ft l^S fr«: ft.-*!* ¦¦?.r- &»*¦>•*' " >t> far tlie faunibtig ef a CoUegi, m^tlfy Cfio^" Deposited by the Linonian and Brothers Library THE UNITED STATES. THE UNITED STATES: FACTS AKD FIGURES ILLUSTRATING THE PHYSICAL GEOGEAPHY OF THE COUNTRY, AND ITS MATERIAL RESOURCES. WRITTEN FOH, AND PUBLISHED IN PAET IN, THE ENCYCLOPiEDIA BRITANNICA (ninth edition). By j. D. WHITNEY. BOSTON": LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1889. SIntbtrsttB iPrtsg; John Wilson and Son, Camekidge. PREFACE. 'T^HE volume herewith offered to the public consists essentially of an article written for the last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. As published in that work, however, portions of the matter furnished were found to have been omitted altogether, and other por tions materially altered by attempts at condensation, so that the meaning was often obscured, and sometimes even rendered entirely unintelligible. The sources from which various items of information had been drawn were, in the original manuscript, carefully indicated ; but, as the article stands in print, these references are found, in many cases, to have been struck out. This seems unfair, both to the authors whose materials have been used, and to those consulting the work, who natu rally wish to learn what reliance can be placed on the statements made, and who is responsible for them. Under these circumstances I have thought it best to reprint the article as originally written, with very few alterations, and these mostly in the form of notes. When obtainable, fresh statistics have been added, in many cases bringing information down to the middle or end of the year 1888. This has been possible with vi PREFACE. regard to various important items, such as the produce of the metals, of coal, petroleum, the more impor tant cereals, cotton, etc. Little additional matter con nected with the increase of the population could be added, since nothmg of general importance has been published since the Census of 1880 was taken. For some of the larger cities later figures than those of that Census could have been given, but these figures are not always trustworthy, and the data are not sufficient in amount for anything like a general statistical compari son. In regard to immigration, however, the publica tions of the Bureau of Statistics have made it possible to give information of quite a recent date. The sources from which information has been ob tained for use in this volume have, in general, been indicated in the text. The principal authorities are : the publications of the Census of 1880 ; of the Bureau of Statistics ; of the United States and the various State Geological Surveys ; of the Iron and Steel Association ; the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers ; the Mining and Engineering Journal ; the Reports of the United States Mint ; and, for clima tology, those of the Smithsonian Institution and the Signal Service. To gentlemen who have kindly fur nished information in advance of its regular publica tion, the thanks of the author are gratefully tendered. A small addition has been made to the matter originally furnished the editors of the Encyclopaedia, in the form of an Appendix, In this various matters connected with the discovery and scientific development PREFACE. Vll of the country are discussed more at length than would have been admissible in the text of the work. It is thought that the present volume may be found useful to teachers of physical geography, as well as to others who have occasion to consult a compact and, it is hoped, accurate statement of facts and figures brought together for the purpose of throwing light on the material resources of the country, and the progress made in their development. J. D. WHITNEY. Cambkidge, Mass., March 14, 1889. Note. — Throughout this work the ton of 2,240 pounds is used. By- doing this the confusion is avoided which necessarily arises when two kinds of tons are employed. It is also especially desirable, because it greatly facilitates the comparison of our statistics, not only with those of England, but also of the Continent of Europe, where the " metrical ton " is chiefly used; this being sufficiently near the ton of 2,240 pounds to justify, for purposes of ordinary statistical comparison, our considering them as exactly equal. CONTENTS. PART I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. Pages Section I. Introductory 1_31 II. The Appalachian System . . ... 31-68 III. The Cordilleran System 68-128 The Rocky Mountains, 68-82. The Great Basin, 82-89. The Northern Plateau, 89-94. The Colorado Plateau, 94-103. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges, 103-116. The Coast Ranges of California and Oregon, 116-121. The Great Central Valley, 122-128. PART II. POLITICAL AND NATURAL SUBDIVISIONS .... 129-136 PART III. CLIMATE . ... 137-172 PART IV. NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE FORESTS AND OF VEGETATION GENERALLY ... . 173-218 PART V. SCENOGRAPHICAL . . ... 219-234 X CONTENTS. PART VI. Pages POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION 235-250 PART VII. THE PUBLIC LANDS ... 251-258 PART VIII. MINERAL RESOURCES. L Historical 259-268 IL Coal 269-281 IIL Petroleum 281-291 IV. Natural Gas 292-296 V. Iron and Steel 296-309 VI. Gold and Silver . . 309-339 VII. Quicksilver 339-342 VIIL Tin 342-344 IX. Copper 344-353 X. Zinc ; . . . 353,354 XI. Lead 354-359 XII, Non-metalliferous Minerals 360-366 XIII. General Summary 367, 368 PART IX. AGRICULTURE. I. The Cereals 369-375 II. Grass and Hay 375, 376 III. Animals and Dairy Products 376,377 IV. Cotton 377-386 V. General Summary 386-388 PART X. MANUFACTURES 389-396 CONTENTS. XI PART XL FOREIGN COMMERCE. Pages L Exports 397-402 II. Imports 402-408 APPENDIX. A. Sketch op the Progress op Geographical Discovery on the Pacific Coast, and in the Cordilleras op North America 411-437 B. Sketch op the Progress op American Cartography DURING THE PAST HALF-CENTURY 438-446 C. Remarks on the methods by which the elevations op THE mountains OF THE UnITED StATES HAVE BEEN DE TERMINED, AND THE PROBABLE ACCURACY OF THE RESULTS OBTAINED 447-457 INDEX 461-472 THE UNITED STATES. PAUT I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. Section I. — INTRODUCTORY, VrORTH AMERICA is very unequally divided be- -^* tween races speaking English and those whose official lahguage is Spanish. From the parallel of 30° south the continent narrows very rapidly, and nearly all the country to the north of this parallel is under the control of English-speaking people. It is true that many emigrants from various portions of Europe, and some from Asia, as well as the descendants of Africans, are mingled with the descendants of the English ; but this does not materially affect the truth of the state ment, that north of 30° the English language is not only dominant, but almost universal. This vast region, embracing an area of more than seven millions of square miles, is pretty equally divided, so far as area is concerned, between colonial possessions of- Great Britain and a country of which the nucleus was once colonial and English, but which for a little more than a. hundred years has been independent of the mother I 2 INTRODUCTORY. country, and which has greatly increased in area since that change took place, by the absorption, as explained elsewhere, of land formerly to a certain extent con trolled by, or in nominal possession of, people speaking French and Spanish. The Spanish-speaking inhabitants of North America are known as Mexicans and Central Americans, the colonial English as Canadians ; and owing to the difficulty of making a convenient and euphonious adjective-appellative out of the name United States, the citizens of " the States " are being more and more generally designated by the term " Americans." The British possessions in North America, although about equal in area to the United States, are much less densely populated than this country, and will in all probability ever remain so, since in regard to climate, soil, and mineral productions, the northern portion of the continent stands in a position greatly inferior to that of the more southern region. To the United States belongs that portion of North America which by its position in latitude is, in large part, capable of supporting a dense population, and where the climatic conditions are highly favorable to intellectual and physical development. The area embraced under the designation of " the United States " (of North America) extends, through out nearly its whole breadth, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its boundaries, other than these oceans, are in part natural and in part artificial. The northern edge of the vast indentation made in the continent by the Gulf of Mexico marks the southern boundary of this country between the meridians of 83° and 97°. AREA AND BOUNDARIES. 3 From the edge of this Gulf the boundary between the United States and Mexico is in part a natural and in part an artificial one. The most essential feature of this boundary is the Rio Grande, from the mouth of which the division line between Mexico and the United States follows this river to the point where the parallel of 31° 47' intersects it. The boundary between the United States and Canada is also a natural one in large part, since it follows the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, from the point where the 45th parallel cuts that river to a point on Lake Superior where the Rainy Lake River enters that lake, thence up that river to a point on the west side of the Lake of the "Woods, and thence along the 49th parallel to Puget Sound. The triangular area between Lakes Ontario and Erie on one side and Lake Huron on the other extends far to the south of the remaining portion of Canada, and this southerly area constitutes the most valuable and thickly inhabited portion of the Dominion. The United States, as thus limited, leaving out of con sideration the remote territory of Alaska, comprises an area, according to the most recent determinations of the Census Bureau, of 3,025,600 square miles. This includes 55,600 square miles of water surface, embracing the following items : — Coast waters, bays, gulfs, sounds, etc. . 17,200 Rivers and smaller streams 14,500 Lakes and ponds 23,900 Leaving the total land surface .... 2,970,000 Total 3,025,600 4 INTRODUCTORY. Under the head of "lakes and ponds," as given above, no portion of the Great Lakes is included. The area of Alaska is given in the Census Report of 1880 as being 531,409 square miles, which figures, however, can be only a rough approximation, and which differ greatly from those given in the Report of the Commis sioner of the General Land Office for the year ending June 30, 1886. The total of the possessions of the United States is therefore, approximately, 3,557,009 square miles. The area of the British Possessions in North America, including Newfoundland but not the Arctic Archipelago, is given by Behm and Wagner at 3,248,077, and by Mr. Selwyn, Government Geologist of Canada, at 3,530,630 square miles, — the latter esti mate including Newfoundland, and also the islands in the Arctic Ocean and in Hudson's Bay. The area of Mexico is given by Behm and Wagner as 751,177 square miles, and that of Central America 211,320 square miles. The total area of North America, in cluding the Arctic Archipelago and Central America, may therefore be approximately stated as follows : — British Possessions 3,530,680 United States 3,557,009 Mexico 751,177 Central America 211,320 Total 8,050,136 The longitude of the most easterly point of the United States is about 67° ; that of the most westerly, nearly 125°. The parallels of 29° and 49° roughly designate the position of the country in reference to latitude. The extrerae southern end of Florida, how- COAST LINES — HARBORS. 5 ever, extends as far south as the parallel of 25°, while the northern extremity of Maine only reaches to a little beyond 47°, the large triangular area between the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, and which belongs to Canada, being all south of the 49th parallel; so that, to include nearly all the most valuable portion of the continent north of Mexico within the limits of the United States, it would be necessary that the parallel of 49° should continue to be the boundary of this country from the Lake of the Woods east to the intersection of that parallel with the St. Lawrence. In order that we may have an idea of the position of the area covered by the United States as compared with that of familiar regions on the European side of the Atlantic in corresponding latitude and longi tude, it may here be stated that in longitude the United States covers a belt corresponding with that in cluded within the meridians touching the western side of Ireland and of Spain on the west, and the eastern side of the Black Sea on the east; and that in lati tude a corresponding belt in the Old World would in clude the northern part of Africa, as marked by the parallel passing through Cairo, and that its northern limit would be indicated by the position of the Land's End in England, and by that of Prague and Charkow, all of which points are nearly in the latitude of 50°. That the topographical and climatic conditions of the two areas thus designated as having corresponding po sitions in latitude and longitude are very different, is quite evident, and the character and the essential causes of these differences will be indicated further on under the proper headings. 6 INTRODUCTORY. The form and character of the coast lines of the United States may properly first claim our attention in a topographic sketch of the area under considera tion. As compared with the western coast of Europe, neither side of America possesses what could be prop erly designated as a deeply indented coast line. The deficiency in this respect on the Pacific side is strik ing, there being only one important bay on this coast between San Diego and Puget Sound ; namely, that of San Francisco. This, as compared with the mass of the land, is of insignificant size, but as furnishing a large, safe, and easily accessible harbor, is of the greatest importance. The indentation at San Diego is much smaller than that of San Francisco, but that also furnishes a commodious harbor. With these ex ceptions there are within the limits of the United States no satisfactory harbors on the Pacific coast, un less we except that furnished on the extreme north of Puget Sound, and that offered by the mouth of the Columbia River, the bar of which presents a somewhat formidable obstacle to easy ingress, except for steamers under the management of skilful pilots; hence, in large part, the extremely rapid growth of the city of San Francisco, as compared with that of other towns on the Pacific coast of North America. The eastern coast of the United States, north of the 35th parallel, is a considerably broken one, although the indentations are not deep enough to give rise to peninsulas of large dimensions as compared with the total area of the land. The coast of Maine may almost be called a " fiord-coast," so numerous are the indenta tions, which are however of moderate depths, but HARBORS OF BOSTON AND NEW YORK. 7 which are large enough to give rise to excellent and commodious harbors, of which that of Portland may be taken as the type. There is an indentation of consid erable size formed by the arm of Cape Cod projecting almost at right-angles, and enclosing Massachusetts Bay, at the bottom of which lies the commodious, but not specially accessible, harbor of Boston. The situa tion of the city of New York makes it by far the most important centre of foreign and domestic com merce in the United States. This superiority is due in part to the excellence of its harbor, and in part to its being the terminus of the great natural line of communication between the East and the West — a position which would seem to belong by right to some point on or near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, which is the outlet of the Great Lakes, but from which this river is shut out by its northeasterly trend, which carries it into a region beyond that of successful cul tivation and populous settlements, and where naviga tion is suspended during a considerable portion of the year by the freezing of the river. This superiority and commodiousness of the harbor of New York depends in part on the breadth of the Hudson near its mouth — this river being in fact almost an arm of the sea — and also on the position of Long Island, the western end of which is so placed with ref erence to the coast of New Jersey and a closely con tiguous small island (Staten Island) as to enclose a large land-locked area called the Upper Bay. The city itself is built on an island (Manhattan), separated from the main-land on the north by a narrow channel, which island is a tongue of land lying between the Hudson — 8 INTRODUCTORY. or North River, as it is here locally called — and the East River, which is, in fact, the narrow passage extending between Manhattan and Long Islands.^ The channel of the East River is deep, but was formerly obstructed by sunken reefs of rock, which have, however, been almost entirely removed down to a depth of from twenty-four to thirty feet at mean low water, through a large expenditure of money combined with great en gineering skill. These operations for the improvement of the chaimel of the East River were begun in 1851, and are expected to be completed in the course of two or three years.^ Long Island, about one hundred and twenty miles in length, and extending along the southern coast of Connecticut, is the only island of any considerable size on the whole Atlantic coast. Other smaller ones — Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Block Island, and others — lie adjacent to Long Island on the east, and 1 On many charts the Upper Bay is called " New York Bay." The larger, triangular area connected with the Upper Bay i>y the " Narrows " is bounded on the west hy Staten Island and on the south by the shore of New Jersey. On the eastern side it is open to the sea, except where pro tected for a distance of about four miles hy Sandy Hook, — a narrow spit of land running nearly due north. This triangular area, the sides of which measure about fifteen miles in length, is sometimes called the "Lower Bay," and sometimes " Raritan Bay." On many charts the area protected from the east by Sandy Hook is called "Sandy Hook Bay," and the name " Raritan Bay " is limited to the region adjacent to the mouth of the river of that name. The " Narrows " — about a mile in breadth and length lies between Long and Staten Islands, at the point where these most nearly approach each other. The harbor proper of New York is the water adjacent to Manhattan Island in North and East Rivers. " See, for a succinct account of these operations, a paper by General John Newton, Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., entitled " The Improvement of East River and Hell Gate," published in the " Popular Science Monthly " for February, 1886. COAST LINE SOUTH OF NEW YORK. 9 form, as it were, its prolongation in that direction, while there are indentations of considerable depth on the coast of the main-land opposite these islands. South of New York there are two indentations of importance — Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay — the former being, as it were, the expanded mouth of the river of the same name ; the other being in somewhat similar relations to two large rivers — the Susquehanna and the Potomac. Philadelphia and Baltimore are the two cities so situated with reference to the positions of thesq two bays as to command the advantages for com merce which they offer. The deep indentation on the coast of the United States called the Gulf of Mexico is of large dimensions, and of exceeding importance in its relations to the ac cessibility of the interior, and more especially with ref erence to its influence on the cHmate of the country, as will be seen farther on. It is into this great reservoir that the superfluous waters of the larger portion of the United States are carried, chiefly by the Mississippi and Missouri, but also by direct drainage into the Gulf from the adjacent States. The peninsula of Florida, project ing from and extending five degrees south of the main land, and forming the eastern boundary of the Gulf, is of more importance in its relations to the currents en tering into the Gulf than it is as an addition to the in habitable territory of the country ; since a considerable part of its surface is so low and swampy as to be prac tically uninhabitable. A large portion of the northern boundary of the United States is of a peculiar kind. It is neither land, river, nor ocean, but fresh water ; it being a line drawn 10 INTRODUCTORY. through the central portion of four of the so-called " Great Lakes " — Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Superior. Lake Michigan, on the other hand, is wholly within the limits of the United States. The Great Lakes, which are five in number, consti tute a most important feature in the topography of the country. They are remarkable for their size, and for the near approach to equality of altitude above the sea- level of the surface of the four largest ones. Naviga tion is entirely uninterrupted between Erie, Huron, and Michigan, and these have the following elevations : Erie, 573 feet ; Huron, 582 ; Michigan, 582. Lake Superior is twenty feet higher than Lake Michigan, but this obstruction has been overcome by the building of a canal around the Falls of St. Mary (Saut Ste. Marie), with a single lock of sufficient dimensions to accommo date vessels and steamers of the largest size. Lake Ontario is 326 feet lower than Erie, and these two lakes are connected by a canal on the Canada side ; while Erie is also thus connected, on the American side, with the Hudson River, and through this with the Atlantic. As before remarked, the chief drainage of the United States is to the Gulf of Mexico, through the system of the Mississippi-Missouri and their tributaries, as will be seen by the following table, showing the extent bf the various important divisions of the drainage area of the country, as given by the U. S. Census of 1880 : — Atlantic and Gulf 2,178,210 Great Basin 228,150 Pacific Slope 619,240 DRAINAGE AREAS. 11 The drainage area of the Mississippi-Missouri River is estimated at 1,240,039 square miles, or somewhat over one third of the entire area of the country. The drainage into the Atlantic and Gulf, as stated above at 2,178,210 square miles, is divided as follows : — New England coast 61,830 Middle Atlantic coast 83,020 South Atlantic coast 132,040 Great Lakes 175,340 Gulf of Mexico 1,725,980 2,178,210 The drainage into the Gulf of Mexico is thus divided : Into the Gulf direct 485,941 Through the Mississippi River .... 1,240,0391,725,980 This indication of the overwhelming preponderance of the drainage of the territory of the United States into the Gulf of Mexico naturally opens the way to a recog nition of the most important fact in the topography of the country — namely, the existence of such an oro graphic structure as compels the waters to concentrate themselves into one great system of tributaries coming in from the east and the west, and uniting in a main north-and-south channel. The cause of this state of things becomes evident when we notice the general relief of the country, and the positions of the various water-sheds. To acquire the best general idea of the relief of the surface of the United States, we may begin by supposing the land to be depressed, or the level of the ocean raised, to an amount equal to one thousand 12 INTRODUCTORY. feet. By doing this we should open a broad water-way across the continent. There would be a great mass of land on the western side which would comprehend nearly the whole of Mexico, and which withui the limits of the United States would have a breadth from east to west of from fifteen hundred to two thousand miles. North of the United States boundary line the breadth of this mass of land would diminish rapidly in width as higher latitudes were reached ; but its dimensions would still be on a grand scale, although deeply inter sected with inlets occupying the positions of the lower portions of the present streams of that region. A depression of the land, or a rise of the sea-level, to an amount half as great, namely, five hundred feet, would not divide the continent into two decidedly dis tinct and widely separated parts, but would isolate New England from the land adjacent on the north and west, by opening a channel through the Hudson River and Lake Champlain depressions ; would carry the Atlantic coast line a hundred miles and more inland of its present position ; and would open a deep bay in what is now the Mississippi valley, the ramifying arms of which would extend north along the Illinois River nearly to Chicago, to Cincinnati on the Ohio, to Bur lington, Iowa, on the Mississippi, and nearly to Jeffer son City on the Missouri. A depression of the land, or an equivalent rise of the sea-level, to the extent of two thousand feet, would not materially change — as to position and size — the great land-mass on the western side of the continent, as indi cated by what has been stated in reference to a change of level of land and sea to half that amount, or one RELIEF OF THE SURFACE. 13 thousand feet. The continental area thus separated would be slightly narrowed on the east, and would have its western edge more deeply indented, with the addition of groups of islands ; so that its character would, south of the Columbia, be something similar to that which it is at the present time north of that river. On the east ern side of the continent, however, the most striking changes would be effected. All the present coherent land-mass east of the ninety-seventh meridian would have disappeared ; and in place of it we should have various groups of islands, one of the most important of which would extend from the north line of Georgia northeast into Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where it would terminate in finger-like projections, forming northeasterly and southwesterly trending archipelagoes, with various outliers in Northeastern New York, Ver mont, and New Hampshire, the highest points of which would rise from three to four thousand feet above the surrounding waters. The distance of these islands from the western main-land would be from one thousand to fifteen hundred miles, approximately. Another group of islands north of the United States boundary would extend in a curving line parallel with and north of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes; but the geography of this region is so little known that nothing definite can be stated in regard to the number, size, or altitude of thp island groups which would here project above the level of the sea. With the aid of the above considerations we have clearly placed before us the all-important fact in the topography of the North American continent in general, and of the United States in particular, namely, the 14 INTRODUCTORY. existence of a central comparatively low and level region, declining gently from a water-shed in close proximity to the Great Lakes on the north, toward the Gulf of Mexico on the south. A few additional figures will place this condition of things in a clearer light. One may ascend the Mississippi to its junction with the Ohio at Cairo — a distance of eleven hundred miles from the Gulf of Mexico — and the elevation attained will be only about three hundred feet, which gives an average grade of about four inches to the mile. A journey of almost a thousand miles farther — to Pitts burg, at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers — will give a total rise above the sea-level of only seven hundred feet. The head of the Mississippi is in a region entirely destitute of mountains, comprising. an almost level area, covered in large part by lakes and swamps, and only about fifteen hundred feet in elevation. In ascending the Mississippi to St. Louis, a distance of twelve hundred and fifty miles, we have reached an elevation of about four hundred feet ; and at St. Paul, six hundred and fifty-eight miles above the mouth of the Missouri, one of a little less than seven hundred feet. If we follow up the Missouri to the western line of the State of the same name, where the river bends to the north, we have the choice, if we wish to keep on directly west, of following either one of its great branches coming in from that direction — the Platte and the Kansas. Up either of these we may travel for fully five hundred miles, rising so gradually that the difference of elevation from day to day is hardly perceptible, the country on either hand preserv- RELIEF OF THE SURFACE. . 15 ing all the characteristics of a plain, although declining gently to the east. We have, therefore, in the central region of that portion of the continent which belongs to the United States, a nearly level area, which, roughly speaking, may be taken at twelve hundred and fifty miles square, which has a very gentle downward slope from east and west to the centre, and from very nearly its northern extremity to the Gulf of Mexico, which forms its southern boundary, while its northern edge and a part of the adjacent region is occupied by five great bodies of fresh water, communicating by short, narrow, river-like contractions of the water areas, and all together occupying an area of about ninety-two thousand square miles. This central valley is not en tirely devoid of elevations to which the term mountains may properly be applied ; but these higher areas are so small in extent, as compared with the entire area of the great valley itself, that they are features in the to pography of extremely subordinate importance. Their position and extent will be indicated with sufficient detail when describing the geological structure of the region in which they occur. At present we turn to a consideration of the nature and extent of the higher regions on the east and west of the great valley, the general outline and position of which regions have been roughly indicated in what has been said in regard to the changes which would be effected in the form of the continental mass by a rise of the sea-level to various heights above its present position. Neither on the eastern nor on the western side of the continent are these higher regions of the nature of 16 INTRODUCTORY. simple mountain chains, made up of one dominating range which can be easily traced, and from which the waters flow to the ocean on one side, and toward the great central valley on the other. On the contrary, both eastern and western highlands are complicated in their orographic structure, broken into portions, each having a character of its own, and not being subordi nated to a central range or backbone, but being a col lection of ranges, generally — but. not always — pre serving a certain parallelism with each other, broken longitudinally or in the direction of the prevailing trend of the elevated mass, and separated by valleys and table-lands of very varying dimensions. While this statement is true for the highlands on each side of the great valley, it is true also that the western elevated mass, being much the larger of the two, is also very much the more complicated. It is not only made up of a great number of parts, more or less distinctly sep arated from each other, but it even encloses a large area of plains, valleys, and mountaiii ranges which have no drainage to the sea, thus differing in a very impor tant way from the highlands on the opposite side of the continent. As will be seen farther on, this greatly predominating complexity of structure of the western elevated region is the result of complicated geological conditions, to which are added climatic peculiarities of a striking character. The eastern and western elevated regions being, as has been stated, made up of a great number of topo graphically more or less detached portions, it was not until a comparatively recent period that these regions received such general distinctive appellations as would WHENCE THE NAME "APPALACHIAN" 17 evidently be required in any discussion or description of the country as a whole. At the present time, by general consent of geographers and geologists, the eastern elevated side of the continent is called the Appalachian Region ; the western the Cordilleran. And here a few words may be added as tq how and when these names came into general use. The Eastern Highlands will first be considered. The Appalachian Mountains were first seen by Car- tier, in 1535, who, when navigating the St. Lawrence, had in sight that portion of the range which extends to the south of that river, through what is now the State of Maine. De Soto in his explorations (1538-1543) be came acquainted with this mountain system, around the southern extremity of which he made his way to the southwest, and thence up the Mississippi River. This bold explorer first gave currency to the name "Apa lache," which also appears under the form of " Palassi " (Montagues de Palassi) in the report of Laudonni^re's expedition of 1564. This name was one given by the aboriginal inhabitants, who also furnished Laudonniere with a specimen of native gold, from a region at the base of the Appalachians, where considerable quantities of the precious metal have since been obtained. The name "Apalache" appears on Mercator's map of 1569, in the form of " Apalchen ; " and the delineation of this chain of mountains on this map is approximately cor rect, in so far as it indicates a range extending, parallel with the coast, through what is now the United States, and bending to the east in the northern portion (Norom- bega) parallel with the St. Lawrence. On one of the maps accompanying De Laet's " Novus 18 INTRODUCTORY. Orbis seu Descriptionis Indise Occidentalis Libri XVIII " (1633), a group of hills is indicated surrounding a small lake, cut by the parallel of 35°, and to these hills the name " Apalatcy Montes " is given. The name " Apa lache " is also found on this map, a little farther west of the Apalatcy Montes, apparently intended to indicate the position of a region inhabited by a tribe of that name, since in the text, in a summary of -the discoveries of Panfilo de Narvaez, in speaking of nuggets of gold given to this explorer by the natives, they are described as " Auri ramenta aliquot quae barbari ab Apalache, longissimo intervallo ab ipsis dissita etauri divite regione, se habere testebantur." The word "Apalache" seems, therefore, beyond doubt, to have come from the southern part of the region now called Appalachian, and to have been the aboriginal name of a locality or of a tribe of Indians inhabiting that portion of the country. The first recognition of the peculiar topographical character of the Appalachian system, and, indeed, the first important approximately correct map of any por tion of the interior of the United States, is due to Lewis Evans, the first edition of whose map bears the date of 1749. On this map, which is entitled " A Map of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, and the three Delaware Counties," the Appalachian Mountains are indicated as being made up of a number of dis tinctly parallel ranges; and in accompanying "remarks " engraved upon the map, the principal topographical features of the system are described with remarkable perspicuity and insight into their character. These mountains are said by Mr. Evans to be " not confusedly scattered here and there in lofty peaks overtopping one LEWIS EVANS AND HIS MAPS. 19 another, but stretching in long uniform ridges, scarce half a mile perpendicular in any place I saw them." In another map, by the same geographer, entitled " A General Map of the British Colonies in America," bear ing the date of 1755, and to which thirty-two quarto pages of text are appended, the Appalachian Mountains are indicated with more detail, and as being made up of a much larger number of subordinate ranges than are shown on the map of 1749. On the map of 1755 the main subdivisions of the Appalachian system, as' indi cated farther on in this article, are clearly outlined by Mr. Evans, and a distinct name given to each. The South Mountains and the continuation of them under the name of the Blue Ridge are laid down ; the Alleghany Ridge (spelled by Mr. Evans "AUe-g^ni") is shown; 'and the Appalachian subdivision of the Appalachian system, as this term was used by the First Pennsylvania Geological Survey (see farther on), also receives a dis tinct name — the Endless Mountains — and is described in considerable detail, with a remarkable comprehension of its principal topographic features. The name " End less " is said to be " a translation of the Indian name bearing that signification." This name "Endless," adopted or suggested by Mr. Evans, seems not to have met with approval, never having becorae current ; but most of the other names on his maps are those still in use, while some have entirely disappeared. On the map of the southern portion of North America compiled by Poirson from the materials collected by Humboldt on his American journey, and published in 1811, a continuous lofty range of mountains is indicated as extending from Alabama to New York, the southern portion of which 20 INTRODUCTORY. is designated as the "Montagues Apalaches, ou Alle ghany," while the northern extension is called " Mont- Alleghany ; " thus indicating as existing at that time a condition of things which continued for many years later, namely, an uncertainty as to whether the complex of ranges in question should bear the name of Apalachian (Appalachian) or Alleghany. Morse, one of the earliest American geographers, in his Gazetteer (third edition, 1810) says as follows: "The general name of the whole range, taken collectively, seems to be undeter mined. Mr. Evans calls them the Endless Mountains ; others have called them the Appalachian Mountains, from a tribe of Indians who live on a river which proceeds from this mountain, called the Appalachicola ; but the most common name is the Alleghany Moun tains, so called, probably, from the principal ridge of the range." On Maclure's geological map of the United States, accompanying an article read before the American Philosophical Society in 1817, and published in 1818, the name "Alleghany," spelled " Allegany," is repeated three times, but always as the most western member of this system of ranges, while various other designations are applied to more eastern portions of the system. Some of these designations appear to have never be come current ; others, like that of the Blue Mountains, are still, and have — since the time of Evans, at least — been in use. Maclure's map emphasizes a tendency existing from early days to limit the use of the name "Alleghany" to that portion of the Appalachian range which in the form of a bold escarpment marks, in Pennsylvania, the most western important topographi- LIMITATION OF TERM "APPALACHIAN." 