sm ' - K ' Hrlt from the

I/it: \louniain~. I: I U ; tWN - • «d beauti'

249 Geology and Botany of Northern Pacific Railroad.

valleys on the north side of the mountains, but is quite different
in aspect. The sides generally are smooth and unbroken slopes,
1500 feet or more in height, covered with rich grass and pre-
senting no rock exposures. The summits of the hills are crowned
with evergreens which here and there creep down the ravines,
of which they occupy, in preference, the slopes having a north-
ern exposure, because here the snow lies deepest and longest,
supplying the greatest amount of moisture. The cause of the
peculiar topography of the valley of Smith's River is to be found
in its geological substructure, for it is cut all the way to Sulphur
Springs, in Cambrian rocks, which form a series several thousand
feet in thickness. They are mostly argillaceous shales or slates,
which break down together and form gentle slopes.

Sulphur Springs is a well-built, handsome town, of several
thousand inhabitants, gathered around hot springs which have
a high reputation for their medicinal properties. From Sulphur
Springs we crossed the southern extension of the Great Belt
Mountains to the valley of the Missouri at Townsend. The
range is here altogether composed of the Cambrian (?) slates
which form the banks of Smith River, — probably the same series
that is cut by the somewhat famous and picturesque* Prickly
Pear Canon on the west side of the Missouri. In some places
these slates are compacted by local metamorphism into masses of
considerable hardness, but generally they are rather soft, fine
grained argillo-silicious rocks, blue or gray in color, and finely
laminated by planes of deposition. Occasionally a harder layer,
an inch or two in thickness, is more silicious and rings like
novaculite. These rocks have suffered no change which would
obliterate fossils, and look as promising as any shales ; but the
most careful search failed to detect a single fossil in them, al-
though specks of carbonaceous matter were often seen, and some
shadowy outlines that suggest sea-weeds. There is little doubt
that this is the same formation with that seen beneath the Pots-
dam in Little Cottonwood Canon near Salt Lake City, and in
the Canon of the Colorado, — a formation considered Cambrian by
King, Powell and Walcott, and which has yielded the latter a
few fossils, but is universally barren and disappointing. Jt does
not occur between the Potsdam sandstone and the granite in
the Belt Mountains, for the same reason that the "Georgia

ami lint,, mi

datee " do not underlie the l'i»t-dam \\\ the Adirondack*,
because tin- l'ot>dam L« :i && i, produced i,\ a u

spread, almost cont inental, ilepn .--ion of tin- land. or ^cm-nil ele-
vation of tin- sea level, which carried the ,-hore-linc inland hevoml
the areas where tin- Camhrian rookl had accumulated.

The valley of the Missouri ahoiit (iallatm, ami lj !««»

miles helow. is \ei-v l.roa.l ami fertile, ami pied

I .v tarmers or Btock-nusere, \Vln-ai. m«. ami e-|.eeiail\

.Mieeessftilly cult i\ ated. hut maiiilv hy irn-at mn. All llir low -
lands ami the foot-hills of the mountains are covered with a tint*
-muth of hunch «rra>s. hlue->t(in and -lama, ujton uhich cattle.
>heep and horses are well >u>taini'd throughout the Near. The
wintei's a iv lon^ and severe, hut n.»t inor«- >o than in M
and the >no\v-fall is somewhat 1068. The .-toek rallv

fed or housed, though it would he more merciful and jirohahh
more economical to provide some >hclter.

THK ii(n K^ MOUNTAINS,

Helena, the capital of Montana, is a well-huilt ami wealthy
town of some 8.000 inhabitants, located in ami ahout the month
of Last Chance (iulch, one of the famous ^old-camps in tin-
time of placer mining.

The foot-hills of the first ran ire of the !{.>ck\ .Mouniam-. lu-re
and noi'thward to the British line, are comp.i-rd of tl:
/oic roek- which .-iirroiind the Hdt Mountains. Ahout He!
they are generally liinestt»m->. -nmcwhat met amm -pli«'-,-d. hut
not much hroken np. The various ra\incs which lead to the
M.--onri valley, head in the granite lock- of the core <»f the

iml near these, the pala-o/.oie >er \ much

turhcd. The .-rranites, as well us some of the >ed
nicks, are traversed hy many mineral \ MIC .»f which

auriferous and ha\e furni>lu-d the lar^e amount of ^,.ld that ha-

POm the -nlche<. Mogt Of the Ili!!i.T;d VOJnS HTO,

however, silver-liearin.::. and the.-e form a nniiil»

where tl, or \\ ill hereafter . «roai mmm- oti

At ticket, twenty mile> BOOth oi :

no\\ nll\ \\..rkeil, and a vi«n ';int for the

. om-entration ami treatment of li v smelling and leiich-

251 Geology and Botany of Northern Pacific Railroad.

ing. A branch of the N. P. R. 11. runs up to Wickes, carrying
coke and other supplies at so cheap a rate as to give success to
enterprises which were before unprofitable. The ores worked
are argentiferous galena, containing much blende and pyrites.

The limestone series in this valley is underlain by heavy beds
of quartzite, which apparently represent the Potsdam sand-
stone.

Red Mountain, sixteen miles west of Helena, lies at the head
of another valley similar to that at Wickes ; but the quartzites
are here less conspicuous ; the limestones only becoming silicious
and flinty at their base. Red Mountain is cut by an immense
number of mineral veins, generally of small size, — from one to
six feet in thickness, — but exhibiting a remarkable uniformity
in direction and mineral characters. They are approximately
parallel, apparently continuous through the mountain, stand
nearly vertical, and carry argentiferous galena, gray copper,
zinc-blende and pyrites. The veinstone is chiefly quartz, but in
some places consists almost entirely of black hornblende. The
ores generally carry from 25 to 100 ounces of silver, but the
gray copper, which is the richest, contains from 200 to 2,000
ounces per ton. Systematic mining operations are just begin-
ning here ; and should a branch road be carried up to the
mines, it would seem that they must be productive and pro-
fitable.

