Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/12



In preparing this sketch our principal source of information has been the chapter on the Willamette Sound from "The Two Islands," by Professor Condon, but we, are also indebted for facts and suggestions to the following publications: Dana's Geology, Chamberlain and Salisbury's Geology, a publication by Professor Osborn of Columbia University, The Encyclopaedia Britannica and the writings of John Fiske, George Kennan and others.

The children of modern Egypt, Persia, India and other nations of antiquity, while studying the history of their country, find a rich background of centuries of historic life which they are taught to reverence.

The children of modern Europe, too, have a priceless heritage in their historic relations to classic Greece and Rome. But the children of the New World find but little of this historic background as part of their nation's life. While we of the Northwest have least of all, for we even lack the unique chapter of Colonial history of which our Eastern States are so justly proud.

In order to supplement their usual study of history, The Oregon Historical Society wishes to offer to the schools of our state a few sketches of Oregon's geological history, that, while the children of the Orient are studying the growth of dynasties and pyramids built by the, power of the few and degradation and oppression of the many; the children of the Northwest may be studying some of the long rich chapters of its ancient life and the upbuilding of its mountains. While the children of Europe are learning of the rise and fall of kingdoms, so interwoven with the hatred, jealousies and crimes of ambitious men and women; the children of the Northwest may be peering into the mysteries of God's creation and noting the rise and