21 cal feature of the region, and from the crest of which to the west declines a gently rolling plateau-like region, uninterrupted by conspicuous ridges. At the time of the beginning of the Geological Sur vey of Pennsylvania (1836), when the necessities of a more precise geographical nomenclature began to be felt, the State Geologist, H. D. Rogers, wished to retain the name "Alleghany" (spelled by him "Allegheny") for the escarpment and plateau for which this name was most current, and also to limit the term " Appalachian " to the middle area of Pennsylvania, comprising the " wide mountainous zone embraced between the southeastern region [the South Mountains and Blue Ridge] and the principal ridge of the Allegheny mountains." In reference to this matter of nomenclature. Professor Rogers says in his First Geological Report (1836) : "It is true that the signification of the word [Appalachian] has been so extended as to comprehend the great table land of the Allegheny mountain and its spurs ; though it is greatly to be wished, for the sake of giving greater exactness to geographical reference, that this latter mountain, with the ridges west of it, should be known exclusively as the Allegheny chain ; and the mountains from its base, east, to the great Cumberland Valley, exclusively as the Appalachian chain. When occa sional allusions may be necessary to these two systems of mountains, so dissimilar both in their geological structure and their external configuration, we shall always employ the names Allegheny ' and Appalachian ' in the restricted sense here specified." In spite of the manifest desire of the geologists of the First Pennsylvania Survey to limit the name " Ap- 22 INTRODUCTORY. palachian" to a portion of the range, the need of some general designation for the whole region becoming more and more decidedly felt, and such not having been fur^ nished hj Professor Rogers, his wishes and those of his assistants have been disregarded ; and during the past twenty years, by general usage, the entire system of ranges from Gaspe to Georgia, with all its valleys and table-lands, has become known to physical geographers and geologists as the Appalachian range or system. No doubt the fact that Guyot's all-important paper, published ui 1861, bore the title, " On the Appalachian Mountain System," had a marked influence in favor of bringing about the present unanimity of usage in this matter among geographical and geological writers. That Guyot was himself somewhat in doubt whether to call this system of ranges " Appalachian " or " AUe- ghanj'," is evident from the fact that on the maip accompanying this paper, which was engraved and pub lished in Germany a year before its appearance in America, the latter name is used. This map, in both the German and American editions, has as its title " Physikalische Karte des AUeghany-Sy stems." By what designations the subordinate members and distinct regions of the Appalachian system are now known, will be made evident in the general description of that sys tem which follows. Before proceeding to that, how ever, it will be desirable to state how the complex of ranges on the western side of the continent came to receive a distinct collective appellation, corresponding in its scope to the term "Appalachian," as now used in the regions bordering on the Atlantic. The mountainous region on the western side of the GEOGRAPHY MADE EASY — IN 1794. 23 continent remained almost a terra incognita until after the beginning of the present century. In spite of the known great breadth of the continental mass in the latitude of the United States, and notwithstanding the fact that as early as the middle of the sixteenth century ranges of mountains had been seen on the Pacific coast by explorers, notably by Cortez and Cabrillo, and named by them, while subsequent explorations, down to the time of those of Vancouver, made the public aware that there were high mountains on the western side of the continent, — the fact that these were a portion of an immense complex of ranges, valleys, and table-lands seems hardly to have become appreciated by geogra phers until nearly the middle of the present century.^ As late as the year 1794, the text-book of geography chiefly, if not exclusively, used in the United States (Morse : " Geography made Easy," fourth edition) con tained the following statement, repeated from former editions : " North America, though an uneven country, has no remarkably high mountains. The most con siderable are those known under the general name of the Allegany Mountains : these stretch along in many broken ridges under different names, from Hudson River to Georgia. The Andes and Allegany Mountains are probably the same range interrupted by the Gulf of Mexico." In 1802 there seems to have been the first recogni tion, on the part of American geographers, of the fact of the existence of mountains on the western side of the continent which were in some sort the continuation of 1 See Appendix A for a more detailed statement of the progress of geographical discovery in the Cordilleras. 24 INTRODUCTORY. the already somewhat familiar Andes of South America. In Morse's "American Universal Geography," fourth edition, 1802, we read as follows : " In New Spain the most considerable part of this chain [the Andes] is known by the name of Sierra Madre. . . . Farther north they [the ranges of the Sierra Madre] have been called, from their bright appearance, the Shining Mountains." Again, in the fifth edition of the " Elements of Geography," by the same author, published in 1804, we have the same statement repeated in regard to the " Shining Moun tains," with the additional notice that they lie " away west of Louisiana " and are but little known. At the beginning of the present century the names " Shining " and " Stoney," or " Stony," were both given by different geographers and cartographers to a range of mountains on the western side of the continent-, and which was indicated on various maps as a single ridge, and placed in various positions, sometimes in the vicinity of the hundredth meridian, and sometimes on the remotest northwestern edge of the continent. Thus Arrowsmith's map of North America (1795) has the name " Stony Mountains " upon it, with the remark that "they are 3,520 feet above the level of their base, and, according to the Indian accounts, of five ridges m some parts." But a later edition of this work — that of 1802 — has "Rocky" in the place of "Stony" Mountains. The name "Moun tains of the Shining Stones" is also used on various maps issued toward the close of the eighteenth cen tury, also " Mountains of Bright Stones," which latter is the name found on the map accompanying Carver's Travels, and which bears the date of 1778. In the text, THE SHINING MOUNTAINS. 25 however, these mountains are called the " Shining," and the origin of this name is thus stated by him : " Among these mountains, those that lie to the west of the River St. Pierre, are called the Shining Mountains, from an infinite number of chrystal stones, of an amazing size, with which they are covered, and which, when the sun shines full upon them, sparkle so as to be seen at a very great distance." Carver seems to have been first to use the names " Shining Mountains " and "' Mountains of the Bright Stones." The locality where the sparkling crystals occur which so excited Carver's imagination is not known; 'but it has been suggested by the Abbe Domenech that the crystalline plates of selenite in the Tertiary beds of the Bad Lands may have been the " Shining Stones " which gave the name for a time to the mountainous region to which the Bad Lands form a sort of introduction, and which had at a very early period become known to the fur-hupters and trappers of the Far West. Although the name " Rocky Mountains " is the one exclusively employed by Lewis and Clarke in the report of their expedition (1804-1806), yet the term " Stony," which was that used by Jefferson in his instructions to them, continued to make its appearance on the various maps issued by Morse up to as late, at least, as 1812 (American Universal Geography, sixth edition). Grad ually, however, " Rocky " took the place of " Stony ; " and " Shining," as a name for the complex of ranges, or any part thereof, soon entirely disappeared from the maps. Long after the time of Lewis and Clarke, how ever, various attempts were made to give entirely new names to these mountains, as, for instance, by Tardieu, 26 INTRODUCTORY: in his finely engraved map of Louisiana and Mexico, published at Paris in 1820, in which the main range forming the backbone of the Far West is, in three places, named the " Columbians \_sic'] mountains," while the designation " Rocky " is limited to a small spur, or parallel range, on the east, occupying a very subordi nate position as compared with that assigned to the " Columbians." Again, in the geological map and sec tions accompanying the English edition of Hinton's " History and Topography of the United States," of which a new and improved edition was published in Boston in 1834, the Rocky Mountains are called the Chippewayan Mountains. All the older maps are defective, especially in that they do not recognize the fact that the western high lands are made up not of one but of many ranges quite distinct from each other, and often separated by wide valleys and table-lands.^ The map accompanying Hum boldt's " New Spain," previously alluded to as having been compiled by Poirson, was the first attempt to make it appear that the orography of the western region was much less simple than it had been previously assumed to be. On this map a ver}'- marked mountain range is indicated as closely bordermg the Pacific, and continu ous from the southern extremity of Lower California to the northern limit of the map in latitude 42°. Another very strongly indicated continuous range extends through the centre of Mexico, north through what is now the United States, as far as the northern limit of the map, and which is placed approximately on the meridian of 109°-I10° (west of Paris). Behind 1 See pp. 68-121. HUMBOLDT'S AMERICAN MAP. 27 the Pacific Coast Range thus represented there is in the latitude of Central California a vague indication of another range lying farther eastward ; to this the name of " Sierra San Marcos " is given, and this may be taken as a hint at a recognition of the existence of the Sierra Nevada, although the range is placed much too far from the Pacific. The remainder of the area between the two enclosing ranges, to neither of which is any general designation assigned, is occupied with a few vague and incorrect details, but more nearly cor rect than that which was given on most of the maps published during the twenty years following the ap pearance of Humboldt's map ; since in these the streams running into the Pacific are made to head far to the east, in what would now be designated as the Rocky Mountain range proper, and to run almost due west to the sea. On Humboldt's map different portions of the range forming the eastern boundary of the Cordilleran region are designated as the Sierra de los Mimbres and the Sierra de las Grullas. A part of the Pacific Coast Range is called the Sierra Santa Lucia, a name still current ; and the extreme northern portion of the Coast Range bears the name of Sierra Nevada, which is that now given to. the range next east of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. The expeditions of Bonneville (1832-1836) and of Fremont (1842-1844), which made known the existence of an interior closed basin in the western highlands, and also revealed the principal features of the topography of that region, soon followed — as they were — by the discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada, almost imme diately made this designation a familiar one all over 28 INTRODUCTORY. the world, and with the adoption of this name for the prominent and important range on the western edge of the 'country, it was natural that the designation of "Rocky Mountains" should become more and more limited to the eastern edge of what was gradually be coming recognized as being a great complex of ranges, of which, however, the limiting ones on the east and west were, on the whole, the most elevated and continuous. Meanwhile, the interior ranges, or those enclosed between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, received names, or retained those already given by the aborigi nal inhabitants, so that by the time the Pacific Railroad was completed, nearly all these ranges had distinctive appellations. Still, up to quite a recent date there was no collective name for the whole system of ranges on the western side of the continent, including the Rocky Mountains proper on the east, the Pacific Coast Ranges on the west, and all the region of mountains, table-lands, and valleys enclosed between them. The desirability of such a name became, however, more and more manifest as the region in question began to be written about as a whole, and to be recognized as form ing an all-important feature in the topography of the country. The condition of things in regard to the nomenclature of the western complex of ranges was almost exactly what it had been in the east before the name." Appalachian system " or " Appalachian range " had been adopted by geographers as a designation for the highlands of the eastern side of the continent. In 1868 the present writer, in a work devoted to a topographical description of a portion of the Sierra Nevada (The Yosemite Book), suggested the use of the PROPOSED USE OF NAME "CORDILLERAS." 29 name "Cordilleras" (with the adjective "Cordilleran"), as a proper, convenient, and euphonious designation of the great western complex of ranges, and this name has been generally accepted and made use of, especially in the various publications of the Census Bureau, including those of the Census of 1870 and 1880. A few words, however, may here be added in reference to the origin of this designation and the convenience and propriety of its use in the manner designated. Before any definite knowledge of the mountainous region on the western side of North America had been obtained, considerable progress had been made toward a clear understanding of the nature and extent of the clearly defined and lofty ranges on the Pacific side of the southern division of the American continent. The journeys of Humboldt in that region, and the volu minous publications following the completion of these explorations were the principal cause of this condition of things ; but the great simplicity of the orographic structure of South America, as compared with the com plexity of the northern topography, and especially of that portion within the limits of the United States, was an additional reason why the geography of this latter region was so slowly worked out. Humboldt, in his " Personal Narrative " of his South American travels, uses the term " Cordilleras of the Andes " as the most general designation for the system of ranges extending from Patagonia along the Pacific coast " to the mountains lying at the moufti of the Mackenzie River." In this work he sometimes calls the South American division of the Cordilleras simply the Andes, and sometimes the Cordillera (and also Cor- 30 INTRODUCTORY. dilleras) of the Andes ; while the prolongation of these ranges to the north of the Isthmus is designated by a variety of names, sometimes as the Andes of New Mexico, sometimes as the Cordilleras of Mexico, and sometimes the Andes of Anahuac. The most western division of the Cordilleras he usually calls the Mari time Alps, and occasionally the Mountains of California. That the topography of the western side of the North American continent was but vaguely and imperfectly known at this time is indicated by the fact, that Hum boldt prolongs the eastern chain of the Andes from Potosi through Texas and the Ozark Mountains to the Wisconsin Hills, of which he says, " Their metallic wealth seems to denote that they are a prolongation of the eastern Cordillera of Mexico." In Humboldt's last great work — " Kosmos " — written soon after the results of the Pacific Railroad surveys had become known, he uses the name "Cordilleras " as the equivalent of the Andes, understanding by it, in general, the Andes of South America ; sometimes, however, including the mountains of Mexico. For the continuation of these ranges farther north, the name generally adopted by him is "Rocky Mountains" (Felsengebirge), and instead of " Maritime Alps " he uses the names, already current in the United States, of " Sierra Nevada" and " Cascade Range." From Humboldt's time on, however, the name "Andes" became more and more limited in its use to South Americaif ranges, and the word " Cordilleras," which simply means " mountain ranges," was omitted ; so that a long time has now elapsed since geographers began — as a general rule — to designate the South American MOUNTAIN NOMENCLATURE. 31 Pacific coast mountain system as simply the Andes, that term having been entirely dropped as a name for any part of the North American ranges. This condi tion of things seems to leave the term " Cordilleras " as a convenient, suitable, and euphonious one for desig nating the entire complex of western North American ranges, although it was not — as has been stated — thus used by Humboldt, who never at any time pro posed any general designation for the northern division of his " Cordilleras of the Andes," as is clearly evident from what has been stated above. That the introduc tion of the name " Cordilleras," with the meaning given to it by the present writer, met a distinctly felt want among geographers, is sufficiently proved by its imme diate adoption by authors of important works in which the general topography and geology of North America came under discussion. With these general remarks on the nomenclature of the eastern and western highlands of North America, we pass to a more detailed description of their topo graphical and geological features, beginning with the Appalachian or eastern system of ranges. Section II. — THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. Complicated as is the structure of the Appalachian ranges, they have geologically a certain unity. They all belong to an ancient system of uplift or disturbance, and have not been invaded, broken up, or covered by volcanic materials of recent date, presenting in both these respects a most marked contrast to the Cordilleran system, as will be clearly seen farther on. The pres- 32 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. ence of volcanic rocks along portions of the eastern slope of the Appalachians need not be taken as conflict ing with the statement here made, since these eruptive dikes and overflows are not of Tertiary and post-Ter tiary, but of Mesozoic age. The position of this belt of older eruptive rocks and its relations to the Appalachian ¦ system proper will be briefly indicated farther on : it is not necessary to take them into consideration in a discussion of the most important orographic features of that system. Following the now prevalent usage, the name "Appa lachian" will here.be used as designating the entire complex of ranges, valleys, and table-lands, in and upon which is situated the water-shed from which, on the north and east, the streams descend to the Atlantic, either directly or circuitously through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and, on the west and southwest, to the Gulf of Mexico, either as tributaries to the Mississippi, or flowing directly to the Gulf. As thus defined, the Appalachian Region, System, or complex of ranges, extends from the promontory of Gaspe, in a mean direction of northeast and southwest, to Alabama, — a distance of about thirteen hundred miles, — where it disappears entirely, becoming covered by the much more recent geological formations, which form a broad belt along the Gulf of Mexico, and extend far up the Mississippi Valley. Our knowledge of the Appalachian region is far from complete, and different portions of it have been worked over with very different degrees of exactness and minute ness of detail. The first person to topographically describe the Appalachian system as a whole was Guyot, MAPS OF THE APPALACHIAN REGION. 33 who, in 1861, published the results of several years' work among these mountains, giving the heights of numerous points, obtained by the aid of the barometer, accomjJanied by generalizations in regard to the orogra phy of the region, and a map, which — owing to the smallness of its scale (1:6,000,000) — can hardly be considered as anything more than a sketch, intended to illustrate the accompanying text. The. various Geological Surveys carried on by the States included in the Appalachian region have fur nished a large mass of material, both geographical and geological, in regard to such portions of the range as were situated within their respective limits ; but since this work has, as a rule, not been based on accurate topographical maps, most of it must be accepted as being rather of the nature of a reconnoissance than of a finished survey. The State of New Jersey is, how ever, publishing a map based on an accurate triangula- tion, but on a small scale — 1:63,360 — as compared with the official maps of European States. The First and Second Geological Surveys of Pennsylvania have also done much to extend our knowledge of the topog raphy of the most complicated and interesting portion of the whole Appalachian region ; but as we go either south or north from this central region we find the data less and less complete, and in regard to the extreme southwestern portion of the Appalachian range we are little, if at all, in advance of that which was published by Guyot in 1861. What is most lacking at the pres ent time is an accurate map of that most important portion of the Appalachian system which lies adjacent on the south to the wonderfully intricate and interest- 3 34 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. ing region embraced within the State of Pennsylvania. Without this, it seems impossible to throw light on some of the difficult problems presented by Appalachian topography.^ In delineating the principal features of the Appala chian system it will be necessary to let geology go hand in hand with topography, since varied conditions of geological structure have impressed themselves so strongly on the orography of the country, that it would be hardly possible without much repetition to treat understandingly either branch of the subject separated from the other. In seeking to divide the Appalachian system into sub-systems, or groups of ranges having close geological and topographical affinities with each other, we are impressed with the fact that we have to do with a difficult problem. While the system, as a whole, is so nearly continuous, as a feature of the topography of the country, that it seems necessary to include it all under the one general designation of "Appalachian," yet its different portions are extremely unlike each other in some of those features which are generally looked upon as essential to the unity of a mountain system. When geological conditions are unsatisfactory as a basis of the subdivision of the system, we naturally turn to purely physical and orographic facts, and inquire what portions of the complex of ranges are distinctly sepa rated from each other by marked physical breaks. In pursuing our inquiries in this direction we per ceive at once that there is at least one break in the 1 See Appendix B, where a brief notice of the progress of American cartography will be found. BREAK OF THE HUDSON AND MOHAWK RIVERS. 35 system which is of great importance, not only scientifi cally but practically, as a feature in the topography greatly affecting internal communication, and, in conse quence, the commercial relations of one part of the country to another. This is the break occupied by the Hudson River, and extended up the Mohawk Valley to the west, to a connection with the Great Lakes, and up the Champlain Valley to the north, to a connection with the St. Lawrence River direct. So complete is the break along this line that a sinking of the land to an amount of only about one hundred and fifty feet would isolate from the rest of the continent all of New Eng land and that part of Canada lying to the southeast of the St. Lawrence, as far as the extremity of Gaspe. A further sinking of two hundred and eighty feet would open a water-way from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes, and leave the mass of the Adirondacks as an island, lying adjacent to New England on the east and the Appalachian land-mass on the south. We seek in vain for any other break in the Appalachian system as com plete as this ; and when we compare the portions of the system lying on each side of this line of division, we recognize the fact that there are essential points in which they differ from each other, and that these differ ences are greater than any presented by the various portions of- the system in its extension to the southwest of the Hudson River break. This northeastern division of the Appalachians may, therefore, properly first have its more important topographical and geological features indicated. Beginning with the division west of Lake Champlain and north of the Mohawk Valley — the Adirondack 36 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. region, or mountains — we find, on examination, that this region is not only to a certain extent isolated topo graphically from the rest of the Ap{)alachian ranges, but that it belongs to a geologically older system. The Adirondack region — or Adirondack Wilderness, as it is often called — has been more or less com pletely covered by a topographical survey made by authority of the State of New York, and which was begun in 1872, but of which the final results, in the form of a map, have not yet been published, although it includes an area of but little over ten thousand square miles. The drainage of this region is radial from a central point, but the slope on the east is shorter than on any of the other sides. From Tahawas — or Mount Marcy (5,344 feet) — the drainage is to the northeast by the Au Sable to Lake Champlain, by the Raquette to the St. Lawrence, and by the branches forming the head-waters of the Hudson to the south. The domi nating line of elevations runs nearly east and west, with high spurs and narrow ridges on the north, of which Whiteface Mountain (4,871 feet) is one of the most conspicuous. The region is one of numerous lakes and lake-like expansions of the rivers, so that, with short portages, a large part of it can be visited by boat or canoe. The lake region proper of the Adirondacks lies at an elevation of from fifteen hundred to two thousand feet (Silver, 1,983 feet ; Placid, 1,950 ; Saranac, Upper, 1,606; Saranac, Lower, 1,557; Smith's, 1,738; Tup- per's, 1,504 ; Long, 1,584 ; Raquette, 1,765 ; Sandford, 1,685 ; Cranberry, 1,570). There are indications of the Appalachian trend in the northeast-southwest direction of several of the larger lakes ; but many others trend THE ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS. 37 nearly north and south. The number of the lakes is the result of the impermeability of the rock, the general uniformity in height of the region, and the broken character of the surface, which is very irregularly covered by large masses of rolled detritus, in the posi tion and arrangement of which the work of water is everywhere distinctly visible, while that of ice, on the other hand, is hardly perceptible. Geologically, the age of the Adirondacks is older than that of any other portion of the Appalachian system, so far as is known up to the present time. The rocks are all eruptive in the central portion of the mass, and chiefly gabbro and granitic or gneissoid in charac ter. On the exterior, especially on the eastern edge, are deposits of limestone, which are generally believed by geologists to be sedimentary beds highly metamor phosed ; but in regard to which, in the opinion of the present writer, there are strong reasons for believing that they are rather of the nature of chemical precipi tates than of sedimentary deposits. The phenomena which they present are admitted, however, to be difficult and obscure. The mountainous region lying east of the Hudson, in New England, is distinguished by being that portion of the Appalachian system which is most irregular in its topographical features. There are two groups of eleva tions, however, which are quite well marked, and which have distinctive names — the Green and the White Mountains. These are separated from each other by the Connecticut River, which has a nearly north-and- south course, parallel with the range of the Green Mountains. Nowhere in this latter range is there a 38 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. continuous uplift forming a long ridge or crest, but there is a gentle swell of the surface on which here and there rise elongated groups of considerably higher summits. Beginning at the south, we find as we pass northward along the elevated region in which the Green Moun tains are built up, that there is no high point at all conspicuous, until we have passed the boundary between Connecticut and Massachusetts. Here, in the extreme southwestern corner of the last-named State, rises Bald Peak (2,624 feet), and farther north, in the north western corner, Greylock, or Saddle Mountain (3,505 feet). Still farther north, in Vermont, the culminating points of the Green Mountain range are found, and are the following : Equinox, 3,872 feet ; Pico, 3,935 ; Camel's Hump, 4,077; Killington, 4,221; and Mans field — the culminating point of the range — 4,389 feet. Ascutney, a quite isolated point near the Con necticut River, has an altitude of 3,163 feet. The Connecticut River makes a very complete sepa ration, in all but the extreme northern portion of its course, between the highlands which belong to tlje Green Mountain system and those which lie east of that river, and which have no collective name, but which are, in point of fact, very closely connected with, and in a measure the continuation of, the White Moun tain range. In Massachusetts this swell of land — for more it can hardly be called — has an elevation of about a thousand feet, the valleys being rarely sunk more than two or three hundred feet below the general level of the gently undulating higher lands. Occasion ally there is a higher point, like Wachusett (2,018 TOPOGRAPHY OF MAINE. 39 feet) or Monadnock, just beyond the border of Massa chusetts in New Hampshire (3,169 feet). From Monad nock, the region east of the Connecticut broadens very much as we go in a northeasterly direction — the course of that river being nearly due north and south, while the coast line of New England trends rapidly eastward. The country becomes more a'nd more mountainous, but regularity of trend, or a continuous character of the ranges, is still absent. The mountains are grouped around various central points, of which the most im portant are Moosilauke — or Moosehillock, as it was formerly called — (4,790 feet), Lafayette (5,290), and Washington (6,290). This latter point is the highest one in the Appalachian system north of North Caro lina, and is much visited by tourists. It is the centre of a group of elevations there clustered together, and is a conspicuous point, since it rises nearly five hundred feet higher than any one of the adjacent summits. Farther east, in Maine, and in the neighboring por tions of Canada, the topography has been so little worked out in detail that it is not possible to say whether any division of the Appalachian system con tinues in that direction corresponding to that existing in New England on the east and west of the Connecti cut. So far as known, in Maine the irregularity of the range is still greater than it is farther to the southwest. There is in this part of New England nothing which can be called an Atlantic coast region, there being a gradual rise from the very seashore toward the interior for a distance of about one hundred and forty miles, to the divide between the waters running into the Atlantic directly, and those tributary to the St. Lawrence, or 40 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. running north and forming the head of the St. John's. This divide, which has a general direction of pretty nearly east and west, is at an altitude of about eighteen hundred feet at the western edge of the State of Maine, and declines going east to about six hundred feet on its eastern boundary. The southern slope is a very grad ual one to the sea, and though broken and rocky, is not diversified by any marked ridges or long elevations. The high points rise sometimes nearly isolated, and sometimes in clusters, having little of the ridge charac ter. Ktaadn — or Katahdin, as it has heretofore been most frequently spelled — (5,215 feet) is the dominat ing peak, and it rises in such isolation as to look, in the distance, like a volcanic cone. The low country south of Ktaadn has an elevation of not more than five hundred feet above the sea. From it rises the mountain by moderate gradations to less than half its altitude, or about twenty-two hundred feet on the south side ; but the upper portion, rearing itself three thou sand feet higher, is bounded by declivities of great abruptness. That part of Maine lying south of the water-shed is drained by streams running nearly south ward. Like the Adirondack Wilderness, it is a district of numerous lakes, as would be expected, since it has no rapid descent in any direction, is underlain by im permeable rocks, and has a considerable rainfall. The general uniformity of character in the New Eng land portion of the Appalachian system will be evident from that which has been here stated. This region is marked by comparatively low swells of ground, on which rise groups of higher points, rather irregularly distribu ted, nowhere reaching the limit of perpetual snow. GEOLOGY OF NEW ENGLAND. 41 and nowhere presenting great obstacles to internal communication . The geological structure of this northeastern prolon gation of the Appalachian system has been, as yet, only imperfectly made out, the reason for this condition of things being the extreme scarcity of fossil remains, by the aid of which the age of the rocks might be fixed, and their order of succession determined. Moreover, the various sedimentary beds have been metamorphosed to such an extent, that it is only with great difficulty that they can be distinguished from the associated erup tive formations ; and even these latter have frequently been themselves so much changed by chemical action, since their appearance at the surface, that it is only with the aid of the microscope that their real nature can be made out. With the exception of a narrow belt of Mesozoic rocks in the Connecticut Valley, and a small basin of similar age in Woodbury and Southbury, Connecticut, and also with the exception of a very limited set of deposits of late Tertiary age on the eastern boundary of Lake Champlain and on the Atlantic coast, there are — so far as known — no rocks in New England more recent than the Palaeozoic. Tertiary and Creta ceous formations are, however, found covering small areas on some of the islands adjacent to the coast. Along the western side of Vermont and Massachusetts the rocks are clearly proved by their fossils to be of Lower Silurian age, and their structure has been made out in part. There are faults and synclinals, limestones and chloritic and talcose slates beingHie" predominating rocks. The dips are chiefly to the eastward, and the 42 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. rocks are of more recent age as we go east from Lake Champlain, on the east side of which is a large develop ment of the Potsdam sandstone. In and near the Con necticut Valley, to the east of the region just noticed, fossils have been found (at Bernardston, Massachusetts) of late Upper Silurian (Helderberg, of the New York Sur vey) age. The stratigraphical relations of these rocks, however, remain obscure. The same may be said of nearly or quite all of New Hampshire, of Eastern Massa chusetts, and of a large part of Maine. At one point in New Hampshire — Littleton — fossils have been ob tained of the same age as those discovered at Bernard ston. In Northern Maine, traversing the State in a.- wide belt running northeast and southwest, rocks occur of Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian age, well char acterized by fossils, a part of this belt being clearly identical in age with the Oriskany sandstone of the New York Survey. The stratigraphical relations of these rocks are still obscure, and south of this fossilif- erous belt is a wide area in which no fossils have yet been found. At one point in Massachusetts — Brain- tree, near Boston — more than fifty years ago fossils of the lowest Silurian age (Primordial) were found, and there are other indications that the rocks near the coast of New England, from Cape Cod north, belong very low down in the f ossilif erous series ; but in Massachusetts, as well as in New Hampshire and Maine, there is a wide area between the Devonian and Upper Silurian rocks of the Connecticut Valley and Northern Central Maine of the geological age of which nothing is definitely known, and of which the stratigraphical relations are still very obscure. APPALACHIANS SOUTH OF THE HUDSON RIVER. 43 To the west and southwest of the Hudson River, in New York, the intricacy and obscurity of the orographic structure and geological age of the Appalachian system begin to be cleared up ; but it is not until we reach Pennsylvania that the characteristic features of this range are fully developed. These characteristic fea tures are : first, along its southeastern edge, and thus forming the first system of mountains which we meet with in crossing the system from southeast to north west, at right angles to its trend, a series of elevations, at first comparatively unimportant and more or less detached from each other, but gradually in going in a southwesterly direction becoming more and more prominent and continuous, until, toward the extreme southerly end of the system, it forms the most impos ing connected mass of high plateaux and still higher ridges anywhere exhibited in the Appalachian region. This southeasterly division of the system has no single distinguishing appellation. It is called, in Pennsylvania, the South Mountains ; in Virginia, the Blue Ridge ; and in North Carolina and Tennessee it has various names applied to its different portions, as will be mentioned farther on. The second important orographic feature of the Appalachian system is the Appalachian region proper of the First Pennsylvania Survey — a region of wave-like folds or corrugations, not so metamorphosed but that the geological sequence can be distinctly made out, and in which orographic disturbances and a pe culiar erosion have developed a most interesting and intricate topography. The third region in order of succession, in crossing the chain from southeast to northwest, is that of plateaux, bounded on the south- 44 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. east by an escarpment to which the name of Alleghany has been most frequently given, and by which that por tion of the system which lies in Pennsylvania is still almost universally known. These are the three most prominent divisions of the system southwest of the Hudson, and between the first and second there is a pretty well marked depression or valley, which is a very conspicuous feature of the topography in Virginia and Tennessee, and is called, in Pennsylvania, the Kitta- tinny ; in Virginia, the Great Valley ; and, farther south, the valley of East Tennessee. These being the easily recognizable and distinctly maintained features of the topography of the Appala chian system from the north boundary of Pennsylvania southwesterly, it will now be in order to consider how far and to what extent these divisions can be traced as existing in the region which lies between that boundary and the Green Mountains, a region occupied by East ern and Southeastern New York and Northern New Jersey. The Green Mountains are generally considered as being prolonged southwestwardly in the Hudson River Highlands and the Highland Range of New Jersey. This latter range in New Jersey occupies a belt of country somewhat over twenty miles in width on the New York line, but narrows down to less than half that on the Delaware. It includes no long unbroken ridges, the one which comes nearest to having this character being the Green Pond Range, about twelve miles long ; nor are the subordinate ridges of which it is composed in a line with each other, or their axes paral lel to the direction of the main range, but somewhat KITTATINNY VALLEY. 