weight of one or two hundred feet of sand and gravel, were not yet fossilized, but would burn when thrown on the campflre with but little flame, leaving an ash strongly colored with oxide of iron.
In some localities this wood has been partly carbonized, forming a semi-lignite or partial coal. These beds of fossil wood occurring as strata at three or more suc- cessive elevations In the face of the cliffs are identical in soil and vegetable prod- ucts with existing tide lands, which are always formed near the level of high tides. They indicate distinct periods of repose, when the deposits of mud were forming and the trees reaching their growth. They also point to a subsidence, more or less sudden, when the deposits of sand and gravel were accumulated, fol- lowed by another cycle of building and growth. . . . Associated with the ge- ology of the country is the study of min- eralogy and the various mineral, metallic and other products of the earth.
The older mountain ranges of the Cas- cades, Blue mountains and Coeur d'Alenes are rich in deposits of precious and use- ful minerals. No portion of our country has so many and varied mineral resources as the Northwest, though the develop- ment of these hidden treasures can hardly be said to have been commenced.
The gold mining of the Northwest is principally in placer deposits. The coun- ties of Jackson, Curry, Coos, Josephine, also Baker, Grant and Union in Eastern Oregon, are all productive of gold. Placer deposits in British Columbia, the Fraser and Stickeen rivers, and on the Yukon, all yield gold. Gold is also produced from rock quartz in Eastern Oregon and in Alaska. Silver in various ores and in lead is found and mined in great quantities in Idaho and elsewhere in the Northwest, and forms a leading industry of the coun- try. Ores of iron, including magnetic bog and hematite varieties, are found in near- ly every portion of the country, and are being worked in several localities.
Oxides and carbonates of copper occur in the southwestern counties, also chromic iron, cinnabar, platinum, tellurium and nickel. In the same region, limestone, hydraulic-cement rock, marble, granite, syenite, building sand-stones and slates, gypsum, asbestos, plumbago, brick and
potters' clays, steatite and glass sand are among the valuable and varied resources of the country. Borax in the purest form, the borate of soda, is found near the sea- coast in Curry county. Chalcedony, sil- icified wood, jasper, carnelians and agates of great beauty are found on the banks of the Columbia and adjacent streams, par- ticularly where the river breaks through the Coast range near Oak Point and Cath- lamet. Coal is mined in a great many localities, from Coos bay to Alaska, and also east of the mountains. The most valuable coals have been found in the western foothills of the Cascades on Puget sound, on Vancouver island near Nanaimo, and at Roslyn, on the eastern slopes of the mountains.
In respect to the forests of the North- west, the extent and value of them have been well published. The great elevated plateau east of the mountains is a tree- less region, covered thinly with sage- brush, bunch-grass, juniper and dwarf pines in places, and with a little willow and cottonwood along the streams. The mountains, however, are well supplied with many varieties of trees found west of the Cascades.
It is in the western division that the flora of the country attains its richest de- velopment, and, with the exception of the Willamette and other smaller valleys, the whole northwest coast is covered with a luxuriant growth of verdure. As the palm is the characteristic tree of the tropics, so is the pine the tree of the North. Chief among the trees of the Northwest is the Douglas spruce or red fir, reaching in fa- vored groves great height and size, and valuable for the uses of man. The red- wood of the California Coast range barely steps over the state line, and its place is at once taken by the white or Oxford cedar, a variety having a very limited habitat in Oregon and found in no other part of the world. This tree having a very thin bark is easily killed by the for- est fires, but still remains standing, dry and sound for many years, and it is curious to see the loggers hauling these hard white trunks to the mill to be made into lumber. The coniferous pines are represented by several species; among which are the sugar, black, silver and yel- low pine. The white, lovely, yellow and
