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BRITISH COLUMBIA

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Brown on the Formation of Fjords, Cafiom, Sfc. 121

VII. — On the Formation of Fjords, Canons, Benches, Prairies,
and Intermittent Rivers. By Robert Brown, f.r.g.s, &c.

Bead, March 8, 1869.

I HAVE classed the several physical features enumerated in
the title of this communication together, not only because
they are all found in the same geographical region, but because
many of the causes producing them are mutual, and necessary
to a right understanding of all four.

1. Fjords. — Intersecting the sea-coasts of various portions
of the world, more particularly in northern latitudes, are deep,
narrow inlets of the sea, surrounded generally by high pre-
cipitous cliffs, and varying in length from '2 or 3 miles to lUO
or more, variously known as " inlets," " canals," " fjords," and
even, on the western shores of Scotland, as " lochs." The na-
ture of these inlets is everywhere identical, even though existing
in widely-distant parts of the world, so much so as to suggest a
common origin. On the extreme north-west coast of America
they intersect the sea-line of British Columbia to a deptli, in
some cases, of upwards of a hundred miles, the soundings in them
showing a great depth of water, high precipitous waJls on either
side, and generally with a valley towards the head. On the
eastern shore of the opposite Island of Vancouver no such inlets
are found, but on the western coast of the same island they
are again found in perfection ; shewing that, in all probability,
Vancouver Island was isolated from the mainland by some
throe of Nature prior to the formation of the present '* canals "
on the British Columbia shore, but that the present inlets on
the western shore of Vancouver Island formed, at a former
period, the sea-board termination of the mainland, and were
dug out under conditions identical with those which subse-
quently formed the fjords now intersecting the coast.

Jervis Inlet may be taken as the typo of nearly all of
these inlets here, as well as in other portions of the world. It
extends in a northerly direction for more than 40 miles, while
its width rarely exceeds 1^ mile, and in some places is even
less. It is hemmed in on all sides by mountains of the most
rugged and stupendous character, rising from its almost perpen-
dicular shores to a height of from 5000 to 0000 feet. The hardy
pine, where no otiier tree can find soil to sustain life, holds but
a feeble and uncertain tenure here ; and it is not uncommon to
see whole mountain sides denuded by the blasts of winter or
the still more certain destruction of the avalanche which accom-
panies the thaw of summer. Strikingly grand and magnificent,
there is a solemnity in the silence and utter desolation which
prevails here during the mouths of winter, not a native, not a

,U1

122 Brown on the Formation of Fjords^ Canons^ Benches^

living thing to disturb the solitude ; and though in the summer
a few miserable Indians may occasionally be met with, and the
reverberating echoes of a hundred cataracts disturb the silence,
vet the desolation remains, and seems inseparable from a scene
IS^ature never intended as the abode of man. The depths below
almost rival the heights of the mountain summit : bottom is
rarely reached under 200 fathoms, even close to the shore.*
The deep inlets on the Norwegian coast, known as fjords — a
familiar name, now applied generally to such breaks in the
coast-line — are too well known to require description. On
the coast of Greenland are again found similar Sounds, in-
denting both sides of that island (?), but more particularly the
western, or Davis Strait shore. Most of these inlets are thickly
studded with floating icebergs, and others are so densely choked
with tliem as to receive the name of ice-fjords. All of these
fjords form the highways by which the icebergs float out from
the glaciers at their heads, whenever these prolongations of the
great mer de glace of Greenland (the " inland iis ") reach the
sea. After a long and careful study of these fjords in most
parts of the world where they are found, I have come to the
conclusion that we must look upon glaciers as the material
which hollowed them in such an uniform manner. Everywhere
you see marks on the sides of the British Columbian fjord of
ice action ; and there seems no reason to doubt but that they
were at one . the beds of ancient glaciers, which, grinding
their outward ^.^arse to the sea, scooped out these inlets of this
great and uniform depth. At the time when these inlets formed
the beds of glaciers, the coast was higher than now. We know
that the coast of Greenland is now falling ; t and, supposing that
the present rate of depression goes on, many glacier valleys will
in course of time become ice-fjords. After having seen not a
little of the abrading action of ice during three different visits
to the Arctic regions, extending in circuit from the Spitzbergen
Sea to the upper reaches of Baffin's Bay and westward and
southward to the " Meta Incognita " of Frobisher, I cannot side
with those geologists who, judging ice action merely from what
is seen of the comparatively puny glaciers of the Alps and other
European ranges, are inclined to under-estimate the abrading
power of the glacier. I do not, however, for a moment pretend
to assert that the valleys in which glaciers in the Arctic regions
(or elsewhere) now lie were originally formed by the glacier.