45 oblique to it ; so that if the direction of the range is northeast, that of these subordinate ridges would be about north-northeast. The highest point in this range — Rutherford's Hill — is 1,488 feet above the sea-level. The Kittatinny Valley, already mentioned as forming a conspicuous feature of Appalachian topography, is distinctly marked in New Jersey, where it also bears the same name. It is bounded on the northwest by a range called, in New York, the Shawangunk ; in New Jersey, the Blue Mountains ; and in Pennsylvania, the Kittatinny. It lies on the extreme northwestern edge of New Jersey, and forms an almost unbroken straight line within this State, about forty miles in length, from the Delaware Water Gap, where it is intersected by that river, to the New York line. The straightness of this ridge and its almost level crest, from twelve hundred to eighteen hundred feet in elevation above the sea-level, mark it as belonging to the peculiar topographical belt of the Appalachian system which occupies Central Pennsylvania. There is a distinct recognition of this belt still farther east — along the Hudson river, namely — in the vicin ity of the town of Catskill, and east of the mountains of that name. Here is a miniature group of hills, called the Little Mountains, only a mile or two in width, and but a few hundred feet in height, which are made up of rocks of the same geological age as those occurring in the central division of the Pennsylvania Appalachians, and having the same characteristic structure of wavy folds, complicated in this case with slight faults. The plateau region of the Appalachian system forms a very marked feature of the topography of the State 46 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. of New York, occupying a large portion of its surface, while the other divisions are limited to its extreme southeastern corner. The northern edge of this plateau extends along the south side of the Mohawk River, forming a distinctly marked escarpment, known as the Helderberg Mountains. Farther west, in Central New York, in the plateau region, at a distance of but a few miles from the central depression through which runs the Erie Canal and the great lines of railroad connect ing Albany with the West, are various heights rising a thousand feet above the surrounding elevated plateau, and from sixteen hundred to two thousand feet above the sea-level. Some of these high points are : Fenner Hill, in Madison County, 1,862 feet ; Ripley Hill, the highest in Onondaga, 1,968 ; Niles, in Cayuga, 1,623 ; Milo Hill, in Yates, 1,343 ; and East Hill, in Oswego,. 2,300. This plateau and its extension to the southwest into Pennsylvania form the highlands in which rise the various branches of the Susquehannah, which river traverses the entire Appalachian system, in a general direction from northwest to southeast. There is in Southeastern New York a remarkable group of mountains, very conspicuously in view from the Hudson River, and apparently quite isolated as seen from the eastern side, but which, as approached from the west, are recognized as being in intimate connection with the plateau region of Central New York. This group is known as the Catskills, or Catskill Mountains, which, in the language of Guyot, by whom the topog raphy of this region has been worked out, " stand as a mighty citadel overtowering by two thousand feet all the surrounding country." THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS. 47 There are two divisions of the Catskills : the Northern, or Catskills proper, and the Southern. The former is a massive plateau, enclosed between the Esopus and Catskill Creeks — branches of the Hudson, running in a southeasterly direction, nearly parallel with each other, and at a distance of about twenty-five miles apart. The mountain mass thus enclosed consists essentially of two border chains running parallel with the enclosing streams, and from ten to fifteen miles apart. The southwestern border forms the central chain of the Catskills, and is considerably more broken and irregular than the northeastern one, which runs very nearly parallel with Catskill Creek, and four or five miles from it. The high plateau enclosed between these boundary ridges is occupied by three secondary east-and- west-running ridges, which are spurs of the northeastr ern range, and in and between which, in deep valleys, head the various branches of the Schoharie Creek, so that the drainage of the interior of this elevated region is in an exactly opposite direction from that of its borders. The highest point of the northeastern border is the Black Head, 4,002 feet; that of the southeastern range. Hunter Mountain, 4,038 feet. The southern group of the Catskills, or that portion of the elevated region which lies south of the Esopus, and the drainage of which, on the west and southwest, is into the Delaware River, is much less regular in its topographical features than the northern group, nor are its boundaries well defined, except on its northern edge, along the Esopus Valley. It includes, however, the highest point of the entire Catskill group, namely. Slide Mountain, 4,205 feet in elevation. 48 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. The geological age of the rocks of which the Catskill range is made up is similar to that of the plateau region generally, namely, Devonian and Lower Car boniferous. The upper five hundred feet of the Slide Mountain is occupied by a cap of the Carboniferous conglomerate, the equivalent of the Millstone Grit, and which is the nearest approach made to the coal meas ures in any part of the State of New York. The strata of which the Catskills are composed are said by Guyot to be nearly horizontal from the bottom to the top, having a dip rarely exceeding four or five degrees. The range is a massive block of Devonian and Lower Car boniferous strata raised on the east by crust-movements above the adjacent region, and gradually declining to the general plateau-level on the west, and which, while deeply eroded, is not so much worn away as to have lost that unity which characterizes it as being' the most prominent northeastern outpost of the plateau region of the Appalachian system. From New Jersey southward, the Appalachian sys tem is very easily separated into those divisions which have already been indicated as characterizing the mass of highlands, ridges, and valleys. Its eastern border — the Atlantic slope — may properly be first described. This is an area of land rising gradually from the sea shore toward the interior, to the foot of the Appalachian ranges, broadening out as we follow it southward, and at the same time acquiring a greater elevation before the mountains are reached. This gently rising area is hardly a perceptible feature of the topography in New England ; but it occupies a considerable portion of the Atlantic States from New Jersey south to Florida. Its THE ATLANTIC COAST BELT. 49 altitude at the eastern base of the mountains is, in Pennsylvania, only from one to three hundred feet ; Lancaster and Harrisburg, which are on its western border, being respectively 350 and 320 feet in eleva tion. On James River, in Virginia, it is about five hundred feet high (Lynchburg, 529 feet); but at the source of the Catawba it has risen to twelve hundred feet. This region bordering on the Atlantic, of compara tively low elevation, and having, on the whole, a marked topographical unity, is, from the geological point of view, and also, to a certain extent from the topographi cal, made up of two quite distinct portions. The part nearest the coast is a region almost flat, or having the gentlest possible slope seaward, and broken by no elevations worthy of notice. Beyond this belt, to the west and northwest, is another one, itself almost a plain, but more undulating than the region to the east, rising more rapidly westward, so as to form almost a table land at the base of the mountains, and itself diversified in its western portion by elevations which in places rise high enough to be called mountains. The belt nearest the shore consists of Tertiary and Cretaceous rocks having a very gentle dip seaward. These rocks are first met with, in going south along the Atlantic coast, on Raritan Bay, where the belt occupied by them is from twenty to twenty-five miles wide, but on reach ing Philadelphia it is found to have acquired a breadth of more than fifty. The stratified mass in New Jersey consists of a great number of alternations of sands, marls, and clays ; from a third to half the width of the belt being occupied on the surface by the Cretaceous, 50 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. and the more eastern portion being of Tertiary age. Trenton, near the western edge of this belt, is only thirty-three feet above the sea-level. These newer for mations are of special interest on account of the fossils which they contain, and because of the great economic value of the clays, marls, and sands of which they are made up, and which are extensively employed in the manufacture of pottery, fire-brick, and glass. Following the coast farther southward we find this level belt of newer rocks maintaining its width through Delaware and Virginia, and still farther south becoming broader, attaining a width of more than a hundred miles in North Carolina and Georgia. Between New Jersey and the northern border of North Carolina it is deeply intersected by bays, the heads of which approximately mark an important geological feature — a change from rocks of recent age to those much lower down in the series, which make up the western portion of the At lantic slope. This change is also most distinctly marked by an interruption to the navigability of the rivers, and it also manifests itself in the position of the cities of the Atlantic slope, most of which — to the south of New York City — are not on the Atlantic itself, but on, or very near, the geological break here indicated. Trenton, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Rich mond, Petersburg, Raleigh, Columbia, Augusta, Mil- ledgeville, and Montgomery are thus conditioned as to situation, although, in the case of the more northern of these cities, they are brought near to the open sea by the occurrence of the deep indentations of the coast — Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. From Virginia southward the coast is very little THE ATLANTIC COAST BELT. 51 * indented ; most of the large towns are at a considerable distance from it, and the census of 1880 does not indi cate the existence of a single city on or near the coast, south of Baltimore, having as many as fifty thousand inhabitants. In North Carolina the slope of this east ern division of the Atlantic belt — here a hundred miles wide — is hardly more than one or two feet to the mile. It is occupied geologically by nearly horizontal strata of Tertiary, overlain in considerable part by detrital accumulations of still later age, the whole consisting of loose sands, clays, marls, and gravels, irregularly piled one above another. Nearly the same thing may be said in regard to the continuance of this belt through South Carolina and Georgia. In the former State, Columbia marks its western border, and this city is between two and three hundred feet above the sea-level. In Georgia, at the general level of the country, nearly the whole belt is Tertiary ; but the underlying Creta ceous is revealed in various places, where the rivers have cut to a more considerable depth than usual. The elevations of the cities on the western edge of the Cre taceous and Tertiary belt in Georgia are as follows : Augusta, 130-180 ; Milledgeville, 310 ; Macon, 334 feet. Thus we have traced from Raritan Bay, near New York City, a belt of rocks extending continuously south ward along the coast to Florida, and forming a marked feature in the physical geology and topography of the country. It is the Atlantic slope proper, nowhere rising into ranges of hills ; but, as it widens southward, be coming more and more elevated on its western border, until, in Georgia, it attains a height of from three to four hundred feet above the sea-level. 52 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. Adjacent to this Cretaceous and Tertiary belt on the west, and commonly considered as forming a part of the Atlantic slope, is a region topographically very clearly connected with that belt, but differing from it geologi cally in a marked degree. This region, which for con venience may be designated as the Upper Belt of the Atlantic slope, is a marked feature in the geology and topography of the country from New Jersey southward. It is in large part made up of rocks which are destitute of fossils, and in regard to which it has not yet been clearly made out whether they are really stratified beds older than the lowest Silurian (Azoic, or Archaean of Dana), or whether they are highly altered rocks of Palaeozoic age. The region occupied by these rocks has, over most of its area, very distinctly the character of a plain, and is therefore commonly included with the Atlantic slope proper, from which it differs geologically in so marked a degree. While the southeastern boun dary of the upper belt of the Atlantic slope is capable of such sharp definitions geologically, and is — as has been seen — of so much topographical importance, since it marks the position of most of the large towns and cities in the Atlantic belt from Trenton south, its north western edge is much less easily indicated, as will be gathered from that which may now be stated in regard to the more striking features of this region. In Pennsylvania this belt, forming the transition between the seaboard proper and the Appalachian ranges, is a portion of the State which is of very con siderable importance. It is a region of high cultivation and densely populated. It is a "country of rolling hills and gently sloping vales, with occasional rocky THE SOUTH MOUNTAINS AND BLUE RIDGE. 53 dells of no great depths, and nowhere more than six or seven hundred feet above the sea-level." This is the character of the region in question in Penn sylvania, and it is bordered on the northwest, for a portion of its extent only, by a low range of elevations known as the South Mountains, and generally considered to be the northern prolongation of the Blue Ridge of Virginia and the States farther south. The South Mountains enter Pennsylvania at the Delaware River, forming a region of irregularly grouped ridges, which occupy a breadth of somewhat less thari ten miles, and which do not rise to an elevation of more than four to five hundred feet above the included valleys. These hills are made up of massive varieties of gneiss, sandstones — recognized by the Pennsylvania Survey as being of Potsdam age — and Lower Silurian limestones. The valleys resting on this latter rock are covered with a highly fertile soil. — - Passing southward into Virginia, the Upper Belt of the Atlantic slope broadens out and becomes more and more complicated in its topography. In an official report, called " Virginia : A Geographical and Political Summary," prepared by Major Hotchkiss, and based on information obtained in the course of the Geological , Survey carried on by Professor W. B. Rogers during the years 1835 to 1841, this region is divided into three portions, called, respectively, the Middle, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge divisions of the State. The Middle divi sion is said to extend westward from the head of tide to the foot of the low broken ranges which, under the names of Kitoctin, or Kittoctan, Bull Run, Yew, Clark's, Southwest, Carter's, Green, Findlay's, Buffalo, 54 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. Chandler's, Smith's, etc., mountains and hills, extend across the State southwest from the Potomac, near the northern corner of Fairfax County, to the North Caro lina line, near the southwest corner of Pittsylvania County. These broken ranges, which preserve a general parallelism with the Appalachian ranges proper, and form, as it were, the outliers of this system, are desig nated by Major Hotchkiss as the Atlantic Coast Range. This middle country is described as being a moderately undulating plain, from twenty-five to a hundred miles wide, and rising from the southeastern border, where it is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above the sea-level, to an altitude of from three to five hundred feet along its northwestern edge. It is a succession of low northeast-and-southwest-trend- ing ridges, the valleys between them being sometimes narrow and deep, but the ridges themselves not very prominent. The rocks of this division are metamor- phic slates and gneiss, with numerous eruptive masses in the form of dikes, and with many quartz veins, some of which contain considerable gold, but in which mining has not, on the whole, been successful, although frequently attempted. The Piedmont division of Virginia forms a belt of from twenty to thirty miles in width, and may properly be considered as being the foothill border of the Blue Ridge itself. There is a marked tendency to the for mation of a continuous valley enclosed between the broken ridges already noticed as forming the so-called .Coast Range and the Blue Ridge proper. In this valley lie Culpeper (400-500 feet), Fairfax (382), Char lottesville (450), Lynchburg (650), and other towns, THE BLUE RIDGE. 55 and through it, or in places along its eastern border, runs the Virginia Midland Railroad. This foothill region is described by Major Hotchkiss as being exceed ingly intricate in the details of its topography. The Coast Range is succeeded, in the west, by numberless valleys, of all imaginable forms. Some are long, straight, and wide ; others narrow and widening ; others again oval and almost enclosed, locally known as " coves," which extend across to, and far into, the Blue Ridge, to which, in point of fact, they topographically belong. Portions of the Piedmont country, however, form quite extensive plains. The Blue Ridge, with its belt of foothills — the Pied mont region — forms a conspicuous feature of the to pography of Virginia and the States farther south. The Potomac breaks through it at Harper's Ferry at an ele vation of 242 feet, the mountains adjacent rising about twelve hundred feet higher. The passes across this range, locally known as "gaps," are numerous, and several of them are traversed by railroads, namely, the Manassas, Rockfish, and Buford's. Of these, the Rock- fish has an elevation of 1,996 feet. The James River where it intersects the Blue Ridge is 706 feet above tide-water. The elevation of this range is considerable, even in its northern portion. Near Front Royal and Manassas Gap, Mount Marshall rises to the elevation of about 3,370 feet. The height of the range — as well as its breadth — increases rapidly as the southern line of Virginia is approached. The Peaks of Otter, in Bedford County, near Buford's Gap, rise to four thou sand feet in elevation. Just at the North Carolina line, Balsam Mountain rises to a height of 5,700 feet. Here 56 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. the Blue Ridge has already begun to expand into that wide and high plateau, crowned by swelling domes and lofty ridges, which occupies the western portion of North Carolina, and in which are found the highest points of the entire Appalachian system. This elevated region is formed by a broadening-out and bifurcation of the Blue Ridge, which begins near Christiansburg (2,012 feet), opposite the point where the New River changes its course from a direction par allel with that of the Appalachian Ranges to one at right angles to this, and breaks through that part of the system which lies northwest of the Great Valley, flowing in that direction to the Ohio. This plateau rises in North Carolina to an average elevation of two thousand five hundred feet, while portions of it attain a height of over three thousand five hundred. This elevated region has a length of about one hundred and fifty miles, and a width varying from fifteen to fifty miles and averaging about thirty. Where it is narrow est, it then has the highest altitude (3,500-4,000 feet). The plateau is bordered by broken ranges : that on the southeast still continues to bear the designation of " Blue Ridge ; " the more or less continuous line of elevations in the northwest is called by various names — Unaka, Smoky, Bald, and Iron being among the number. Between these exterior ridges run various spurs connecting them, on which rise many points over six thousand feet in height, the culminating one being the Black Dome (6,688 feet). The northern portion oi this high region is drained by the head-waters of the New River, but the principal drainage of the most elevated part is to the northwest, from the THE GREAT VALLEY. 57 plateau, through gaps in the western ridges, to the Tennessee. The geology of the Blue Ridge division of the Appalachian system is obscure and difficult. Most of the rocks are highly crystalline, but whether of Palaeozoic or Azoic age remains as yet undecided. These crystalline rocks are more or less intersected by ancient eruptive masses, but in regard to the range and extent of these there is much uncertainty. Flanking the Blue Ridge on the west side, and involved in the disturbances of the strata by which this range has been built up, are sandstones and limestones which in Penn sylvania have been recognized as being of Lower Silu rian age. These limestones seem to become more arenaceous farther south, and also to become unfossi- liferous. It may be assumed, however, that what is true for the range in Pennsylvania is true for Virginia, and that the range in general is made up of rocks not newer than Lower Silurian, large portions of them being highly crystalline, and destitute of fossils. To the west and northwest of the Blue Ridge divi sion of the Appalachian system lies the Great Valley, so called in Virginia, and to a certain extent in Penn sylvania, but known south of Virginia as the Valley of East Tennessee. As the Blue Ridge itself is not so decided a feature of the topography in Pennsylvania as it becomes after the southern line of that State has been crossed, so the Great Valley itself is there less clearly defined on its eastern border than it is farther south. Its northwestern limit in Pennsylvania is the Kittatinny Mountain, which separates it from the mountain district lying adjacent to it on that side by 58 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. a very regular natural wall. The entire length of the valley in that State is about one hundred and sixty- five miles, and its width between ten and eleven miles. Throughout its whole extent it presents a gently undu lating surface, approximating to a level plain, with here and there a belt of low hills. In Virginia the Great Valley is a very important topographical feature, having a length of a little over three hundred miles, and a quite uniform width of about twenty. The mountains which limit it on the northwest are known by a variety of names. On some maps the northern portion of them is designated as the Great North Mountains. The name "Kittatinny" is also applied to them, as well as in Pennsylvania. A small portion of this valley is also included within the limits of West Virginia. While the Great Valley is so marked a topographical feature of this part of the Appalachian system, and is decidedly continuous in its development, its drainage is of a much more compli cated character. The northeastern portion is the beauti ful and fertile valley of the Shenandoah, having a length of nearly one hundred and forty miles, and being drained by two parallel branches of the river of that name, which are separated from each other by the Massa- nutton range, a well-marked double range, fifty miles in length, dividing the Great Valley longitudinally. Through this range the northern branch of the Shenan doah breaks, turning at right angles to its former course and uniting with the southern branch at Manassas Gap, below which, toward the Potomac, the valley is but slightly broken by hills. South of that portion of the Great Valley drained by the Shenandoah is a region in THE GREAT VALLEY. 59 which are the head-waters of the James. The various branches of this river, coming from northwest and south, unite at the western base of the Blue Ridge, and there break through it. The length of that por tion of the Great Valley drained by the James is about fifty miles, and the remaining portion, farther south west, belongs in part to the Roanoke, in part to the New or Kanawha, and the remainder to the Holston. The course of the New River is a remarkable one. In striking contrast to the Potomac, Susquehannah, and other streams to the northwest, the New River heads on the eastern edge of the Appalachian system, in the high portion of the Blue Ridge in North Carolina; thence it runs through the Great Valley, which it crosses obliquely, and, breaking through all the ranges to the northwest, finds its way to the Ohio. The rise of the Great Valley to the southwest is a very marked one, since the point where the Shenandoah enters the Potomac is only 240 feet above the sea-level, while the head of the New River is in a region of from two thousand five hundred to three thousand feet in alti tude. The official report, edited by Major Hotchkiss, thus describes the Great Valley of Virginia : — " The aspect of this region is singularly pleasant. The great width of the valley ; tlie singular coloring, and wavy but bold outline of the Blue Ridge ; the long uniform lines of the Kittatinny Mountains, and the high knobs that rise up behind them in the distance ; the detached ranges that often extend for many miles in this valley, like huge lines of forti fications — all these for the outline, filled up with park-like forests, well-cultivated farms, well-built towns, and threaded by bright and abounding rivers, make this a charming and inviting region." 60 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. The geological features of the Great Valley are some what remarkable, and some indication of the nature of these peculiarities will be given after describing the belt of mountain ranges lying next west of it. The division of the Appalachians next to be con sidered is perhaps the most interesting and peculiar, although not the most persistent portion of the sys tem. It is that part to which the First Geological Survey desired, as already mentioned, to limit the name *" Appalachian." However desirable it might have been thus to limit the designation " Appalachian," it has not been possible to effect this. The Appalachian belt, par excellence, of the Appalachian system may therefore with propriety — since it needs a special designation — be called the • Middle Belt, since its position is inter mediate between that of the Blue Ridge and the Alle ghany escarpment and plateau. The small and, in fact, topographically hardly dis tinguishable beginning of the Middle Belt of the Appalachian system, in New York, has already been mentioned. It is not until Pennsylvania is reached that this part of the system becomes of importance. The character of. the topography of this division is clearly and forcibly indicated in the following extract from the report of the First Geological Survey of that State : — "It is a complex chain of long, narrow, very level moun tain ridges, separated by long, narrow, parallel valleys. These ridges sometimes end abruptly in swelling knobs, and some times taper off in long, slender points. Their slopes are singularly uniform, being in many cases unvaried by ravine or gully for many miles ; in other instances they are trenched THE MIDDLE BELT. 61 at equal intervals with great regularity. Their crests are for the most part sharp, and they preserve an extraordinarily equable elevation, being only here and there interrupted by notches or gaps, which sometimes descend to the water-level, so as to give passage to the rivers. The whole range is the combined result of an elevation of the strata in long, slender, parallel ridges, wave-like in form, and of excessive erosion of them by water ; and the present configuration of the sur face is one which demonstrates that a remarkable, and as yet little understood, series of geological events has been con cerned in their formation. The ridges, which are but rem nants of the eroded strata, are variously arranged in groups with long narrow crests, some of which preserve a remarkable straightness for great distances, while others bend with a prolonged and regular sweep. In many instances, two nar row, contiguous parallel mountain crests unite at their ex tremities, and enclose a narrow, oval valley, which with its sharp mountain sides bears not unfrequently a marked resem blance to a long, slender, sharp-pointed canoe." The above-cited lucid description, by H. D. Rogers, of the topographical peculiarities of the region in ques tion may be supplemented by a few lines quoted from the writings of J. P. Lesley, the head of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. He remarks as follows : — " In that Appalachian region, as it is now called, which, as a belt from fifty to one hundred miles in width, between the edge of the Bituminous coal region and the South Moun tains or Blue Ridge, stretches from the Delaware to the Ten nessee, we recognize a country where, from the comparative deficiency of fossils and of coal, and from the repeated and elongated outcrops of a few valuable mineral deposits, the science of geology transforms itself into the science of topog raphy. Nowhere else on the known earth is its counterpart 62 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. for the richness and definiteness of geographical detail. It is the very home of the picturesque in science as in scenery. Its landscapes on the Susquehannah, on the Juniata, and Potomac are unrivalled of their kind in the world. Equally beautiful to the artist is a faithful representation of their symmetrical, compound, and complicated curves upon a map." The system of ranges thus described as occurring in Pennsylvania crosses Northwestern Maryland, and is largely developed in Virginia, with characters in many respects resembling those which it displays farther north. It is a region of long, narrow, parallel valleys, separated by narrow, straight, and quite elevated ridges, of which no one dominates greatly over the others. The number of these ridges diminishes as we proceed in a south westerly direction, and the belt narrows in proportion ; but the topography of this region has, as yet, been so imperfectly worked out, that precision of detail in the description is impossible. The drainage of this region on its extreme eastern border is into the Great Valley. The interior valleys in the northern half of the belt are traversed by streams flowdng into the Potomac ; the southern half is mostly drained by branches of New River. In some cases the waters flow toward a cen tral depression in the valley, and then break through the enclosing range, as so frequently happens in this belt farther north. The rocks which make up this division of the Appa lachian system are Silurian, Devonian, and Lower Carboniferous. In its northeastern extension it includes the Anthracite region of Pennsylvania, which is made up of a series of outliers, of small area as compared with the great extent of the main Appalachian coal-field. THE MIDDLE BELT. 63 but where the coal seams themselves are numerous and extremely important, and where the associated rocky strata have a very great thickness. The ridges by which the Appalachian belt proper is traversed are the result of a series of flexures of the strata along numerous axes of elevation and depression, not com-- plicated in Pennsylvania by extensive dislocations of the crust, or faults, either longitudinal or transverse, but gradually becoming so as we proceed toward the southwest. The elevated portions resulting from the various crust movements have been e^itensively and peculiarly eroded, so that the remarkable topography of the region is the result of a complex series of geo logical events, in which length and direction of the lines of elevation and depression, which rise and fall or entirely disappear when followed longitudinally through the region, have been the first and most important formative elements; but where subsequent erosion, having to do with a great mass of strata of very unequal thickness and hardness, has also played a most interesting part. It is a curious fact that in following in a southwest erly direction the Appalachian belt proper, we find that it disappears or merges in the Great Valley, which in Tennessee occupies the entire space between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Plateau, there called the Cumberland Table-land, and is fully forty miles in width. The rocks which underlie the Great Valley are of the same geological age as those of which the Appalachian belt is composed farther north, but more closely compressed together, and complicated by great longitudinal faults ; the whole area being a compara- 64 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. tively depressed one, and not broken by marked ridges. The true Appalachian belt is therefore limited to Penn sylvania, Virginia, and a very narrow space in Mary land; and here the system has its greatest width and most intricate and interesting topographical features, but not its highest elevations, which occur north and south of this intermediate portion, in regions of greater and more irregular disturbance, complicated by meta- morphic changes and irregular intrusions of eruptive material on a grand scale, making the task of unravel ling the geological structure an extremely difficult one. The most western member of the Appalachian sys tem — -the Plateau — is the one of which the geology is most easily made out-; and while its eastern border is an important topographical feature, it merges so gradu ally in the Great Central or Mississippi Valley, that any definition of its limits in that direction is quite impos sible. The position and elevation of this plateau region in New York having been already indicated, it remains to add something in regard to its development in the States lying farther south. This table-land occupies the western portion of Penn sylvania, nearly all of West Virginia, a part of Ken tucky, and also of Tennessee, in which latter State it is called the Cumberland Table-land, or the Cumberland Mountains, since it here presents itself exceptionally with abrupt edges on the west, as well as on the east ; but where it is narrowed down to a width of not more than thirty or forty miles in the northern portion of the State, and of much less in the southern. The bold escarpment with which the plateau faces the east in THE ALLEGHANY PLATEAU. 65^ Pennsylvania, is, and — as already remarked — has for a long time been, known as the Alleghany Mountains. It is continued in Virginia, but with much less distinct ness than in Pennsylvania, the topography becoming, as already remarked, more and more broken in that direction. It is from this table-land that the waters of the Susquehannah descend to the Atlantic, crossing the entire Appalachian system in its course ; while with the New River the condition of things is reversed, since this stream heads on the eastern edge of the range, and flows across it in the opposite direction from that of the Susquehannah. Since the dip of the strata in Southern New York and Western Pennsylvania is generally to the southward, newer rocks occupy the surface as we proceed in that direction. Hence, although we have in the former State no rocks as recent as the coal-measures, this ex tremely important group makes its appearance soon after the line of division of these two States is passed, and it is largely with rocks of this age that the table land is covered through the whole of its southern ex tension. In fact, the Appalachian coal-field, as it is called, presents an almost continuous mass of coal-bear ing strata, extending from Northern Pennsylvania to Alabama. A part of this field, however, notably in Ohio, reaches far beyond the limits of the region to which, from a topographical point of view, it would be proper to apply the name "Appalachian." The Appalachian table-land is, even in Pennsylvania, not a region entirely destitute of marked topographi cal features. The axes which characterize the system farther east are not wanting here, but the strata are 5 ( 66 THE APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. raised and depressed by gentle undulations, and not broken by precipitous ridges. Much intricacy is given to the topography, in a small way, by the cutting down of the streams into the soft rocks. Before leaving the Appalachian region it will be de sirable to add a few words in regard to the nature and distribution of the belt of Mesozoic rocks occurring on the Atlantic slope, which, although not forming a prominent topographical feature of the region, are of much interest from a geological and palaeontological point of view. This belt consists chiefly of sandstones of reddish-brown color, with which are associated shales, and occasionally, especially in the lower portion, coarser materials — conglomerates — which are some times well rounded by water, but in places almost breccia-like in character. These rocks are first seen, on the northeast, in New Brunswick, in Nova Scotia, and on Prince Edward's Island. In New England they are limited to the valley of the Connecticut River, with a small parallel area a little to the west of this in the towns of Southbury and Woodbury, Connecticut. The extent of the Connecticut Valley Mesozoic area is about one hundred and fifty miles in length, with a breadth of about fourteen in the widest part. The largest belt, however, is that extending from the west side of the Hudson River, along the southeastern side of the South Mountains and Blue Ridge, through New Jersey, Penn sylvania, and Maryland, to about the centre of Virginia, having a maximum width of about thirty miles, and a length of somewhat over three hundred. There are still other smaller areas of the same rock in Virginia and in North Carolina; that of the last-named State THE MESOZOIC BELT. 67 extends a short distance beyond the South Carolina line, beyond which this peculiar formation has not been observed. Associated with this sandstone is a considerable amount of igneous rock which occurs in the form of dikes and overflows, which, as the sandstone has been worn away by erosive agencies, occasionally stand out quite conspicuously, although nowhere reaching an ele vation of more than a few hundred feet. Some well- known and much- visited localities — such as Mount Tom and Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts, the Hang ing Hills and East and West Rocks in Connecticut, and the Palisades in New York — are of this character. The fossils which the sandstones contain are not nu merous, but are of much interest, and the geological age assigned to this formation by most palaeontologists is the Triassic. In several localities, however, great numbers of footprints of animals occur, which were long con sidered to be those of birds, but which are now known to belong — in considerable part, at least — to the Rep- tilia ; some of which had certain features allying them to birds. The paucity of fossil remains other than foot prints found in these rocks has rendered the working out of their true relations a matter of considerable diffi culty. The latest investigations of Professor Fontaine show that the Mesozoic areas of Virginia are separable into two quite distinct groups — an older and a newer, — the floras of the two being quite distinct. It is in the older Mesozoic of Virginia, and in the most easterly area, near Richmond, that the coal occurs which was the flrst worked in the United States. The stratigraphical relations of the Mesozoic sand- 68 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. stones are difficult of comprehension, and have been the occasion of much discussion among geologists, without any unanimity of opinion having been yet reached. Section IIL— THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. The grand complex of mountains, valleys, and pla teaux which forms the western side of the framework of the Great Central Valley of the United States is known as the " Cordilleran Region " or " Cordilleran System." For convenient description it may be divided into six regions, in accordance with the current nomen clature, and in harmony with the most marked physi ographical characteristics of its various portions. These divisions are : 1. The Rocky Mountains ; 2. The Great Basin, and the Basin Ranges; 3. The Northern, or Columbian, Plateau ; 4. The Southern, or Colorado, Plateau ; 5. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges ; 6. The Pacific Coast Ranges. Each of these will be described in the order here indicated. THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. The Rocky Mountains form the eastern border of the Cordilleran Region, and this border is a broad ahd well- defined one, made up of many subordinate ranges, each range or sub-group of ranges having a distinctive name, recognized by those living near, while the name " Rocky Mountains " is in general use as the proper appellation when a number of these sub-groups of ranges are in tended to be included under one common name. The Rocky Mountains may be divided into two parts : a, the north-and-south-trending portion ; &, the north- THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 69 west-and-southeast-trending portion. Between these two subdivisions of the system there is a marked oro graphic break, in the form of a high plateau region, over which the Union Pacific Railroad passes at an ele vation of about eight thousand feet. On the north of this plateau are the Sweet-water and the much higher Wind River Mountains, which latter *form the culmi nating region of the continent, since in them head the three great river systems of the country — the Missouri, the Columbia, and the Colorado. The southern, or north-and-south-trending, division of the Rocky Mountains, is made up of a considerable number of quite distinctly marked portions. It is about six hundred miles in length from north to south, and about half that in breadth. Its eastern edge is ex tremely well marked, the ranges rising abruptly from a very gently sloping plateau. Looking at this division in the most general way, we find on its eastern edge a double range of mountains, quite distinctly marked in Colorado, or between the parallels of 36° and 41°, where they enclose a system of high, plateau-like valleys, known as the North, Middle, South, and San Luis Parks, which have an elevation of from six to ten thousand feet above the sea-level, the enclosing ranges rising three to four thousand feet higher. These so- called parks are drained by the head-waters of the Platte, Arkansas, and Colorado, with the exception of the San Luis Park or valley — the largest of them all — in which heads the Rio Grande. From the San Luis Park this river finds its way southward through New Mexico, having a pretty well-marked and lofty range on its eastern side, and more broken ones on 70 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. the west ; the two representing the Front and Park Ranges of Colorado, these being the names commonly given to the two systems, previously indicated as ex isting in that State. The following ranges are more or less distinctly marked in this north-and-south-trending portion of the Rocky Mountain'system : — The Front, or Colorado, Range proper, beginning as a junction, at the south, of the Medicine Bow Range and the Laramie Hills, which are low, inconspicuous ranges closing in the eastern and southeastern portion of the plateau before noticed as marking the separa tion between the northern and southern divisions of the Rocky Mountain system. The Front, or Colorado, Range, from about the parallel of 41° southward, is a broad, lofty mass, continuous as far south as Pike's Peak, about latitude 38° 45', when it runs out into the plain. The best-known points in the Rocky Mountains are in this range, namely. Long's and Pike's Peaks, both named in honor of early explorers of this region. Pike's Peak for some years gave a name to the whole region along the base of the Rocky Mountains now embraced within the State of Colorado. During the early days of the emigration to this region, this was known as the "Pike's Peak country," and the emi grants thither were called " Pike's-Peakers." Long's Peak (14,271 feet) and Pike's Peak (14,147) are visi ble from the plains, and are conspicuous landmarks, the latter, especially, being more isolated than the Rocky Mountain peaks usually are, especially in this portion of the systera. Gray's Peak (14,341 feet) is THE SAWATCH RANGE. 71 the highest point in the Colorado range ; but, although on the continental divide, it is too far toward the west- ' em edge of the range to be visible from the plains. This divide, which separates the waters flowing into the Atlantic from those emptying into the Pacific, follows the Front Range southerly as far as Gray's Peak, where it is deflected westward for twenty miles, when it takes the Sawatch Range, which it follows for about seventy-five miles. In this deflection from the Front to the Sawatch Range, the divide passes between Middle and South Parks, the lowest pass in this part being that called the " Tennessee," which leads from the head of the Arkansas to the Grand River branch of the Colorado. It is 10,418 feet above the sea-level. The Sawatch Range is one of the highest and best- marked chains in the Rocky Mountains. It lies west of the head of the Arkansas, and its dominating peaks, along the whole range, exceed fourteen thousand feet in elevation. The most northerly of these, the Mountain of the Holy Cross (14,176 feet), was so named on account of the existence on its eastern flank of a large snow-field lying in two ravines which inter sect each other at right angles, in the form of a cross, and which in summer is conspicuously visible from a great distance. This peculiar feature had been noticed, and the mountain named by explorers and trappers, long before anything definite had been ascertained in regard to the topography of this part of the country. The highest point in the Sawatch Range is Mount Har vard (14,375 feet). The passes in this range are from twelve to thirteen thousand feet in elevation. The continental divide follows the Sawatch Range 72 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. to its southern end, in latitude 38° 20', and then runs in a southwesterly direction for about seventy-five miles, over a high region without any distinctly marked range. Here it turns, and running southeasterly, fol lows the crest of the San Juan Range, in which are many points having an altitude of over thirteen thou sand feet. This range forms the western border of the San Luis Park, and from its northwestern end, in going either north, northwest, or west, the explorer finds himself passing over a very elevated and exceed ingly broken country, which finally merges in the plateau or " mesa " region of Western Colorado. Un- compahgre Peak (14,235 feet) — a magnificent isolated summit of volcanic materials — is the culminating point of this region. West of the Sawatch Range is the range of the Elk Mountains — a volcanic mass of sharp pinnacles, the culminating point of which. Castle Peak, surpasses four teen thousand feet in elevation. Between the Elk Mountains and the Uncompahgre head the various branches which unite to form the Gunnison Fork of Grand River. The entire western portion of Colorado is a high plateau region of sedimentary rocks, of late geological age, cut deeply into by numerous streams, giving rise to canons or ravines alternating with mesas or pla teaux, the whole forming a labyrinthine succession of depressions and elevations. The mesas are sometimes so nearly eroded away that the remaining portion of the flat surface is hardly wide enough for a mule-trail ; while at other times there is a broad area of nearly level surface, bordered on each side by tremendous THE PARKS. 73 precipices. The small valleys on the streams, where there is an area of level land large enough to be a fea ture in the topography, are called " parks " or " holes." The area occupied by these in Colorado, west of the continental divide, is extremely small as compared with the whole area of the region. When " the parks " are spoken of in describing the Rocky Mountains, it is usually the more conspicuous ones — the North, Middle, South, and San Luis Parks — which are intended to be designated. The North Park is north of the limits of Colorado, in Wyoming. It is a tolerably level area, about forty by twenty miles in dimensions, and quite walled in by high ranges, points in which surpass twelve thousand feet in altitude. This Park is a favorite resort for hunters. In it heads the North Fork of the Platte. Middle Park, which is drained by the branches of Grand River (not to be con founded with the Rio Grande), is much more broken by elevations than North Park. The continental divide surrounds it on every side excepting the west. There are but few points in this Park below seven thousand feet in altitude. South Park is larger than North or Middle Parks ; it is also more nearly level, and has a higher elevation than either of them. It is about ten thousand feet high at its northern end, and declines gradually southward to about eight thousand. Its length is about forty miles, and its breadth from fifteen to twenty. The San Luis Park — or Valley, as it is more often called — is much larger than the more northern parks, and is closed in by high mountain ranges. On its northeastern side it has as a boundary the Sangre de 74 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. Cristo Range, of which the culminating point is Blanca Peak, which, according to the measurements of the Hayden Survey, is the highest point in the Rocky Mountains, it being 14,463 feet in elevation, or eighty- eight feet higher than Mount Harvard, the second in height. The Sangre de Cristo Range is almost a con tinuation of the Sawatch, having the same trend and similar geological characters, the two being separated by the broad depression known as Poncho Pass, about nine thousand feet in elevation. The northwestern portion of the San Luis Valley is closed in by the Garita Hills, which are a part of the great irregular volcanic- mass continued northwesterly by the Uncom pahgre, and southwesterly by the San Juan Range. The San Luis Valley is traversed by the Rio Grande, which enters it from the west, heading in the above- mentioned volcanic region. In the northern and wider portion of the valley, the streams coming down from the high mountains sink, or are lost by evaporation, before reaching the Rio Grande, and most of this por tion of the valley is sandy, and unfit for cultivation except where it can be artificially irrigated. Going west from the San Juan Range, in latitude 38°, we soon enter the plateau region, which extends to the Colorado, and which will be described farther on. This plateau region is bounded on the northeast by the vol canic masses of the San Juan, Uncompahgre, and Elk Mountains, at the western base of which spread the great tables or mesas of Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks, often capped by volcanic materials, and which thus already begin to exhibit the characteristic features of the plateau region. Here head the principal branches THE UINTAH RANGE. 75 of Grand River, and of the Gunnison, its great north western affluent. The Grand itself heads in the Front Range, on the western slope of Long's Peak, while the Gunnison heads near Mount Harvard, the two unit ing near the western boundary of Colorado, near the parallel of 39°. Directly west off North Park, and separated from it by the mass of the Park Range, and also by a broad belt of high mesa country, is the Uintah Range, which is remarkable as having an east-and-west trend, and which thus forms a sort of connecting link between the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountain system and its western border, of wliich the Wahsatch Range is the most strongly marked division. The Uintah Range, starting from the eastern side of the Wahsatch, where it inosculates with it, runs east for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, when it sinks and becomes lost in the Tertiary and Cretaceous mesas lying west of the Park Range. It has the Bridger Basin on the north — a continuation of the Laramie Plains — the two together forming an important member of the orographic break between the north and south divisions of the Rocky Mountain system already indicated. The Bridger Basin is underlain by rocks of Eocene age, and has an elevation of six to seven thousand feet, Fort Bridger itself being 6,753 feet above the sea-level. South of the Uintah Range is the Uintah Valley, also underlain by Tertiary rocks, and forming the north- westernmost division of the Colorado plateau region. .,The Uintah Range itself is of very simple geological structure, it being a low, flattened anticlinal, compli cated by one or more faults on the northern edge. The 76 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. Tertiary and Cretaceous strata have been so much eroded away on the higher portion of the flattened arch, that the chief rock exposed in the body of the range is the underlying Carboniferous. The highest points in this range, as given by the Fortieth Parallel Survey, are Gil bert's Peak, 13,687, Tokewanna, 13,458, and Wilson's Peak, 13,235 feet. The southern slope of this range is drained by the various affluents of Green River, which unites with the Grand, about one hundred and seventy- five miles farther south, to form the Colorado. The Wahsatch Range is one of the most conspicuous of the Rocky Mountain system, and as it borders the Great Basin on its eastern side, it may properly be con sidered as forming the western limit of the Rocky Mountain southern division of the Cordilleran system. This range has a nearly north-and-south trend, rising with a bold escarpment to a height of nearly twelve .thousand feet in the portion of the range just east of Salt Lake City, but falling off gradually toward the north, and not being recognizable as a distinct range beyond Bear River. This stream heads on the northern slope of the Uintah Range, in nearly the same latitude as that of Salt Lake City, then flows northward for more than a hundred miles, to latitude 42° 40', when it turns and follows an almost exactly opposite course, finding its way around the north end of the Wahsatch Range, and emptying into Great Salt Lake. In the loop thus made by Bear River is a well-marked range of mountains called also the Bear River Range, in which is one summit a little over ten thousand feet in height (North Logan Peak, 10,004), and others of nearly equal altitude. ROCKY MOUNTAINS — NORTHERN DIVISION. 77 The whole of the Wahsatch region — the range of that name as well as the parallel ranges and spurs on the east — is one of difficult and complicated topogra phy, as may be inferred from the indicated course of Bear River. It forms the connection between the north and south divisions of the Rocky Mountains, and con nects by spurs and irregular lines of elevation with the Wind River Range, the range of the Tetons, and the Snake River Mountains, in which heads the river of that name. Although Bear River runs for more than a hundred miles in a northerly direction before crossing the Wah satch Range, the Weber River (which heads in the Uin tah Range, within three or four miles of the head of Bear River) runs with a pretty direct southwesterly course across that range, breaking through it where it is frora eight to nine thousand feet in elevation, and affording an easy route for the railroad from the Bridger and Great River Basin through to Salt Lake. The northern division of the Rocky Mountains has been much less fully explored than the southern, partly because until the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad it was much less accessible than the southern division. Like that, it is made up of a large number of ranges, having a general northwest-southeast trend, although by no means regularly conforming to that direction. As a whole, the northern division of the Rocky Mountains is lower and less impressive from the grandeur of the masses than is the southern; and as we advance northwesterly we find more monotony in the scenery, more uniformity in the elevation of the' ranges, and an almost entire absence of remarkable 78 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. dominating peaks. Striking exceptions to this condi tion are the Wind River and Teton Ranges and the Yellowstone geyser region, the former being two of the grandest chains on the continent, and the latter a por tion of the country of an unsurpassed scenic and scien tific interest. The Northern Pacific Railroad, by which access is had from the east to this formerly so remote portion of the Cordilleras, strikes across the plains from the west ern end of Lake Superior directly west to the Missouri, which it crosses in longitude 101°, at Bismarck, near the centre of Dakota. From this crossing it runs in almost a straight line to the Yellowstone River, which it fol lows for a distance of three hundred and forty miles. Here it crosses the divide between the Yellowstone and the Gallatin, another branch of the Missouri, through Bozeman Pass, following this stream to Helena, a dis tance of about one hundred miles. From here the ascent of the main divide of the Rocky Mountains is made by way of Mullan's Pass, the summit being crossed by a tunnel 3,850 feet long, at an elevation of 5,548 feet. Thence the road follows Hell-Gate River and the Missoula to Clarke's Fork, and this latter to Lake Pend' Oreilles (2,059 feet), which it curves around on the northern side, and from there strikes directly southwest to the junction of Snake River with the main Columbia. The Rocky Mountains in their northwestern portion in Montana and Idaho are more irregular in their development than they are farther south. There is, "however, a similar tendency in both regions to the for mation of those mountain-encircled valleys, which are BITTER ROOT AND CRAZY MOUNTAINS. 79 SO generally known in this region as " parks," although not infrequently'' called "prairies." These parks are mostly destitute of timber, excepting the cottonwoods along the banks of the streams. The mountains are more or less covered with coniferous trees, not of great size, but sufficiently large for ordinary building pur poses. As the ranges themselves are lower in this region than they are in Colorado and in the southern division generally, so the high enclosed valleys are also proportionally lower. Portions of them have a soil suitable for cultivation ; other portions are covered with bunch grass and well adapted for grazing. There is considerable uncertainty in the iiomenclature of the various ranges which together make up this portion of the Rocky Mountains. 'The name "Bitter Root " is most frequently given to an important range which in a portion of its course forms the main divide between the Missouri and the Columbia, but which farther to the northwest separates the waters tributary to the Snake from those which unite to help form the Clarke's Fork. The Lapwai and Coeur d' Alene Ranges lie west and southwest of the Bitter Root Mountains, and unite the Rocky Mountains with the Blue Moun tains — an important but little-known group of ranges, which occupies a considerable portion of the region lying west of Snake River. There are also various groups of mountains, more or less isolated in position, and lying to the east of the main range of the Rocky Mountains in this portion of their extension. The Crazy Mountains form an isolated group of elevations immediately north of the Yellow stone River, as it issues from the mountains at the 80 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. lower canon. Of this group a topographical map h£ts been made by A. D. Wilson, and its geology has been investigated by J. E. Wolff. The Crazy Mountains occupy an area about forty miles in length and fif teen wide; the highest point — Crazy Peak — being 11,178 feet in elevation, and there are numerous other peaks ranging from eleven thousand feet down. This' mountain mass is formed by immense outbursts of vol canic rocks through horizontally lying strata consisting of sandstones and shales of Cretaceous age. The Judith Mountains form another more or less isolated group lying considerably farther east than the Crazy Mountains, in longitude 109°-110°. Still farther north and east are the Big Horn Mountains — an exten sive range which forms an advance guard as it were of the main chain between the parallels of 43° and 46°. Again, still farther east, and in entire isolation from the main range, is the large and important group knOwn as the Black Hills, in longitude 103° to 105°, embracing a region which has become of considerable importance, in later years, on account of its mineral wealth. This group covers an area of an irregularly oval shape, about one hundred and twenty miles in length, and from forty to fifty miles in width. The average eleva tion of the group is from two to three thousand feet above the surrounding country; the highest point — Mount Harney — rises to a height of 9,700 feet above the sea-level. Deadwood, the principal mining settle ment, has an elevation of 4,630 feet. The geological structure of this range is compara tively simple, and typical of that of a very considerable portion of the ranges of the Rocky Mountains, espe- GEOLOGY OF THE BLACK HILLS. 81 cially of those pertaining to the northern division of the system. The central, or axial, mass is of an oval form, about seventy miles in length by forty broad, and is made up of crystalline rocks, granitic, gneissoid, and schistose in character. The sedimentary rocks rest upon it unconformably, folded like a mantle around its base, and everywhere dipping from it, at a higher angle near the axial mass, and at a lesser one as we recede from it. The lowest fossiliferous rock is the Potsdam sandstone, ha"ving a thickness of from two to three hun dred feet. On this rests, conformably, a series of beds of Carboniferous age, six to seven hundred feet in thickness ; and this group is succeeded by the series of d*eep-red, sandy, gypsiferous strata — the " Red Beds " of the Rocky Mountain geologists — a very conspicuous feature of the geology through a large portion of the region here under description, the more so because often eroded into peculiar, fantastic, and picturesque forms. These beds are considered to be of Triassic age. In the Black Hills their total thickness varies from three to four hundred feet. Above the Red Beds lies the Jurassic, which in this division of the Rocky Mountains has a quite uniform character, and is made up of gray or ash-colored marls, marly limestones, and soft sandstones. The thickness of this group in the central region of the Black Hills is about two hundred feet, increasing to the north, and attaining in Belle Fourche Valley a maximum of six hundred feet. In the Wind River Range the Jurassic is more largely developed; and farther to the south and southwest, through the Rocky Mountains and in the ranges south of the Great Basin, it is still thicker. Above the Trias- 6 82 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. sic and Jurassic, and conformable with them, are the various members of the Cretaceous series so largely developed in this region, varying in lithological charac ter, the upper six hundred feet composed of soft, easily eroded materials, and containing many characteristic Cretaceous fossils. The position of these various groups of strata, some quite hard and others very soft, wrapped concentrically around the axial mass, and cut through by a radial drainage, has given rise to an inter esting topography, easily understood from its simplicity, and little obscured by any covering of forest vegetation, as is fully set forth with copious and instructive illus trations in the official Report of Messrs. Newton and Jenney on the geology of the Black Hills. A re markable scenic feature of this region is the Bear Lodge, or Devil's Tower, " a great rectangular obelisk of trachyte, with a columnar structure, giving it a ver tically striated appearance," rising six hundred and twenty-five feet from its base, and whose summit is entirely inaccessible. This curious rock, remarkable for its symmetry and isolation, stands on the western bank of the Belle Fourche, about four miles southeast of the Little Missouri Buttes. THE GREAT BASIN. The Great Basin is the name now given to a region embracing an area of about a quarter of a million of square miles, and having no drainage to the sea. Its shape is roughly triangular, the apex of the tri angle being near the mouth of the Colorado River, and its base extending in an irregular line, approximately BONNEVILLE'S EXPLORATIONS. 83 • east and west in direction, from near the northeastern corner of California to a point on the northern slope of the Uintah Range, where, as already mentioned. Bear River heads, and which, since it empties into Salt Lake, belongs to the Great Basin system. The length of the east side of the triangle thus designated is ap proximately six hundred miles. From the northern side or base of this triangle the drainage is into Snake River ; on the southeastern side rise various branches of the Colorado ; and the southwestern is very distinctly marked, for the greater part of its length, by the crest of the Sierra Nevada. The first general idea of the drainage and principal topographical features of the Great Basin is due to Bonneville, who fitted out a party which started from Green River with the intention of making the entire circuit of Great Salt Lake. This, as Irving states, was a favorite idea of Bonneville's ; and in preparing for this expedition all the resources at his command were taxed. The party, consisting of forty men, did not, however, succeed in carrying out Bonneville's plans, but were driven, by the difficult topography and utter barrenness of the country on the south side of the lake, toward the west, travelling in which direction they soon came upon the head-waters of the river called upon Bonneville's maps " Mary or Ogden's," but which is now known as the Humboldt. This river they fol lowed until they found that " it lost itself in a great swampy lake [the sink of the Humboldt], to which there was no apparent discharge." From here the party crossed the Sierra Nevada and raade their way to Mon terey. Bonneville's party was thus the first to explore 84 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. and map the route afterward generally followed by eraigrants, and along which the Central Pacific — the first transcontinental railroad — was built. The peculiar course of Bear River, here already noticed, was shown on this map, and the general character of the drainage of the Pacific coast was, for the first time, correctly indicated by Bonneville. The first working out of any of the details of the topography of the Great Basin is due to Butler Ives, a topographer in the employ of the Central Pacific Railroad, the directors of this work hav ing been desirous of ascertaining whether there was any practicable route across the Basin other than that through the valley of the Humboldt; which, however, was the one ultimately adopted, all other routes hav ing been found too difficult. Still farther and more detailed explorations and surveys were made on the western side of the Basin, first by the California Geo logical Survey, and later by the United States En gineers ; and a belt a hundred miles in width was also surveyed across this region, starting from the crest of the Sierra Nevada and going east to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. This belt was the field occupied by the Fortieth Parallel Survey, under the direction of Clarence King. The Great Basin is an elevated plateau, traversed by numerous ranges of mountains having a general north- and-south trend, and a very considerable elevation above the intervening valleys. While there is a marked ten dency in these ranges to isolation from each other, and to separation by deep and persistent valleys,' there is still so much inosculation of one range with another, and so much irregularity in their development, that it THE GREAT BASIN. 85 is extremely difficult to define their number, or to group them in a satisfactory manner. The difficulties in the way of any such generalizations are much increased by the fact that the southern portion, of the Basin has been as yet but very imperfectly surveyed. As an approxi mation to the truth, however, it may be stated that in starting from the crest of the Sierra Nevada, at a point west of Pyramid Lake, and going in a direction a little north of east to Salt Lake, the traveller would cross about twenty mountain chains, mostly very distinctly marked, and separated by deep valleys of from four to twenty miles in width. The height of the plateau from which these chains rise is greatest in its central portion, and it declines east and west, and also toward the south, where con siderable areas are actually below the level of the sea. The most important centres toward which the drainage converges are Salt Lake and the sink of the Humboldt and Carson. The surface of Salt Lake is about 4,250 feet above the sea-level.; the height of Ogden, at the junction, on. the east side of the lake, of the Union with the Central Pacific Railroad, being 4,303 feet, according to the railroad surveys, and that of Salt Lake City about the same. The elevation of the Humboldt sink is very nearly the same as that of Great Salt Lake. The head of the Humboldt River is near Cedar Pass, which is 6,263 feet above the sea-level, and about a hundred miles west of Salt Lake. This river therefore marks a distinct line of depression near the northern edge of the Great Basin, and in going south from this we rise in the various valleys to heights of from five to seven thousand feet. The Humboldt sink not only 86 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. receives the surplus drainage of the northern portion of the Basin, but is on the same level, and after a wet season in actual continuous connection, with the Carson sink, into which quite an extensive portion of the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada is drained. Throughout the Great Basin the valleys between the ranges are themselves usually sinks, and the lo-n^er por tion of each is frequently occupied by a body of water which varies in size according as the preceding winter has been more or less dry, and of which many are hardly more than saline incrustations resting upon a more or less muddy bottom. In general the valleys are nearly bare of vegetation in their lower portions ; higher up they are covered with a growth of desert shrubs. There are in occasional favored localities small sedge-grass meadows. There is a rapid falling off in elevation of the Basin region toward its southwestern corner, and here portions are below the sea-level. Death Valley, the sink of the Armagosa River, is one of these depressed regions, and along the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad is another depression, a little over sixty miles in length, the lowest portion of which is 263 feet below the sea-level. The ranges which traverse the Great Basin with a gen erally approximately north-and-south trend vary consid erably in elevation and importance. Some are short and inconspicuous ; others maintain an almost unbroken crest for a hundred miles or more. It is possible that when the topography of the southern portion of the Basin has been worked out more fully, some of the ranges will be found to be continuous for a much greater length. Their parallelism in certain portions of the THE GREAT BASIN. 87 Basin is very striking. The most lofty range is that called the East Humboldt — or, more frequently, simply the Humboldt — which rises in about the middle of the Basin, its southern end being in longitude 115° 30', and runs north-northeast for about a hundred miles, to near the head of the Humboldt River. At the north end of this range is Mount Bonpland (11,321 feet), the culmi nating point of the Basin ranges. The Pah-Ute Range, about one hundred and fifty miles west of the Humboldt, is another very persistent line of elevations, although rather irregular in trend,. and not very elevated. The West Humboldt Range is also a conspicuous one near the western side of the Basin, and its culminating point is Star Peak (9,925 feet). The mountain ranges of the Basin are characterized by the almost entire absence of forest vegetation. Only in their higher portions in the deeply hidden canons are trees at all abundant. The rocks are everywhere ex posed along the ridges and flanks. The valleys are deeply filled with detrital materials washed down from the higher adjacent regions, and rising sometimes along the flanks of the ranges to a very considerable height, with a steep but gradually diminishing slope, indicating the former greater energy of erosive agencies. The Great Basin is an interesting field for the geolo gist, not only on account of its geological features, but because the rocks are so little covered by soil and vege tation that much can be made out without the necessity of waiting, as is usually the case in new regions, for help from artificial excavations. The most important feature in the geology of the Great Basin is the entire absence of the marine Cretaceous and Tertiary forma- 88 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. tions which play such an important part in the Rocky Mountain division of the Cordilleran system. With the exception of the late fresh-water Tertiary of the Hum boldt River and some of the areas farther west, and of the post-Pliocene detrital accumulations of the valleys, there is nothing in the Basin more recent than Jurassic, and very little of this, the most recent really important fossiliferous formation being the Alpine Trias. The stratigraphical relations of the formations, especially with reference to the building up of these ranges, are mostly simple, and at the same time interesting. In stead of being folded, greatly compressed, and even overturned masses with eruptive centres, like the Alps, they are more like the Appalachian and Jura Ranges, or even still simpler than these. Some ranges are simple monoclinals ; others are anticlinals ; and others, again, synclinals, or a combination of two or more of these forras of structure. They are rarely, or never, closely corapressed, and only moderately faulted. The simplicity of the geological structure is a key to the simplicity of the topography j while the striking pecul iarities of Appalachian erosion, due in large part to the repetitions of hard and soft strata, are not to be found as important elements in the Great Basin topography. In one respect, however, the Basin ranges differ in a marked degree from those of the Appalachians and Jura ; this is the almost constant presence, and some times overwhelming importance, of the volcanic masses throughout the whole region. These volcanic forma-* tions are varied in lithological character, and equally so in stratigraphical position. In some instances they make up the whole range — or, at least, the whole in- THE NORTHERN PLATEAU. 89 terior skeleton of older rocks, if such exist, is concealed •by them. In other cases the eruptive materials have been poured forth along the base of the uplift, and there form great plateau-like masses ; or they have issued from the summit of the range and spread themselves there in sheets, or flowed down the flanks of the central raass. In this respect the Basin ranges maintain a unity with the other portions of the Cordilleran system, throughout which the exhibition of the results of vol canic energy during the later geological periods is every where manifested on a scale perhaps unequalled any where in the world, as will be made abundantly evident in the succeeding pages. The mining developments in the Great Basin have been numerous and important ; so much so, that various portions of this region are now easily accessible by rail road, and the geology of some of the principal mining districts has been worked out in detail by the United States Geological Survey. Information in regard to these mining developments will be found farther on. THE NORTHERN PLATEAU. The third division of the Cordilleran system is that of the Northern or Columbian Plateau, and it embraces the region enclosed between the northern extension of the Rocky Mountains on the east, and the Cascade Range on the west. It is the basin of the Columbia River, which drains it by means of two principal branches, one of which retains the name "Columbia" to its source, beyond the boundary of the United States, while the other, originally named the Lewis, is now 90 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. almost universally known as the Snake River. The main Columbia itself forks near the boundary line, the main river coming down from the north, parallel with the range, and being joined by Clarke's Fork, which has a similar course, but in an opposite direction. The Columbia and the Snake after uniting flow westward for about a hundred miles, before breaking through the Cascade Range, as will be noticed farther on. The vast area thus drained by the Columbia and its branches is precisely that portion of the United States of which we have the smallest amount of accurate topographical knowledge. Only its more striking fea tures can therefore be indicated. The northwesterly trend of the northern division of the Rocky Mountains reduces the width of the Cordil leran system as we go north, since the Cascade Range remains unchanged in its direction from the southern line of Oregon through to the northern boundary of the country. The area between the two systems is more or less completely filled with mountains of which little is definitely known. There are two principal groups of these mountains, known as the Blue and Salmon River Ranges. The former range lies in the angle made by the Snake in its northerly course before reaching the Colurabia ; the latter forms an intricate mass of moun tains, extending from the westernmost ridge of the Rocky Mountain System southwest toward the Snake. The Columbia River heads only a hundred miles north of the boundary line, but runs nearly two hundred miles farther in a northwesterly direction before turn ing to go south again in a course nearly parallel to that which it had before, although in an opposite direction. THE NORTHERN PLATEAU. 