ECOLOGY OF THE WALLULA GORGE. 28/ 



scientific meetings. In these ways a man may keep in the spirit 

 of research while doing" httle because of lack of time. 



A discussion followed in which the following points were 

 emphasized : 



Research problems should be of such a nature that they stimu- 

 late to abstract thinking, and they ought to have some definite 

 relation to human life. 



Important problems are those connecting the subject and the 

 pupil as, " What parts of the subject are best to give the pupil? " 

 " In what order can they best be given? " " How can the subject 

 be made most impressive." 



As much will be done in the next fifty years in studying 

 methods of teaching biology as has been done in the last fifty 

 years on strictly biological problems. 



Myra S. Chatterton, 



Secretary. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE VEGETATION OF THE 



WALLULA GORGE.* 



By a. S. Foster. 



The vast zone between the Rocky Mountains on the east and 

 the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges on the west, and extend- 

 ing from the Arctic Ocean to the plateaux of Mexico, is an arid 

 region, the different parts of which have received various names. 

 That part to which this paper more particularly refers is known 

 as the Columbia Plateau. The Columbia River winds through 

 this region, and after breaking its way across range after range, 

 and flowing through a succession of basins, it finally turns west- 

 ward in latitude 46° north, longitude 119° west, until it is finally 

 lost in the " fountain of all waters." At an altitude of 327 feet, 

 the Walla Walla River empties into the Columbia just as it 

 enters an immense gorge known as the Wallula Gorge. 



This particular gorge — for there are many — is about eighteen 



* Abridged from a paper read before tbe Oregon State Academy of 

 Sciences, June 16, 1906. 