* « Vancouver Island Pilot,' p. 139 (Richards).

t III a paper 'On the Elevation and Depression of the Greenland Coast,' read
to the Briiish Association at Exeter (1869), I have given what I consider to be
the true explanation of the seemingly contradictory statements ou this subject
among writers on the Arctic regions.

PrairieSj and Intermittent Rivers,

123

On tlic contrary, I am at one with those who believe that tliese
rents were chiefly due to the volcanic disturbances which
threw up the mountain ranges, and that tlie glacier merely
took advantage of the depression. However, by long abrasion
it hollowed out the valley into the form we now see it in the
fjords under description. At this present day, not far from the
head of most of these inlets, glaciers are found in the Coast
Range and Cascade mountains in British Columbia ; and along
both ranges marks of old glacier action can be seen 2000 to 3000
feet below their summits, and even near the sea-margin. Such
a depiession of the coast, with the presence of the lower tempera-
ture then prevailing, would fill these fjords with glaciers. I
may add, that though Professor Whitney,* on the most hearsay
evidence, seem& inclined to think that the Northern Drift is not
found over Vancouver Island and British Columbia, it certainly
exists in a well-developed condition.

2. Cai^ons. — This convenient word, of Hispano- American
origin, is used extensively all over the Pacific to express the
high perpendicular clefts through which many of the rivers
of the West flow often for miles. These caiions are generally
found where the river breaks through some mountain-range,
or other obstruction of a like nature, on its way to the ocean.
Such are the canons of the Stiken in Alaska ; the caiion of the
Eraser in British Columbia ; the gorges of the Columbia,
Wisconsin and Canadian, or the Canon of the Colorado in
New Mexico. An examination of these caiions shews them
to have been caused by the force of the rivers which flow
through them, when these rivers contained (as there is every
evidence to prove they did at one time) a greater body of
water than at present. During the time when these glaciers
covered the sides of the Cascade and other ranges adjoining
these rivers, a greatly-increased amount of precipitation would
swell the volume of these streams, enabling them to score
deeply the surface of the plateau, and " force mountain barriers
to reach the ocean, cutting deep channels in its shores where
we now find them." These rivers seem at one time to have
been merely the outlets of great lakes, which em[)tied them-
selves into the ocean by one or more small rivulets, creep-
ing through the opposing barrier of mountains by rocky gorges
or volcanic clefts. Gradually they seem to have enlarged
these clefts until a greater body flowed through them. Some
of the lesser emptiers were cut off, and joined their volume
to the main stream, giving it importance and strength, until,
in tlie course of ages, they graved their record in the huge

* (

Proc. California Acad. Sciences,' vol. iii. p. 272.

■^

124 Brown on the Formation of Fjords^ Canons^ Denchesy

rocky canons through which they now flow, — the great de-
Bcendants of the humble outlets by which th(3y once found their
way to the country on the other side of tlie Cascade Mountains
and to the Pacific. It appears that many of the rivers of the
West have, at one time or another, changed their course and
bed. Some of these changes seem to have occuirod in very
remote times, prior to the present arrangement of the super-
ficial formations. At all events, the gold miner every now and
again comes upon these old river-beds in the course of running
his drifting-tunnels or sinking his mining-shafts. They look
eagerly for them, as they are generally rich in gold. Other
changes seem to have occurred in very recent times, and seem
to have been mainly owing either to the causes I have at-
to^npted to pourtray, or to some volcanic action, resulting in its
throwing the river out of its former course into a new cJuinnel.
Such is the Grande Coulle of the Columbia Kiver, well known
to all voyageurs. 1 have spoken of the great canon of the
Colorado liiver, of which the first published account is con-
tained in the work of Castenada, giving a description of the
expedition of Don Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in search of
the " Seven Cities of Cibola," in 1540-1, during which time they
discovered this river, and named it the Rio del Tison. The walls
of this carion are probably 5000 feet in height, and when we
consider that the river traverses a magnificent defile of this de-
scription for upwards of 200 miles, the effect of the scenery may
be imagined. Many years ago, it is said, a party of trappers
built a large boat, and made the attempt to descend the river
through the defile of the canon, and were never heard from
afterwards. They probably dashed their boat in pieces, and
were lost by being precipitated over sunken rocks or high falls.
In 1857, Lieutenant Ives, of the United States army, attempted
the exploration of this great gorge with a light-draught steamer,
but without success ; and in 1865 another attempt was made,
but resulted in equally unfruitful results.* Its descent is said
to have been recently accomplished by an adventurous tra-
veller, who, in the desperation consequent on his pursuit by
Indians, made his escape through that dangerous outlet. An
almost equally stupendous canon is that of the Eed Eiver of the
South. This canon shows that these remarkable defiles were
not formed by any paroxysmal convulsion of nature, for when
a tributary stream enters the main river it passes through a
tributary canon. The action of rivers in forming such gorges