91 Nearly parallel with it runs another principal branch — the Okanagan — which joins it about seventy miles south of the boundary line ; and from here the course of the Columbia is southerly, parallel with the Cascade Range for about one hundred and sixty miles, to the Great Bend, when the river takes a nearly westerly direction, which it keeps until, after having passed through the range, it reaches the Pacific. All the region lying north and west of the river, and between that and the Cascade Rano'e, is a mountainous one. The topography is very irregular, but there is a general ten dency to a north-and-south trend in the ranges. This tendency is still more marked in the region west of this, lying between the Columbia and the Pend' Oreilles Rivers. As curiously illustrative of the topography of this part of the country, it may be noticed that the Colville River runs north through this region in exactly the opposite direction from the other two rivers with which it is parallel. The ranges on each side of the Colville rise to from five to seven thousand feet in height. Until quite recently this region was not known, even in the merest outlines of its topography. Its exploration forms a part of the work done by Mr. A. D. Wilson for the Northern Pacific Railroad. South of the Columbia there is a vast area extending to the edge of the Great Basin, and enclosed between the Rocky and Cascade Mountains, of which the main feature is that a very large portion of it is deeply covered by volcanic formations, which here extend over a larger continuous area than anywhere else in the world, with the possible exception of the Deccan in India. This volcanic plateau-like region extends from 92 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. far north of the line in British Columbia, south to near the line of the Central Pacific Railroad in Nevada, from which its dark and frowning walls are visible ; it stretches east up Snake River Valley to the base of the Rocky Mountains, and southwest, through California, into the Valley of the Sacramento. Along the Colurabia River it unites with the great volcanic mass on which Hood, Adams, and St. Helen's are built up ; and still farther north it merges in the eruptive accumulations which reach their greatest elevation and grandeur in Mount Rainier. These lava masses lie in nearly hori zontal beds of varying thickness, interesting in their geological relations, but extremely monotonous from the scenographic point of view. They are often cut deeply into by the streams, which in some places have sunk their beds below the general level of the country, to the depth of more than five hundred feet. These streams are not infrequently precipitated over the edges of the volcanic masses in cataracts, which sometimes are ex tremely picturesque. The falls of the Pelouse River are striking ; but those of the Snake River — known as the Shoshone Falls — are by far the finest, and among the water-falls of the United States, perhaps next to Niagara in grandeur. On the volcanic plateau are occa sional , cones, occurring singly or in groups ; but much the larger portion of the overflows seem to have taken place in the form of massive eruptions, by which wide areas were covered very uniformly with lava, and on these nearly horizontal masses the cones have been built up during the dying-out of the eruptive agencies. So little is yet known of the details of the geology of this region, that an estimate of the average thickness of the THE NORTHERN PLATEAU. 93 volcanic overflow would be hardly anything more than a guess ; while any precise statement of the number of square miles thus covered is impossible. It would be safe to say that the volcanic rocks cover an area, about the Columbia and its branches, east of the Cascade Range, of fully one hundred thousand square miles, and perhaps considerably more. A large portion of the area thus covered by volcanic rocks was once occupied by bodies of fresh water, the deposits from which, in the form of sands and clays, have been exposed by erosion in various places, and are found to be rich in remains of land and aquatic animals, mostly of late Tertiary age. A considerable nuraber of lakes still occupy portions of the surface, and an extensive group of these, some of which are of large size, although shallow, occupies a corner of Oregon and an adjacent part of California, east of the Cascade Range. Much of the volcanic area forming this northern pla teau of the Columbia is dry and barren. The valleys along the river courses are in many places well adapted for cultivation ; but these fertile areas are of compara tively small extent. The mountain ranges, around the bases and over the lower portions of which the volcanic materials have been deposited, appear to reserable in lithological charac ter and geological age the rocks of the Sierra Nevada. In the Owyhee Mountains — the range or group of ele vations lying between the Snake and Owyhee Rivers, in the southwestern corner of Idaho — there is a central core of granite, on which rest raetaraorphic slates and sandstones, forming a belt twenty miles wide on the 94 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. southwestern side of the range, and half as much on the other side. In the granitic axis are numerous veins of quartz carrying free gold and ores of silver. With the exception of occasional hot springs, volcanic activity seems to be extinct, or at least to have been for sorae tirae dormant, in the Northern Plateau region. Mr. Gabb, in exploring, under the writer's direction, the southern part of Oregon, saw numerous dikes, of which the original scoriaceous surface was as well preserved as if the eruption were of yesterday ; and in places where the pasty mass had flowed for some distance, the con centric wrinkles were perfectly preserved. There seems to have been about the close of the Tertiary epoch a period of extraordinary volcanic activity throughout the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges, and over a vast extent of country to the east. It does not appear, however, that there has been during the post-Tertiary times, anywhere in this region, any eruption of fluid lava which would harden into solid rock on cooling. THE COLORADO PLATEAU. The region of which the principal, or more striking, topographical and geological features are next to be indicated is that lying, south of the Great Basin, and which is drained by the Colorado and its tributaries. It is included chiefly within the boundaries of the Terri tories of Utah and Arizona ; but, to a certain extent, similar characteristic features are found in the adjacent portion of Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada. Enclosed between the ranges of the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Sierra Nevada on the west, there THE BAD LANDS. 95 are — as has been seen — nuraerous high plateau-like districts, the beds of old fresh-water lakes, some of which were of large dimensions, and which in later geological times have become dry land. The strata de posited at the bottom of these lakes have been cut into by erosive agencies in nuraerous places, so that the geological structure stands fully revealed, while the wealth of organic remains which they contain has made these old lake-beds wonderfully attractive to palseontolo- gists, and to those interested in the results of palseon- tological investigations. The drainage, desiccation, and subsequent erosion of these areas have given rise to a remarkable type of scenery, to which the name of Mau- vaises Terres was applied by the fur-hunters long before this region had become scientifically known, and of which term the English equivalent, " Bad Lands," has become familiar to all who have travelled in the Far West, or studied its topographical features. These Bad Lands, which lie south and southwest of the Missouri, and along its tributaries coming in from that direction, may be considered as the precursors and representatives of lands which from the agricultural and business point of view are bad enough, but which to the geologist and lover of the picturesque are in the highest degree good, since they reveal a type of scenery of an almost unique character, and which is perhaps, on the whole, more striking than anything which this continent elsewhere exhibits. The essential features of this type of scenery, of which the Grand Canon of the Colorado is the grand est and most complete example, are these : A heavy mass of stratified materials, several thousand feet in thickness, some of the details of which will be given 96 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. farther on, covering many thousand square miles of area, has been cut into and eroded away, so as to give rise to a labyrinthine series of gorges, or " canons " — as they are almost universally called in the regions where they occur — having a depth of from one to five thousand feet, the walls of which are almost always extreraely precipitous and in places perpen dicular, and which are by no means flat surfaces, but which are worn and sculptured into forms almost always peculiar and striking, and often fantastic in the highest degree. And to a variety and complexity of form, which seem to find a parallel nowhere on the earth, is added the attraction of color — the various groups of strata forming the caiSon walls presenting a gay adornment of tints of red, yellow, purple, brown, and gray, the depth and brilliancy of which surpass belief ; and which, as illuminated by the rising, noon day, or setting sun are alternately brought into bright est relief, or thrown into deepest gloom, this ceaseless change of light and shadow giving that variety to the panorama which might otherwise perhaps be considered by some as monotonous, from the entire predominance of one peculiar type of scenery. Landscapes, rock- masses, and mountain crests, in the picturesque aspect of which color enters as an essential element, are of common enough occurrence ; but in the Grand Canon and Plateau region we find something quite different from the ordinary type of color in scenic displays, dif fering from these as much as the illumination of a red sunset does from the ordinary going down of the sun in a November fog. The arrangement of colors in ver tical stripes on portions of the so-called Pictured Rocks THE COLORADO PLATEAU. 97 of Lake Superior is indeed charming; but these cliffs are so insignificant in size, as compared with those of the Plateau region, that there can be no comparison between the two districts in regard to scenic effect. The bands of color which adorn the walls of the Yo semite Valley are laid on with a gigantic brush, but the tints are pale, and, though in harmony with the there generally prevailing sombre tints of rock and vegetation, and however much they may be admired when examined closely in detached portions, they are almost entirely without effect in a general view, in which grandeur of form is the overwhelmingly predom inating element. In the Plateau region, on the other hand, color seems an iraportant and ever necessary ad junct to the scenic display. The region in which these wonderfully picturesque forms of landscape occur lies to the south and east of the Great Basin, between Great Salt Lake and the Colorado, to the west of the Green River branch of that river, extending west, with a gradual disappear ance of its characteristic features, to near the border line of California. The Uintah Mountains may with convenience, although somewhat arbitrarily, be taken as the northern limit of the Plateau region; but, in point of fact, the characteristic type of scenery begins to be developed in Colorado, where the Book or Roan Plateau, which rises to a height of nine thousand feet above the sea-level, is deeply cut into by the White River in the north and the Grand River in the south. The grandeur of the scenic display begins here, and in creases toward the south, culminating in the so-called " Grand Canon of the Colorado." 98 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. The Plateau region has been explored and mapped more or less completely by various Government surveys, and has been the subject of two elaborate monographs by Captain Dutton, the value of which is greatly in creased by the admirable illustrations from the pencil of Mr. W. H. Holmes. The southwesternmost portion of the region, or that portion which includes the Grand Canon and its branches, according to Captain Dutton, has a length from northeast to southwest of about one hundred and eighty miles, and a breadth in the oppo site direction of about one hundred and twenty-five miles. On the west it has as its boundary a grand es carpment which marks the change from "the calm repose of the strata with horizontal surfaces to the tur moil of flexed beds and jagged mountain crests " ex hibited in the Sierra and the adjacent ranges on the southeast, in the deserts of Southern California. The transition from one type of geological structure to the other on that side is said by Captain Dutton to be so abrupt that one " might almost hurl a stone from one region to the other." On the east the Grand Canon receives the drainage of four distinct plateaux, the Sheavwitz, Uinkaret, Ka- nab, and Kaibab, east of which lies a fifth — the Paria — which drains into Marble Canon, which is the prelude to the Grand Canon. The Paria Plateau differs from the others in that it lies at a lower level, and is covered mainly by Triassic rocks, while the others present an almost unbroken expanse of Carboniferous strata. Fol lowing Captain Dutton's description of the region, we find that the southern boundary of the Grand Canon district is a continuation of the western one. The THE GRAND CAlfON DISTRICT. 99 same great escarpment which overlooks the Sierra to the west stretches southward across the Colorado, pre serving the same features for thirty or forty miles, which is as far in that direction as it has been exam ined. It slowly changes its course and follows a south easterly course through Eastern Arizona, where its edge is known as the MogoUon Mountains. Passing this line to the southwest, the country descends at once from the horizontal platform into a lower country hav ing apparently similar geological features to those pre sented in the Sierra country, to the west. The following are some of the more interesting facts connected with the form and structure of the various plateaux mentioned as making up the Grand Canon dis trict on the north of the Colorado. The Sheavwitz has on its western side the so-called "Great Wash" — a broad and deep valley extending from the north to the Colorado. The great escarpment of this plateau is a fault or break, along the course of which the country to the east has been raised several thousand feet above that to the west. The Uinkaret Plateau, which adjoins the Sheavwitz on the east, is separated from it geologi cally by another great fault — the Hurricane Ledge — which marks a rise of the region to the east to the amount of sixteen or eighteen hundred feet, and which is prolonged far to the north. On this plateau are nu merous cones and flows of basaltic lava, some of which appear to be of very recent origin. Under some of these are beds of Permian age, lying over the Carbon iferous, and preserved frorn erosion by the harder erup tive material with which they are capped. Another short fault separates the Uinkaret from the Kanab 100 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. Plateau on the east. The Kanab is the broadest of the four plateaux, and has a grand side canon cutting deeply into it, and running to the Colorado. The Kaibab Plateau coraes next on the east, and is described by Captain Dutton as being typical in form, flat on the summit, and terminated by lofty battlements upon its eastern and western sides. It is much higher than either of the other plateaux to the west, being from 7,500 to 9,300 feet above the sea-level. Its surface is covered in part with forests, between which are grassy parks, which in summer are " gay with flowers of rare beauty and luxuriance." The total length of this plateau is about ninety miles, and its maximum width about thirty-five. It is a block of ground raised by displace ment between two great faults. Farther east, and at a much lower altitude, is the Paria Plateau — " a terrace of Triassic strata scored with a labyrinth of canons," and again farther north, the Kaiparowits, which is nearly equal to the Kaibab, both in size and altitude ; this is composed of strata of Lower and Middle Cretaceous age. Still farther north is a succession of plateaux, separated from each other by lines of dislocation, which, however, gradually close together and become less conspicuous in this direction, the topographical features of the region being dependent chiefly for their existence on simple erosion, with the frequent occur rence of curious volcanic formations, and not so much on bodily uplift and depression of great masses of strata by faulting. On the southern side of the Colorado is another vast expanse of plateau land, underlain by nearly horizontal strata which, with one not important exception, are not PLATEAU SOUTH OF THE COLORADO. 101 deeply scored with canons, as is the region to the north. Captain Dutton thus describes this region : — " Low mesas, gently rolling, and usually clad with an ample growth of pine, pifion, and cedar ; broad and shallow valleys, yellow with sand or gray with sage — repeat themselves over the entire area. The altitude is greater than that of tlie pla teaux north of the Colorado, except the Kaibab, being on an average not far from seven thousand to seven thousand five hundred feet. From such commanding points as give an over look of this region, one lonely butte is always visible, and even conspicuous by reason of its isolation. It stands about twenty miles south of the Kaibab division of the Grand Canon, and is named the Red Butte. It consists of Permian strata lying like a cameo upon the general platform of Carboniferous beds. The nearest remnant of similar beds is many miles away. The butte owes its preservation to a mantle of basalt which came to the surface near the centre of its summit . . . Fifty or sixty miles south of the river rise the San Francisco Moun tains. They are all volcanoes, and four of them are of large dimensions ; the largest, San Francisco Mountain, nearly thir teen thousand feet high, might be classed among the largest volcanic piles of the West. Around these four masses are scattered many cones, and the lavas which emanate from them have sheeted over a large area." The length of the Grand Caiion of the Colorado, fol lowing the meanderings of the river along the middle of its water surface, is about two hundred and twenty miles. Where the caiion is 'narrowest, it is five miles across from the edge of one wall to the edge of the other. The general depth is two thousand feet ; but in the centre is a portion three thousand feet deeper, having a width about equal to its depth. The Kaibab division, or that part which has the plateau of that 102 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. name on the north, is the most stupendous portion of the carton^ since it is not only a thousand feet deeper than any other, but because it is far more diversified and complex in its structure, having many features of interest which are either entirely wanting or much less strongly represented elsewhere. The peculiar interest of the topography of this region is due in part to the manner in which great blocks of strata have been raised or depressed between long faults, which have given rise to differences of level amounting to thousands of feet, and in part to the extraordinary amount of erosion which the region has undergone : first over its whole surface where not protected by overlying masses of harder volcanic material, and later in the channels of the streams, which channels have been gradually growing narrower with the lapse of time, the streams diminishing in volurae, until during the pres ent epoch they have either shrunk to nothing or have becorae absolutely insignificant in coraparison with what they were in later Tertiary tiraes. In fact, w^e have in this region the best possible illustration of the progress and effect of that stupendous desiccation of the climate which has long been manifesting itself all over the world, and of which the results may easily be traced far back in geological history. The contrast between the Plateau region south and southea.st of the Great Basin and that lying to the north — between the region of the Colorado and that of the Columbia — is a most striking one, and might easily be made a fruitful subject for a prolonged geo logical discussion. In the north the volcanic outflows have filled the depressions in the corrugated and folded THE SIERRA NEVADA. 103 strata covering over the whole of the lower portions of the region, from which the older mountain ranges project like islands from the great congealed sea of lava. The rivers could not subsequently cut very deep into these overflows, because the material is so hard, and the general level of the region so low. In the Colorado region, on the other hand, the strata have not been crumpled, folded, and metamorphosed, but raised en masse to a high elevation, and not hardened so as effectually to resist erosion ; but possessing just enough variety of lithological character to prevent uniformity of wearing away and give complexity to the resulting forms, they have, under the influence of eroding agen cies, assuraed the wonderful condition in which we now behold thera, presenting the grandest possible results produced by the simplest possible causes. Here, too, volcanic agencies have been active; but the molten material has been poured out from orifices at a great elevation, and has built up cones, some of which are of nearly as grand dimensions as the mightiest of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range ; but the valleys and lower regions have not been filled up by them, nor have there been in the southern Plateau region any such enormous overflows as those which characterize the northern volcanic district. THE SIERRA NEVADA AND CASCADE RANGES. The Sierra Nevada, or Snowy Range, of California may without hesitation be called the most important and interesting member of the Cordilleran system. It is not only a long and elevated mountain chain — on the 104 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. whole the most conspicuous one within the limits of the United States — but its relations to the develop ment of the mineral interests of the country, its cli mate, its peculiar geological features, its remarkable forests, its scenery, and the comparative density of the population along its western flank, — this all combines to render the Californian range an extremely attractive region. This attractiveness is still farther enhanced if we consider the Cascade Range as being the contin uation of the Sierra Nevada, which, on the whole, it is a reasonable thing to do, although there are some remarkable differences between the southern and the northern portions of the united chain. The Sierra Nevada proper forms the western edge of the widest and highest portion of the Cordilleras, or that portion which lies east of the State of California. It is especially conspicuous from the western side, be cause on this side it falls nearly to the level of the sea, while on the other side it sinks only to the general plateau level. It does not, however, border the Pacific Ocean directly, since there is, all along its course, a lower system of mountains rising directly from the coast — the Coast Ranges, so called — of which notice will be taken farther on. With these Coast Ranges the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range are so inoscu lated in certain portions of their extent that a topo graphical separation of them is impossible. But for a considerable distance both the Sierra and the Cascade Range are distinctly separated frora the Coast Ranges by broad low valleys ; the most extensive of these is the Great Valley of California, about four hundred and fifty miles in length, and averaging forty in breadth. THE SIERRA NEVADA. 105 including the lower foothills, so that the entire almost level area contains about eighteen thousand square miles. .The direction of the valley is_parallel with that of the ranges between which it is enclosed, or about N. 31° W. ; but to the north of the Bay of San Francisco it takes a more northerly course, in harmony with the change in the trend of the coast beyond the parallel of 39°. From the mouth of the Sacramento to Redding, at the northern head of the valley, the rise is 556 feet in 192 miles; and in the opposite direction from the mouth of the San Joaquin to Kern Lake it is 282 feet in 260 miles. A striking feature of the Sacramento River is the fact that for two hundred miles north from the mouth of the Feather River it does not receive a single tributary of any note, although walled in by high mountain ranges. Indeed the whole of the Great Valley is thus surrounded, the only break being at San Francisco, where the channel which connects it with the sea — the Golden Gate — is only one mile wide in its narrowest part. The region thus enclosed, comput ing it from the divide, or water-shed of the enclosing mountain ranges, has an approximate area of 57,200 square miles, the drainage of which all reaches the sea through the Golden Gate. To the east of the Great Valley of California rises the Sierra Nevada, or Snowy Range, which in general altitude does not much excel some of the ranges of the Rocky Mountains proper, although it has one summit higher than any yet ascertained to exist in the United States, not including, however, the territory of Alaska. The length of the chain, from Mount San Jacinto to Mount Shasta, is about six hundred miles ; but on some 106 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. accounts it would be more proper to consider the Sierra as beginning at the Tahichipi Pass and terminating at Lassen's Peak, in which case its length would be about four hundred and thirty miles. The breadth of this great mass of mountains varies from seventy-five to one hundred miles ; it narrows toward the north, its altitude declining in the same direction. The slope of the Sierra is long and gradual on the west, and short and precipi tous on the east, on which latter direction, of course, the general level of the Great Basin is attained, and this is from four to five thousand feet above the sea-level. The highest portion of the range is between the parallels of 36° 30' and 37° 30' ; here the passes are about twelve thousand feet in elevation above the sea-level, and the peaks range from thirteen to fourteen thousand and over, the culminating point — Mount Whitney — being several hundred feet higher than any peak yet discov ered in the Rocky Mountains.^ From this peak, going north, the range declines gradually, and at the point where the Central Pacific Railroad crosses it the sum mit is only seven thousand feet above the sea-level; this is in latitude 39° 20'. The slope of the Sierra in the central part of the State, opposite Sacramento, is a.bove one hundred feet to the mile, the range there be ing seventy miles in breadth between the valley and the crest ; farther south, opposite Visalia, the average rise is as much as 240 feet to the mile up to the summit of the. passes, and three hundred feet to that of the peaks. In this part of the range the slope on the east is very abrupt, being as much as a thousand feet to the mile ^ See page 225 for a more detailed statement in regard to the elevations of the highest points of the Cordilleran system. GEOLOGY OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 107 from the summit to the level of Owen's Valley — a de scent of about ten thousand feet. The western side of the Sierra is furrowed by extremely deep and precipi tous gorges, or canons, as they are universally called in California. These are narrow at the bottom, where there is usually barely room for the river to run at any ordinary stage of water ; their sides slope upward at a very steep angle, often as much as thirty degrees ; and they are sunk from one to three thousand and more feet below the general level. These canons be come more and more marked features of the range as we proceed north in the Sierra ; and where the volcanic formations have spread themselves uniformly over the flanks of the mountains, so as to form a smooth and almost level surface, as is the case over an extensive area, the contrast between the deep and precipitous canons and the plain-like region, with its gentle slope to the west, in which they have been excavated, is very marked. Geological investigations have shown that the Sierra Nevada is made up of a core of granite, flanked by rocks of Mesozoic age, the development of these Mesozoic rocks increasing toward the north, and in the region lying along the western declivity of the chain, in the central portions of the State, forming the auriferous belt of the Sierra, which is of so much importance on account of the large quantity of gold it has produced, and is still producing. The auriferous detrital deposits, formerly so extensively worked by the hydraulic pro cess, are gravels of Tertiary age covered more or less completely by volcanic materials, which not unfre quently attain a thickness of several hundred feet. As 108 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. in other portions of the Cordilleran region, the presence of eruptive rocks of Tertiary and post-Tertiary age is a fact of great importance. The volcanic materials in question are seen in places in large masses on almost the very highest portion of the Sierra in its southern extension, in a region where there is very little of this material lower down on the flanks of the range, and where there are no slates and no mining or washing for gold of any importance. Just south of the Mount Whitney group, where the Sierra rapidly falls off in height between the two ranges of which the system is here comprised, there is a region — the valley of the Kern River — in which occur several volcanic cones which have a very recent look, but which are not known to have been in eruption since the advent of the whites. This region, however, for several years in succession — from 1870 on, and perhaps from an earlier date — appears, on good evidence, to have been repeatedly and violently disturbed by earthquakes. This seems also to have been the portion of the Sierra which was most affected by the great earthquake of March 26, 1872. Midway in Owen's Valley on the east side of the Sierra, begin ning about thirty miles north of Lone Pine, where this earthquake was most disastrous in its effects, there is a region of volcanic cones and lava-flows, by which the river is crowded over against the Inyo Range, at the foot of which it has only just room to flow. These cones arfe seemingly as perfect as they ever were ; and the flows of basalt have spread themselves out over the sage-brush slope in a manner indicative of a very recent date for their outbreaking. Yet all seems now to be .entirely dormant. Even solfataric action is al- VOLCANISM — LASSEN'S PEAK. 109 r most entirely wanting, and it is remarkable that this is now almost — if not quite — exclusively manifested at the present time at or near the summits of the high est volcanic cones of the Sierra and Cascade Range. As we go farther north in the Sierra, we find more and more volcanic materials covering the western flank of the range; and from about latitude 39° 30' north much the larger portion of the older rocks is overlain and concealed by modern eruptive materials, through which the streams have worn channels which are often of great depth, and from the sides of which access is given to the auriferous gravels occupying the bottoms of the channels of the old Tertiary, but now buried, river-systems. In Lassen's Peak, in latitude 40° 30', we have the first exhibition of the isolated volcanic cone rising high above the adjacent country, which makes so prominent a fea ture of the range farther north in California and through Oregon and Washington Territory. This volcanic mass is 10,537 feet in height, and there are abundant signs of recent volcanic activity on and near it. There are, in this vicinity, several localities where hot springs occur, and where the rock has been so softened by solfataric action as to have given rise to mud lakes, in which jets of hot water and mud are sometimes thrown to a height of several feet. ' One of these places, about eight miles from the summit of the Peak, lies at an elevation of 5,976 feet above the sea, and there is here a pool of hot water six hundred feet in length by three hundred in breadth, in the midst of which miniature mud volcanoes are being constantly formed. There are no such striking indications of dormant volcanic ac- 110 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. tivity as are seen in the vicinity of Lassen's Peak any where to the southward along the crest and flanks of the Sierra. Neither is it known that there has been anything which could be properly called an eruption, whether of lava or ashes, since the region was first vis ited by the whites, either from Lassen's Peak, or from the much grander volcano to which the narae of Shasta is given. At Lassen's Peak a great change takes place in the character of the range, which is here broken through transversely by a great fault, to the south of which we have the high ranges and deep canons often cut down through the volcanic strata, and sunk deeply into the underlying metamorphic rocks ; while to the north is a great depression comparatively level, and exclusively occupied by volcanic rocks which stretch off to the north and northeast, in almost unbroken continuance for many hundred miles, forming a portion of the Northern Plateau region of which notice has been already taken. Seventy miles northwest of Lassen's Peak rises from this volcanic plateau the second of the great cones which characterize this range. This is Mount Shasta, 14,440 feet in height, which stands in remarkable iso lation on a base between ten and eleven thousand feet lower than its summit. Indications of former vol canic activity are seen near the suramit of Shasta, but they are not so marked as those on and near Lassen's Peak. There is a flat area about four hundred feet below the summit of Shasta, on one side of which are several orifices from which steam and sulphurous gases were constantly escaping at the tirae of the writer's ascent of this mountain (1862). VOLCANIC CONES OF THE CASCADE RANGE. HI North of Mount Shasta the mountain mass — now called the Cascade Range — maintains characters similar to those which it has between Lassen's Peak and Shasta, for a distance of fully five hundred miles, or until we have passed the northern boundary of the United States. The principal continuous ridge is com paratively low, and on it at irregular intervals rise great volcanic cones, differing considerably from each other in elevation, but all much higher than the sur rounding plateau-like base on which they are built up. Unfortunately no portion of the Cascade Range has as yet been topographically surveyed, so that only the most general and striking features of this important portion of the Cordilleras can be indicated. Along the range from Mount Shasta north, there are several promi nent peaks which are apparently volcanic, but which have not the conical form, while others exhibit this peculiar feature in a high degree of perfection. Mount Pitt (9,718 feet) is a well-defined cone, and is about seventy-five miles north of Shasta. Mount Jefferson, about one hundred and fifty miles still farther north, is of a similar character ; and between Pitt and Jeffer son are various prominent peaks, especially the highly picturesque group of five sharp points known as the Three Sisters, only three of them being visible from the Willamette Valley. All through this portion of the range evidences of comparatively recent volcanic action are present, in the form of regular craters and outflows of lava. Somewhat less than a hundred miles north of Mount Jefferson is the grand break made in the Cascade Range by the Colurabia River, which has cut entirely through 112 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. the volcanic mass, down almost to the level of the sea, the Dalles, on the eastern side of the range, having an elevation of only about a hundred feet. At the Dalles — so named on account of the great, broad, flat plates or sheets of lava which are there well exhibited on and near the river — is the begin ning, in this direction, of the volcanic plateau of the Columbia. Near this deep cut through the Cascade Mountains rise three of the best-defined volcanic cones of the range ; two — Mount Adams and Mount St. Helen's — on the north side of the river, and one — Mount Hood — on the south. The latter has been measured barometrically by Colonel Williamson, and its height is given by him at 11,225 feet. The other two have not been accurately measured ; but they seem to be of nearly equal height, and are generally considered to reach an altitude of nearly, if not quite, 10,500 feet. Mount Adams, as seen from the Dalles, is of somewhat irregular conical form, as if very much broken away at the summit ; while St. Helen's — a beautiful and very conspicuous object from the west side of the range, in ascending the Columbia — has a dome-like form, very regularly and symmetrically rounded and flattened at the top, but with steep sides. These cones, which rise so grandly above the adjacent country, are visible from great distances. Fremont saw Mount Hood as a very prominent feature of the scenery from a point distant from it no less than one hundred and eighty miles. Mount Rainier — about seventy-five miles north of the Columbia River — is grander than any other of the volcanic cones of the Cascade Range. Only Shasta VOLCANIC ROCKS OF THE SIERRA. 113 can vie with it, the two having almost exactly the same elevation ; that of Rainier being given by the United States Coast Survey at 14,444 feet, and of Shasta, by the State Geological Survey of California, at 14,442 feet.^ The views of Rainier from Puget Sound are mag nificent. This mountain is much less accessible than Shasta, as it lies in the midst of a dense forest, far from roads. It is also very much more deeply covered with snow and ice than Shasta, which latter after a succession of dry seasons is almost bare on its south side. Still farther north than Rainier, and near the boundary line of the United States, is Mount Baker (10,755 feet) — a prominent object in the grand pano ramic view from Victoria, Vancouver Island While evidences of comparatively recent volcanic action are so conspicuous all along the range from Lassen's Peak north to Mount Baker, it is not easy to reconcile the conflicting evidence with regard to the present condition of the eruptive agencies in this re gion. The writer, during several years of explorations in this range, has never found evidence of any recent outflow of melted lava, such as would harden into a solid rock on cooling, in any part of the Sierra Nevada or Cascade Range. The eruptive rocks of these ranges are mainly andesites; but the last outflow of molten rock appears to have been basaltic in character. This is certainly true for the Sierra Nevada, and probably so for the Cascade Range. Under the 'basalt we find, in the buried sedimentary strata, abundant remains of vegetation, pronounced by competent authority to be •• See Appendix C, for a brief discussion in regard to the probable degree of accuracy of these and other mountain measurements in the Cordilleras. 