SHASTA ROUTE — SEATTLE TO SAN FRANCISCO. 



57 



Ashland 



a bold rock, Pilot Knob, in the Siskiyou Mountains (a part of the 

 Klamath Mountains). In eai^ly days tliis knob, which stands more 



fornia now utilized by the railroad. 



immioranti 



Asliland 



vr 



remember 



great 



Ashland. 



Elevation 1,S90 feet. 



Topulalion 5,020. 

 Seattle 527 miles. 



peaches at the Chicago Exposition. 



grown 



also 

 Orch 



are being rapidly extended southward and westward 



over the lower slopes of the mountains facii^g the 



morning sun. Behind them rise the forested spurs 



of the Siskiyou Mountains, culminating in Siskiyou Peak (7,662 feet) 



and Sterhng Peak (7,377 feet), which carry snow as late as July. 



Near Ashland the crumbhng quartz diorite is well exposed, together 

 with sandstones and shales of Cretaceous age. To the northeast rises 

 Grizzly Peak (6,000 feet), a pile of lava flows, under which, as may 

 be seen on the gentle slopes near Bear Creek, are sedimentary rocks 

 that contain some beds of coal and fossil plants, probably of Eocene 



age. 



The Eocene plants of the Cascade Range are described below 

 by F. H. Knowlton.* 



On leavmg Ashland the train begins to chmb the Siskiyou Momi- 

 tains, which form the divide between the Rogue and Klamath river 



basins. 



Ashland and the ascent 



by a 3.3 per cent grade — that is, at the rate of 174,2 feet to the 

 mile, Tliis average grade is maintained for nearly 30 miles. Shales, 

 sandstones, and conglomerates of Cretaceous age arc exposed alono* 

 the railroad for more than 10 miles beyond Ashland, except a short 



^ In tlie vicinity of Ashland and Med- 

 ford, tlicre lias been found a fossil flora 

 wliich is not only totally different from that 

 of Jurassic time but is also different from 

 the living flora of Oregon. That this flora 

 is very unlike the Jurassic flora is not sur- 

 prising in view of its much later age 

 (probably upper Eocene, Tertiary), which 

 makes it many millions of years younger- 



in fact, a tiling of yesterday as geologic 

 time is measured. 



The Ashland fossil flora is a small one, 

 comprising only about 15 forms belonging 

 to perhaps 10 t>T;)es. Among them is a 

 small fern with delicate, deeply cut 

 fronds. There is also a Sequoia of the 

 same t^-pe as the famous redwood of the 

 Coast Range and probably a direct ances- 

 tor of it, together with a pine of the well- 

 known white pine t>-pe, with its leaves ! of the fossil plants. 



in clusters of five. Among the dicoty- 

 ledons or deciduous tree^ there is a well- 

 marked species of alder, a eheatnut with 

 the usual sharply toothed leaves, at leasfe 

 four kinds of oak, an elm, a spice bush 

 (Benzoin), and a leaf that !■ doubtfully 

 regarded as belonging to a fig. 



A flora wliich is of the iwme t}-pe and 

 hence presumably of about the name age 

 as this one is found in the rocka of north- 

 ern California, especially about the big 

 bend of Pit River and on Little Cow 

 Creek east of Redding, Theae floras are 

 evidently closely related to the plants 

 that lived during the period when certain 

 of the gold-bearing gravels of the Sierra 

 Nevada in California were being depos- 

 ited. The geologic age of theee gravels 

 has been determined in oart bv the aid 