♦ lu August, 1865, 1 sent a detailed account of this attempt to Sir Roderick I.
Murchison ; but it met the fate of many such documents, and never reached him.

Prairies^ and Intermittent Rivers,

125

f
I

as these in p^oolopfieal and modem times is an important but
much-nc^lected Hubjeet in jifeolofjjy*

3. ].iEN(;HEH. — On the bunks of many rivers of the western slope
of the Kocky Mountains are found curious terrace " bendies," not
unlike in general appearance to tlie famous "parallel Koads
of Glen Hoy," I nit (without stirring up such debateable ground)
altogetlier different in character. These benches are always
found to the east of the Cascade ^fountains, and are well seen
at Li Hoot, on Fraser Kiver, in British Columbia. Lord Milton
and Dr. Cheadle figure them in tlieir *North-West Passage by
Land,' as seen at this point. I'hese benches are generally flat
and of a good soil, though, as everywhere else to the east of the
Cascades, very dry. From what I have already said in refer-
ence to the formation of Canons, I need scarcely enter into any
long explanation of their origin, a? it is at once self-evident, if
the explanation I have given of the formation of the clefts just
named is correct. In a word — these benches were formed when
the Fraser (or other river) was a lake, only emptied by some
little streams (or a stream), now and then feathering strength,
and as barrier after barrier was broken down, these benches mark
the successive stages of the lowering of the lake's margin, until it
finally sunk into the channel of the river. I have supposed
these breaks to have occurred at intervals, as some portion of
the wall of the gorge gave way. Tliis level may have continued
for years, it may be centuries, when another break happened,
and so on ; the height of the " bench " marking the character
of the gaji made each time. These breaks may have been
(indeed no doubt were) assisted by the volcanic disturbances,
which at a comparatively late period, seem to have riven all
the country in that region, and volcanoes in the mountains
through which these rivers flow were doubtless the active
agents of these disruptions.

The same " benches " can be seen more or less distinctly
wherever the physical contour of the country is the same, or
where a river is barred from reaching the sea, under similar
conditions to what the Fraser bears to the Cascade range. That
these benches were not connected with glacier action is shown
(among other proofe) by the rich character of the soil, and the
total absence of moraines, or other marks of glacier action.

4 ,«>

♦ The late Professor Edward Hitchcock, of Amherst, U. S. America, has published
a memoir " On the Erosions of the Earth's Surface, especially by Rivers," in ' The
Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge,' vol. ix. ; but this treatise I am unable,
in the place where this paper is written, to refer to, — a matter which I the more
regret as I am convinced, from a familiar acquaintance with many of the venerable
author's other researches, that it must contain many strikingly original observations.

