62 The Willamette Sound. 



entirely devoid of marine remains, while the 

 lower ones are densely crowded with them 

 plainly indicate shoal water to begin the 

 work, and deep water afterward over its high- 

 est layers. But the sediment itself in one 

 hundred feet or more, and deep water over its 

 upper surface, equal to the requirements of its 

 facts, could not be less than another hundred 

 feet, thus making a total depth of at least 

 two hundred feet above the present water 

 level. Let then, a depth of two hundred feet 

 be our theory, and with this let us pass inland 

 for facts to confirm it if true, to reject it if 

 false; and if confirmed, to trace by its help 

 the outlines of that fine old Willamette sound 

 that may in the days of the Mammoth and 

 the Broad Faced Ox have welcomed to its 

 scores of sheltered harbors, the ancient 

 hunter who, in his canoe, if he had one, floated 

 one hundred feet or more above the present 

 altitude of the church spires of Portland and 

 Salem. 



But as we pass along, let us in imagina- 

 tion reconstruct the fine inland sea that two 



