East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1913-09-11

(By ]. Nielsen Barry Rector of st.
Stephens Episcopal Church at Ba-
ker, Ore.)
The present is the outcome of the
past and to understand the why Of
present conditions one must look
back to what has been, and so be able
to understand and appreciate some
thing of the deeper causes underly-
ing the mere surface appearance of
what exists today
The first chapter in the records of
this part of the world has been pre-
served only In the rocks, and the
complete story has not yet been de-
ciphered by the geologist, but enough
has been translated to show that the
story is one OF intense interest
At first the sea appears have
spread over what Is now Eastern
Oregon except for an island some
where in the region now known as the
Blue Mountain range. On this Is
land were many strange animals In
cluding the remote ancestor of the
modern horse. an animal no larger
than dog. having three toes.
Bones and skeletons washed down
by the streams were buried in the
sands. and have been preserved as
fossils through the long ages which
have since elapsed.
The John Day river has in places
cut its canyon through portions of
the ancient sea back of this prehis-
toric island. and has uncovered the
fossils which have made this part OF
the world famous among scientific
men and has thrown light upon the
earlier forms of life upon this planet.
OF all the strange creatures whose
bones have been petrified and so kept
through the great convulsions of ma
ture which have since occurred that
OF the little horse is probably the
most interesting and from deductions
made from observation of the living
representatives of the horse kind II
seems probable that its color was
what we now call buckskin, and that
Il had a black stripe down the mid
die of its back and one on each fore
shoulder, a peculiarly which is still
seen in some of its descendants today.
The cooling Of the earth caused
shrinkage and consequent foldings
and upheavals Of the crust which has
left It's record in the rocks.
The great granite mountain ranges
were forced upwads. ana seem to
have lowered some ten thousand feet
above the shores OF the Pacific must
then extended TO the base and must
have presented an imposing spectacle
10 such creatures as then roamed in
this region.
In later ages vast masses OF molten
lava issued from long cracks in the
crust OF the earth, and spread out
over the surface in a way similar TO
that in which water spreads out over
cracks in ice.
From some great depths issued the
gold and metals which have made the
hills OF this section so noted for their
mineral wealth. and the hot spings
which carried gold in solution de-
posted that metal in gravel and left
deposits which have in more recent
years attracted the placer miner.
The unfolding OF the earth's crust
caused the great Cascade range which
damned up the waters to the east
ward and formed a great lake. until
the imprisoned waters cut n gorge
through to the sea and formed the
great canyon through which the CO.
lumbia river now flows, Indian tra-
dition tells OF great natural bridge
that at one time spanned the Colum-
bia and which only fell in recent
years.
The outflowing of lava continued
at intervals during long ages, and as
tho molten rock spread out IL filled
the valleys damned the streams and