Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-07-28
REGION OF WONDERS.
SOME or THE NATURAL MARvsLs TO
BE SEEN IN OREGON.

BE SEEN IN OREGON.
illustrations of Roth the Dead and the Lis-
Ing -Premenitions In Abundance Of
Something Strange to come-In the VAL
ley Of Desoiation.
Nowhere on the known globe is there
another region of the same extent repre-
senting the weird and grewsome rs well
as the sublime and grand in nature as
in a long aud wide strip lying consid-
cradle distance inland from the western
coast of the United States. Here can be
found an abundance of illustrations of
both the dead and living past--that
strange past of physical violence proceed
ing the age of man, and that solemn
past when the forces had gone to rest
and the imprint of chaos lay everywhere.
There are premonitions III abundance Of
something strange to come in the coun-
ties of Snohomish. Okan ogan, Douglas
and Yakima in Washington, but this is
not fully emphasized until the Oregon
counties of Morrow, Gillian, Grant and
Lake have been considered, as,d the mar
vicious receives wonderful recession in
the long line of eastern Cal .fornia coun-
ties, southern Nevada, o considerable
region in Utah west of Great Salt lake,
southern New Mexico and region of
no small dimensions in northern Texas.
Here, to the mental and the ocular sight,
are unsolved problems IN geology, para
doxes in physical formation and number
less instances Of what may be termed in
versions of established geographical Or
der.
In Oregon we are confronted with the
still and silent Sageb ush desert, hem
med in by u wildly picturesque yet US
dreary and inhospitablc 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 ono vast and wide
cemetery Of the fauna of a precataclysmal
world. Hero are massed together more
fossil specimens of greater variety of
early animal life than can be found any
where on the earth, excepting the inn
mense fossil islands northward Of ST.
beria--horses of rare form, different spe-
cies of camels, llamas, mammoths, sloths
of huge proportions, wonderful birds, and
the evidence that primitive man at some
time was there is indicated by the pres
ence Of AFRO xheads Clipped from vol
canic glass. But what long ages have
been entombed since these tropical ami
mails in their unframed strength trod the
soil of Oregon and what mighty changes
have swept over the earth since thenl
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-
ry establishments and to enshroud it
with the gloom of unrelieved desola-
ton. Commencing in this region aud
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, hut she erupted into huge boils;
|
terrupting an otherwise comparatively
even plain.
And now tho valleys, rivers and con-
siderable lakes take on n habit of be-
coming lost. The streams, after consid-
! cradle underground meardering, find
| themselves again ON the surface, and
after a succession of temperatures and
1 sEoap,,aarapca- aitl,ar ofax- foppd m. I, 70
lost entirely.
Chasms, with almost a mile of depth
and faced with perpendicular walls of
solid rock, now begin to appal both
| sight and sense, and in Mariposa coun-
ty the tremendous canyon Of the
Yosemite exceeds anything of the
kind on 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 geysers obtrufle. Lava fields,
| covering immense tracts, have exhibited
vitrified scorie from northern Oregon
down, and Nye county. New, has lava
beds in profusion. In Inyo county, and
taking in a portion Of San Bernardino
Death valley, grim, hot AMI repellent,
presents itself, it and tho surrounding
region constituting, not in the mind
only, but in reality, regiG, bordering
! more ON the human conception of tho
! internal than can be furnished by any
! other locality on the globe
In this valley of desolatior the sum-
mer temperature reaches 40 degrees.
riyalinD that of the Sahara II Is some