For a number of years I have been gradually
accumulating material for a thorough revision of the Tertiary floras of
the Pacific slope. Fossil plants are known to occur at numerous points
within this area, and their study and identification has already
furnished valuable data bearing on the geological history of the region,
and when still further exploited it is confidently expected that they
will afford more exact data for the use of geologists. This
investigation is progressing satisfactorily, and at no distant day it is
hoped to have it in form for final publication.
From time to time various members of the United
States Geological Survey, as well as others not connected with this
organization, have sent in small collections of fossil plants for
determination. These have been studied and reported upon as fully as the
condition of the problem permitted, so that the determinations could be
immediately available to geologists, but with the reservation that none
of the questions could be fully settled until all known material had
been studied and properly correlated.
The rich fossil plant deposits in the John Day Basin,
as set forth more fully in the historical account which follows, have
been known for a period of nearly fifty years, but their study has been
carried on in a more or less desultory manner. There has also been
considerable confusion as to the horizons whence these plants came. As
various species of plants described originally from the John Day region
were detected in various other localities in Oregon, and in surrounding
areas, as central Washington, western Idaho, and northern California, it
became more than ever apparent that a thorough study of all material
obtainable from this type area would be necessary before any definite or
satisfactory conclusions could be reached.
The immediate incentive for this revision was
furnished by the receipt of a considerable collection of plants, made by
Dr. John C. Merriam in 1900 while he was in charge of an expedition into
this region made under the auspices of the University of California.
When these plants were submitted to me for study, it
was thought possible to present their description, together with a
revision of our knowledge of the previously known forms, within a space
sufficiently small to permit the publication of the matter as an
appendix to a paper on the general geology of the area, then in
preparation by Dr. Merriam. But it soon became apparent that this could
not be adequately done within the space available, and a short
preliminary report was prepared for and published by Dr. Merriam.a The
results of a complete restudy of all available fossil plant material
from the John Day Basin are now presented.
aA contribution to the geology of
the John Day Basin: Univ. Cal., Bull. Dept. Geol., vol. II, No. 9, April
1901, pp. 269-314.
I wish to record my great indebtedness to Dr.
Merriam, who not only accompanied me at a considerable personal
sacrifice on a trip through the region in 1901, but placed unreservedly
at my disposal all material bearing in any way on the problem then in
the paleontological museum of the University of California. To Dr.
Arthur Hollick I am indebted for the loan of all material from the John
Day region belonging to Columbia University, and now deposited in the
New York Botanical Garden at Bronx Park. This material, together with
the rich collections belonging to the United States National Museum,
represents practically all now known to have come from the John Day
Basin.
The John Day Basin is situated in the north-central
portion of the State of Oregon. It lies mainly in Grant County, but
extends also into the northeastern portion of Crook County and the
southern portions of Gilliam, Morrow, and Umatilla counties. It is
rudely rectangular in outline, and is almost completely surrounded by
the Blue Mountains, whose rugged eastern ridges rise to a height of over
6,000 feet, those to the west being lower and made up largely of
Tertiary lavas, which form regular and often flat-topped ridges.
John Day River, with its numerous branches and
tributaries, draining an area of approximately 10,000 square miles, has
a general westward course through the basin, which it leaves on its
west side through a gap between the north and south ranges of the Blue
Mountains; thence its course is north to the Columbia.
When viewed from an eminence the basin presents a
rough and rugged appearance and bears abundant evidence of former
volcanic activity in the shape of ridges and plateaus, often several
thousand feet in height, made up of volcanic flows of various kinds, as
well as vast deposits of ashes, tuffs, and occasionally sands and
gravels. Around these ridges and plateaus the water courses have cut
deep and often narrow canyons, especially in the soft ashes and tuffs,
but occasionally also through the massive basalts, rhyolites, and
andesites.
The area of land under cultivation is extremely
limited, being confined to the scattered narrow bottoms along the main
streams. With the exception of a growth of pines along the higher
ridges, the tree growth is confined to a fringe of cottonwoods and
willows along the water courses and a few scattered junipers on the
lower ridges. The remainder of the country, when not too rugged, is or
was formerly covered with a luxuriant growth of grasses, but
overstocking has already seriously impaired the value of the ranges for
grazing purposes.
