Geological Papers. 149 



kind of flour which they made into a paste-bread. These roots 

 they gathered both in the fall and in the spring. And at each 

 gathering in the fall they burned the prairie over so they could 

 find the roots easier, and also so that they could see the elk that 

 would attempt to cross the open area ; for the ferns grew higher 

 than a horse's back. Thus by this burning year by year, the 

 prairies were extended. It would seem, therefore, that the treeless 

 regions were first started as camping places, though originally some 

 trees might have been blown down in each area by a storm ; and 

 that they were enlarged year by year by the annual burning of the 

 ferns. But an objection might be raised to this theory, that nx) 

 tree-roots have ever been found in the prairies proper. This ob- 

 jection may be answered that since the first Indian occupation thf-pe 

 has likely been a lapse of time suflBcient for all roots of the then 

 existing trees to decay, exposed to the elements as they w(juld be. 

 The black loam is the decayed fern roots that have accuraulnted lo 

 the countless years since the first fires destroyed the timber. 



Some of the other prairies are Long prairie (600 acres), Gibson 

 prairie (800 acres), and Sequim prairie (4000 acres). The latter is 

 irrigated land and produces large crops. It is on the Puget Sound 

 side of the Olympics,^^ 



TOWNS AND HARBORS. 



Gray's Harbor is a large, elongated, triangular- shaped expanse 

 of water extending inland from the Pacific ocean, about sixty miles 

 north of the mouth of the Columbia river. Its base is toward the 

 ocean, from which it is separated by sandy spits. Its outlet to the 

 sea is partly closed with sand in shallow water. The government 

 has spent a million dollars or more in dredtjing this outl^-t s i that 

 large ocean liners may enter safely: but only partial success has 

 been accomplished so far. Around the harbor have grown up sev- 



12. Below are some Indian myths about the origin of these prairieB, which, though not vpry 

 scientific. may interest the reader. Myths used by permission of the Bureau of Ameritian 

 Ethnology. 



The Thunder bird and the myth about the origin of Beaver prairie at Beaver, Clallam counlv. 

 Wash. ( Police Hobucket) : 



"The Thunder bird lives in the heavens. He produces the lightning by his rapid flight through 

 the air, the "big noise' by the flapping of his wings. He feeds on the whale. Once he got a big 

 whale in his talons and carr'ed him to Beaver prairie and ate him there. The whale fought ter- 

 ribly hard before he was killed. So terrible was the fight that in the struggle the combatar.ta 

 killed all the timber in the vicinity and pulled up the trees by the roots. And no trees have ever 

 grown on the site to this day." 



The Thunder bird, the unsuccessful battle with the Mimlos-vihsAe, and the origin of the pr»- 

 ries of the Olympic peninsula (Police Hobucket): 



"At the time of the great fl>Dd the Th'inder bird, the representative of good, fought the 

 ifimios-whale. the representative of evil. The great battle lasted for a long time. For a long 

 time the battle seemed undecided The powerful bird could not whip the beast in the water. 

 Time and again it seized it in its talons and tried to fly with it to its nest in the mountains; but 

 the powerful ocean monster would get away from it. Each time that it seized it there » a;> a ter- 

 rible battle, and the "big noise' caused by the bird's flapping its wings (the thunder; shrjok .the 

 very mountains. The places where these fights occurred were stripped of their timber, the trees 

 being torn out by their roots. A curse was brought upon them, and to this day no trees grow 



