Dame Nature's Monument
ONE of the most wonderful miracles that Nature ever wrought is to be seen in the Thunder Mountain gold region, State of Idaho. This curious freak consists of a rough shaft, composed of boulders and gravel towering seventy feet high. It tapers slightly and is crowned by a huge rock, whose weight is estimated approximately at fifty tons. This remarkable formation is undoubtedly the result of centuries of erosion, and the process is still in operation. The space of time required to erode the earth and rocks from this seventy-foot monument may be only faintly realized when it is considered that there are full grown trees near the shaft.
Nature, ever strange in mood!
Why rearest thou this noble shaft
In mountains' deep retreat?
Wouldst thou no other eyes,
Save the bright stars above,
Should thy rare monument behold?
Dost thou no other praises seek
Than that the winged warblers give,
Or rattling thunder peals aloft
In language of the gods?
"The Two Islands"
DR. THOMAS CONDON, the geologist, and the most noted man of science the Northwest can claim as her very own, has given to the world an invaluable contribution, "The Two Islands." This book, explicit in detail and so simple in construction that it is within the grasp of a child's mind, is yet so rich in scientific lore and so deep in research that a sage may peruse its pages with profit.
Dr. Condon is at home in this work, for the book is a recital of his own study of the field. In this Northwest, the home of "The Two Islands," he has faithfully labored for half a century. Digging deep into the earth, he has uncovered its story and opened its pages that all may read. Included in this exhaustless library is also a record of the vegetable and the animal kingdoms as they appeared in the different stages of the formation of the earth's crust.
Through explorations and excavations, he brought to light, in the John Day country in Eastern Oregon, fossil beds of vast extent and of inestimable value to science. He was first to find, near The Dalles, on the Columbia, a fossil of the earliest prehistoric horse. This little creature was but eighteen inches high. Now, although past 80 years of age. Dr. Condon still tells the interesting story of this land so rich in geological treasure.
Wherever The Souvenir goes it gladly bears this testimony to the work of our honored and beloved citizen, and happily calls the attention of its readers to his book, "The Two Islands."
