INTRODUCTION. 



The want which these pages attempt to 

 supply is a popular rather than a scientific one. 



For years our General Government has 

 been publishing through railroad surveys and 

 the annual reports of the United States Geo- 

 logical Surveys a large mass and wide range 

 of geological information on the structure 

 and history of our Western coast. 



But this large body of information is so 

 scattered that few have the time to collect 

 enough of it to form a continuous unity of 

 its history. Besides, there are many things 

 in the geology of Oregon of lively interest 

 to the young and the uninstructed, and run- 

 ning through them all are the threads of a 

 continuous unity that seem capable of a pos- 

 sible narrative form such as might increase the 

 interest of the young. 



An attempt? to meet this double want, not 

 with a fresh contribution to science, but with 