For more than a quarter of a century the John Day
Basin has been widely known for its abundant deposits of plant and
animal fossils. The first of its fossil riches to be discovered were
mammalian remains in the form of teeth and fragments of bones from the
Crooked River region, brought back by a company of soldiers who
traversed the region in 1861. Some of these fossils fell into the hands
of Rev. Thomas Condon, then located in The Dalles. Condon recognized the
value of the discovery, and early in the following year he obtained
permission to accompany a party of soldiers taking supplies to the
military post at Harney Valley. On the way out they passed through the
Crooked River region, where Condon obtained fossils, and on the return
trip by way of Camp Watson, a post long ago abandoned, he discovered
rich plant deposits on Bridge Creek. In 1863 and 1864 Condon spent some
weeks in each season in exploring along Bridge Creek and John Day River,
in the latter region discovering and naming Turtle Cove, a locality
which has afforded a large proportion of the vertebrate remains thus far
brought to light in this region.
In the fall of 1871 Prof. O. C. Marsh, of Yale
University, in company with a large party of students and others, under
the guidance of Condon, made an extended trip through the basin,
collecting vertebrate remains, principally from what are now known as
the "John Day" and "Mascall" beds. From this date until 1877 parties in
the employ of Marsh continued collecting throughout the region, but they
appear to have procured only animal remains. As these vertebrate remains
were found in such abundance and so well preserved, the region continued
to attract students. Thus in 1878 and 1879 collections were made
for Prof. E. D. Cope; in 1882 for the United States Geological Survey,
under the direction of Professor Marsh, and in 1889 by Prof. W. B.
Scott, for Princeton University. In 1899 and 1900 Dr. John C. Merriam,
with a large party, collected extensively throughout the region in the
interests of the University of California. His attention was mainly
devoted to securing vertebrate remains, but he also obtained a small and
extremely interesting collection of plants from Cherry Creek, Clarnos
Ferry, Bridge Creek, Van Horn's ranch, and other places. These plants
will be noticed later.
As already stated, Professor Condon was the first to
discover the rich plant beds on Bridge Creek. His collections from this
locality, from Currant Creek, and possibly other places within the
basin, were probably made during several years, and were ultimately
placed in the hands of the late Dr. J. S. Newberry, of Columbia
University, for study. As the partial results of his study Dr. Newberry
published, in March, 1883, brief characterizations of fifteen new
species of plants.a These species, as well as several others, were more
fully described and figured in his Later Extinct Floras of North
America,b a posthumous work issued under the editorship of Dr. Arthur
Hollick in 1898. The publication of the latter work, containing as it
did the illustrations, made it possible for the first time to be certain
of Newberry's species. All, or nearly all, of the material on which
Newberry's work was based ultimately became the property of the United
States National Museum, where it now is.
a Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. V, 1883, pp. 502—513.
b Mon. U. S. Geol. survey vol. XXXV.
Probably about 1870 Mr. C. D. Voy, a well-known
collector of San Francisco, California, made a collecting trip through
the basin. He obtained plants from Currant Creek, Bridge Creek, and from
a new locality known later as Van Horn's ranch or Belshaw's ranch. These
specimens, through the munificence of Mr. D. O. Mills, were presented
to the University of California, where they now are. This material was
all submitted to Prof. Leo Lesquereux for determination. The exact date
on which it came into his hands is uncertain, but it must have been in
or before 1878, for a part of the species—certain of those from
Van Horn's ranch—were, owing to insufficient labeling, included in
his Fossil Plants of the Auriferous Gravel Deposits of the Sierra
Nevada,c published in that year. The remainder, now known to have come
from Currant Creek, Bridge Creek, and Van Horn's ranch, though mainly
labeled simply "John Day Valley, Oregon," was described by Lesquereux in
his Cretaceous and Tertiary Floras.d This work bears the date of 1883,
and as it contains descriptions and figures of many of the same species
that had been submitted to Dr. Newberry, though of course under different
names, it becomes a matter of much importance to fix more exactly
the actual time of issue. In the case of Newberry's paper the actual
date is easily fixed by the date on the final signature as March 21,
1883. From a note in the first page of the Cretaceous and Tertiary
Floras it appears that the manuscript was submitted by Professor
Lesquereux on September 27, 1882, and was received by the Director of
the United States Geological Survey on October 12, 1882.
c Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., Vol. VI, No. 2.
d U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr., Mon. VIII, 1883, pp.