After passing Helena, the line of the Pacific Railroad soon
turns into the mountains and crosses the first or main range,
coming down on to the head waters of Clark's Fork and enter-
ing a broad and fertile valley, which has its chief center of
population at Missoula. The western border of this valley is
formed by the Bitter Root Mountains, part of the broad belt
made up of the western ranges of the Rocky Mountain system.
All these consist of granite, broken through in many places by
eruptive rocks, and flanked by quartzites, slates and limestones,
which probably represent the Cambrian, Silurian and Carboni-
ferous systems. In the lowlands which lie between the ranges,
there are basins of quite modern Tertiary rocks.

A few miles below Missoula the road crosses a series of
deep ravines, spanned by bridges, one of which is 211 feet in
height. The rock exposed here is all slate of Archaean or Cam-

<;,-„/„,,,, and Belong <>, \. ••

I. mn Age, Below tins, tin- KMd

Clark's Fork. through Olje of the OlOfi picture.-,, uc \;,ll,.\, MI. ih,.
continent. The immediate hanks of the n\rr aiv ..ft, ,
tons masses of limestone. above which tin- wooded mouir
rise to the height of 3000 or 4000 feet 1 the

railroad is northwest, until it approaches within fifty mil-
the British line. This great deflection is caused l,\ d,,
ranges of the Rocky Mountains which are hi-h and
until tin- \ieinity of IVndOreille Like is nach.-d.
fall off, and the road t urns direct ly wot through tlu-m. The
lake is an irregular sheet of water. civ<eeiit-hap< d and fifty
miles in length ; set with numerous isl.md< and Mirroundcd with
mountains, it is extremely pirtim-s.jne. The mountain- COB-
sist of granite, Hanked l.y slate. <|iiartxite and liim->tom.. all
much metamorphosed, hut apparently the pal:«-.,/..ir ^ i ies which
is seen hoklin.i: the same relation to the granite in >o man\
places in Idaho and Montana.

The western range of the Rocky Mountains, like ti
is metalliferous, but to what degree is hardly known. he«
ni'i-t of it is yet unexplored. Veins of argent ifcnms galena and
auriferous <juart/ have hern found in the vicinity of iVnd
Orcille Lake, and the already famous but greatly over-l
Co-ill- d'Alcne mines lie a few miles south of the line of the road.

FOBESTfi 01 i HI: K«». K>, Mm N CAINS.

The fon--t \eiretatioii of the IJocky Mountain- and the \alley
of Clark's Fork, is abundant and int< About He!.

are seen the trees which are Characteristic) of the Park and all
the eastern Hank of the Rocky Mountains. The round lea\ -d
cottonwood. rnjmlnx iii»/ii/i/i-rtt. with willows, t he huiTalo-L
Shi'inirilin tin/rntea, etc., flourish alon.i: tin-

and Douglas'.- >pruer in I be fool billl : '>n the mniintaiii->ide«,
the narn»w-lea\ed p..plar and th<

and /'. tn'iiinlin'<frx , Kn^elmann'.- | 11 m<l the western balttUD
tir: and rinus mntnrta and /'/////> •_//'•./•///> on t he mountain *\\m
mils.

Immediately after passing the divide, however, the clmnu
dements of the Pacific coast vi 11 hc-iin t.» make ;

253 Geology and Botany of Northern Pacific Railroad.

appearance. Douglas's spruce becomes more abundant, and the
trees grow larger, evidently feeling more at home, while the
western larch (Larix Occident alis), the western arbor \\tsd (T/iu-
ja gigantea], the western hemlock (Tsiiga mertensiana), and
Pinus monticola, never seen on the east side of the mountains,
multiply until they constitute the greater part of the forest.
The upper Columbia is the special home of the western larch
and the mountain pine, though they extend westward to and on
to the Cascade Mountains ; but about the mouth of Clark's Fork
they often constitute half the forest. The western hemlock be-
gins here with small trees, which have the aspect and indeed all
the characters of its eastern representative, of which it is in fact
only a variety. In the moist and equable climate of the lower
Columbia it acquires the greater size, smoother bark and more
fine-grained wood, which are its distinguishing characters.

The interval between the Rocky Mountains and the Cascades is
quite different in its topography, geological structure and vege-
tation from any region east of it. It is generally destitute of
trees, though a few scattered yellow pines reach out from the
Rocky Mountains on the one side and the Cascades on the other,
along this line, and though not numerous grow to a large size.*

In a general way this is a plain, but the monotony of the sur-
face is broken by a great number of low hills and knobs of
black or brown basalt, the product of the volcanic eruptions by
which the plain has been repeatedly flooded in Tertiary and

* Further south this arid belt is the special home of this tree. One hun-
dred miles south from the Columbia Kiver, it forms continuous forests
where the trees, rooted in the light volcanic soil, closely set, are often four,
five or six feet in diameter. In these forests there is no other tree and
scarce any undergrowth. Here and there a clump of Cercocarpus or red
gooseberry is seen. The ground is usually bare, and so soft that horses
sink into it to the fetlocks. The absence of animal life is also striking : one
may travel through this forest an entire day and scarce hear the chirp of n.
bird or the hum of an insect ; and yet the yellow pine is there in its glory,
its huge, cylindrical trunk covered with large plates of cinnamon-colored
bark, standing as they have done for ages waiting the advent of their insa-
tiable enemy, the railroad man, who will some day split their trunks for
ties and burn their branches for fuel ; and the forests of yellow pine, like
those of the redwood and white pine, will be gone from the face of the
earth.

tiro/,,,/ ii <t,t<l / / .\V///*r// Pacific Railroad,

•U timOB. Bet ween the rugged rock-ma-ses aiv lc\d >|,

dotted over with bunch gras-. sage i

The ;il .substructure , niarv

beds of \;iri«»us kinds, sedimentary vulcanic ash. washed ii..\\n
from tin- highlands, and diatomac, ou- earth. inter.M rat ilied with
sheet- of liasalt. It is evident that this belt was f.»r a long
time, either wholly or in part. occupied hy lakes. l>uring
Ion- periods of ijuiet. all forms of life were ahundaiit : the land
supported a varied growth of arboiv>ccnt and herbaceous plants,
whieh furnished food to a great \arietvof animals, while the
water was inhabited by fishes and inollusks of many kinds.
At intervals, however. >howei> of ashes, ni"-tl\ • -manat in<: from
the volcanic \ents of the Cascade Mountains. »-overed th»- cnun-
tay. destroyed, over larirr areas, all forms of animal and \
table life, and washing into the lakes, formed strata man\
in thiekness. At other times, floods of lava poured down into
this valley, spreading over the land and the lake-bottom-:, to be
covered airain in time with other sheets of stratified tufas, or b\
fre>b- water fossiliferous beds.