8 114 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM* Pliocene in age, with a few species intermingled which have a decidedly Miocene character. The animal re^, mains found under the basaltic lava are all of extinct species, with the single exception of man, whose bones or handiwork have been repeatedly taken from strata occupying this geological position. The age of the sedimentary beds under the basalt is therefore Tertiary, from the combined evidence of both plants and ani mals; and this has been distmctly admitted by emi nent palseontologists. There is no evidence that fragmental lava — ashes, cinders, and the dike — has been emitted from any one of the volcanic cones of the Sierra Nevada since the region became known to the whites ; but there is abun dant evidence to this effect, in regard to some of the high points in the Cascade Range. Mount Baker seems to have furnished the most unquestionable proof of activity in recent times. The first known eruption of this volcano appears to have taken place in 1843. Pre vious to this, there is no evidence of activity during the time since the country became known to the whites ; but in that year both Baker and St. Helen's discharged large quantities of ashes, with which the adjacent country was covered " as with a light fall of snow." According to the natives, the Skagit River was obstructed by the ashes erupted at this time, so that the fishes all died. Some of the material thrown out by St. Helen's during this eruption, and collected at the Dalles about fifty miles distant from the volcano, was given by Rev. Mr. Brewer to Fremont, who visited, this region very soon after this eruption took place. In three instances at least — namely, in the years 1854, VOLCANISM IN THE CASCADE RANGE. 115 1858, and 1870 — Mount Baker has been seen in erup tion by men of unquestibnable authority. In 1854 Professor Davidson, of the United States Coast Sur vey, saw the summit of this volcano obscured by vast rolling masses of dense smoke, which in a few minutes reached an estimated height of two thousand feet above the summit, and soon enveloped it entirely. The next day the usual snow covering was apparently melted away for two or three thousand feet below the two heads of the mountain. Nearly the same phenomena were seen again, by the same observer, in 1870. Mr. J. S. Hittell saw, in 1858, the clouds over Mount Baker brilliantly illuminated by an eruption then taking place. Smoke and steam are said to have been frequently seen rising from the summit of St. Helen's, but there is no such positively authenticated statement of this as there is in reference to sirailar phenomena occurring on Mount Baker. The eruption of 1843, however, seems to be a well-established fact. It is not easy to reconcile the conflicting statements which have been made in re gard to the activity of Mount Hood. In several in stances eruptions of this mountain have been reported in the newspapers as having taken place ; but, on inves tigation, these stories were found to have had no basis of fact. The writer, in 1867, made various inquiries of persons living near Mount Hood, and having it in full view, without being able to procure, in regard to this volcano, satisfactory evidence of any activity similar to that of Baker and St. Helen's, at least within the past twenty or thirty years. Yet Mrs. Victor, the author of a work entitled " All over Oregon and Wash- 116 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. ington," says, in describing Mount Hood, " Our own eyes have beheld the fiery column shooting up from the old crater, followed by great volumes of dense black smoke." There is no evidence of any sirailar activity of Mount Rainier. Mr. George Gibbs states, in reference to this point, that Mount Rainier seems to have been ex tinct for a long period, and that there is no tradition of its having been seen to smoke. Jets of steam issue from the crater at the summit in sufficient quantity to keep a party warm, as is stated by Messrs. Stevens and Van Trump, who were the first persons to reach the summit of this mighty cone. THE COAST RANGES OF CALIFORNIA AND OREGON. To the west of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range is another chain of mountains, which, although greatly inferior to these in some important respects, is still of very considerable interest from various points of view. These mountains, which lie close upon the sea, rising from its edge alraost everywhere, without any interven ing plain to break the ascent, are called the Coast Ranges of California and Oregon. They differ from the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges in being newer geologically, of less elevation, and less extensively and regularly broken through by granitic axial masses, and less covered by volcanic overflows. The upheaval of the Sierra took place at the close of the Jurassic epoch ; that of the Coast Ranges was the result of agencies operating during the later portion of the Tertiary, and continuing down to a very recent date ; namelj', into the post-Pliocene. The larger portion of these GEOLOGY OF THE COAST RANGES. 117 ranges south of the Bay of San Francisco is of Mio cene age, although even there extensive areas of Creta ceous rocks exist, and especially on the eastern side of this mountain belt, in the so-called Monte Diablo Range. Farther north, beyond the Bay, rocks of this age be come more and more predominant, the areas of Terti ary being comparatively narrow and unimportant. A remarkable feature of the geology of the Coast Ranges is the extent to which these newer formations have been metamorphosed, so that by some observers these altered rocks have been described as belonging to the very oldest part of the geological series. The preva lence of serpentines and obscure serpentinoid rocks, in great masses, in these altered portions, is also a fact of much geological interest. These altered rocks, and especially such of them as have been more or less silicified, are the home of the ore of quicksilver, mines of which metal have been opened and extensively worked at numerous points, both south and north of the Bay of San Francisco. Chromic iron is also associ ated with these magnesian rocks, and at a few points is present in considerable quantity. The "ores of the other metals, although occasionally found in small quantity, do not, so far as known, occur anywhere in the Coast Ranges in deposits or veins of sufficient size and persistence to pay for working. Gold, however, has been washed at numerous points in Southern Cali fornia with some success, although nowhere obtained in such quantity as to compare with the yield of the washings in the Sierra Nevada. An important meraber of the Miocene series south of the Bay of San Fran cisco is the bituminous slate, which in places is several 118 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. thousand feet in thickness, and often contains a large quantity of bituminous matter, which at some locali ties, and especially near Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, has oozed out upon the surface and given rise to areas of semi-liquid material, called " brea " by the Mexican Spanish, and which has occasionally hardened and formed large deposits of asphaltum. Many attempts have been made to bore into these bituminous rocks for the purpose of finding a liquid material which would compete with that produced by the Pennsylvania petroleum wells ; but these efforts have never been suc cessful enough to furnish even the home market with a supply of oil suitable for illuminating purposes, and much less has there been any export of the material thus obtained.^ Coal is found at numerous points in the Coast Ranges, both in California and in Oregon, and of both Cretaceous and Miocene age. The most important mines are those in Washington Territory, near Seattle; and there is also a valuable and quite extensive coal-field on Vancouver Island, near Nanaimo, also in the Cretaceous. The most important and best-developed portion of the Coast Ranges is that opposite, or to the west of, the valleys of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers. Both south and north of the extremities of these val leys the masses of the Coast and Sierra Mountains coalesce, or become. topographically so united that any distinction of these, other than geological, is impossi ble. This uniting of the two ranges which takes place in Northern California is continued through Southern 1 See page 289 for further information in regard to the petroleum of the Pacific coast. TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COAST RANGES. 119 Oregon, where the topography is quite as complicated and difficult to decipher as it is in those parts of Cali fornia where the two ranges come together. But in the last-named State the structure of the Coast Ranges has been pretty well worked out by the California State Geological Survey, although the maps unfortu nately remain unpublished, while in Oregon almost nothing has been done in this direction. Where best developed T — in California — the Coast Ranges have a length of fully four hundred miles, and a breadth vary ing from forty to seventy, according to the varying position of the coast line. The mass of mountains covering the area, the dimensions of which are thus indicated, is made up of numerous sub-ranges, some of which are very distinct and well marked, while others are much less so. These ranges all along the north- west-and-southeast-trending portion of the coast, or froni Point Conception (latitude 34° 15') to Cape Mendocino (latitude 40°), run nearly in the same direction as that coast. Most of these ranges had already received names from the Mexican Spanish before the region was taken possession of by the United States. Their alti tude above the intervening valley, in the vicinity of the Bay of San Francisco, varies from a few hundred to three or four thousand feet. Prominent points near that bay are : Monte Diablo, 3,856 feet ; Mount Ham ilton, 4,440 ; Mount Helena, 4,343 ; and Mount Bache, 3,790. Monte Diablo, quite isolated on the north by the great break or depression in the Coast Ranges which has given rise to the Golden Gate and the Bay of San Francisco, is a very conspicuous landmark from all the 120 THE CORDILLERAN SYSTEM. central portion of the State ; and from its summit the view-^ owing to the peculiarly isolated and central posi tion of the mountain — is extremely comprehensive, embracing the whole range of the Sierra, from near Mount Whitney to Lassen's Peak. Mount Hamilton, the highest point in sight from San Francisco, is interesting as being the locality selected as the site of the astronomical observatory endowed by James Lick, for which a refracting telescope, with a lens having a diameter of thirty -six inches, has recently been made by Alvan Clark and Sons, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. As we go north and south from the region of the Bay of San Francisco, we find the heights of the dom inating peaks increasing. Mount Bailey, about one hundred and fifty miles north of San Francisco, has an elevation of 6,357 feet. About the same dis tance south of that city is San Carlos Peak, which is nearly five thousand feet high. Portions of the range south of the Bay of San Francisco are of extremely recent date, as great masses of rock of Pliocene age, hundreds of feet in thickness, are seen to be turned up at a high angle. The ranges along that portion of the coast which has an east-and-west trend, on Santa Bar bara Channel, have themselves the same trend, and are high and precipitous. Of these the Santa Inez is the most conspicuous, having, along its crest, points nearly or quite four thousand feet in elevation. The Santa Monica, another east-and-west-trending range, farther south and east, is remarkable as being made up of Mio cene stratified rock, and having a central, well-defined, linear, axial mass of intrusive granite driven through TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COAST RANGES. 121 it like a wedge, by which the range has been raised to a high angle near the eruptive rock, where it is exten sively shattered and metamorphosed, and from which, in each direction, transverse to the chain, it gradually and rapidly recovers its normal character and nearly horizontal position. Farther south along the coast the ranges are much broken, and central dominating points rise to very con siderable elevations. San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains are two of these elevated central masses, each rising to an elevation of about eleven thousand feet. Exactly what relations these high masses bear to the Coast Ranges and Sierra cannot as yet be' stated ; as the materials collected by the State Geological Survey in that region have not yet been worked up and pub lished, and nothing has been done in further elucidation of the geology and topography of the region in question since the stoppage of that Survey in 1874. The region of the Coast Ranges in California is one of very unequal attractiveness. Portions are rough and forbidding, being covered by a dense and thorny un dergrowth, locally known as " chaparral ; " other por tions are in the highest degree fertile and picturesque, having also a remarkably mild and uniform climate. The slopes and hills near the coast, or open to the west winds, have a fairly sufficient precipitation. The in terior ranges, especially those portions of them which lie immediately west of the San Joaquin Valley, are very dry, and over large areas so much so as to be unfit for cultivation, there being little or no water for irrigation. 122 THE GREAT CENTRAL VALLEY. GEOLOGY OF THE GREAT CENTRAL VALLEY. The area enclosed between the Appalachians and the Cordilleras — the drainage basin of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence on the north, and of the grand Missouri- Mississippi river system on the south — has already been treated frqm the topographical point of view with as much detail as is here permissible. It remains, how ever, to add a few words in regard to the more impor tant features of its geology. While, on the whole, so nearly a plain, this vast area, comprising over a million and a half square miles, has considerable diversity of surface, it being not altogether destitute of mountains, sorae of which rise to a considerable altitude. To describe, even with a moderate amount of detail, the basin of the largest river system but one in the world would require many volumes. All that can be done here is to indicate the salient features of its geology, as supplementary to that which has been said in regard to the structure of the great mountain systems by which this geologically comparatively undisturbed region is framed in. The belt of Tertiary and Cretaceous rocks already mentioned as forming the Atlantic slope extends, with very similar characters, curving broadly around the southern end of the Appalachians, and continuing along the Gulf and up the Mississippi Valley, to about the junction of that river with the Ohio. About half of Alabama and Arkansas j all of Mississippi and Louisiana, parts of Tennessee and Kentucky, and a very sraall corner of Missouri are underlain by these newer forma tions. Nearly the whole of Texas is similarly situated GEOLOGY. 123 with respect to its geology. In the northern central portion of the last-mentioned State the marly and gypsiferous red sandstones of Triassic age cover a large area, bordered on the southeast by a little-known coal field of Carboniferous age, with a very small patch of Azoic or Archaean rocks at its southern termination, almost exactly in the centre of the State. Tracing the geological formations northward from Texas into New Mexico, and along the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains, we find the belt of Cretaceous and Tertiary covering a very large area, extending as far east from the mountains as the centre of Kansas, and covering nearly all of Nebraska and Dakota, the northwestern corner of Iowa, and the western half of Minnesota. The Triassic belt mentioned as occurring in Texas occupies a broad area in the Indian Territory and the southern central part of Kansas. It is also quite extensively exposed along the streams of New Mexico, forming the border of the Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain. The Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks of the West have nowhere anything like the economical importance which they have in New Jersey ; but from a palaeontological point of view they are of interest, and, especially in the Lower Mississippi Valley, have been studied with care and in considerable detail by the State geologists of that region. Included within this border of more recent rocks, and comprising the whole of the northeastern central group of States, as well as the western portion of the north western central, and smaller portions of the south eastern and southwestern central groups, is a region 124 THE GREAT CENTRAL VALLEY. underlain almost exclusively by Palaeozoic rocks, covered with post-Tertiary and recent detrital formations, the intermediate members of the geological series being entirely wanting. These Palaeozoic strata include very extensive and complete representations of both the Lower and Upper Silurian series, and also of the Car boniferous, including both the upper and lower mem bers of this division of the Palaeozoic. As we leave the Alleghany escarpment in going westward we find the disturbances of the strata becoming less and less marked, what flexures there are being exceedingly broad, so that over large areas the rocks seem to lie in an almost undisturbed horizontal position. The geo graphical distribution of the areas underlain by the coal- measures in this region will be found approximately indicated farther on, under the head of " Coal," and the extent' and locality of these coal areas give a clew to the stratigraphical position of the rocks in the region, since there is, over all the extensive area indicated, no rock more recent than the coal-measures. Of the nature, extent, and value of the coal here existing, notice will be taken farther on. Calcareous and calcareo-magnesian formations are lespecially prominent over this great area of nearly un disturbed strata. As we follow west from the Appala chian belt we find the purely detrital and silicious rocks diminishing, and the calcareous gaining in importance and thickness. Thus the Millstone Grit, which on its eastern edge is, in places, more than a thousand feet thick, is found in parts of the Mississippi Valley to have diminished to a few feet, or even, in places, to have disappeared altogether. With this diminution of GEOLOGY. 125 coarser detrital and silicious material, comes in a wealth of organic forms, and the rocks of the region in ques tion have been most fruitful of material for the palaeontologist. Toward the western and northwestern portions of the Palaeozoic area there occur several marked breaks in the uniformity of the geological character of the region. These are due to the appearance at the surface of rocks older than the oldest Silurian — rocks indeed, which up to the present time, in spite of forty years of diligent search, have not been found to exhibit any traces of life. For this reason these rocks, which unconform ably underlie the Lower Silurian, and are in such a position as to prove beyond a doubt that they assumed that position before the deposition of the lowest-known fossiliferous rocks, were called Azoic by Foster and Whitney, but are now more generally known as Ar chaean, a name substituted by Dana for the previously used term "Azoic." The Azoic areas of Central Texas, Northern Texas, and Central Arkansas are comparatively small, and have been but little studied in detail, since, thus far, they have not been shown to be of much economical value. The Azoic area in Southeastern Missouri is also of small dimensions, but economically important ; since iron ores, large in quantity and of great purity, occur here, at the well-known Iron Mountain, Pilot Knob, and other localities. Far more iraportant than those already mentioned, however, is the Azoic area of Northern Wisconsin and Northwestern Minnesota, which is in direct connection with the great Azoic district of so much importance in 126 THE GREAT CENTRAL VALLEY. Canada, as forming the mass of the Laurentian Moun tains. The region in Wisconsin forraing the divide between the waters flowing into Lake Superior and those uniting with the Mississippi is one of Azoic rocks, and from this a long spur extends southwesterly through Minnesota, and northeasterly to Lake Superior. It is in this region and in this formation that the iron mines occur which are of so much importance to the country, and of which notice will be taken farther on. The principal mines lie at an elevation of about fifteen hun dred feet above the sea-level, or nine hundred feet above Lake Superior. To the northwest of this Azoic area, on the borders of the Lake, is the copper-region, of much importance, some details in regard to which will be found in the division of this volume devoted to the subject of the development of the mineral and metallic resources of the country. The copper-bearing range, which rises in places to an elevation of as much as two thousand feet above the sea-level, is made 'up of old volcanic masses interstratified with sandstones and conglomerates of Lower Silurian age. The so-called trappean range runs from the extremity of Keweenaw Point southwesterly along and near the shore of the Lake, and finally dis appears some distance beyond its western end ; but the portion of the range which is of importance for its copper mines is in Michigan, and on or near Keweenaw Point. The detrital formations which cover most of the sur face of the Palaeozoic area, the boundaries of which have here been indicated, are of varied character, as might be expected, consideration being had of the great extent SURFACE GEOLOGY. 127 of the region. Over much of the country the princi pal detrital material present is that which has been left behind by the slow wasting, away, under the influence of the rain and other atmospheric agencies, of the cal careous rocks which there occur. This kind of material forms the bulk of the soil in the higher portions of the region lying near the Ohio River and its junction with the Mississippi, and northwest to Minnesota. The river- bottoms grow wider as we proceed in the direction of the drainage toward the Gulf of Mexico, but the thick ness of alluvial soil overlying the Tertiary and Creta ceous does not seem, in general, to be very great. The material liberated by the decomposition of the rock has been so fine that most of it has been easily carried away where the volume of water in the rivers . was considerable. Coarser detritus occurs near the moun tain ranges, especially those on the east, where strata made up in large part of pebbles, or even bowlders, of quartzose or other indecomposable rocks, form a con siderable portion of the underlying formations. An important feature in the surface geology of the northern portion of the central area, as well as of the extreme northeastern portion of the United States, or that comprised within New England, New York, the northern part of Pennsylvania, and the region adjacent to and south of the- Great Lakes, is the presence of a large amount of coarse detrital material in the form of bowlders, gravel, and sand, which has been, in large part, brought from the north, and which is mixed very unequally in different regions with the material result ing from the disaggregation, decomposition, and abra sion of the closely adjacent or underlying rocks. The 128 THE GREAT CENTRAL VALLEY. origin and mode of distribution of this so-called " North ern Drift ¦' has long been a fruitful subject of discussion among American geologists, entire unanimity of opinion in regard to the different points involved in the question not having yet been reached. By far the larger num ber of those who, in later years, have discussed the problem of the drift, have been inclined to ascribe its origin almost entirely to glacial causes. It is assumed that the northern portion of the continent was, during the so-called " glacial epoch," covered deeply with ice, and that all, or nearly all, that we see at the present tirae upon the surface of the region thus covered is the result either of this icy envelope, or of the floods pro duced by its -melting. The present writer, who has been engaged for many years in the , investigation of this problem, believes the phenomena to be much more complicated and difficult of explanation than is gener ally supposed ; but contents himself, in this connection, with simply stating what is the current belief among Araerican geologists. An even moderately comprehen sive discussion of the subject would require much space, and would be entirely out of place in the present volume. PART IT. POLITICAL AND NATURAL SUBDIVISIONS. TTAVING in the preceding pages given a description of the physical character of the area occupied by the United States without reference to political divisions, and with an indication only of a subdivision of this vast area in accordance with its broadest natural fea tures, it becomes necessary, before proceeding farther, to state how this region is divided politically, and how these divisions can be grouped, as naturally as possi ble, for convenience in the subsequent discussions of climate, resources, etc. Some difficulties are thrown in the way of such a subdivision of the country as shall meet with general acceptance by the fact that some of the States and Territories are so large that they include areas of very different physical character ; and also because a nomenclature was introduced, and extensively made use of, when one half the present area of the country was so little known or consid ered that a name for it was not thought of as being necessary. As politically organized at the present tirae, the area included within the limits of the United States is di vided into forty-nine subdivisions, including Alaska. There are thirty-eight States, eight Territories, and three other subdivisions which are neither States nor 9 130 POLITICAL AND NATURAL SUBDIVISIONS. Territories, and each of which stands in a peculiar rela tion to the general Government; namely, the District of Columbia, the Indian Territory, and Alaska. Any Territory is likely, at any time, to be received into the Union as a State ; and this may be done by subdividing the Territory, making a State of one portion and allow ing the remainder to remain in the Territorial condi tion, or by adraitting the whole as one State, or by dividing it into two or more States. Only once has a State been divided after having been received into the Union — namely, Virginia — and this was the result of the Civil War, and it is not possible to say under what circumstances such a thing is likely to happen again. Nor has any State been remanded back to the Territorial condition after having been received into the Union ; although one State — Nevada — has less than half the population required for the election of one representative to Congress, according to the last apportionment, based on the census of 1880. There is, in fact, no provision in the Constitution for this exigency. The desirability of grouping these forty-eight politi cal divisions (Alaska being omitted as not continuous with the rest of the United States) according to their geographical situation and topographical and climatic conditions, so that different regions may be spoken of by some collective name, will be evident to all. As long as the population of the country was limited to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts there was no difficulty in doing this. The Northern, Middle, Southern Atlantic, and Gulf States constituted the natural grouping of the region in question. The almost unknown, and at that PRIMARY TOPOGRAPHICAL SUBDIVISIONS. 131 time not easily accessible, region beyond them to the west was known as " the West ; " and by this term, until more than a quarter of the present century had elapsed, the valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries on the east was designated. It was not until about the middle of the century that a still farther "West " — the Cordilleran region and Pacific coast, namely — began to be taken into consideration. Early in the history of the country, the group of six States at the extreme northeast of' the country received the designation of "New England" — one that is still in common use, and likely to remain current for all tirae. Another designation of a peculiar character held good until after the Civil War : this was the division of the States into Southern or Northern, according as slavery was, or was not, permitted. The plan suggested for the subdivision of the area included within the United States by Mr. Gannett, geog rapher of the census of 1880, was " to divide the country into three great divisions, corresponding to the three primary topographical divisions of the country : the Atlantic region, the region of the Great Valley, and the Western or Cordilleran region." The physical character of these different regions has already been indicated at some length in the preceding pages. The region of the Great Valley is called by Mr. Gannett the Central Region, and this is again subdivided into two parts — the Northern Central and the Southern Cen tral — the Ohio River and the southern boundary of Missouri and Kansas being the dividing line. The Atlantic division is also divided by hira into two subdi visions by a line following the south boundary of Penn- 132 POLITICAL AND NATURAL SUBDIVISIONS. sylvania and New Jersey, — these two subdivisions being called, respectively, the North Atlantic and South At lantic divisions. The Western or Cordilleran division is limited on the east by the eastern boundaries of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. The following table shows the area of each of these divi sions in square miles and in percentage of the entire area of the United States : — Area. Percentage of total area. North Atlantic .... 168,765 5.6 South Atlantic (including Delaware Bay) . . 283,155 9.4 Northern Central . . . 765,855 25.3 Southern Central . . . 614,550 20.3 Western ...... 1,193,275 39.4 3,025,600 100.0 [In the Western Division, as here limited, Mr. Gannett includes an area of 5,740 square miles of "unorganized territory" lying north of Texas and west of the Indian Territory.] The adoption of this scheme of subdivision of the country does not the less render desirable and conven ient for various purposes a different nomenclature for certain regions, based more exclusively on geographical position. Thus the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico will naturally often be spoken of as the Gulf States ; the region of the Great Lakes will be so desig nated, and this again subdivided into the Upper and Lower Lake Regions ; while each great river will give a name to its own adjacent region, as the Ohio Valley, the Upper and Lower Mississippi Valley, the Upper Missouri, etc. GROUPING OF STATES AND TERRITORIES. 133 A still further subdivision of the large divisions of Mr. Gannett' s scheme will also be found convenient at times ; the Northern Central Region being di vided into two parts — the Northeastern and the North western — by the Mississippi River, and the Southern Central also into two parts — the Southeastern and Southwestern — by the same river. The Western or Cordilleran Region, embracing about two fifths of the entire area of the country, may be naturally divided, in accordance with its main topographical features, into three subdivisions — the Rocky Mountain, the Plateau, and the Pacific Coast Regions. Following the scheme thus suggested, we have the following grouping of all the States and Territories of the United States, the only differences between this scheme and that of Mr. Gannett, besides those already indicated, being that the Atlantic States are divided into three subdivisions — the Northern, Middle, and Southern — and that West Virginia is placed with the Central States, because its drainage is to the Ohio, and in its physical characters it is allied to the Northeastern Central group. Appended to a statement of the names of the po litical divisions included in each subdivision of the United States, as .suggested above, will be found a tabular statement in which the area and population — both in actual numbers and in percentages of the whole — of each subdivision is given, as also a summing-up of the same for each division. The figures indicating the population are those of the census of 1880. While the nurabers will be largely increased by the enuraera- tion of 1890, the percentages will probably not be very essentially modified. 134 POLITICAL AND JSTATURAL SUBDIVISIONS. Grouping op the United States into Divisions and Subdivisions. Division. Atlantic Central Subdivision. Northern Atlantic. Middle Atlantic. Southern Atlantic. Northeastern Central. Northwestern Central. Southeastern Central. Southwestern Central. 'Rocky Mountain. Cokdillekan ¦ Plateau. Pacific Coast. States included in the Subdivision. New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Delaware, Maryland, Virginia. North and South Carolina, Geor gia, Florida. West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin. Minnesota, Dakota, Iowa, Ne braska, Kansas, Missouri. Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabar ma, Mississippi. Arkansas, Indian Territory, Louisiana, Texas (including 5,740 mUes of unorganized territory). Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico. Utah, Nevada, Arizona. Washington Territory, Oregon, California. The name "Cordilleran" is preferred for the Western division, because thereby any confusion is avoided which might arise from the fact that the people of the East ern States are still more or less inclined to call any portion of the region lying to their west by that name. No grouping in which all the States and Territories are included can be entirely satisfactory ; ^ but in that here suggested they are, while geographically connected, in most respects pretty closely allied to each other by their physical, climatic, and agricultural characters. 1 One great difficulty is that the States difEer so much from each other in area — Texas, for instance, being thirty-three times as large as Massa chusetts and a hundred and thirty times as large as Delaware. TABULAR STATEMENT. 135 Tabular Statement of the Areas and Population of the Subdivisions and Divisions of the United States. Division. Subdivision. Area. Population. Sq. miles. Per cent ot total. Number. Per cent of total. No. per sq. mile. Atlantic • • • ] Northern Atlantic. Middle Atlantic. Southern Atlantic. Northeastern Central Northwestern Central Southeastern Central Southwestern Central Rocky Mountain Plateaui'acific Coast 168,765 57,400 200,975 5.6 1.9 6.6 14,507,407 2,771,740 4,207,000 28.9 5.5 8.4 85.9 48 3 20.9 427,140 14.1 21,486,147 42.8 50.3 Central .... J 273,795 616,840 ¦ 181,510 438,780 9. 17.1 6. 14.6 11,825,125 6,157,443 5,585,151 3,412,362 23.5 12.3 11.1 6.8 43.2 11.930.8 7.8 1,410,925 46.6 26,980,081 63.7 19.1 Cordilleran . < 555,275808,690823,570 18.4 10.210.7 406,450246,669 1,114,578 .8.5 2.2 0.7 0.8 8.4 1,187,535 39.3 1,767,697 3.6 1.5 Since the above was put in type Congress has author ized the necessary prelimiaary proceedings for the organization of four new States. These are : North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington, and they will, no doubt, be formally admitted into the Union at the next session. The former Territory of Dakota is divided by an east and west line running through its centre, and is thus made into two States. The boundaries of Montana and Washington remain the same as when they were in the territorial condition. There are now, therefore, forty-two States, five Terri tories, and three anomalous divisions : the Indian Ter ritory, Alaska, and the Dis'trict of Columbia.^ 1 The tabular statement on the following page gives for the States and Territories a resume oi their areas, population in 1870 and 1880, population per square mile at the latter date, and the increase per cent during the decade 1871-80. The Territories are given in italics in the table. 136 POLITICAL AND NATURAL SUBDIVISIONS. Areas and Population of the States and Territories accord ing to the Census of 1880. states and Territories. Area in Square Miles. Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut N. Dakota ) S. Dakota ) Delaware DisT. OF Columbia Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland , Massachusetts . . Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana , Nebraska , Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey .... New Mexico New York North Carolina . . , Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania.. . . , Rhode Island South Carolina . . Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia ........ Washington West Virginia . . Wisconsin Wyoming United States Indian Territory Alaska 51,540 112,920 53,045 155,980103,645 4,845 147,700 1,960 60 54,240 58,98084,29056,00085,910 55,47581,700 40,000 45,42029,895 9,8608,040 57,4.30 79,205 46,340 68,735 145.310 76,185 109,740 9,005 7,455 122,460 47,62048,58040,76094,56044,985 1,085 30,17041,750 262,290 82,190 9,135 40,12566,88024,645 64,450 97,675 Population, 1870. 2,900,170 69,8301 531,409 996,992 9,658 484,471560,247 39,864 537,454 14,181 125,015 131,700 187,748 1,184,109 14,999 2,539,891 1,680,6371,194,020 364,399 1,321,011 726,915 626,915 780,894 1,457,3611,184,059 439,706827,922 1,721,295 20,595 122,993 42,491 818,300906,096 91,874 4,382,759 1,071,361 2,665,260 90,923 3,521,951 217,853705,606 1,258,520 818,579 86,786 3.30,661 1,225,163 23,956 442,014 1,054,670 9,118 Population in 1880. Total. 38,558,371 1,262,505 40,440 802,525 864,694 194,327 622,700 135,177146,608 177,624 269,493 1,542,180 82,610 3,077,871 1,978,301 1,624,615 996,096 1,648,690 989,946 648,936 934,943 1,783,0851,636,937 780,773 1,131,597 2,168,380 39,169 462,402 62,266 346,991 1,131,116 119,565 5,082,8711,399,760 3,198,062 174,768 4,282,891 276,631 995,677 1,642,3591,591,749 148,963 332,286 1,512,565 75,116 618,457 1,315,497 20,789 Per Square Mile. 50,155,783 78,1422 33,426 24.5 0.4 15.1 55 1.9 128.5 0.9 74.8 2,960.4 6.0 26.1 0.4 55.0 55.129.3 12.2 41.2 20.721.7 94.8 221.8 28.5 9.8 24.4 81.5 0.3 5.9 0.6 38.5 151.7 1.0 106.7 28.8 78.5 1.8 95.2 254.9 38.036.9 6.1 L7 86.4 37.7 1.1 26.1 24.2 0.2 Increase Per Cent, 1870-1880. 17.29 26.6 318.7 66.664.3 387.4 15.8 853.2 17.2 34.843.580.2 117.4 21.1 17.7 3G.0 173.3 24.8 29.3 3.5 19.7 22.358.0 155.6 36.625.990.1 267.8 46 5 9.0 24.830.1 15.9 80.6 19.9 92.2 21.627.2 41.0 22.594.4 65.8 0.5 23.4 213.5 39.924.7 127.9 30.08 1 This includes "Unorganized Territory." 