The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-11-17

neriod of time, yet scarcely disturbing |
tbe quiet order of life over which they |
presided
That every inlet Oh our northern coast |
has its group of facts of like import, /
there can be no doubt Our line Of |
thought needs only those that mark its
extension to the Columbia river, and
there the lessons CLEANED from the bluffs
of ShOalwater Bay re-appear in'all their
clearness. A fine instance Of this is seen
in bluff on Mr.. Whealdon's farm, just
inside the cape. Several Others may be
seen along the streams that fall into
Noung's Bay, on the south bank of the
river, and just back of Astoria. All
these contain remains of animal and
vegetable life linked to our shores and
forests of to-day by identity Of species,
and separated in our minds, from the
present order of things, by the conviction
that the agencies which placed them
there have passed away.
In all this, we are obviously studying
only the lower limit of this latest of
Oregon's genealogical changes. Where
shall we look for its upper limit? In
other words, how high did those waters
rise above the present sea-level? We
might look for traces of its upper reaches
in the remains of old sea-beaches i'm
elevated places on the abrupt slopes Of
the hills along the coast; but in such
4 exposures old beach lines are but rarely
preserved against the storm of tllous-
and winters, still less those of ten
thousand To find them and their
records plainly legible we must look to
more sheltered localities inland. II will
help us good deal in our search for such
old shOre-lines in the Interior, to carry Il
theory with us, such as shall point to
the possible limits within which they
may reasonably be sought. Will the
facts we have gathered from Shoalwater
Bay, and the lower Columbia, warrant
us i'm forming such theory? Let us see.
Stfatified sediment of a hundred feet
in vertical thickness, finer by far in its
upper LAYERS than i'm those lower, and i'm
its upper layers entirely devoid of
marine remains, while the lower ones
are often densely crowded with them,
plainly indicate shoal water 10 begin the
work, and deep water aftcrward over its
1 highest layers. But the sediment itself is
one hundred feet or more, and deep water
over its upper surface, equal to the re-
quirements of its facts, could not be less
than another one hundred feet, thus
making "A total depth Of al least two
/ hundred feet above the present water
level. Let, then, a depth of two hundred
feet be our theory, ana with this let Us
pass inland for facts to confirm il, if true;
I to reject it, if false; and if confirmed, to
/ trace 10y its help the outlines of that fine
old Willamette Sound, that may have
welcomed to its scores Of sheltered har-
bors the ancient hunter in the DAYS of
the Mammoth, and the BToad-faced Ov.
when his canoe, if he had one, floated
one hundred feet, or more, above the
present altitude of the church spires of
Portland and Salem.
But, as we pass along, let us in imag-
ination reconstruct the fine inland sea,
that two hundred feet of elevation in
the waters Of the Columbia must have
made. We have, first the noble en-
, trance, like that of the Straits of Fuca
extending from the present site Of As
toria TO that of st. Helen's, eighty miles
, or more, in length, varying from five t.
; twenty miles wide, and over two hun
) dred feet in depth. At st. Helcn's, il i:
: spread out into broad inland sea, eX
, tending from the ScappoOse Mountain:
to the elevated land east of the William
/ cite Valley; and, like the Puget SoumC
= of to-day, whose general outlines thi.
, old Willamette Sound strangely rescm
| bled, il was here, in its southern eXten
| sion, over the present valley, among
, elevated islands, deep channels, anC
. land-lOcked bays reaching from tho
ScappoOse Mountains to Spencer's Butte
that il spread out its greatest wealth O
scenic beauty. Our theory would make
it cover the whole of the lower level,
through which the Willamette now
flows.
Let US trace this grand water system
eastward along the present course oi
IL Ia rsfn~ -. eta f..H
will be remembered, from the capes
with tEeoretic elevation of the water,
two hundred feet above their present
level The fall of the river, from tht
lower cascades TO the ocean, may b.
stated at forty; the fall through the five
miles of cascades, at thirty-iive feet
Above this there are forty or fifty miles
of narrow gorge, through a mountain
range, with slopes too steep for preserv-
ing old shoTe-lines, and through which
the river falls twenty feet more; and
here we find the first open space east oi
! the Cascade Mountains, in which the
waters of that period, if two hundred
feet higher at the capcs than they now
are, would have an elevation above the
present river level here of one hundred
and five feet. There was, at this place
a lake-like extension of the river seven
or eight miles wide, and fifteen or twenty
long, into which a semi-circular system
of streams, six in number, brought q
continued supply of sediment-sand
clay, and gravel-and buried, year after
year. in its strata, along the margin O
that lake, the record of the passing
events of the times. Now, manifestly
at whatever level hele we may finC
these elevated beachmarks, with buried
] 4aH Ill with thnef
with which we started, here we shal
4 find the figures to correct the theory Will
which we set put.
Within a few miles of the mouth o
the Des Chutes river, the very evidenc,
we need turns up. More than 80 feet
above the present level of the river, anC
therefore $50 feet higher than the eleva-
ton with which we started i'm theory
buried i'm the stratified sands, clays, am
gravels, that mark the wash of those
streams into, and along, that old lake
beach-are found the tusks, teeth, and
bones of the land-animals of that period
marking at once the height at which
these waters stood, and the lifc-recOrl
of the times. \ recent visit to this To-
cality, i'm company with an eminent
geolOgist, gives remarkably fresh vivid.
ness to the recollection of the facts and
figures that define the position of its fos
sils.
\ ride of four or five miles from the
Dalles, brings one to where three of tn,
creeks, referred to, join their streams
and empty together into the Columbia
The surrounding hills are com osec
largelyof soft volcanic turf, and through
this these streams have worn deep IA.
vines i'm their descent. The ravines were
T worn to their urpSput lpDfh loufr baforf
the period we are describing, and when
IN L. /.