The Columbia. Snake River. .John Dav'> Kiver. thr I' —
C'hutes. and many minor streams, cut deeply into this plain.
and expose in their banks sections of the beds described. In
the valley of the Des Chutes, dill's 1,000 feet in height
formed of them; and about the Dalles, the remains of hori/.on-
tal Tertiary beds are seen 2,0<n» feet above the pre-rnt l«-\«-l <»f
the Columbia. These >how that the lofty and continuous chain
of the Cascades formed a mighty dam. which kept back the
drainage of the interior so that it formed a MTU- of urc.it lake-.
bounded on the east by the Rocky Mountains, and on the west
b\ the Ca-cadcs. and separated into several basins by the Blue
Mountain.- and others of the desert ranges.

The accumulated water found an outlet to the sea through tin-
lowest Lr:ips in tl le Mountains. Of these. theiiio>t im-

portant was that when the gorge of the Columbia is now situ-
ated : othen > \i>t further south and are now tra\er-«-d b\ the
the Klamath and 1'it I,1 ). In the Oolun

basin, the old lakes arc all draim-d. or tilled, and t heir bottoms
Are deep) j "-"red by the drain ins. The lake of the

math ba<in i< now i-cpresetlted by th.- Klamath Lake-. -:ike,

255 Geology and Botany of Northern Pacific Railroad.

Wright Lake, Goose Lake, etc., which occupy the points of
greatest depression.

Though much of this great plain has the aspect of a desert.
only a small portion of it is absolutely sterile. There is much
prairie land covered with a continuous sheet of grass ; and even
the more sandy and rocky surfaces have proved to be fairly good
grazing ground. It is also true that the attempts to cultivate
the soil have been attended with unexpected success, and about
Walla-walla, that which was supposed to be a desert surface is
producing great crops of wheat.

THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS

Although represented on most maps as an unbroken line of
elevation stretching with an almost north and south course from
the Californian to the British line, with its hachures looking like
an enormously long hairy caterpillar, no just conception is thus
given of this broad and compound mountain belt. It is contin-
uous with the Sierra Nevada of California ; and it would have
been better if they had been designated by a common name. The
mountain belt is in Oregon and Washington from thirty to fifty
miles in width, consisting of a number of parallel ranges of
which the highest is along its eastern border. This is crowned
by a series of volcanic cones, Mt. Shasta, Mt. Pitt. Alt. Mc-
Laughlin, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams. Mt. Rainier
(Tacoma), and Mt. Baker, which range from 10,000 to over
14,000 feet in height, are all capped with perpetual snow, and
form the most impressive group of mountains on the continent.
From the California line northward, the material of which these
mountain ranges are composed is mainly eruptive in character.
The peaks mentioned, and many others, are volcanic vents of
which the fires are not yet extinct, and some of them have been
in active eruption within a few hundred years. Like the Sierra
Nevada, this great fold in the earth's crust was formed after the
Triassic and Jurassic, but previous to the Cretaceous age ; and
yet, like all other great mountain belts, it has been formed by
many additions made at various times. In California, the range
is largely composed of granite and other crystalline rocks of an-
cient date, flanked by slates which have been proved by the Cal-
ifornia geologists to be of Triassic and Jurassic age ; while the

'i ml linhn m •;/' Northern /

Cretaoeoufl is deported uneonfonnahly upon these, ri.-in;: to the
.'it of hut a few hundred feet above the sea. North «»f tin-
California liiu', the n.cks forming the mountain-. a<
mentioned, arc almost entirely erupt i\e : and it ise\ident that
this has heeii the theatre ..f more violent \olcanic action tlian
any other part of the continent known to us. MOM of the erup-
tions took place in Tertia y tunes, as we know fr..m the inter-
calation of tin' trap overflows with the Tertiary lake->edmi<
many of which are store-houses of vegetable and animal fV
hut they have continued down to the present da\.

Manv years ago. when connected with Western Coveniment
Surveys, I followed these mountains from the California line
to the Columbia, and at several points crossed lava stream-
which had tlowed down the cast Hank of the Cascades, and
were as t'roh and ragged as the modern lava streams of Yesir.
Not a particle of vegetation had attached itself to them, and it
rtain that not a hundred years have passed since some of
them were (lowing.

AVIINI (ii..\<ii:i;s OF TIN. CASI M>I: MorxTAiWS,

A- lias hecn stated, the Rocky Mountain.-, from New V
to British Columbia, abound in evidences of ancient ^laciation.
This is also true of the I'inta Mountains, the \Vasatch. tin 9
erra Nevada and the Cascade Mountain*.

In the irroiip of five snowy peaks, called in « ' 'he Three

SiM nise onlv three are vi>ihle from the \\'illam

ley— miniature glaciers were found by our party in 1855 at the
heads of Me Ken /.!«•'> Fork, and of one of the tributaries of thftlta
Chutes ; and on Mt. h'ainier a do/i-n «»r more have been described,
K>me many miles in length. Hut all the glaciers and snow-fields
now existing on the Cascade Mountains ai'e uf jnifieant

compared with those of the glacial period. Then every gorge
was filled with snow ami ice, the bi d more irregular

miti were oovered with glaciers, and these descended sc\

thousand feet below the , .ne of perpetual snow. Now

we find, over miles square, the rock-surfaces plan.

red like a plowed field, ai, > injecting crc->' anio

rock, rough and ragged as it was, is rounded over and \\orn into

257 Geology and Botany of Xortltern Pacific Railroad.

a roche moutonnee. From the Three Sisters the glaciers descend-
ed into the valley of the Willamette on the west and that of the
Des Chutes on the east; and I traced with the barometer the gla-
cial markings, from the snow-line to a point 2500 feet lower,
where they pass under the alluvium of McKenzk-'s Fork.*

THE FORESTS OF THK CASCADE MOUNTAINS.

