The Stsktyoa Island. 53 



Passing northward on the east or Cascade 

 .side of the valley, one strikes these Miocene 

 beds at Willoughby's, West Point, Peterson's 

 Butte, Knox's Butte, in the bed of the San- 

 tiam east of Knox's Butte, and so on till we 

 reach Salem, whose hills are all fossiliferous. 



The later geological record of the Willam- 

 ette valley is such as to suggest an explana- 

 tion of its facts. The theory is that through- 

 out the next geological period, the Pliocene, 

 the whole region remained above water and 

 so left no record; for if it, or any considerable 

 part of it, was covered by water during Plio- 

 cene times, the camel and other Pliocene 

 mammals, whose remains are so abundant in 

 Eastern Oregon, would be found fossil here. 

 But later in the Champlain period it shared 

 in the general land subsidence that then 

 marked the whole north temperate zone. The 

 Willamette valley, the Yakima valley and the 

 Walla Walla region were all again covered 

 with water to the depth of several hundred 

 feet. It is to the Western Oregon share of 

 these elevated waters that the name Willam- 

 ette sound has recently been given. 



