Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Silver Lake looking southeast by E.D. Cope, 1889.
volcanic activity, describing the,
"abundance of basaltic
rocks over its [Oregon] surface",
the granites of the
Klamath area, and other rocks as he passed through.
Coastal units, assigned to the Tertiary, are listed, and
molluscs collected from the Astoria Formation were
subsequently identified by Timothy Conrad, renowned
invertebrate paleontologist with the Philadelphia
Academy of Sciences. Descriptions of fossil cetacean
bones, fish, Crustacea, foraminifera, echinoids, and
plants were incorporated into the report.
With his concluding remarks Dana assessed
Oregon's potential.
"Although Oregon may rank as the
best portion of Western America, still it appears that the
land available for the support of man is small... only the
coast section within one hundred miles of the sea ... is all
fitted for agriculture. And in this coast section there is a
large part which is mountainous, or buried beneath heavy
forests. The forests may be felled more easily than the
mountains, and not withstanding their size, they will not
long bid defiance to the hardy axeman of America. The
middle section is in some parts a good grazing tract; the
interior is good for little or nothing".
The magnificent volume X of the
United States
Exploring Expedition During the Years 1838, 1839,1840,
1841, 1842, under the Command of Charles Wilkes
contains Dana's "Geological Observations on Oregon
and Northern California." These 145 pages constitute
the first formal geologic observations in this area.
Unfortunately Congress was in a parsimonious mood
when it came to funding publication of the final 18
volumes and 11 atlases of the Expedition so that they
took 30 years to complete. Ultimately Congress only
allowed 100 copies of the set to be printed. One
volume was intended for each state of the nation, and
the remaining copies were to go to foreign govern-
ments. Three private copies were given out, one of
which was to Dana who received $16,000 in pay for
writing volumes 7, 10, 13, and 14. At the outset, 30 of
the volumes were destroyed by fire and never replaced.
An angry Dana had 100 copies of Volume X printed
from his own funds, distributing them to private
purpose of this American exploring expedition was to
test the theory, presented in Paris in 1721 and debated
in America years later, that holes in the polar regions
led to the hollow interior of the earth. Theories such
as this, combined with the desire for political and
military expansion, economic gain, and scientific
curiosity about western North American, led Congress
to allocate funds for an expedition of six ships com-
manded by Charles Wilkes. The
Vincennes, Peacock,
Relief, Porpoise, Sea Gull,
and the
Flying Fish
left
Norfolk, Virginia, on August 17, 1838, with a team of
scientists which included geologist James Dwight Dana.
Dana, then 25 years of age, taught at Yale University.
Rounding Cape Horn, the ships criss-crossed
the Pacific, landing near Puget Sound on May 2, 1841.
Arriving later than the others, the
Peacock,
with Dana
aboard, was destroyed on a bar at the entrance to the
Columbia River, although everyone survived the
mishap. The Wilkes party explored between Puget
Sound and Vancouver before crossing the Washington
Cascades, where they conducted surveys of the Colum-
bia River gorge. In August, 1841, Commander Wilkes
directed a party of men, led by Lieutenant George
Emmons, to journey overland across the Klamaths to
San Francisco where they would meet up with the
Vincennes
on September 30. The entire expedition
returned to New York in June, 1842.
Dana accompanied the San Francisco group,
and his report provided a concise, geologic account of
the region through which he travelled. Leaving the
"Willammet"
district, the party traversed the Umpqua
Valley and climbed what Dana called the Umpqua
Mountains,
"a most disorderly collection of high precipi-
tous ridges and deep secluded valleys enveloped in
forests".
He was obviously referring to the Klamaths
and Siskiyous immediately before the group encoun-
tered the Shasta River.
Dana observed and wrote extensively on the
geologic features of Oregon, commenting on the
mountain ranges bordering the oceans, the evidence of