All the summits and western slopes of the Cascade Mountains
are covered with a dense forest, mainly of evergreens, of which
many of the trees are of gigantic dimensions. On the eastern
slopes, the prairies in places run up the mountain sides, but the
timber follows all the valleys down to the plain. East of the
mountains are scattered trees of the yellow pine (Pinus ponde-
rosa) and the western cedar (Juniperus occidental**), and in some
localities, as has been mentioned, groves and forests of the former.
The evergreens which cover the mountains consist of four spe-
cies of pine, viz., Pinus Lambertiana, P. monticola, P. albi-

* It has been claimed by Lecoq (Les Glaciers el les Climats), and following
him, by Prof. Whitney and others (Later Climatic Changes), that the great devel-
opment of glaciers during the Ice Period, such as those of the Canadian
highlands, the Rocky Mountains and the Cascades, of which we have such
abundant evidence, was not the effect of a cold period, but a warm one,
which increased the precipitation and consequently the snow-fall, at all
places where the temperature was low enough to cause it to take the form
of snow. If this was all, however, the most extensive glaciers should be
in the Alpine districts of the tropics or of the temperate zones, wherever the
precipitation is most abundant and the temperature low enough to produce
perpetual snow. But we have, on the summits of the Cascades, a demon-
stration of the fallacy of this view ; since here some of the mountains rise
14,000 feet and the line of perpetual snow is not over 7,000 feet, while the
annual precipitation is greater than in almost any other portion of our
country. In fact the snow accumulates in such quantity that, even in mid-
summer, it reaches so low that it is met and opposed by a vigorous forest
growth, the product of a mild climate. It is evident that no elevation
of temperature, though it should increase the evaporation on the Pacific and
the rainfall on the coast, would cause the renewal of the ancient glaciers ;
but with a depression of temperature which should continue the present
winter conditions through the year, the precipitation remaining the rcame,
the accumulation would soon cover the mountain summits with snow and
ice and bring the glaciers down to their old limit.

; >tlnnnl. 258

/•//////>• and /'. funturhi. 0 . lli«- lir>t i> the m.,.( -i-ai.Mc

es of the genus, attaining in it* ohosea habitat m i.

Of mountains, a height of 300 feet and a diameter of from !
i:» feet /'. imin/im/lf i> much >maller, hardly .-,, nailing in di-
mensions its eastern representative, the white pun-, Imt el.

mbling it in general habit and minor botanical rb
On tlir mountain.- it is le» abundant than in the \all.-v of ( I.,
Fork, but attains somewhat larger BlZfe Tin-, with tin- -
pine and white pine. con>t it ut«- a wrll-defin. ra«--

trri/iMl by livc'-K-avcd and blue-green foliage: fusiform, r.
ous. imbricated cones, han.irin.u "M the Wldl >-w large and

lui:b branclies : and in the character of the wood. Three tir>,
(le.Ni^natin.ir by that name those bearing i-rect c.tno with p. :
nent ;t\e> and deciduous scales, are also common, rhk, Abies
i/ni/idin, A. Huliilia, and J. nmahilitt. Of these, the first is the
\\tMern balsam-lir, resembling our eastern bal.-am. but a more
ma.iiiiitieeiit t ree, at t aininjr an alt 1 1 ude of :><»(> feet. The la>'
are remarkable for the magnitude cf their cones, which are six
inches in length and two and a half in diameter, the first deco-
rated with rellexed and timbriated hruets, the second purple in
color and dotted over with resin. Four >pm -. l> .u^la-V. M< n

's, I'atton's, and the hemlock, are there. Of these, the tii>t
is the largest and the most abundant, attaining an altitude of
over 300 feet and a diameter of 10 feet : Men/.ies's spruce (Abies
SHclu-itnix) grows to ti height of 01 «-t, and is ^-nerally ;i>

>tnct as a church spire: the hemlock is compurat i\ el\
the high lands, and is onlj seen at its best in the \alh-\- :
ton's spruce (Ahit-s I'ntltminuu) is a near relat i\e of the hem-
lock, having the same tVathcr\ foliage, but that which is d.
and richer. On the whole, it is in my judgment the handsomest
of all the conifers. On some of the Alpine meadows among the
MIOW mountains— especially the Three Sistere— are scattered in-
dividual trees or groups of two or three kinds of fir and >prmv,
which surpass in symmetry and graceful groa ^ human

achievement in the way of landscape gardening. Where th
forest* are most dense, the trees are so thickly set that two great
trunks may generally be reached by the e\u n led arms. No un-
dergrowth occupies the ground, and the foliage of the firs is con-
tin. -.1 to the higher branches, which interlock to make a roof

259 Geology and Botany of Northern Pacific Railroad.

impenetrable by the sun's rays. Sometimes the gloom of these
forests is further enhanced by gray or black lichens, which drape
the trunks and hang from the dead branches like the Spanish
moss, but producing a far more funereal effect. Where fire has
run through these forests, the trees, killed but not consumed,
and subsequently overthrown by the wind, form a labyrinth
through which it is sometimes well-nigh impossible to force one's
way. The ground thus open to the sunshine is soon covered
by a dense growth of bracken (Pteris aquilina), which often
reaches a height of from six to eight feet. After this or with it,
comes Ceanothus or manzanita, with huckleberries and service-
berries, which fruit so abundantly as even to tint the mountain
sides with the black, purple or blue of their berries.

The larch, to which reference has already been made, is scat-
tered sparsely over the eastern slope of the Cascades, and it here
attains its maximum dimensions. The trunk is sometimes 200
feet in height, the branches relatively small, and the foliage fine
and delicate in color, so that the larger trees look like lofty col-
umns wreathed and decorated by climbing vines.

The hard-wood trees are few and insignificant as compared
with the conifers. In the gorges and along the streams are the
narrow-leaved and trembling poplars, and on the uplands the
large-leaved maple and chinquapin (Acer maorophyllum and Cas-
tanopsis chrysophylla) ; the first is the only real tree-maple of
the west coast. It attains a height of 75 to 80 feet, and the
leaves, averaging six inches in diameter, on young plants are
sometimes many times as large. The chinquapin, though usually
a shrub, occasionally forms a handsome tree 30 to 50 feet in
height, conspicuous for the contrast between the bright green
of the upper and the golden yellow of the under surface of its
leaves.