126 Brown on the Formation of Fjords, Canons, Benches,

These broadly marked " benches " ought not to be confounded
with some terraces found on various rivers, such as the Columbia,
&c., to the west of the Cascades. These terraces are probably
connected with glacier action A^hen the mouth of that river was
hollowed for more than a hundred miles of a great and uniform
depth. The channel of the Golden Gate (San Francisco) has
a maximum depth of nearly 50 fathoms, being greatest imme-
diately in the line of the axis of the chain, through which it is
cut, while the bar without, and the bay within, are silted up to
within less than 10 fathoms of the surface. The straits of Car-
quines, near the mouth of the Sacramento, have a maximum
depth of 18 fathoms, and in the line of the range which bounds
them an average depth of 14. Dr. Newberry* thinks that
these phenomena are due to glacier action of a similar charac-
ter to that which hollowed out the fjords ; and on the whole
there seems some reason to accept his theory, with reserva-
tions. In passing down the Columbia from the Dalles (Lat.
45° 35' 55 N., Long. 120° 55' w.) to the Cascades, a curious
feature is seen, which though scarcely strictly coming under
any of the headings of this paper, is yet interesting, as help-
ing to explain some of the phenomena of bench and caiion.
Under the water can be seen, standing upright and firmly
rooted in the soil, the remains of a forest of Ahies Douglasii
(Lindl.). General Fremont noticed this in his voyage down
the river, and attributed it to a landslip. This explanation may
be easily proved to be erroneous, and must, I think, though gene-
rally received without investigation, give way to a totally
different one. The vicinity of the Cascade exhibits marks of
recent volcanic action and disturbance of the traps. The
Indians even say that, at one time, the river used to flow under
an archway, but that during an eruption of Mount Adams this
bridge was thrown down, forming an island in the centre, and
helping to give rise to the " Cascades." The effect of this
would be to form a dam in the water, raising its waters above
the scene of disturbance, and submerging the forest which
grew down to its margin. The very recent date of this sub-
mergence is shown by the sound character of the wood. The
" bench " is also well figured in the plate of the Caiion of Psuc-
see-que Creek (Oregon) in volume yi. p. 85 of the * Pacific
Eailroad Surveys.' f

4. Prairies. — The central portion of the American continent,
as indeed of Asia and Africa (witness the great " Steppes " and
the " Sahara ") is almost treeless, and with a correspondingly

* * Pacific Railroad Surveys,' vol. vi. p. 43.

t On this subject, see also Hector, in the ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society,' 1863, p. 399.

Prairies, and Intermittent Rivers.

127

small rainfall. The Cascades and tlie Rocky Mountains pre-
vent the moisture-laden breezes of the Pacific from reucning
the tracts under their special influence, and the distance of
great prairies from the sea-board of the Atlantic, renders the
moist wind of little influence before reaching the country over
which the great " plains " extend. East of the Mississippi the
rainfall is greater, and here we have an almost unbroken forest.
Between the Cascades and the Rocky Mountains, for the same
reason, trees are scarce and the climate dry ; so much so, that
some portions of the country are little better than desert,
while immediately to the west of the former range, the slopes
of the mountains are covered with luxuriant forest and fertile
soil.

Along the line where the treeless and forest districts meet,
local causes determine the presence or absence of trees. Belts
of timber border the streams, and cover the more porous and
absorbent soils, while level surfaces, with fine and unporous soils,
sometimes very wet, and sometimes very dry, sustain only a
growth of grass, which could endure the alternations fatal to
trees. Annual fires have had their influence in extending the area
of grassy surface, and over much of their middle ground, by
man's intervention, the causes limiting the growth of trees could
be removed, and the forest area extended. The forces of nature
are here so nicely balanced, that slight causes would make one or
the other preponderate. The many theories which attribute
prairies to other causes than the want of water are wholly
erroneous, and of only local value. On the great prairies
west of the Mississippi, every variety of soil and surface fails to
sustain trees, and only a change of climatic conditions will
there change the grass-covered surface to forest.*

It would, however, be generalising on very imperfect data
were we to conclude that all grassy land known vaguely under
the term " prairie," was formed under the same conditions ; for
to the west of the Cascades are also prairies of some extent, due
to totally different causes. These West of the Cascade " Prairies"
may be shortly enumerated under three heads : —

(1.) " Tide lands " overflowed by the tide only at its highest
periods, and of excellent soil. These are almost invariably
found at the mouth of rivers, and the absence of trees upon
them is due to the overflow by salt water, or the coldness
of the mountain flood, which must sap the roots of deeply
growing plants like trees.

(2.) Other small prairies are found along the sources of
rivers, particularly mountains always marshy from springs, and

♦ J. S. Newberry, ♦' On the Origin of Prairies," ' Transactions of the American
Scientific Association,' 1866 (BuflFalo Meeting), and Foster's ' Mississippi Valley.*

128 Brown on the jcormation of Fjords^ Canons, Benches,

producing a growth of plants almost identical with those at
5000 feet on the mountains of North- West America or on the
northern regions of Europe and America. The "Cranberry
swamps " are of this nature.

