208 PROFESSOR THOMAS CONDON. "Not later than the spring of 1867 Mr. Blake, an eastern geologist, visited the cabinet at The Dalles, and on his return voyage carried with him a few specimens of fossil leaves originally from Bridge Creek in the John Day Valley. These were perhaps the first Oregon specimens to find their way to the Atlantic Coast. They soon fell into the hands of Dr. New- berry of Columbia College, New York, who, being a specialist in fossil botany, longed earnestly for more. After talking with Clarence King in Washington, and learning from him more of the Oregon geologist and his country, Dr. Newberry wrote Mr. Condon in 1869 and received in response a box of fossils of which he writes : ' I received your two letters with great pleas- ure. Since then the box has safely come to hand and that has given me still greater satisfaction, for I found it full of new and beautiful things which fully justified the high anticipa- tion I had formed judging from your letters and the specimens brought by Mr. Blake.' ' ' In the autumn of 1870, Arnold Hague, also connected with the geological survey of the fortieth parallel, spent a month in Oregon, part of the time being at The Dalles in discussion over the geological problems of the Columbia River region. That this visit was a source of mutual pleasure is shown by a subse- quent letter in which Mr. Hague refers to his 'month in Ore- gon in 1870 as one of the pleasant memories of the past.' ' * But a new era was dawning for * the Oregon Country. ' The first transcontinental railroad had touched the Pacific and with it came many large parties of cultured tourists who, wishing to look upon the grand scenery of the Columbia, found themselves obliged to spend the night in The Dalles. In this way it often happened that late in the afternoon a party of fifteen or twenty ladies and gentlemen would gather at the home of the Oregon geologist and spend a pleasant hour study- ing the life of past ages. ' ' In 1870 Mr. Condon shipped his first boxes of specimens to the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, and from there they were sent to Dr. Leidy of Philadelphia Academy. of Sci- ences for expert examination. The National Museum was glad to receive these new fossils from the Pacific Coast and promised its official assistance in every way possible. ' ' A few months later of this same year Professor Marsh of Yale College wrote from San Francisco as follows: 'I have heard for several years a great deal of the good work you are doing in geology and of the interesting collection of vertebrate