THE GORGE OF THE COLUMBIA.

This is one of the most impressive and interesting topographi-
cal features in all the picturesque West. It is cut with a nearly
straight westerly course, across the whole breadth of the Cascade
Mountains, fifty miles, and its banks rise from 2,000 to 4,000
feet directly from the river side. Most of the material of which
the walls are composed is basalt. This can be seen to form dis-

tirniiii/ff ,i,ui Botany »r .\ "«

tiiu-t layers, the pro.lii.-t> of dilTeivnt QVerflowi from tl
volcanic vents north ami south of it.. C:.p,. II, ,m. a bold 1 <
lain!, shows a vertical f'acr of trap n.-aily :.IHI f, et in height.

N" one who examines the -or^e of the Coluiul.ia will fail to
be cotninccd that it ha> heeii cut by tin- riter, 'I he -. m-ral
altitude of the mountains, in winch there are no oil,,

lower than ahout :>.< feet, as well as the altitude of tin- lake

deposits on the eastern side, indicate that the work of cut
this channel began at a height of not less than 3,0<»n fWt al
the sea. At this time the river must have had a fall of at least
this nnmher of feet into the valley of the Willamette, am:
must picture to ourselves a series of cascades of greater magni-
tude and more picturesque than any now known. This water-
power was, however, busily en <ra<:cd in cuttinir down the bar
and in process of time this was so completely ivmo\»-.| that a
navigable canal was opened from the Dalles to the ocean. The
western entrance to the gorge is now at tide-level, and the 1.
part of the river is, like the Hudson, an arm of the §ca I -
true that at present the "Cascades of the Columbia" form
rions interruption to the navigation of the river, for the\
produced by a dam 63 feet high, which tills the channel for three
miles. Hut this dam. as we know, is of recent date, and has
been caused by an avalanche from the sides of the gorge. Above
it. the river is simply a long lake, and in low water a ttri
stumps and trunks can be seen coming up from below ti
le\el, which belonged to trees that could never ha\» LM-OWM in
the places they occupy, if the barrier of the Cascades had
ted.

in boats na\ i irate tin- Columbia from the Pallo doun. with
a tran>fer at the Cascades; and this is much the better route to
take for those \\ho would get a good view of the gorge, with it-
imposing walls, its hanging forests and it> pictun-,,ue \\aterfall-
which leap l.non feet from t he cliffs,— to say nothing of the old
Indian burial-grove, and the multitude of >ilicitied tree trunks at
,1,,. i The railroad is built almii: the face of the south-

ern clilT, hi-h above the water, ami although it gives only a one-

,1 \ie\\ of the gorge, is generally chosen by travelers who
fer rapid transit to beauty of seen*

261 Geology and Botany of Northern Pacific Nailroad.
THE LOWER COLUMBIA.

The country bordering the Lower Columbia is too well-known
to require detailed description. I am compelled, however, to
refer to one or two points in its physical structure, which are of
special interest when brought into connection with facts of simi-
lar import observed in the region about Pnget's Sound. I have
said that the Lower Columbia is an arm of the sea. It is in fact
a deep river valley which has been flooded by an influx of the
sea caused by subsidence. This brings the tide-water to the foot
of the falls of the Willamette at Oregon City, and to the Cas-
cades. It requires no argument to prove that such a channel
could not have been cut unless by a rapid stream flowing into
the ocean when it stood at a lower level. Whether the change
in the relative level of land and sea here remarked was part of a
general movement that produced the influx of the sea into the
fiords which fringe the northern coast ; and whether this is nbt a
part of a still grander movement that flooded the old excavated
valleys of the James River, the Potomac, the Schuylkill, the
Hudson, the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay, and at the same time
filled the fiords of the northeastern coast, are questions which
cannot now be fully answered, but are worth considering.

It will be noticed that the general plan of the topography of
this part of the coast is altogether similar to that of California ;
namely, the great wall of the Cascades, bordered on the west by
the Willamette and Cowlitz valleys and the Coast Mountains,
are re-produced further south by the Sierra Nevada, the great
California valley, and the Coast Ranges ; and their topographical
features are not only physically similar, but are geologically iden-
tical,— the Cascades being the northern continuation of the Si-
erra Nevada, the more modern Coast Mountains following con-
tinuously the coast line ; the great trough between them being
essentially one, but filled, in its centre, by a mass of mountains.

The forests of the country bordering the lower Columbia are
a physical feature that will strike every traveler with surprise
and admiration. They are also of primary importance economi-
cally, since they form the basis of the most important industry
of the northwest coast. They are mostly composed of evergreen
trees which attain an altitude of 200 to 300 feet, and are crowded

so elo>el\ tliat When Mil O|M*nit)£ i> made ill Ihe foi • in-

.-in-rounded l.y a wall of limher. 'l'i - leh

from ihc California!! to the Briti.-h lint- on t he -umnnt- and
caMcrn think of tin- Ca.-cadr.-. 0?er all tin- Coa-t Mountain-.
in the lowlands alon^ the Willamette and the Co\\ lit/., and admit
I'uirctV Sound, with the exception of prairie.- thai form part of
tin- surface of the WUhlQlftte Vallej, and occnp\ linn:-
ahoiit the Sound.

In M.uthwestern Oregon and m.rt hern ( 'aliforma an- tin- famon-
n-dwood uToves, the only place in the world where this niHgniti-
eent ti'ee (^c// t'oiit Stmperviren*) yrows in siu-h numhiTS BA to
form forests. It extends in clumps and scattered tree.- far down
the coast in California, and it does not reach the C'olnmhia «-n
the north, so that its range is <jiiite restricted. About Fort Or-
ford and Humholdt Bay it is the principal timher tree, and in
si/.e it almost equals its iriuantic relative, the mammoth t r-
Calaveras C'ounty (Sn/mn'a yii/tin/rti).*

At Port Orford one may see hundreds of redwood trees of
which the trunks attain a diameter of 10 to 15 feet; but as the
lumher and timher they fnrni.-h is of excellent quality. thr\
hein«r destroyed at a rate that wil! ioOfl exhaust the >upply.

