68 Kansas Academy of Science. 



val of chaos had disported itself over the land. Such an assem- 

 blage of crags, ridges and mounds it would be hard to imagine. A 

 few level spots are found along the streams, but the valleys are 

 very narrow, and it is with extreme difficulty that roads are inade. 

 And even when they are once established there are many chances 

 that they will not endure, for heavy waterspouts rush down the 

 narrow canyons piling up great boulders and excavating deep gorges 

 across and along the passageways. There is as great a fear of 

 these deluges in the mountains of Oregon as there is of cyclones 

 upon the plains of Kansas. It is but a few years since the small 

 town of Heppner lost over 500 lives in one of these visitations. 

 Vegetation is very scanty, and the whole region is bare and unin- 

 viting. 



Into this arena we penetrated with difficulty, after a long journey 

 over the mountains, and settled down to work on the main river in 

 a locality called Turtle Cove. This is a fairly representative portion 

 of the region, and I will describe it in some detail. Just here the 

 river runs almost due north and south for a distance of about 

 twenty miles, through a valley that will average about five miles in 

 width. The hills rise precipitously on each side to a height of 

 about 1500 feet, and from their bases long, slanting terraues extend, 

 in toward the river, which winds in and out at the bases of their in- 

 terdigitating extremities. As many as twenty-two lava-beds may 

 be seen in the hills, and for most of the distance in Turtle Cove 

 they lie approximately horizontal. The terranes are largely com- 

 posed of lava fragments, but now and then exposures of the John 

 Day formation may be seen lifting themselves into prominence 

 against the darker colored background. 



Merriam makes three divisions of the John Day deposits, the 

 lower, middle, and upper, and all of these may be found in Turtle 

 Cove. The lower offers no attractions to the paleontologist, for ani- 

 mal remains have not been found in it, but the peculiar rounded 

 hills into which it forms on exposure make a most striking land- 

 scape. Almost all colors of the rainbow may be seen, but the pre- 

 vailing ones are chocolate red and pea-green. Frequently the 

 dark red mounds are banded with undulating stripes of white, 

 which produces a most bizarre effect. The shades of color vary 

 with the direction of the light, but always have a soft effect. On 

 close inspection the mounds are found to be covered with about six 

 inches of loose soil, cracked into small bits, and it is to this condi- 

 tion that the varying shades of color and the soft effect are due. 

 Underneath their superficial layer the un weathered shale constitut- 