239—255.
But the letter of transmittal to the then Secretary
of the Interior bears date of November 1, 1883, and as this must have
preceded by some months the actual issue of the volume, it is clear that
Newberry's paper has precedence, and all names of species established by
him, when in conflict with those given by Lesquereux, must stand.
By far the largest collection of fossil plants from
this region was made in the summer of 1880 by Maj. (then Capt.) Charles
E. Bendire, of the United States Army, who made a short tour through the
basin with a large party of the Seventh United States Cavalry. He
collected at Bridge Creek, Cherry Creek, and Van Horn's ranch, securing
mainly plants, but also a few fish and mammal remains, and this entire
collection was presented by him to the United States National Museum.
The fish remains were described by Cope, a and the plants were submitted
to Lesquereux, whose report on those from Van Horn's ranch and Cherry
Creek was published in 1888. b Lesquereux's report on the Bridge Creek
material was prepared and submitted at the same time, but on account of
the difficulty in securing figures of the supposed new species, was not
published. This manuscript has been in my hands for some years awaiting
revision, and, so far as possible, has been incorporated in the present
work.
a Am. Nat. Vol. XXIII, 1889, p. 625.
b Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XI, pp. 13—24, Pls. V—XIV.
As a preliminary to the preparation of this work, I
went over very carefully every specimen in the collection of the United
States National Museum from Van Horn's ranch and Cherry Creek, as published
upon by Lesquereux. In the case of the specimens from Van Horn's
ranch the matrix is so distinctive that no difficulty was experienced
in making certain that they actually came from this locality, but when
the collection from Cherry Creek was taken up, it at once became evident
that some mixing of specimens must have occurred. Lesquereux enumerated
thirty species in his paper above quoted, but they are preserved on very
different kinds of matrix and represent certain well-known species that
have never before been reported from the John Day region. Specimens of
some of the matrix of the suspected species were sent to Dr. Merriam, of
the University of California, for the purpose of ascertaining whether be
had noted matrix of this character at Cherry Creek. It proved to be
wholly unlike anything observed by him at this locality, thus in a
measure confirming my suspicion of a possible mixture. I am uncertain
where the doubtful specimens came from, but from the character of the
matrix as well as from the species represented, it seems more than
possible that they may have come from the Green River beds of Wyoming.
As doubt was thus cast on all of the Cherry Creek material in the United
States National Museum collection, I visited the locality myself in the
summer of 1901, in company with Dr. Merriam, and made as full a
collection as possible. This absolutely confirmed the theory that
Lesquereux had inadvertently confused at least two localities under the
name of Cherry Creek. The typical matrix at Cherry Creek is a hard,
yellowish-brown sandstone, which fractures very irregularly, making it
difficult to obtain perfect impressions. Only the species known to have
come from there, or preserved on matrix so similar as to leave no
reasonable doubt that it is the same, are included in the following
enumeration.
As already stated, Dr. Merriam obtained small
collections of fossil plants during the field seasons of 1899 and 1900.
These were submitted to me for determination, and a more or less
tentative report was incorporated by Dr. Merriam in his report above
mentioned on the geology of the John Day Basin.
During the field season of 1901 I visited the John
Day Basin under the guidance of Dr. Merriam and made collections of
plants at Cherry Creek, Bridge Creek, and Van Horn's or Belshaw's ranch
and vicinity. At the close of the field season some weeks were spent in
thoroughly going over the type collections of plants in the
paleontological museum of the University of California. It was at this
time that the fact was developed that a part of the Van Horn's ranch
material had been included by Lesquereux in his Flora of the Auriferous
Gravels of California. Inasmuch as these species were mainly the ones
upon which rested the correlation between the beds in the John Day Basin
and the Auriferous gravels, the detection of the error was of the utmost
importance.
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