Along the Columhia and ahoiit Tu^et's Sound the principal
trees are the Douglas and Meii/.ie.- .-pruces. the hal.-am tir, the
western arhor vita- and the hemlock. In some localities, espe-
cially further north, t wo c\ prose- ;nv ahundant. the Nootkacy-
piess (C/unntfri/^in />• .\'////-//» //> >'* ) and t lie jrin^er pine (6f. Law-
*n/iii'/Hi). The latter is soincl inies called t lie .irin^er pine from
the fragrance of it.- wood. It is culti\ated for its heauts
i for the excellence of its lumber. Much lr.-s nti'
mis. hut widel\ scattere(l. i> the uolmi \.-u i T<*XU4 ' :> ''-liti).
often a handsome tree 50 to GO feet in height. Along the i

•Gre:il M-i.-n title inlrrr-l all:ich«-S !•• lh«--r tun

th.-y an- ihr only n-pn-^-ntativi-- of tin- .£cmifl now livinir «-n the earth'-

I rrlic ot tin- -rrainl f..n--t- \\liirh in Tntimy lime* covered all
ihr nnrihrrn part of i his continent, and in whirl. Hn-x «• f awocUted with
oth<T sprrir* ..f >.</-/,,;,/. anil wiih H inuliitudr of oth.-r evergreen and d<
uout tree*, mott of which hmre dlMppe*re4. lli;t :l •• u r, main.— UM-

• Irciilnou- cypress, magnolias. «-ic , \\hi.li formtbegl" |»re§-

• •lit f,.:

263 Geology and Botany of Northern Pacific Railroad.

sides are many cottouwoods (Populus trichocarpa) , the Oregon
ash (Fraxinus Oregona), and an arborescent alder (Alnns rhom-
bifolia), which reaches an altitude of 60 feet, with a trunk-diam-
eter of 12 to 15 inches. On the dryer and higher ground is
found Finns ponderosa, and on the lower, thickets of P. contorta,
often growing like canes in a cane-brake. Scattered through
this lowland forest are also the two arborescent maples of the
west, Acer macrophyllum and A. circinnatum. Of these the
latter, called the vine maple, is a peculiar feature in the forests
of the Lower Columbia, Puget's Sound, and Vancouver's Island.
It is rarely more than six inches in diameter, the trunks very
slender, and several springing from the same root. These droop,
and reaching the ground, frequently take root at the summit.
Where these interlacing trunks are numerous, they form a thicket
which is almost impenetrable. To this meagre list of angio-
spermous trees, I should add Garry's oak and the Madrona (Quer-
cus Garryana, and Arbutus Menziesii). The oak, scattered
about the open grounds of the Willamette Valley and Puget's
Sound, occasionally attains a diameter of three or four feet, but
with a spreading and irregular growth and brittle wood, so that
it has little value as a timber tree. The " Madrona" is a small
tree, but much admired for the beauty of its foliage, and the pe-
culiarity of its bark. The former is persistent and rich, and the
latter exfoliates in brown and greenish layers of different shades.
The undergrowth of the Pacific coast forest, where the latter is
not too dense, is abundant and varied. Over the rocks and fallen
tree-trunks is a thick mat of mosses, which grow with a luxuri-
ance and exhibit a variety nowhere rivalled in the eastern States.
Ferns are less numerous than might be expected in this moist
climate, but a few species are abundant and grow with great
luxuriance. The most common is the cosmopolitan bracken
(Pteris aqtiilina), the next, Aspidium munitum, strikingly
like our eastern A. acrostichoides, but having a much stronger
growth. Of the less numerous species, a respectable list could
be made, but on the whole the ferns are not an important ele-
ment in vegetation. Of the under-shrubs, the most striking is
Fatsia Jiorrida ; this has the aspect of an Aralia ; it has a thick
woody stem six to ten feet long, somewhat decumbent at base,
but bearing above a number of large palmate leaves. Both stem

and lea\e< arc very prickly, and it i- a . <.nini..n Inn probably tin-

grounded belief that its >pnie> arc highly pn: m, A ,

shruhhy ^'/lint-it (>'. Dnu<ilnsii) -r..\\^ iri in ten feet in height.
with numerous laruc open panic].- ..f inoonffpicUOOl Bo«
;ai BpeC ••mo/Jnts abound, the nm«t <..nini»n I..

' '. rrlKfuutu, which forms dense thicket *. &OJ||
/•/v//ff. conspicuous from its hlack fo/fatifoflfUI-likefrtlit, >ui round-
ed liy larp' per.-istent purple involucre-. i> found alon^ the
streams, with one of (he mo>t slmwy of all tin- ( hv-Mi, >lirul,.,
t'nnuix \nffnllii, Audul)on, the western ivpn->riitat i\c «.f our
dogwood. Tsnally it is smaller, hut occasionally heron,
.")(» fi'i-t in height. Tlu- llowci'-like ralyce> lire lar-e. while, and
less crumpled than those of the ea>tcrn live.

More interest ini: than these to hotanists. as well as to th
eral public, are the fruit-hearing shrubs tin- "Salal," ( <i>nt/('
fi/ni/lun.) the Oregon ^rape (/li-rf/i-ris (n/nifn/imn and /. "///).

and the "salmon-berry." (liulms afn-rtuliilis . Of ihe>e. tin-
first covers the -round o\cr -'reat areas with it> creepil
ciimbent stem, its broad, oval, shinin- lea\.-. and its penc
black and edible fruit. The two speciefl ol I, so well

known under their old name, Mti/innin. are low shrubs, with
pinnate, spinv leaves, yellow, clustered flowers and blue h|o..m-
covered acid berries. They are not unfre«pjently cult
ornamental plants in t he eastern States. The -alm<m berr\ ;
its name from the color of the fruit, which re>embles that of the
llcsh of the salmon. It is a tall, strong-growing rasphern . with
conspicuous purple flowers ami lar-c ovonl fruit, much esteemed
bv the Indians, but rather insijiid. l\nlms \n/k,utn.«. the white
\arietv of our flowering raspbcrn. i< Bfeiywben < "inmon. with
the jirccise habit of its eastern representat i\c.

