The Rocks of the John Day Valley. 161 



wild region winds the John Day river, run- 

 ning westward until it passes the middle 

 ground of the picture, and then turning north- 

 ward to join the Columbia. 



This stream, so insignificant in appear- 

 ance, has done wonderful work among these 

 hills. The river itself was in the olden times 

 merely a series of connecting links between 

 a chain of lakes that extended from the Blue 

 mountains to the Cascades of the Columbia. 

 It has for unnumbered ages gone on excavat- 

 ing vast gorges and canyons as all other 

 streams in central Oregon have done, till lake 

 after lake was drained off and their beds laid 

 bare important records of the past, cutting 

 changed to a treeless desert. The deep ex- 

 cavations that resulted could hardly fail to lay 

 bare important records of the past, cutting 

 as they do through the whole extent of the 

 Tertiary period. In a deep canyon, through 

 which runs a branch of Kern creek, may be 

 found the remains of the fan palm, with abun- 

 dant remains of a beautiful fern, a gem of its 

 kind, which no thoughtful mind can see with- 