(3.) Dry prairies — with rich black vegetable loam — said to
be sometimes too rich for wheat. On Whidby's Island and
other places on De Fucas Straits, such as Orcas and San Juan
Islands, are prairies of this description, which though now high
above water, appear to have been formed of a deposit from some
river when the distribution of land and water was different from
what it is now. The Nisqually plains, the Great Willamette
Prairie, &c, are examples. They are generally thinly scattered
with oak (Quercus Garryanus), and with a very characteristic
group of plants, rarely or never found out of such tracts. Often
scattered with lakes and clumps of trees, their park-like cha-
racter has been frequently noticed and admired.* A modifica-
tion of this, or perhaps rather of the tide lands, is seen in strips
of sand, grass lands covered with coarse grass found at various
places along the coast, and distinguished by such plants as
Ahronia arenaria, A. umheUata, Orohus littoralis, Franseria,
Calystegia, &c. These dry prairies are scattered through the
forest land, such as the Squak Prairie, near Seattle, in
Washington Territory, and even the Willamette Prairie in
Oregon must bo classed as of this nature. The Comox Prairie
in Vancouver Island, the Cowichan Prairies in the same
island, &c., are also of a similar character. What strikes
one particularly is the abruptness with which the forest ends,
giving these prairies almost the appearance of "clearings"
in the forest. They can certainly be produced by no climatic
or terrestrial peculiarities, as the neighbouring forest is sub-
ject to influences iu every respect the same. I quite agree
with Dr. Cooper, to whose excellent work on the ' Natural
History of Washington Territory ' I have been much indebted,
that these prairies bear the mark of having been at one time
much greater, and that they have been to a great extent pro-
duced by burning, either through the Indians, or by the forests
catching fire. I know that in various places the forest is now
covering tracts which within the memory of man were grassy
prairies on which the Indians grazed their horses ; and on the
Nisqually prairies, only as far back as 1847, several seamen and
officers of one of H.B.M.'s vessels, then lying in Puget Sound,
were buried on the prairie. Their graves are now in a dense

ill

• Wilkes, * Exploring Expedition ;* Lord, * Naturalist in British Columbia,' and
in * Temple Bar,' Oct., 186tj; Suckley and Cooper, ' Nat. Hist. Washington Terri-
tory,' &c.

Prairies, and Intermittent Rivers. 129

thicket of trees. Other prairies, such as most of the Willamette
Prairies, appear never to have been covered by forest, and great
changes seem to have occurred since these were formed. Several
species of animals if not confined to the prairies are yet quite
characteristic of them, such as the gopher (Thomomys Dougrlasii,
Rich.), meadow mice {Jaculus Hudsonius, Zimm.), sewellel
{Ajplodontia leporina, Rich.), and the prairie mole (Hesperomys
austeru», Baird). These animals are principally seen on the
Nisqually prairie, and seem, like certain plants found there, to
have wandered from the east of the mountains.*

On some of these prairies are peculiar mounds of gravel and
soil, which appear to have been produced by some tidal influ-
ence when these prairies were covered by the sea. The whole
subject of the formation of Western prairies is very interesting,
but would lead me into discussion foreign to my subject, so that
I can only touch on what would require a volume specially
to treat of.f

In connection with this subject, I may mention that in Southern
Oregon and other parts, the south side of a hill is generally bare,
while the north is covered with vegetation, a fact taken advan-
tage of by the Indian skirmisher.

5. Intermittent Rivers. — All the great rivers of North- West
America rise either in the Rocky Mountains or in some of its
tributary spurs, and though the Cascade Range gives various
tributaries to the rivers which flow into the Pacific, none of them,
with the exception of the Willamette, Rogue River, Chehalis, and
some smaller streams, have their source in the Cascade Range :
, indeed the former unites with the larger Columbia, and under
that name reaches the ocean. Only one river of the slightest
consequence rises on the eastern or arid side of the mountains,
viz., the Deschutes, which, after keeping along near the base of
the mountains, dashing over falls and between high rocky walls,
joins the Columbia just above the "Dalles" of the latter river.
Some indeed (like tlie Klamath) take their rise in lakes, fed by
streams from the mountains, and gathering strength find their
way to the Pacific through some of the broken portions of the
chain immediately south of the 42nd parallel of north latitude.
It is only the great rivers such as tlie Columbia, which gather-