2 Estimated. PART IIL CLIMATE. T N endeavoring to set forth the principal features of the -*- climate of the United States it will be assuraed that the reader has made himself acquainted with the topog raphy of the country, as briefly indicated in the preced ing pages. The great influence which certain of these features have on the distribution of the winds, the rain fall, and the temperature will be sufficiently apparent from that which follows. The position of the isothermal lines in the United States may first be noticed ; and in this connection the influence of the topography of the country becomes at once extremely apparent. From the Atlantic sea board west, to near the base of the Rocky Mountains, the lines of equal mean temperature have a consider able degree of regularity, being in general only slightly modified iu their direction, which is approximately east and west. This indication of a change of temperature essentially dependent on that of latitude is in striking contrast with • the condition of things on the Pacific coast, as will be seen farther on. When, on the other hand, we reach the borders of the Cordilleran region, we find the isothermal lines suddenly deflected from their normal course, and in passing across the mountain and plateau belt we find them irregular, often concen- 138 CLIMATE. trie with each other over large areas and through great ranges of temperature, according as the altitude, width, and general trend of each separate range or systera of ranges makes its influence felt. Hence, there are three distinct climatic divisions of the United States : 1. The Eastern Region, frora the Atlantic to the foot of the high plateaux at the base of the Rocky Mountains ; 2. The Plateau and Mountain Region of the Cordilleras ; 3. A narrow strip on the Pacific coast, lying west of the Sierra Nevada and Cas cade Ranges. These three divisions are of very unequal size and importance. The first erabraces about three fifths of the entire country, and contains fully nineteen twentieths of its population. The second division is also much larger than the third, containing not much less than a million square miles, but is very sparsely populated. The third is more densely populated than the second, but small in area, although its limits are not capable of being accurately defined. These three divisions will be designated in this discussion of the climate as the Eastern, Cordilleran, and Pacific. The Eastern division is, of course, by far the most important and best known in its details, since it is that region where the statistics go back the farthest, and where the population and wealth are concentrated ; its climatic conditions will therefore first be considered. As the topographical features of this division are simple, and do not anywhere interpose any very decided or not easily overcome barrier to the movement of the people, so the climate partakes of a similar character, the pas sage from one type to another being gradual and de cidedly uniform, although rapid. CLIMATES OF EUROPE AND UNITED STATES. 139 The difference in cliraate between the eastern and western coast of the Atlantic, that is, between Western Europe and the Eastern United States, was long ago noticed and commented on. It was George Forster who first controverted the prevailing idea that the New World in general was colder than the Old, and recog nized the analogy between the climates of the eastern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific. Humboldt, later, investigated the facts and published a tabular statement illustrating the difference between the temperatures of places in corresponding latitudes on the two sides of the Atlantic. This table, as enlarged by Hann, is here presented : — Mean Temperature of the _, T „*:*.,.»- v™- Coldest Warmest Diff. P"^"- Latitude. Year. j,„^jj^ jj„„j^ y^^ Nain, Labrador . . . 57°12' 25°.16 3°.82 51°.08 > ^^o g Aberdeen, Scotland . . 57°12' 46°.76 37°.22 5 7°. 74 J St. Johns, Newfoundland 47°36' 40°.10 22°.46 59°.54)^3og Brest, France .... 48°24' 53°.60 42°.44 64°.76 i Halifax, Nova Scotia . 44°42' 43°.34 22°.64 64°.40 ) ^^o ^ Bordeaux 44°48' 55°.04 42°.44 69°.08 J New York 40°50' 51°.08 28°.94 75°.56 ) ^^o g Naples 40°48' 61°.70 ' 48°.20 77°.18 > Norfolk, Virginia . . . 36°50' o9°.18 40°.28 ^ 78°.62 >' ^o g San Fernando, Spain . 36°30' 63°.50 52°.70 76°.10 ) From the above table it will be seen that the differ ence between the mean annual temperature of places in high latitudes on the opposite sides of the Atlantic is very large, and that it diminishes as we go south. About latitude 30° the two sides of the Atlantic have nearly the same mean temperature, the difference in climate being very great, but chiefly dependent on dif ferences in the araount of precipitation. 140 CLIMATE, Nearly the whole area of the United States is in cluded between the isothermals of mean annual tem perature of 44° and 68° — a difference of 24°, the corresponding difference of latitude being about 15°. The average change of temperature with the latitude is, therefore, 1°.6 for each degree of latitude. This is the most rapid change of temperature with the latitude known in any region of anything like equal extent with that here under consideration ; and the importance of this fact with reference to the intellectual and commer cial development of the country is obvious, and has been already pointed out by eminent climatologists. The causes of the rapid increase of temperature in going south along the Atlantic seaboard are : the position of the Gulf of Mexico, the high temperature of its waters, and the increasing predominance of southwesterly winds. It is due to these circumstances that the southern por tion of the Atlantic coast of the United States is de cidedly warmer than the regions corresponding to this in latitude on the west side of the Pacific ; while, farther north, places in the same latitude on the west sides of the two oceans have approximately the same temperature. This similarity of temperature on the corresponding sides of the Atlantic and Pacific is the result of causes now easily understood, the chief of which is the position of the mass of the land with refer ence to the direction of the prevailing winds. From the Atlantic coast to the eastern base of the Cordilleras the isothermal curves for the year are nearly parallel with each other, and have a general east-and- west course, being only interrupted in this regularity and deflected to a certain moderate extent in passing POSITION OF THE ISOTHERMALS. 141 across the Appalachian chain, which nowhere rises high enough to give a chance for permanent accumulations of snow, not even in the most northerly portion of that range. These curves, of course, are roughly parallel with the coast line of the Gulf of Mexico, which over a breadth of fourteen degrees of longitude does not vary much from an east-and-west direction. The region over which a higher mean annual tem perature than 68° prevails includes nearly the whole of Florida, and a narrow strip along the Gulf, which widens rapidly in Texas, where the trend of the coast ¦ line suddenly becomes nearly north and south. The extreme south end of Florida, which just touches 25°, has a mean temperature of over 72°, the isothermal of 76° being nearly on that parallel. The isothermal of 64°,, which meets the Atlantic coast near the borders of North and South Carolina, keeps nearly on the parallel of 34° as far west as the meridian of 101°, when it is rapidly deflected southward, in con formity with the other isothermals, by the gradually increasing elevation of the country when the Plateau region is encountered. The isothermal of 60° is nearly parallel with that of 64°, except that it manifests the influence of the high southern extremity of the Appa lachians, and is, in consequence, considerably deflected to the south between the meridians of 83° and 87°. The isothermal of 52° is, to the west of the Appalachians, nearly coincident in position with the Ohio River as far as Cincinnati, and thence follows an undulating course, with a nearly westerly general direction, through Indi ana, Illinois, Northern Missouri, and along the northern boundary of Kansas, to the border of Colorado, where it 142 CLIMATE. is suddenly deflected, and runs with a nearly southerly course for a distance of fully five hundred miles along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. Those portions of the country which lie between the isothermals of 44° and 52° are : New England, with the exception of Maine and the northern part of New Hampshire and Vermont ; New York, excluding the ex treme northeastern corner (the Adirondack region); the Appalachian plateau region, on the borders of New York and Pennsylvania ; nearly all Ohio ; two thirds of Indiana and Illinois; nearly all of Michigan and Iowa; Southern Wisconsin; Southeastern Minnesota; nearly all of Nebraska, and the southern half of Dakota. The isothermal of 40° passes through the centre of Maine, cuts off the extreme northern end of New Hampshire and Vermont, then passes out of the United States, entering this country again at the west end of Lake Superior, passing through the centre of Minne sota, making a large loop to the south in Eastern Dakota, and then trending northwestwardly until it passes beyond the boundary line of the United States in longitude 107°. Within the Cordilleran region, or west of the 105th meridian, the position of the isothermals is largely de pendent on that of the several mountain ranges em braced in that area of complicated topography to which the name of Cordilleras is given. These ranges, unlike the Appalachians, rise high enough to profoundly influence the climate, although nowhere reaching what may be called the region of perpetual snow. This de ficiency of lasting accumulations of snow, however, is POSITION OF THE ISOTHERMALS. 143 in very considerable part due to the smallness of the precipitation. If this were as great in the Rocky Mountains as it is in the Sierra Nevada, the former ranges would, no doubt, be covered to a large extent with permanent snow-fields and glaciers descending from them. Observations of mean temperature, however, on the higher ranges are extremely deficient, so that only a few generalizations can be given with regard to the position of the isothermals in that portion of the territory of the United States. On Mr. Schott's temperature chart, the isothermal of 44°, which, as already mentioned, east of the Cordil leran region runs nearly in coincidence with the north ern boundary of the country, encloses within a great southerly-reaching curve the whole of the higher por tion of the Rocky Mountains, extending as far south as the 34th parallel, or to about the position in latitude of the isothermal of 60° in the Eastern division of the country. The crest of the Sierra Nevada, Cascade, and Blue Mountain Ranges is also within the curve of 44°. The highest portion of the Rocky Mountains, as far south as the parallel of 39°, is laid down as having a mean temperature lower than 36°. The Great Basin and the Columbian Plateau are indicated as having a considerably higher temperature than the dominating system of ranges which enclose them on the east and west. Accurate and long-continued observations in this region would, however, furnish an extremely com plicated system of isothermal curves, since the ranges are numerous, and many of them high, so that consid erable bodies of snow remain on their summits during a large part of the year, at least as far south as the 144 CLIMATE. parallel of 39°. In the Plateau region of Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, the decline of the ranges as the land assumes a more decidedly plateau character, the generally lessening elevation of the region, and the facility of access which the topographical conditions allow to the heated air from the south, give a high temperature to this portion of the country, and the isothermals form irregularly concentric loops extending from the head of the Gulf of California northwards. The isothermal of 52° reaches as far north as Virginia City, in latitude 39° ; and that of 72° extends to Fort Mohave, in latitude 35° In strong contrast with the Eastern division of the United States, we find, in the region bordering on the Pacific, a very marked tendency to a parallelism of the isothermals with the trend of the coast ; and conse quently that a great change may be made in the lati tude with but a very moderate one in the mean annual temperature. The character of the isothermals is, how ever, greatly modified by the position of the two par allel ranges, the Coast Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, which enclose valleys of great extent, but of low altitude. In general, the temperature of the Pa cific coast belt is much more uniform and higher than that of the Atlantic side of the United States. The isothermal of 60° runs nearly parallel with the coast, and not far distant from it, from the southern line of California north through nearly three degrees of lati tude. The isothermal of 52° approaches San Francisco in latitude 37° 48', and keeps near the coast to as far north as at latitude 47°. A higher mean temperature than 48° prevails over the region adjacent to Puget ISOTHERMALS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 145 Sound at the northern boundary of the country in lati tude 49°, while the mean temperature of the northern part of Maine, between the parallels of 45° and 47°, is below 40°. Thus it may be said with truth, that near the Pacific coast we have a difference of only 12° in mean temperature in a range of over sixteen degrees of latitude. And if we pass from the immediate vicinity of the coast in latitude 35° into the San Joa quin and Sacramento Valleys, we may range over nine degrees of latitude, and keep in a region of which the mean temperature is not below 60°, and nowhere much above that figure. The causes of this condition of things in the Pacific coast belt are the following : The proximity of the great area of water from which the prevailing winds blow toward the land, as wUl be seen farther on ; the modi fication which the temperature of this ocean undergoes near the Araerican coast by the Asiatic coast current and the northern, or Arctic, coast current ; and the position of the mountain ranges near the coast. The fact that the prevailing winds blow from this great water area toward the land has a powerful influence in bringing about a uniformity of climate along the edges of the land, and this is still farther aided by the peculiar nature of the currents along this coast. The influence of the warm Asiatic current — the Kuro- Siwo — is distinctly felt in raising the temperature as far south as the northern border of California ; from here south, the cold Arctic current, which apparently emerges from under the warm current, makes its presence felt in lowering the temperature along the coast nearly, or quite, as far south as the southern boundary of the country. 10 146 CLIMATE. The isothermals for the summer months— June, July, and August — are much more irregular than those of the year, and this is especially true for the Eastern division of the country. The powerful heating influence of the Gulf of Mexico, swept over in summer by southerly winds, makes itself extremely apparent in the foj3m of the summer isothermals, which bend to the northwest in a most remarkable manner, that of 72° reaching as far in that direction as the centre of Dakota, or beyond the parallel of 45°. A mean summer temperature of 80° and over prevails over Florida, a considerable por tion of the Gulf States, and nearly all of Texas. The belt adjacent to the Ohio, north as far as the Great Lakes, extending south along the Appalachian table land into Tennessee and the northwestem corner of Georgia, and west through Iowa, Nebraska, and North ern Kansas, lies between the summer isothermals of 68° and 76°. The summer isothermals along the Pacific coast are much less considerably changed in position and character from their mean annual character than they are on the Atlantic side, for reasons which have been already given ; while the irregularity and complex ity of the summer curves in the Cordilleran region gen erally would be very distinctly noticed, if the data were at hand, and a map on a sufficiently large scale could be constructed to allow of their being exhibited with some detail. An extraordinarily high temperature prevails in summer in the southern portion of the Great Basin and in the Arizona Plateau region, the isothermal of 88° surrounding with its northerly-reaching loop a large area in the lower valley of the Colorado River, and extending north as far as the parallel of 35°. WINTER ISOTHERMALS. 147 The winter (December, January, February) isother mals in the Eastern division, of the United States have more of the regularity of the annual curves than do those of the summer. The winter isothermal of 52° coincides very nearly with the mean annual curve of 68°, keeping closely parallel with, and at a little dis tance from, the Gulf of Mexico. The winter isothermal of 32° runs from Cape Cod across Long Island to New York City, and across New Jersey, thence making a large loop to the south so as to surround the Appala chians, and after ascending northerly again 'on the west side of that range, passing near the Ohio, through Indi ana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas, thence descending in a southwesterly direction and sweeping around the Rocky Mountains, and through the centre of the Great Basin in a very irregular course. On the Pacific coast the form of the winter curves closely resembles that of the yearly isothermals. The winter curve of 52° very closely coincides with that of 60° for the year ; and the winter curve of 40° runs from near San Francisco, closely parallel with the coast, and at a little distance from it, as far as Cape Flattery, or through a distance of over ten degrees of latitude. The peculiarities of the North-American climate which most strongly impress themselves on newly ar rived visitors, and which are not so apparent in general statistical statements as they are in nature, may be best set forth and discussed after the more essential facts re garding the other principal climatic elements have been presented. And it would seem to be next in order to state the principal facts regarding the distribution of the winds 148 CLIMATE. in the United States, since a knowledge of these will be essential to an understanding of the important subject of the amount and distribution of the pre cipitation. The prevailing winds of this country are westerly, as m other regions lying in the latitude of the return- trades. The extreme southern part of the country is just on the border line where the influence of the causes by which the trade-winds are originated ceases to be felt. In the autumn, however, in the Southern Atlantic States there is some approach to t?he conditions of the trade-wind region. At that season the winds in Florida and along the northern edge of the Gulf are decidedly northeasterly as far as 33° north latitude. Farther south, the Florida Keys and the Northern Bahamas belong, to a certain extent, to the trade-wind region. The prom inence of westerly winds in the United States is, there fore, something to be expected ; and it reraains to be stated how far topographical and other conditions mod ify this result of position in latitude, and what the effect on the cliraate is. In doing this the authority chiefly followed will be A. Woeikof 's " Discussion of the Material collected by Professor James H. Coffin." The winds along the whole extent of the Atlantic coast region have a marked resemblance in their impor tant features, notwithstanding the great difference in latitude. Westerly winds predominate during the en tire year, but they are chiefly southwesterly in summer, and northwesterly in winter. This condition of things is well set forth in the following table, in which the direction of the winds is given in percentages of the DISTRIBUTION OF THE WINDS. 149 total araount, for summer and winter, for New England, the Middle, and the Southern Atlantic States : — SUMMER. n. N.E. E. S.B. S. S.W. W. N.W. New England 5 10 8 10 12 24 14 16 Middle Atlantic States : New York to Northeastern Vir ginia 8 10 6 11 14 19 16 15 South Atlantic States : South eastern Virginia to Georgia. .7 12 8 12 17 26 11 8 WINTER. N. N.E. E. S.B. S. S.W. W. N.W. New England 9 114 7 7 14 13 33 Middle Atlantic States : New York to Northeastern Vir ginia 9 12 5 6 7 14 19 28 South Atlantic States : South eastern Virginia to Georgia .13 13 7 6 11 18 14 17 In the region between the Mississippi and the Appala chians, southward as far as the Cumberland Range, and north to Lakes Michigan and Huron, southwesterly and westerly winds prevail during both summer and winter. There is an extensive region in the southwest of the United States, embracing an area equal to about one third of the whole country, in which the winds of sum mer are chiefly southerly, varying between southeast and southwest, while in the winter they are mostly north and northwest. This region extends from the extreme southeast of California through Arizona, New Mexico, Southern Utah, Texas, Arkansas, Eastern Colorado, Eastern Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska to Missouri. Farther north, in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North ern Michigan, this reversal of the winter winds is less 150 CLQIATE. marked. South winds prevail in the summer, and there is in winter no such marked predominance of northerly and northwesterly winds as there is in the region to the southwest, of which notice has just been taken. The influence of the adjacent large body of water — Lake Superior — is clearly indicated in North ern Wisconsin, where the prevailing winds in summer are from the lake, and in winter from the land. On the Pacific coast the winds have a decidedly westerly character; but in the winter this preponder ance of westerly winds is much less marked than in summer. On the coast of Washington Territory south east is the prevailing direction, these winds , being, probably, the southwest winds of the Pacific coast de flected by the mountains which lie close upon the ocean. In the interior of Washington Territory southwest is the prevailing direction, in both summer and winter. On the California coast the winds are very strong and steady from the northwest in the summer, but decidedly more to the southwest in winter. In summer the. in tensely heated plateau to the east draws the air from the Pacific, which blows with violence through every depression in the Coast Ranges toward the heated land- mass. There is no " wind-gap " in the Coast Ranges from the Columbia River to Santa Barbara so deeply. and widely cut as that of the Golden Gate at San Fran cisco. At this point the cool winds from the sea find entrance to the Great Valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, and the mass of air thus set in motion spreads itself out fan-like after passing through the Gate, so that the prevailing winds in those valleys are in summer always from the Bay of San Francisco WINDS OF THE PLATEAU. 151 toward the mountains. The hotter the weather in the interior, the more violent the wind at San Francisco. But this condition is limited to. the day-time. At night the rapid cooling of the higher plateau checks, or stops altogether, the indraught of air, and an almost entire calm prevails at San Francisco, while the cool air flows in a gentle breeze down the slopes of the mountains, in a reverse direction frora that which it had during the day-tirae. In the winter the westerly direction of the winds in this region is still greatly predominant, but the prevailing westerly current of air is not intensified in its motion as it is during the suraraer. Over the plateau and mountain region included between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains the surface winds are irregular, being governed by the topography of the country; but the upper currents are, in general, from the west. In the southern part of this region, in the valley of the Gila and the Lower Colo rado, there is a large area which is intensely heated in summer, and toward which the winds blow from the lower region to the south, and especially from the Gulf of California. Here the predominance of southerly winds in summer is very great; but the mountain ranges to the west have so declined in height in this southern region that westerly winds are nearly, or quite, as common in winter as northerly ones. Farther east and northeast, as has been seen, the preponderance of northerly winds in winter is very great. To sura up what has been said in regard to the winds of the United States, the following may be added : — I. The influence of the trades is but very slightly felt in the extreme southeasterly portion of the country. 152 CLIMATE. 2. The prevailing winds elsewhere are, in general, westerly. 3. On the Atlantic coast, east of the Appalachians, northwesterly winds prevail in winter, southwesterly in summer. 4. In the region between the Mississippi and the Appalachians, southwest and west winds prevail both in winter and summer. 5. Over a wide area, extending from Southeastern California to Missouri, and along the base of the Rocky Mountains frora New Mexico to Southern Dakota, the winds of summer are nearly the reverse of those of winter, being south, southeasterly or southwesterly, with a great predominance of southerly ; but north and northwest in winter. 6. On the Pacific coast the prevailing and normal westerly direction is maintained through the year, in tensified in summer by the superadded monsoon influ ence of the heated plateau region to the east. 7. Through the Plateau or interior Cordilleran region the surface winds are variable and irregular in charac ter ; but the higher currents are in the normal westerly direction. 8. The region of the Lower Colorado is one in which • southerly winds greatly predominate in summer ; but where in winter there is not so complete a reversal of the summer wind as there is in the area specified under 5. Of those abnormal winds, or disturbances of the atmospheric currents, which are more properly con sidered in connection with the phenomena of storms, cyclones, and tornadoes, notice will be taken farther on. GENERAL REMARKS ON PRECIPITATION. 153 In reference to precipitation, the territory of the United States may be divided into two nearly equal portions by the meridian of 100°j the region to the east of that meridian being one of sufficient and pretty regularly distributed rainfall, .while that to the west is irregularly and insufficiently supplied, with the excep tion of a narrow belt on the Pacific coast, over a part of which the precipitation is irregular, but fairly suf ficient, while another portion is very abundantly sup plied with moisture. The principal characteristics of the precipitation in the eastern half of the country may first be considered, not only because this is much the most densely populated region, but because here the statistics are sufficiently full to justify some de tail in regard to the peculiarities of its different subdivisions. In the first place, it may be stated that it appears to be pretty evident that a precipitation of as much as twenty or twenty-five inches is desirable for the suc cessful pursuit of agriculture, and for the general well- being of the community. In a region of less than twenty inches of precipitation, agriculture, properly speaking, will not be possible except by the aid of arti ficial irrigation, or under exceptional conditions. Re gions of less than twenty inches of precipitation must be essentially pastoral regions, or, where the amount falls considerably below that figure, entirely uninhabitable or even deserts. For regions where the precipitation is between twenty and twenty-five inches, cultivation of the soil may be, on the whole, possible, but it will be a business liable to serious drawbacks; since the smaller the rainfall, the greater the liability to a series of years 154 CLIMATE. when it will fall below the mean, which will be years of partial or total failure of the crops and consequent suffering. Of course in regions favorably situated for artificial irrigation much may be accomplished in the way of making up for deficient precipitation. If in the light of these preliminary remarks we con sult Mr. Schott's rainfall charts of the United States, we find that the whole of the eastern portion of the country is well supplied with moisture, as will be seen on noticing in sorae detail the position of the isohj'etal curves. That of twenty-six inches, which may be taken- as being approximately the dividing line between a suf ficiently and an insufl&ciently watered area, crosses the northern boundary to the northwest of Lake Superior, runs southwesterly to the 97th meridian, which it strikes in about the latitude of St. Paul (45°), thence running very nearly south, with a slight westerly in clination, so that when it reaches the northern border of Texas it has advanced westward as far as the 99th meridian, near which it remains through four degrees of latitude, to the parallel of 31°, when it again ad vances to the westward, making nearly four degrees in that direction; then bending southeasterly it reaches the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico, near the mouth of the Rio Grande. As thus indicated the isohyetal line of twenty-six inches leaves to the east, or in the moister region, a large part of Minnesota, the eastern edge of Nebraska, rather less than half of Kansas, most of the Indian Territory, and about half of Texas. The line of twenty inches crosses the northern boundary of the country at about the 97th meridian, and runs south with moderate undulations, gaining a little in west- DISTRIBUTION OF THE RAINFALL. 155 ing, so that in the centre of Texas, on the 31st parallel, it is in about longitude 102°. Thence its course is southeasterly to the Gulf in a course nearly parallel with the isohyetal curve of twenty-six inches, and at a very short distance from it. The isohyetal curve of thirty-two inches, or that marking the western limit of abundant precipitation, is in general pretty nearly par allel with that of twenty-six inches, and not far distant from it; so that, taking into consideration what has been said in regard to the relative position of the curves of twenty-six and twenty inches, in general it may be stated as a fact that we pass from a region where precipitation is abundant to one where it is decidedly insufficient, in traversing a belt of country having an average width in longitude of about three degrees. The principal and only important exception to this statement is that toward the north the dis tance between the isohyetal curves widens rapidly, since that of thirty-two inches has an "almost easterly course along the southern shore of Lake Superior and the northern of Huron. Moreover, there is in the curves of twenty-six and thirty-two inches a marked loop running to the southeast, so that almost the whole of Minnesota is brought within the area over which the precipitation ranges between twenty and thirty-two inches, considerably the larger portion having over twenty-six inches. The position of the curve of thirty- two inches is such that a 'small part of Eastern Wis consin, a portion of Eastern Michigan, and a small irregularly shaped belt in New York, south of Lake Ontario, lie in a region of less than that amount of rainfall. 156 CLIMATE. In regard to the distribution of the rainfall within this well-watered half of the United States, a few state ments may be made. The regions of largest precipitation are those border ing on the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. Along the Gulf the rainfall between the meridians of 85° and 92° exceeds fifty-six inches in amount; and the curve of fifty-six inches extends northward so as to embrace a portion of Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. There is no part of the Atlantic coast, ex cept the extreme end of Florida, where the precipita tion is as large as fifty-six inches. At various points- the average is above fifty, as in Eastern North Carolina ; the line of forty-four inches running nearly parallel with the coast, and not far from it, as far south as the parallel of 37°, when it bends westwardly, in conformity with what has been already stated in regard to the region of great precipitation along the north side of the Gulf of Mexico. The greater part of the Eastern division of the United States, in accordance with what has been already stated, enjoys a sufficient, but not over-abundant, amount of precipitation ; namely, that coming within the limits of thirty-two and forty-four inches. The area thus limited includes nearly all the region lying north of the parallel of 37° as far west as the limit already designated as the position of the isohyetal of thirty-two inches. Small areas in several of the States, however, have somewhat over forty-four inches of rainfall. In the region of sufficient and, in places, abundant, rainfall thus designated, while, on the whole, the precipi tation is pretty well distributed throughout the year. ATLANTIC COAST PRECIPITATION. 157 so that there is no such thing as a clearly defined rainy season, there are local peculiarities in regard to seasonal distribution of which some notice may here be taken. Along the Atlantic sea-coast from Portland to Wash ington, through the Hudson River Valley, Vermont, Northern and Western New York, in the Ohio Valley from Western Pennsylvania to Missouri, south to Ar kansas, and down the Mississippi to its mouth, the vari ation or range between the extrerae monthly values is not large ; or, in other words, the rainfall is pretty uniformly distributed throughout the year. There are local peculiarities in the distribution, however, as indi cated by Mr. Schott. Thus, in the Atlantic sea-coast region as far south as Washington, there are three nearly equal maxima — about the raiddle of May, August, and December. In the region adjacent to the Hudson River Valley through to Western New York, two maxi ma are indicated — one early in July, and one about the middle of October — while there is one principal mini mum early in February. In the Ohio River Valley, west to Missouri, there is one principal maximum and one principal minimum — the former early in June, the latter early in February. In the Lower Mississippi Valley and in that of the Red River, there is one prin cipal maximum and one principal minimura — the for mer early in December, the latter about the middle of October ; there is also a secondary maximum in July, and a secondary minimum in June. In the Mississippi Delta and along the Gulf coast eastward in Alabama and Mississippi, there are two maxima — the principal one about the end of July, the secondary one early in December ; and there is also a principal minimura early 158 CLIMATE. in October, and a secondary one toward the end of April. tAlong the Upper Mississippi, in Central Minne sota and part of Wisconsin, there is a decided tendency to a condition of suraraer precipitation and winter drought. There are two maxima — one principal one about the end of June, a secondary one about the mid dle of September, and a principal minimum about the beginning of February. This is a similar condition of precipitation to that prevailing in the Hudson River Valley and westward, except that in the Upper Missis sippi region the range is much larger. Again on the Atlantic coast from Virginia south to Florida, there is also a strongly marked prevalence of summer rains, there being one maximum of very large range late in July or early in August, with two small adjacent minima about the middle of April and late in October ; there are also subordinate maxima in March and December. On the Pacific coast the increase in the amount of precipitation as we go northward from the southern boundary of California is a very marked feature of the climate. Thus at San Diego the mean of the series from 1850 to 1874 is given by Mr. Schott at 9.31 inches ; that of San Francisco, for nearly the same years, at 21.49 ; that of Astoria, at 77.61. Along the coast of California, as well as in the interior of that State in the valley and on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, there is an almost entire absence of rain during the summer months, and a strongly marked maximum in December. Farther north, with the great increase in the total annual amount of precipitation noted, there is also an increase in the rainfall of the PRECIPITATION OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 159 summer, which araounts in the extreme northwestern corner of Washington Territory to ten or twelve inches during the three summer months. A large portion of the precipitation in the higher region of the Sierra Nevada is in the form of snow, and this store of snow laid by in the Sierra is a most pre cious treasure to the State ; for if all the precipitation were in the form of rain, it would cause devastating floods in the winter, and in the summer almost complete aridity would prevail. The snowfall in the higher parts of the Sierra is certainly very large, in most years at least, but the statistics of these more elevated regions are extremely scanty. The amount of snow which falls in different years appears to be very .variable. Indeed, the same thing may be said of precipitation in general on the coast of California. The largest amount of rain fall during the years 1851 to 1874 at San Francisco is given by Mr. Schott as 36.02 inches; the smallest, 11.73. All through the Cordilleras, from the suramit of the Sierra Nevada east to the Rocky Mountains, the statis tics of the precipitation are meagre, and have been very irregularly taken. The amount in general is quite small ; as, for instance, at Virginia City, Montana, average of the years 1872 to 1880, 16.83 inches ; at Winnemucca, Nevada, average of two years, 6.56 ; at Pioche, Nevada, average of three years, 6.33 ; at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, average of the years from 1850 to 1874, with a few omissions, 14.45 ; at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, average of eleven years, 8.43. ' No doubt the precipitation on the higher portions of the Cordilleran mountain ranges is considerably higher 160 CLIMATE. than it is in the valleys, as is indicated by the records kept by the Signal Service at the station on the summit of Pike's Peak, the average for the years 1874 to 1880 being 31.65 inches, the elevation being 14,134 feet. In the Cordilleran region, generally, the fact that the pre cipitation is larger on the mountain ranges than it is in the valleys, and that it is chiefly in the form of snow, is a matter of great iraportance. Without this supply of snow the Great Basin would become a perfect desert, since it is almost exclusively the melting of this winter's stock which gives what little there is of verdure and fertility to the slopes of the mountains. When the ranges are lofty and wide enough to collect and store away a large supply of snow, this by its melting fur nishes water enough to irrigate the slopes and valleys, so that they can be cultivated ; when, on the other hand, the ridges are low, they, as well as the valleys at their bases, are absolutely sterile. The irregular, non-periodic fluctuations of the temper ature are of great interest, and without knowing what these are one would form a very false idea of the real character of the climate. It does not appear, however, that these fluctuations — uncomfortable as they may be for the time — are of great importance as affecting the general salubrity of the country. Physicians not un frequently send their patients in search of health to regions which the statistics show to be those where the weather is most fickle, and where the most rapid changes are of frequent occurrence. These peculiari ties, however, have a marked effect on the character of the vegetation, as well as on the methods of cultivation. The occasional occurrence of very low temperatures FLUCTUATIONS OF TEMPERATURE. 