The Sauk Centre herald., 1894-04-26

Nowhere en- the known globe is there
another region OF the same extent repre-
senting the weird a;ld frcwsc2ie as well
as the sublime and grand Ia nature Is
in a long ard wide strip lying a consid-
erablc distance inland from the western
coast Of tho United S..s:tes Ecro can be
found an abundance - iil..~trations OF
both the dead and living past-that
strange pas5 q r!ly.s:cGl yi"lcI,cc preced-
ing the age Of naan, and that solemn
past when the forces had gone to rest
and the imprint cf chaos lay everywhere.
There are prenolit1oils il abundance Of
something strange to come il the coan-
tics of SHoi.oinisll, Ckanogan, Douglas
and Yakima ii Washington, bat this is
not fully emphasized until the Oregon
counties CT Morrow, Gillian, Grant and
Lake have Geen considerC ;, end the mar
vGloas receives :. wonderful accession in
the long line of cs.Stc. ! CalifCrniG. cor,n-
ties, southern Ecyaz!l, a considerable
region III Utah west CT Great Salt lake.
southern New Mexico and a region Of
no small dimensions in northern Texas.
Here, to the msntt.l and the ocular sight.
are unsolved problems in geoIcgy, para
doxes III physical formation and number
less instances OF what may he termed i'll
versions OF Established geographical Or
der.
In Oregon we arc confronted with the
stilland silant Sasetrush desert, hem
med in by a wildly picturesque yct Is
dreary and inhospitable a region as can
be found anywhere. In the midst of this
desert, as if to reflect the surrounding
awfulness, is Fossil lake. and all the
surrounding region is one vast and wide
cemetery OF the fauna OF q precataclysmal
world. Here arc I2aSsed together more
fossil specimens of "a greater variety of
early animal life than can be found any,
where on the earth, excepting the i'm
mense fossil islands noTthward of ST.
beria-horses of rare form, different spe-
cies of camels, llamas, manlnoths, sleshs
Of huge proportions, wonderful birds, and
the evidence that primitive man at some
time was there is indicated by the pres
ence of arrowheads Clipped from vol
canic glass. But what long ages have
been entombed since these tropical ami
mails in their untamed strength trod the
soil of Oregon and what mighty changes
have swept over the earth since then.
How came they there in such amazing
numbers, and what were the causes of
such universal and evidently such ST.
multaneous death? No conditions ON
the earth as we know them now could
bring this about. Yet here nature chose
to locate one of her remarkable mortua-
~ establishments and to enshroud it
with the gloom of unrelieved desola-
tion. Commencing in this region and
extending down into California, the
mountains are freakish. They are not
constructed on the chain or continuous
system. The earth did not wrinkle her
crust, but she erupted into huge boils;
the peaks stand isolated, sometimes in
terrupting an otherwise comparatively
even plain.
And now the valleys, rivers and con-
siderable lakes take on habit of be-
coming lost, The streams, after consid-
cradle Underground meandering, find
themselves again on the surface, and
after succession OF reappearanees and
disappearancds either stay found or are
lost entirely. -
ChaSms, with almost milo of depth
and faced with perpendicular walls of
solid rock, now begin to appal both
sight and sense, and il Mariposa coun-
ty the tremendous canyon of the
Yosemite exceeds anything of the
kind Oh the earth. Before this hot
springs have become common, lakes of
soda water abound, and San Bernardino
has valleys where the soil Is hot and
boiling geyaeas obtrude. Lava fields,
covering immense tracts, have exhibited
vitritied seorias from northern Oregon
down, and Nye county, New, has lava
beds In prcfusion. In Inyo eounty, and
taking in q portiQn OF San Bernardino,
Death valley, grim, hot and rapellent,
presents itself, it and the surrounding
region constituting, not in the mind
only, bat iii reality, q reg;c.l bordering
more on the human conception of the
internal than can be furnished by any
other loeality on the globe.
In this valley OF aesolation tie sum-
mer temperature reaches 40 degrees
riyaling that of the Sahara 1t is some
hundreds Of feet below sea level, en-
tirely destitute of water, although the
Amagosa river discharges into one end
at it, and in the interior has an atmos-
phere as of burning sulphur that neither
human nor animal lungs can long In
hale without great risk to life. Embrac-
ing hundreds of square miles, it affords
not sign of either animal or vegetable
life in its interior, while its furnacelike
heat renders it one of the hottest spots
on the globe. In the same system is So
da lake, into which the troubled Mohave
river finally enters, discharging its
brackish waters as into a sieve. The
country abounds with sinks, streams
suddenly plunge into subterranean
depths farther south to furnish hot wa
ter, hot mud and sulphur volcanoes,
dotted in miniature over an immense
area, kissing and splitting and loading
the air with most disagreeable fumes.
The Utah section duplicates many of
the remarkable features common to the
other localities mentioned and affords
indisputable evidence of having been in
yolved III the throes of the mighty dis
turbance that once prevailed throughout
this singular region, and which must
have been still potent long after the
other surface that is now embraced in
the United States was quiescent.
Whatever the nature of the violence
may isove hes.,s f,,eat Salt lake lower
cd its level $40 feet, and a vast region
partook of great and sudden Topographic
ical CHANGES. Pittsburg Dispatch.