Si i;i A. i. (. i.()i.<)<,^ a\ l in l'i '.i .1'- 801 N i' I- L81»,

The name l'i und is, in popular DM, DUMl<

the ].c( uliar group of inlets and tidc\va\> \\hidi lie immediatels

of Vane.. liver's Island, — I'u^et's Soun.l pn.p.-r. Adm.
Inlet, Hood's Canal, etc. These occupy the north
of the great Columbian \alley, which, like its counterpart in
California, lies between the Coast ran-'- ami the Cordillera*,
Further north still, this depression is deflected toward the north-

265 Geoloyy and Botany of Northern Pacific Railroad.

west by a change in the direction of the Cascade^Mountains, and
of the representatives of the Coast ranges on Vancouver's Island,
is mostly occupied by water, and is known as the Gulf of Georgia.
In Washington Territory the Coast Mountains are higher than
in Oregon, and have received the local name of [the Olympian
range, of which the highest summit is called Mt. Olympus. This
range terminates somewhat abruptly, but is apparently continued
in the mountains of Vancouver's Island. Through the gap
between these and the Olympian range a deep channel is cut,
now an arm of the sea, called the Strait of Juan de Fuca. In
former times, when this portion of the continent, and probably
the whole northwest coast, stood higher above the ocean, this strait
was the valley of a great river, which drained most of the western
slope of the Cascades in Washington Territory, and had as
branches the Skagit, Snoqualme, Dwamish, Puyallop, Nisqtially
and various minor streams. During the ice period, this hydro-
graphic basin was filled with a great glacier made up of contri-
butions from all the surrounding mountains. It flowed out to
sea by the Strait of Fuca ; but this channel was far too narrow
for it, and it spread all over the southern portion of Vancouver's
Island, planing off, rounding over or deeply scoring the rocks in
its passage, and leaving its autograph so plainly written that he
who runs may read.

As the glaciers retreated, they left behind a sheet of drift
several hundred feet in thickness, — partly water worn and strati-
fied, partly unstratiiied boulder clay with striated pebbles.
These drift deposits formed a plain of which the surface was
nearly level. In process of time, the draining streams had cut
in this plain a series of valleys all tributary to one which led out
through the Strait of Fuca to the ocean. After perhaps some
thousands of years, during which the excavation of these valleys
progressed, a subsidence of the land or rise of the water-level
caused the sea to flow in and occupy the main valley and all its
tributaries up to the base of the mountain slopes. Such in few
words is the history of the formation of this remarkable system
of inlets. They are simply the flooded valleys of a great river
and of the branches which formerly joined it, but which now
empty into the extremities of the finger like inlets that have
partially replaced them.

• rtli'-rn /'.tr, f> ,

There ,-uv hnt feu localities in tin i ,1 Ii.i<ii| where

tlu' rocky sul)str;ituiii

level. Aloui: tlu- northern and WCM -m margin of Vane -u\
Sucia, Orcas and \Vlii. lliy Man k and at ( 'huekenmts an-:
home the rock appears, bill at Taeo,,,a, Sirilacmn. -
MailJMMi. Port Townsend. and it may he >aid ^.-m-rally ahont the
Sound, the shores are steep lilntTs. Inn to 1. , height,

composed of drift alon -. Knun the clitT- at Port K'lclmi'.nd atxl
'1'aeonia, 1 took sub-angular >eratehed and itv-worn ].,•!. !,!,•<. an
characteristic and convincing as anv to h • found in tin- honlder
clay of the eastern Stal

Tlu» siihsidi-iicc which canseil the >ea.\vat -r to iloxv intu tlu-
suhai'rial excavated valleys of PIIIM'> Sound, !ille<| aNn the eh..n-
nel of the Colnnihia to the ( and the -y>trm of i

that fringe the northwest coast, of which tin- MI.I-

t ives.

\Ve have evidence, too, that the area oreiipied hy the sea wa« at
one time much more extensive than now, for all the country im-
mediately ahont Pdget's Sound is marked with f marine
terraces which Mr. Bailey Willis, who studied them when,
nected with the Transeont ineiital Survey under Prof. Pumj>clly,
tells me can he traced to a height of l,«;on feet ahovt- the j>reaent
OOean level. These terraces are conspicuous on the low divide
which separates the valley of the Cowlitx from the ha>in of Pu-
- Sound ; ami here, as over much of this region, the ground
i> COTered with pehhlo and waterworn hoiilders, t lie product of

tin- long-con tinned dash of the shore ware* on a -lope • •••inpoged

of drift materials. In the advance ami recession of the shore-
line, the liner materials ha\e heeii im>>tly \\a-hed av\a\. an«l the
>tony surface has lit lie agricultural vain it U

well ada|.te<l to the growth of trees; and the splendid foreit
which covers it i> pcrhap> an equivalent for all it \\iia lost. The
facts here given >how why the cultivation of the soil in Wik-h
ton Territory is limited to the narrow belts of i dliiMum

alon- the stream*, and indicate that the lishrrie>. coal-min
and luml.er induMry must he in the future, as the\ are :
the moM important BOOrO !th.

"•i.5? Geology and Botany of Northern Pacific Railroad.
GEOLOGICAL SUBSTRUCTURE.

The sheet of drift which has been described covers most of the
lowland, and conceals the underlying rocks so that they appear
only about the margin of the basin. The foot-hills of the Sierra,
like the more elevated portions, are composed chiefly of eruptive
rocks ; but at various places along the northern and eastern mar-
gin of the basin, the drainage streams have exposed sedimentary
strata. These are all Cretaceous or Tertiary. On Queen Char-
lotte's Island, as we learn from the Canadian geologists, are
Lower Cretaceous rocks, very much disturbed, but containing
beds of lignite converted into anthracite, and many mollusks
which apparently represent the Neocomian of the Old World.

