Vol. XX"| Snodgrass, Land Birds of Central Washimrtoii. 20? 



1Q03 J ' - •^ <-' 



The Grand Coulee is, then, simply what was once a temporary 

 short-cut for the Columbia River around the eastern face of the 

 glaciers. Its walls, except in the neighborhood of Coulee City, 

 are vertical cliffs rising in places probably between four hundred 

 and five hundred feet. Their bases are everywhere hidden behind 

 high banks of talus. This talus is continually accumulating, and is 

 almost everywhere so new that it consists of angular fragmental 

 material. At Coulee City, only, the walls of the Coulee are low 

 and sloping. They are here worn down to such a gentle inclina- 

 tion that the Central Washington Railway is graded nearly across 

 the canon. At only four other places has it been possible to con- 

 struct a wagon road or even a trail out of the Coulee. 



Of course the mere geological interest of the Grand Coulee can- 

 not make it of any biological importance. However, the fact that 

 its floor is only in a few places capable of cultivation, has caused 

 it to be left, by the advancing flood of wheat that has over- 

 whelmed much of the Big Bend country, almost intact and in its 

 original, native, undisturbed condition. It is a sunken biological 

 oasis in a desert of wheat fields. Nothing can be more distressing 

 to a naturalist than to travel across the Big Bend country and for 

 a whole day to see not one square foot of Nature's original sage- 

 brush verdure ; to camp at night on a strip of land a few feet wide 

 between a dusty road and a barbed-wire fence ; and to ' bum ' wood 

 and water from a neighboring farm-house. Not even are there 

 willow- and weed-fringed streams in the depressions between the 

 hills. There is nothing left of Nature but the air and the dust of 

 the road. 



This desolateness, however, is occasionally relieved by coming 

 upon great stretches of most refreshing ' scab-land ' country. Such 

 areas alternate with the wheat deserts^ in Lincoln County and 

 occupy also a large space along the eastern edge of the Grand 

 Coulee. On them there is scarcely any soil, only enough for sage- 

 brush to grow on. The surface is cut by erosion into irregular 

 hollows, low hills, abrupt walls, ridges and small tower-like buttes. 

 A weird and wild aspect has this country — Nature's reserve for 

 the naturalist. In the hollows are scattered about small densely 

 alkaline lakes whose waters have a beautiful greenish-black color 

 by transmitted light. The traveler on these strips is never 