* Cooper, loc. cit.

t I have described these Western Prairies, and other points in the physical
geography of North- West America, more fully in a memoir entitled " Das Innere
der Vancouver Insel " (Peterman's 'Geographische Mittheilungen,' Heftes i.-iii.
1869), in a paper "On the Geographical Distribution of the Coniferoe and
Gnetaceae" ('Trans. Botanical Society, Edinburgh,' vol. x. p. 175); in another,
" On the Geographical Distribution and Physical Characteristics of the Coal
Fields of North- West America " (• Trans. Edin. Geological Society,' 18(i8-9), in an
official report of my 'Explorations in Vancouver Island' in 18«4 (Victoria, V, I.,
mtifi), and in a separate i/rork now publishing, entitled ' Hone Sylvauo:.'

VOL. XXXIX. K

130 Brown on the Formation of Fjords, Canons^ Benches,

ing tributaries on every hand, such as the Snake (the Saptin or
Lewis River of the older travellers), the Kootane, the Flathead,
&c., can muster strength to cross the " great desert " or " basin,"
and reach the ocean in triumph. The smaller ones are less
fortunate and are swallowed up in this Sahara of the west, gradu-
ally lessening and lessening until they are lost in the sand.
Such are the " sinks " of Carsons and Humboldt rivers to the
south. Sometimes these rivers rise and sink several times in
the course of a few miles, and their course can only be laid down
by alternate dotted and " full " lines. At least we suppose them
to be the same river, for in this strange cavernous region another
curious phenomenon presents itself, viz., that of small rivers
springing cold and clear, like Minerva full armed from the brain
of Jove, right from Mother earth, without undergoing any of
the preliminary operations which their slow-going sisters suffer
in older lands, but again, after describing a sullen course, making
fertile some oasis in the desert, disappearing at once under the
ground. An even still more curious feature presents itself in
some of the creeks flowing from the snows of the Cascades ;
down their eastern slope sometimes in the forenoon we would
encamp by the side of a stream with but barely sufficient water
for camp purposes, but on returning in the evening found it
roaring and crashing along so full of water as to render the
fording of it a matter of difficulty, and again in the morning
would find it almost diy, with the marks of last night's flood
visible on the wet sand and gravel. I see that General Marcy
narrates a similar circumstance when exploring the Red River
of the South,* but failed to account for it, though I believe that
the explanation I am about to give will be found not very far
from the truth. These streams head in high mountains, and
the sun is not of sufficient power to melt the snow which jforms
their volume until late in the day, when they gather force, and
again decrease after sunset until they are almost dry. I have
seen muleteers near the base of Mount Shasta (14,400 feet) in
North California waiting for the rising of the creek, like the
children of Israel for the smiting of the rock ; and it was some-
times long after dark before the stream would be heard rushing
down its former dry bed. So familiar was this phenomenon that
sufficient water for breakfast would be saved over night, knowing
that the creek would be almost dry before morning.

In this paper, for the sake of conciseness, I have endeavoured
to present the conclusions at which I have arrived rather
than the data on which these deductions were founded. I trust,
however, that I have to some extent presented sufficient facts to

* * Army Life on the Border' (1866), p. 135,

^.I

Prairies, and Intermittent Rivers.

131

establish thepoints at which I have been aiming, viz : — 1. Fjords
are in almost every case identical in formation, and were
the beds of former glaciers. 2. Canons are formed by the
action of river currents. 3. Benches are the marks of the
successive levels of the river when in the form of a lake, and
the successive levels are the results of the sudden breaking
down of barriers tending eventually to form the present canons.
4. Prairies in the interior of America are due to the cause
which renders arid the greater portion of the interior of conti-
nents, viz., want of rains. 5. Intermittent Rivers are the
result of the dryness of the great basin owing to the moist
breezes of the Pacific being intercepted by the peaks of the
Cascade Mountains, the melting of the snows, and other minor
causes, and the " sinks " of rivers are due to these same causes
(especially the drought), and the volcanic cavernous character
of the country.