Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1893-12-22

would be widest where shallowest.
other things being equal. 1t would
form bars below bends and would
scour out the reaches.
DO we find any of these features?
| think not. The Sound is deepest
where it is widest. It's bottom does
not have a grade towards the ocean.
The gravel beds seem to be of assorted
gravels, and in between them We find
great beds of the finest of clays. These
clays were deposited by water so quiet
that its motion was not sufficient to
bring the smallest pebbles to mix with
them. The whole formation is dis.
tinctly stratified and not like anything
that glaciers or their streams are max
ing in A. d. 1893. None of our grav.
els are striated. They are almost en-
tirely of hard igneous rock, and rarely
soft from weathering. They contain
no fossils of the cretaceous or tertiary
formations, which crop on our noun.
tain slopes. The glaciers, if there
were any. have brought down no SAM
Piles from our great beds of sandstones
and Goals, and yet we know from OBJ
servation that all the glaciers with
which we are acquainted are not very
particular what kind of rock they
carry, but lay piece OF basalt and of
pumice side by side in the terminal
moraines.
Was Puget Sound great fissure or
crack in the surface of the earth?
That is my opinion. Ii you examine
chart of the Sound you will notice
at glance that it is strikingly like
the cracks seen in dried up clay pud-
die, or in wall plaster, or in a poorly
burned brick. Upon closer examina-
ton many features will be found to
confirm this opinion. Notice Fox isl
and, which is so plainly stratified par
allel with its surface that it looks like
layer cake, but it has been tipped
| over and its northeastern side is under
the water, while its southwestern side
shows a 3O0-foot bluff as clean as il cut
by knife. The same may be said O.
Anderson and McNeips islands, both
OF which are fractured or broken
backed, but continue their formation
throughout. Remember that the for
nations are similar on opposite sides
of the Sound. So plain is this that
many fine clay beds have been found
directly opposite known beds. One
line OF the best clay may be traced for
over twelve miles, crossing the Sound
four times. If you care to try an ex-
pertinent, you can cut out the Sound
from chart and the remaining pieces
will fit together like puzzle, showing
the fracture lines. OF course the
Sound must be cut out rs it formerly
was, continuing its lines up the val
leys since filled with mud. The points
of lands and corners of islands have
since been worn off, but the intelligent
experimenter will make allowance.
Washington is rising in more ways
than one. During the period called
by the geologists glacial the Sound
Gf it was in existence) was deeper than
now-that is, the land was lower.
How could it have been gouged out by
ice if its waters were 1000 feet deep?
Would such an enormous glacier flow
ing down the Sound bed have left isl
ands of soft stratified formation di-
rectly in its pathf Would the lateral
moraines have been wster.worn peb.
bles, or would they be the same as
the glaciers to-day maker Would
they have been stratifed and contain
clay beds? Could it have squeezed
itself through the narrows. Would it
have existed in the valley while those
on the mountain sides were smaller?
Could it have cut deeper in spite of
the salt water than the greater glaciers
on the mountain sides? How account
for Hoods canal, or Stuck valley, or
the prairiesf
Was such q fissure possible? Most
certainly it was. Puget Sound lies
between two great mountain ranges,
both of which issued from tissures-
cracks which extend on a great circle
right around the earth bordering the
Pacific ocean. Our volcanoes have
contributed to the formation, but they
are mere pimples compared with the
enormous lsva-fows that have issued
from these vents. The Puget Sound
fissure was recent-in fact, since wa
ters deposited the gravels. 1t was ac-
companied or followed by laterally
wrenching strain, which possibly
changed the courses of several rivers.
Instead OF flowing down the De-
Chutes channel, the Nisqually river
now cuts right through mountain of
rock, which was plainly fractured.
The Puyallup, instead of flowing
through Glover creek canyon and COM
pleting the prairies (Which it left un.
finished), now runs into Tacoma har-
Dor. The White river has almost de-
serted Stuck valley and flows to Du-
vanish bay. These three changes
are parallel and all to the northward
of the former coures. Lake Chelan
and several of the great Coulees east
of the mountains are plainly assures,
and possibly the Columbia river for
merly used some of the coulees for
beds.
Then again, we must presume that
the climate east OF the Cascades was
not relatively much different from the
Puget Sound climate during the So
called glacial period than it is now
that is to say, it was colder there, as
now. Why did not greater glaciers on
the eastern slopes make greater grav-
ell, sand and clay deposits on that side
and cut sounds" through them?
There was no scarcity of the same ma