On Vancouver's Island, the granites and old metamorpllic sed-
iments are succeeded by Upper Cretaceous strata, which contain
several valuable seams of coal that have been worked for many
years. Specimens of the fossil plants and mollusk.s associated
with these beds, were sent by Mr. George Gibbs to the writer in
1858. Among the former were Inoceramu^m^ Baculites, which
gave the earliest information of the Cretaceous age of these de-
posits. Descriptions of some of the fossil plants were published
by the writer in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural
History for 18G3. On Orcas and Sucia Islands are also exposures
of Cretaceous rocks which abound in fossils.

On the east side of the basin, coal outcrops at several points,
and has been worked at Bellingham Bay on the Skagit River, at
Newcastle, Carbonado and Wilkinson. At Carbonado the coal-
bearing rocks, turned up at a high angle, are cut across in a
canon formed by Carbon River, and a very satisfactory view is
here obtained of the structure of one of the local basins. The
series is several thousand feet in thickness ; and in this section
nine workable seams of coal are exposed. At Wilkinson and in
that vicinity, Mr. Willis made a careful exploration of another
basin, which also includes several beds of coal and some thous-
ands of feet of associated rocks. From these localities and others
further north, large collections of fossil plants have been made
by the writer and his assistant, Mr. Edward Lorrance. These
represent' a rich and interesting flora of Upper Cretaceous and

'.'/// and Botany tf \ >• . •, /,•„//,.,„„/.

Tcrtiarj which Sgares and description! will I.,. pnM>!,rd

by tli. I . 8, (.coio-iral Survey.

M"iu:i;\ (,i.\. [JJBS 01 i n i 8lBBH L

From the Willamette Valley and l»n ,,„]. splendid

view.- arc obtained of tin- . .„„,.

ains,— the Tluv. Mt. Jefferson, Mt. !(....,-

lit St. Helens, Mt. Tacoma and M:. |: . . ( •• •

Hood has an altitudeof 11,225 feet, Mt. Adam- 1 •.' .

Tacoma 1 Llnii. I,, Colorado and California are a num!.

summits of e<|iial absolute height, but they have not!.

the relief above t heir surroundings that t!i . rarrv fa

perpetual snow, and are in every way less imp:

ton Territory, the permanent snow-line on the west side of the

mountains is about 6,500 feet, on the Cittl Bide sever*] hundred

feet hi-her. .Mt. Tacoma carries, therefore, about Sjinn f, ,

snow. Uclow this it is covered with a d.

hills nowhere rise to the height of \?,niM frrt above the sea. ami

hence are invisible at a distance: so from many phuvs about the

S mud. practically the whole of the moimtar

view,— a gigautic OOD6 14,000 feet in height, apparent Iv r:

directly from t he sea-level ! Mt. Shasta has the .-anie alt :t mle.

and as seen from Scott's or Strawberry Valley, i< wonderfullv

impres.-ive: but it is situated further inland and further south,

it.- base is higher and it has less .-now. and it is then foiv M

what less imposing. Mt. Hood, a- seen under favorable circum-

.-taiiccs from I-'ml Vanemivi-r, e-peeiall\ when retlected from the

lake-like surface of the Columbia, is as hcautiful but

Lrrand. It is not too much to sa\ then, that i thei mountain

on this continent, and none in Kurope. r;\a!s in irrainleiir .
beauty Mi. Tae.inia : and it is doubtful whether in the world
then? is any that produc.- iter impres>ion upon the

hole

Though appearing in t he « list am -e so syninietr HUM it h.

Mt. Tacoma ha- been found to ;>ound mass

j: of three eonspieiious -iimniits. and m .
peak-, with prccij

iiieh make tin- a.-ccnt ditlieull II

•-2G!) Geology and Botany of Xurthent Pdcifu: lldilnntd.

has been ascended, however, several times, and its labyrinths
sufficiently explored to prove that it carries from eight to twelve
glaciers, some of which are many miles in length and will bear
comparison with those of the Alps.

Every traveller who enters the Puget's Sound region from the
south, is snre to be struck by the turbid, milky appearance of
the water of the Cowlitz River, along which the milroad runs
for miles. This character it shares with nil streams which drain
glaciers, and has caused the Swiss mountaineers to give to the
water of such streams the name of " Glctsclier Mih'h." This
turbidity is due to the sediment produced by the constant grind-
ing action of these enormous masses of moving ice, set with
stones, upon their beds, and attests the sometimes disputed effi-
ciency of glaciers as eroding agents. The Puyallop, White River,
and other streams which come down from Mt. Tacoma, are alike
milky, and each shows that one or more glaciers are continually
grinding away at its head. On the contrary, the streams which
do not come from glaciers and are supplied by rain only and
that filtered through the decaying vegetation of the dense forests,
carry very little sediment, and that chiefly carbonaceous matter.
These are clear but brown, and the contrast which the water of
such streams presents to that of the rivers which drain the gla-
ciers, is very striking, justifying the names borne by two such,
of Black and White Rivers.

It has been contended by some writers, as before mentioned,
that the extension of glaciers in former times was due simply to
an increase in the amount of precipitated moisture ; but it is
easy to see that the heavy rainfall of Washington Territory might
be increased indefinitely with no considerable elongation of the
glaciers. But even with the rainfall remaining as it is, if a de-
pression of temperature should take place, carrying the present
conditions of winter through the year, the glaciers would soon
creep down into their old beds, fill all the valleys of their drain-
ing streams, and finally coalesce to form one grand glacier which
would flow out through the Strait of Fuca to the ocean.

Following the coast northward from Puget Sound, we find
the -glaciers coining down lower and lower, until in Alaska they
reach the sea-level. No one can claim that this is because the
precipitation is greater there, since observations show that it is

"/'/ <l till Itntlllll/ llf .\ Hi-fill I'll I'll: ill It

not : luit tin- raivful ol»-«Tvrr must smvlv P800

LU86 at tin- north tin- tniijicra: nn- i~ loWOF. !!•• \\
;.t tli.-si- fac!>;i> a <l«'in<>nst rat iun Hint tlu jirinn' /
///<' prnilnrtinn of tin' filn'iinini'iKi ///' tin !< > /
</(•/>/ '' temperature: that it \va- a IMTKM! of i-old aii«l

of warmth.