161 in low southerly latitudes, where the mean winter tem perature is quite high, is one of the most striking phe nomena in the climate of this country.' In regard to this point, the following remarks of Hann may be quoted : — " Savannah has a mean winter temperature the same as that of London in May, and of winter in Cadiz, although this latter city lies 4J° farther north. But it would be a great mis take to consider the climates of the vicinities of Savannah and Cadiz as the same, the vegetation of the two regions being essentially different, because, although the mean winter tem perature is the same, frosts do not occur in that part of the Spanish peninsula. The character of the vegetation is a much better guide to the understanding of the nature of the climate than the mean temperature. Orange-trees are liable to become entirely frozen everywhere in the United States except in Southern Florida; this is not the case in Spain. The cotton-plant is a still more sensitive witness to the ex treme character of the climate in the lower latitudes of the United States. This plant is a perennial in the south of Spain ; while, on the other hand, the stem and branches are killed every year by frost in the United States, so that the fields have to be annually replanted." The following table, selected from data arranged by Hann, gives an idea of the range of temperature in various parts of the country : — ¦ Mean mon lily range. Winter. Summer. Mean yearly extremes. Fort Sully .... 44° 39' 103.5 90.1 —25.2 108.7 Fort Snelling . 44° 53' 93.2 70.3 —25.2 93.0 St. Louis . . 38° 37' 90.3 73.2 — 5.3 99.7 New York . . 40° 42' 79.0 71.2 0.7 93.0 Macon . . . 33° 46' 80.2 69.7 18.3 97.2 Charleston . . 32° 45' 73.4 52.3 24.1 92.7 New Orleans . 30° 0' 78.6 65.6 23.2 96.2 11 162 CLIMATE. The region of lowest winter temperature is that along the eastern border of the Rocky Mountains in the northern portion of the country. Here the tempera ture not unfrequently sinks so low as to freeze mer cury. The lowest temperatures observed in this region, as given by Schott, are : at Fort Sanders, in Wyoming, — 50° ; Fort Ellis, Montana, — 53°. A temperature low enough to freeze mercury is occasionally observed in Wisconsin, Michigan, and on the borders of Canada and New York. The hottest region is that along the lower portion of the Colorado and Gila Rivers in Arizona and the adja cent part of California. An excellent illustrative example of the suddenness and severity of the " cold waves " which occasionally pass over the country is afforded by the facts gathered by the Signal Service in regard to an occurrence of this kind which took place in January, 1886. The barom eter was high from the Rocky Mountain region to the Pacific Coast on the 2d, and from that date to the 5th a slow northeasterly movement of this high area was observed ; after the Sth there was an apparent increase of this high area from the region of the Sas katchewan Valley and Manitoba. On the afternoon of the 6th the observers in Wyoming, Colorado, Ne braska, Kansas, and Missouri were warned of the ap proach of a " cold wave," accompanied by a " norther," and of a probable fall of temperature of 20° to 25° in the next twenty-four hours. The centre of greatest barometric pressure remained north of Dakota from the 6th to the 12th, but the cold wave had reached the Gulf Coast and Florida before that date, causing in COLD WAVES. 163 many places a lower temperature than has been ob served in many years, and in some a lower one than had ever before been known. Some of the effects of this disturbance may here be recorded. In Kansas many persons were frozen to death, and the loss of stock was very great ; at Dodge City the wind blew with a velocity of forty miles an hour, the thermom eter averaging during the day 10° below zero. In Mahaska County, Iowa, from the 7th to the llth, twenty persons perished with the cold, and much stock was lost. Sirailar reports came from other parts of Iowa. In Memphis, Tennessee, the mercury fell to 8° below zero. In Nashville, from the 9th to the 10th, the cold was the severest on record. In New Orleans the cold wave struck the city at 3 A. m. on the 8th, and the thermometer stood at 15°.2 on the morning of the 9th. At Indianola, Texas, the coldest weather experienced for several years occurred from the 8th to the 13th ; on the 12th snow fell to the depth of three inches. At Galveston the cold was the greatest ever known, the mercury falling to 11°, being a fall of 54° in less than eighteen hours. A heavy snowstorm set in on the morning of the 12th, covering the ground to the depth of six inches, and causing much loss and suf fering. At Mobile, Alabama, the minimum on the morning of the 9th was 11°, and at Montgomery, 5°.4. In Florida the cold was very severe ; ponds were frozen over, and much fruit frozen on the trees. At Atlanta, Georgia, the mercury fell to 2°.4 below zero. At Sa vannah it stood at 12°, the lowest ever recorded at that place. At Charleston, South Carolina, it stood at 10°.5 ; ice three inches thick formed on the ponds. On the 164 CLIMATE. morning of the llth, the curve uniting points of which the temperature was at 0° ran from Dakota south nearly to Arkansas, thence across to the Atlantic, passing south of Knoxville, and up the coast to Nova Scotia. On the St. Lawrence and beyond it to the northwest, the mercury stood at from 10° to 30° below zero. This cold 'wave was remarkable, not only for its severity, but because it extended so far to the south and caused so much damage. The whole country east of the Rocky Mountains was brought under its influence. Of the rapidity of its progress an idea can be formed from the statement that the first warning was issued frora the Signal Office at 12'' 02™, January 7, for the extreme Northwest ; and that for New England just two days later. This area of high barometer moved eastward, after the 12th, to the Atlantic coast, following the coast line, passing over Nova Scotia, and disappear ing to the eastward on the 16th. It appears, from Professor Loomis's working over of the records of the Signal Service, that throughout the greater part of the United States there is occasionally observed a difference of as much as 40° between the maximum and minimum of the same dav, and that there are a few places where such changes are remarkably frequent. These places seem lo be all west of the 95th meridian, and at or near the base of the Rocky Moun tains. Thus, in 1874, there were thirty-eight stations at which a difference of 40° on the same day between the maximum and minimum temperature was observed. At Colorado Springs (5,935 feet) this happened fifty- six times : at Denver (5,135 feet) forty-five tiraes, and at Cheyenne, thirty-three times ; at seventeen sta- HOT WAVES. 165 tions it happened only once. At Denver, January 15, 1875, the mercury fell 48° in one hour ; and an ob server " who is pronounced perfectly reliable," reported a fall in temperature at that place of 36° in five min utes. These changes of temperature felt at Denver were the concomitants of a considerable storm, which came from the northwest, and whose centre passed about two hundred and fifty miles east of that place, and which probably did not differ ma.terially from the winter storms frequently experienced in other portions of the country, except in the extreme suddenness of the changes of wind and temperature. The occasional occurrence of " hot waves " which sweep over large areas of country, raising the tempera ture much above its normal height, is one of the most striking and disagreeable features of the climate of the United States, and especially of its northern and north eastern portions. There is rarely a year in which one or more of these abnormal occurrences is not observed, and although they do not usually last more than two or three days, they are sometimes prolonged for a month or more, in a succession of heated periods with little or no interval between them. Thus, for example, in July, 1885, the thermometer at West Las Animas, Colorado, rose on the 15th to 105°.2 ; at Albany, New York, on the 17th, to 96°.6; at New London, Connecti cut, on the 18th, to 92°.4 ; in New York City, on the 21st, to 95°.9 ; in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 20th and 2Ist, to 98°.3 and 98°.7 ; at Dubuque, Iowa, on the 20th, out-door work was suspended on account of the intense heat. Again, a little later, in Dayton, Wash ington Territory, on the 28th of the sarae month, the 166 CLIMATE. temperature rose to I02°.6 ; at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the 28th, to 92°.8 ; at Fort Sully, Dakota, on the 29th, to 104°.5 ; at Yankton, Dakota, on the 30th, to 100°. 7; at Dubuque, Iowa, on the 30th (the intense heat causing an almost total suspension of out-door work on that day), to 97°.l ; at Des Moines, Iowa, on the 30th, to 100°.l. All through the country at this time many cases of sunstroke occurred, eighteen fatal cases having been recorded in Baltimore during the week ending with the 25th. Those abnormal disturbances of the atraosphere which are accompanied by rain and wind of greater or less severity may be classed under two heads : ordinary storms, and those of destructive violence, or tornadoes, as they are now usually called. The former extend over wide areas, and are ordinarily attended by no evil results ; the latter are limited to comparatively narrow belts, and are often destructive, and sometimes very calamitous, in their effects. The investigations of Pro fessor Loomis, based to a considerable extent on the Signal Service observations, enable us to forra a pretty clear idea of the character of the phenomena attending the ordinary storms of the country, which, however, were the object of careful study on the part of Amer ican meteorologists, and especially of Redfield and Espy, long before the establishment of the Signal Ser vice, and the possibility of obtaining full statistics now afforded by the use of the telegraph. The first gen eralization of value in reference to the storms of the United . States seems to have been that of Lewis Evans, to whose map, bearing date of 1749, allusion has already been made in reference to the narae and STORMS. 167 • orographic character of the Appalachian Mountains. On this map he remarks as follows : " All our great storms begin to Leeward : thus a N. E. storm shall be a Day sooner in Virginia than Boston." In various papers in which the leading points of his theory of storms were published, between 1831 and 1833, Redfield anticipated almost everything of iraportance which has since been made out in greater detail in consequence of the vastly larger body of material which has been collected since that time. On some of the points in this theory of storms Redfield was anticipated by Dove — so far, at least, as publication is concerned ; but both Dove and Redfield conceived the sarae idea at about the same tirae — each, no doubt, independently of the other — namely, that great storms are pro gressive whirlwinds. Dove's first paper bears the date of 1828. The principal points in regard to the ordinary storms of the United States may be thus succinctly stated : they begin with the formation of areas of low barom eter which are first heard of in the Far West or Southwest, and move toward the East or Northeast with a velocity averaging for the entire year, as shown by Loomis's investigation of the Signal Service Records for the years 1872-1884, 28.4 miles per hour ; the ve locity being greatest in February, least in August, the former velocity being fifty per cent greater than the latter, and the velocity varying also very greatly for the same month in different years, the average velocity for the entire year being about two thirds greater than it is in Europe. The direction in which these storm centres advance in the remote Western stations — as, for 168 CLIMATE. instance, Bismarck, longitude 100° 38' ; Fort Sully, lon gitude 100° 36'; Breckenridge, longitude 96° 17' — is toward a point considerably south of east, but at the more eastern stations it is a little north of east. In general, probably about half the storms of the country- advance from the extreme Northwest in great curved lines beginning with a southeasterly direction, and pass ing out of . the country in a direction a little north of east, or, in general, following a track nearly parallel in" position to the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence. The remainder of the storms of the Atlantic coast region begin in the Southwest, travel northeast, or else begin in the South, and follow the coast line pretty closely. In general, the area of rainfall attendant on the ad vance of the centre of low barometer is in advance of the progress of that centre nearly in the direction of its average progress. The diameter of the rain-area is variable, often much over a thousand miles. In the case of the great rainstorms happening between the years 1873 and 1877, as investigated by Loomis, there was found to be, in many cases, quite a large nuraber of independent rain-centres prevailing simultaneously within the general rain-area. In one case there were as many as eight of these, and there were only nine cases in which there was not more than one area in which the rainfall exceeded half an inch. The average distance of the principal rain-centres from the centre of low pressure was about four hundred miles. The occurrence of tornadoes in the United States is a matter of importance on account of their frequency and their destructiveness, and much has been published in regard to them. A large amount of information on TORNADOES. 169 this subject will be found in a publication of the Signal Service prepared by Mr. J. P. Finley, and issued in 1882. In this report the principal facts gathered with reference to the occurrence of six hundred tornadoes are set forth in tabular form, and there is a map ap pended on which their geographical distribution during a period of eighty-seven years — from 1794 to 1881, in clusive — is graphically represented. From these tables the following facts are gathered. These occurrences are not liraited to any one month or season ; but they are most frequent in summer, especially in the months of June, April, July, and May, and least so in the months of December and January. Of the six hundred tabulated, 112 occurred in June, 97 in April, 90 in July, 81 in May, and only 9 in Decem ber, and 7 in January. They are most frequent in the afternoon, between noon and six o'clock, and the hour in which the greatest number occurred was that from five to six P. M. The course of more than half of the six hundred (310) was from southwest to northeast, and only 38 moved in the opposite direction. Only 46 had a course directed from the eastern side of the meridian toward the western. The width of the path of de struction varied from forty to ten thousand feet, the average being 1,085 feet. The velocity of progression of the storm-cloud, in 130 cases in which this item is given, varied from twelve to sixty miles per hour, the average being thirty miles. The time consumed by the tornado in passing any given point varied from ten seconds to thirty minutes, the average of fifty occur rences being 6.52 minutes. The velocity of the wind within the cloud-vortex was variously estimated at frorn 170 CLmATE. seventy to eight hundred miles an hour. The whirling motion of the cloud was invariably from right to left. Of 600 tornadoes investigated, 134 were reported as being "unusually destructive." Of these 134, sixty- four occurred within the States of Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri; and this region lying adjacent to the Mississippi River seems to be that in which the con ditions are raost favorable to the development of these phenomena. There are also two areas — one in Georgia and one in New York — where tornadoes are more fre quent than -they are elsewhere in the Eastern States. Of the destructiveness of these tornadoes some idea may be formed from the stateraent that in many of them buildings and everything else projecting from the surface are levelled to the ground, fragments of the materials thus uptorn being carried often to great dis tances, the destruction of life and property being natu rally greater or less according as the region is one more or less densely populated. For example, in the tornado of April 18, 1880, the effects of which were felt along a path more than a hundred miles in length in Illinois and Missouri, in one town over which it passed, 65 persons were killed, over two hundred wounded, and more than two hundred buildings were demolished. The loss of property in two counties of Missouri was over a million dollars. The series of destructive storms, many of which had the character and violence of tornadoes, which took place on the ,19th of February, 1884, is especially worthy of notice, as being probably the most remark able occurrence of this kind which has taken place in the United States since the country was settled by the TORNADOES. 171 whites. According to the Signal Service returns, the loss of property occasioned by these tornadoes was not less than three to four million dollars, the loss of life being estimated at about eight hundred, and the number of the wounded at about two thousand five hundred. From ten to fifteen thousand persons were rendered homeless, as many as ten thousand buildings having been destroyed. Great quantities of live-stock also per ished. A central area of barometric depression moved, between seven A. M. of the 18th and seven A. m. of the 19th, from Fort Keogh to the vicinity of Chicago ; at the same hour on the 20th, it was about one hundred and fifty miles northwest of Montreal. On the 19th, at seven a. m., another extremely elongated area of baro metric depression had been formed, extending almost north and south across the whole United States, and hav ing its centre near Davenport, Iowa. Toward this centre the winds blew from north and south, the isotherms indicating very great contrasts of temperature between the areas of northerly and southerly winds, this condi tion of things being an invariable precursor of tornado development. The two centres of barometric disturb ance were, as is coraraonly the case in occurrences of this kind, widely separated. At three p. m. of the 19th, the centre of the north-and-south-trending baroraetric depression was near Indianapolis, the contrasts of tem perature remaining extreme, and violent winds develop ing themselves at various points south of Indianapolis, especially along the Ohio River from Cairo to Louis ville, in the vicinity of Nashville, and in Northern Alabama. At eleven p. m. of the same day, the baro metric trough had diminished somewhat in intensity. 172 CLIMATE. and the entire area of disturbance was passing rapidly off to the northeastward. Between three p. m. and sundown the area devastated was chiefly in Eastern Alabama and Northern Georgia. Before eleven p. m. the destructive storms in North and South Carolina had reached their maximum violence ; those in Southern Virginia were most destructive about midnight. The Signal Service charts indicate as having occurred on this day about thirty distinct areas of violent tornadoes, most of which were included between the eastern border of Alabama and the southern boundary of Virginia. The storm of March 11-14, 1888, deserves a notice in this connection, for, although not a tornado, it caused much suffering. Its most interesting feature was the extraordinary amount of snow which fell; and as this fall took place in the most densely settled part of the country, and caused a complete stoppage for several days of all intercourse between New York and the adjacent cities, it was, probably, of all the storms which have occurred since, this country was settled, the one which gave rise to the largest amount of comraent. The average snow-fall in Central Connecticut and over a large part of Eastern New York exceeded forty inches, and in places this was piled up in drifts of frora fifteen to forty feet in height. The maximura precipi tation reported (5.78 inches) was at Middletown, Conn. This remarkable storm was the result of a conflict between a cyclone advancing from the south, but de flected to the west on reaching New England, and a cold wave coming from the west.^ ^ See Winslow Upton, in American Meteorological Journal for May, 1888. PART IV. NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE FORESTS AND OF VEGETATION GENERALLY. "P ECALLING the great size of the area occupied by "*-^ the United States, and bearing in mind what has been said in the preceding pages in regard to the varie ties of cliraate here raanifested, and especially the great difference in the rainfall of various regions, it will be apparent that corresponding differences in the character of the vegetation, and especially in the nature and dis tribution of the arboreal vegetation, must be expected to occur. By far the most important question in refer ence to the vegetable life of any region is : Whether it is or is not covered by forests ; and, if so covered, what is the nature of these forests, and what their eco nomical value ? No portion of the United States attains so high a northern latitude that the forest growth should be necessarily dwarfed by the cold, to such an extent as to lose all economical value, or to disappear altogether. The northern boundary of the United States is, how ever, practically nearly the limit beyond which, to the north, valuable timber cannot be expected to be found ; and, in point of fact, there is, in British America, with the exception of the triangular area included between Lake Huron and Lakes Erie and Ontario, and that bor- 174 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. dering the St. Lawrence Valley, but little timber land of value, except for local use and as fuel. The portions of the United States where altitude is fatal to the growth of forest vegetation are insignifi cant in area, as corapared with that of the whole country. The Appalachian ranges — which may be said with truth to have been originally densely forested from extreme northeast to extreme southwest, and which still, over a considerable portion of their extent, remain very much in their original condition — only rise at a very few points high enough to cause the forests to disappear. This is the case particularly with Mount Washington and the higher adjacent peaks, and with the summits of the most elevated part of the system in North Carolina. The Adirondacks are densely wooded even almost to the culminating por tions of the highest summits. In the most elevated mountain chains making up the Cordilleran system, want of sufficient moisture ap pears to co-operate with elevation in thinning out the forests on their flanks, and causing them to dis appear entirely on the highest ranges. The timber line on the most elevated peaks of Colorado reaches from eleven thousand to about eleven thousand five hundred feet, the summits themselves rising from two to three thousand feet higher. The Sierra Nevada is bare of forests in its highest portions. The high region about Mount Whitney is, where not snow-covered, nothing but an entirely bare mass of granite domes and needles. In the central part of the Sierra, in the vicinity of the Yosemite Valley, forest vegetation is extremely scanty above nine thousand feet, and the upper three thousand THE APPALACHIAN FOREST REGION. 175 feet of the highest peaks is entirely bare of trees. On Mount Shasta the Pinus alhicaulis (formerly generally called flexilis) was seen at nine thousand feet, growing as a shrub, the foliage in places so compacted together by pressure of the snow, that one could easily walk over the flat surface forraed by the branches. Frora what has been here stated, it is evident that high altitude is not of great importance as determining the absence of forests over any considerable portion of the United States. That large areas are destitute of, and other regions but very poorly supplied with, arboreal vegeta tion is, however, a well-known fact, and that the chief cause of this condition of things is the want of suffi cient moisture may be unhesitatingly admitted. There are other causes which, in certain regions, are operative in bringing about the absence of forests, as will be ex plained farther on. For the purpose of throwing as much light on the nature and distribution of the forests of the United States as is possible in the very limited space here allowed, the different sections of the country will be taken up nearly in the order which has been here fol lowed in indicating the more prominent features of their topography and geology. In doing this we begin with the Appalachian region, with which must be com prised the country west and southwest of this, includ ing the valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri as far west as the western boundary of the State of Missouri, or about the 95th meridian, to the east of which lies, coincidently with the region of generally abundant and everywhere sufficient precipitation (as already set forth), that portion of the United States which is almost 176 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. everywhere densely forested, and the only portion which is so, with the exception of a comparatively narrow strip on the Pacific coast, as will be explained farther on. Included within this densely forested region of the Appalachian system and Mississippi Valley, there is quite a large area which, although not entirely deprived of trees, is destitute of continuous forests, and where this result has been brought about by a set of conditions entirely different from those by which the thinness or entire absence of arboreal growth in the region west of the 95th meridian has been occa sioned. This is the so-called "prairie region," to the elucidation of the peculiarities of which a few words will be devoted farther on. That portion of the United States which was first settled by Europeans was, almost without exception, a densely forested region, over which the aboriginal in habitants roamed, without having interfered to any perceptible extent with the natural forest growth of the country. Their numbers were small, and their hab itations were, almost without exception, either on or near the shores of the ocean and its bays and indenta tions, or along the river bottoms, in such places as were naturally grassed and not forested. There is abundant evidence of the truth of these statements in the publi cations of the earliest writers on the geography of the eastern portion of the country. It is doubtful if the native inhabitants had done as much to alter the face of nature as had been accomplished by the industrious and sagacious beavers, with their innumerable dams, by which extensive tracts of country were overflowed, and for whose construction large trees were frequently THE APPAL ACHLAN FOREST REGION. 177 felled. This is the opinion of the writer, who spent several years in the exploration of regions at that tirae untouched by the whites, and where the works of the beaver were present in abundance. This densely forested region extends throughout the whole length of the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida, west through the region of the Great Lakes to beyond Lake Superior, and to the southwest through Louisiana and for some distance into Texas. It differs from the densely forested region of the Pacific in that it is essentially a region of deciduous, or hard-wood, forests, while the latter is essentially one of coniferous trees ; it differs from the forested region of the Rocky Mountains in that the latter is not only essentially a region of coniferous trees, but one where the forests do not by any means occupy all the area, neither do they approach in density or economical importance those of the Eastern division of the country. Still another cir cumstance should be mentioned : the forests of the East embrace a -great variety of species, which, as a rule, are very much intermingled with each other, and do not, unless quite exceptionally, occupy areas chiefly devoted to one species ; while, on the other hand, the forests of the West — including both Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast divisions — exhibit a small number of species, considering the vast area embraced in the region ; and these species are, in quite a number of instances, ex traordinarily limited in their range, although there are cases in which one or two species have almost exclusive possession of very extensive regions. The Eastern forested region, while continuous from northeast to south, southwest, and west, as already men- 12 178 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OP FORESTS. tioned, is of course marked by changes in the species corresponding with the changes in temperature already indicated under the head of " Climate," and which are inseparable from the great difference in latitude between the extreme Northeast and the extreme South. These changes in the species, however, are, almost without exception, gradually made, and we pass almost imper ceptibly from a northern to a southern forest. This condition is, in a measure, the consequence of the breadth and high elevation of the Appalachian system in its southern extension, along which elevated belt*the northern aspect of the arboreal vegetation is prolonged into a region almost serai-tropical in character. The following hard-wood trees may be mentioned as being the most prorainent and important ones of the forests of the Eastern division of the country. The sugar maple {Acer saccharinum), called also the hard and rock maple, a tree of great economic value, used for a great variety of purposes in buildings and for manufactured articles, and as fuel, and also of impor tance as a source of supply for sugar ; the sap of this species having been used for that purpose, frora time immemorial, by the aboriginal inhabitants of the re gion extending from New England through to Lake Superior, and in parts of the country having been, in former years, the chief or only source of supply of the sugar used by the whites. This species was also for merly of considerable importance as a source of potash. The hard maple ranges along the Appalachian belt as far south as Northern Alabama, but ' is of the most economical iraportance in New England and the region of the Great Lakes. On the southern shore of Lake APPALACHIAN FORESTS: OAK, MAPLE. 179 Superior, in the higher portions of the country, on and near the divide between the waters flowing into the Lake, and those which descend to the Mississippi, the forest, over large areas, is almost exclusively made up of this species, the " birdseye " variety — formerly much prized for cabinet work — being there abundant. The other species of maple of less importance are : the soft maple (A. dasycarpum), having a wide range, and attaining its greatest development in the valley of the Lower Ohio ; the red maple {A. rubrum), also ranging frora New Brunswick westward to the Lake of the Woods, and south to Texas, and being largest and most abundant in the central portion of the Mississippi Valley. The oaks range over the entire Eastern forested region from Maine to Florida, and west nearly as far as arboreal vegetation extends. The number of species of the genus Quercus is large, and only a few of the most important ones can be mentioned. The white oak {Q. alba) is of the greatest economic importance, and its range is over nearly the whole forest region of the East, this species reaching its greatest development along the western portion of the Appalachian belt, and in the valley of the Ohio and its tributaries. It is largely used in all kinds of constructions, especially in ship-building, for wagons, tools, and agricultural imple ments, for interior finish, and for fuel. The burr-oak {Q. macrocarpa) has almost as wide a range as the white oak, extending farther west and northwest than any oak of the Atlantic forests ; it is the tree which forms, with the scarlet oak {Q. coccinea), the principal growth of the "oak-openings" in the prairie region. 180 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. . The wood of this tree is of about the same quality as that of the white oak, and they are employed for the same purposes. The red oak {Q. rubra) has also a wide range, and extends farther to the north than any other species ; it is soraewhat extensively used for various building and manufacturing purposes. The jack oak, or black jack ( Q. nigra), is a small tree, of little value except for fuel, but widely disserainated in the west and southwest of the Eastern forest region, a-nd forming, with the post-oak ( Q. obtusiloba), the growth of the so- called "cross-timbers" of Texas. The live-oak (^. virens) is an evergreen tree of considerable economic value, chiefly developed along the Gulf coast, and through Western Texas into the mountains of Northern Mexico. It was formerly extensively used in ship-building. The chestnut oak {Q. prinus) ranges through the Appala chian region, from Lake Champlain to Northern Ala bama, and west to Central Kentucky and Tennessee. Its bark is used in preference to that of the other North American oaks in tanning. The ash is represented by several species in the East ern forest region, but there is one — the white ash (Fr'axinus Americana) — of special importance, as it is a tree of great economical value, and its range is very extensive, namely, east and west frora Nova Scotia to Minnesota, and southwest to the extreme border of Texas. This species has its greatest development in the bottom-lands of the Lower Ohio Valley. Toward the west and southwest it diminishes in size and impor tance, and is replaced to a considerable extent by the green ash {F. viridis). Its wood is largely used in all kinds of manufactures, especially for wheeled vehicles. APPALACHIAN FORESTS: CHESTNUT, BIRCH. 181 agricultural impleraents, interior finish, and furniture. The range of the red ash {F. pubescens) is nearly as large as that of the white ash, except that it does not extend quite so far to the southwest. Its wood is less valuable than that of the white ash, but it is occasion ally employed for the same purposes for which that is used. The chestnut {Castanea vulgaris, var. Americana) is an important tree, on account of its wide range in the Eastern forest region, its size and beauty, its durability in contact with the soil, and the value of its fruit as an article of food. The American chestnut is smaller and sweeter than the European ; but, although extensively eaten, it nowhere forras what might be called a staple article of food, as it does in parts of Europe, especially in Tuscany. This species ranges from Southern Maine west to Indiana, and south along the Appalachians to Northern Alabama. It is a tree much admired in the Northern States for its size and the beauty of its foliage, but attains its greatest development along the flanks of the mountains in North Carolina. Its wood, which is durable, but not strong, but which splits easily, is used especially for fence rails, for posts, and also for interior finish, and to some extent for furniture. The birch is represented in the Eastern forest region by several species, and although some of them range far to the south, it is essentially a Northern tree. The white, canoe, or paper birch {Betula papyrifera or papy racea) reaches a higher latitude than any other tree of the American deciduous -forest. It ranges south to the mountainous region of Northern Pennsylvania, and west to British Columbia. It is a very striking ornament of 182 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. the forest, not only on account of the beauty and sym metry of its form and foliage, but because its bark is conspicuously white, and, being easily separated into thin layers, curls up on the trunk in attractive forms, especially on the older trees. This bark, being imper vious to water, has been used from time immemorial by the aborigines for making canoes, for which purpose it is peeled off in large sheets, which are bent around a light frame-work of cedar, the joints being made water tight by spruce-gum. The yellow or gray birch {B. lutea) is one of the largest and most valuable trees of the New England forest, ranging south along the higher portion of the Appalachians to North Carolina, and west to Southern Minnesota. Its wood is hard and dense, and, like that of the canoe birch, is largely used for the manufacture of small articles, like spools, button-moulds, lasts, shoe-pegs, hubs of wheels, etc. ; also to some extent in furniture, and as fuel. There are in the region here being noticed several species belonging to the two genera of the Juglandacem — Juglans and Cary a — which have a wide range, and which are of iraportance both for their wood and for their fruit, and which also are among the most attractive ornaments of the forest. Prominent among these are the hickory {Cary a alba), the butternut {Juglans cinerea), the black walnut {J. nigra), and the pecan ( C. olivce- formis). The hickory ranges through nearly the whole of the Eastern forest regions, from the St. Lawrence to Eastern Texas. It is a large and beautiful tree, attain ing its greatest development west of the Appalachians, having a remarkably dense, tough, smoothly splitting, and elastic wood, and hence largely employed for uses APPALACHIAN FORESTS: THE JUGLANDACEM. 183 in which these qualities are desirable, as, for instance, in the — to the American woodsman — all-important axe-handle. The fruit of this tree, which is extremely variable in size, shape, and thickness of the shell, is extensively eaten, although, like the chestnut, it can hardly be called a staple article of food. The hickory is the most delightful fuel which it is possible to burn, and its fuel value is first araong all the commonly and widely distributed trees. The pecan is greatly inferior to the hickory in most respects ; but as an article of food its fruit is of very considerable iraportance. It is decidedly Southwestern in its range, not occurring to the northwest of Indiana, and having its greatest de velopment in the rich bottom-lands of Arkansas, and being the largest and most important tree of Western Texas. The genus Juglans is represented by two spe cies, the butternut {J. cinerea) and the black walnut ( J. nigra), both of which have a wide range through the Eastern forest region. There is also a third {J. ru pestris) which is of much less importance than the other two, and which ranges from Texas west to Arizona. The butternut occurs in New England, but is by no means an abundant tree in that region ; farther west, and especially in the Valley of the Ohio, it attains its maximura development. The wood is used to some extent in interior finish, and the nuts are eaten, but not so comraonly as the hickory-nut and chestnut. The other species of Juglans — the black walnut — is hardly known in New England, unless on its extreme western border; but southwestward along the Appa lachians and west to the Mississippi it is a tree of great value and importance. It attains its maximum devel- 184 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. opment on the western slope of the southern portion of the Appalachian Range and in the region west from there to Arkansas. Its wood is very extensively used for furniture and inside finish, its rich dark-brown color and the ease with which it is worked causing it to be highly prized for this purpose. Hardly any other wood is ever used for gunstocks. There are several species of elm ( Ulmus) occurring in the Eastern forest region, one of which — the American elm ( U. Americana) — has a wide range, extending from Southern Newfoundland to Texas and west to Central Nebraska. This species is especially the tree of the river bottoms, and specimens occurring isolated in natural meadows often attain great size. The graceful forms in which its branches grow cause it to be highly esteemed as an ornamental tree, and it is the species most commonly planted for shade along the sides of the streets of villages, especially in New England. Its wood is rather coarse-grained, very difficult to split, and of little value as fuel ; for certain purposes, however, as for saddle-trees and in boat and ship building, it is of special value. The other species — the rock or white elm ( C/", racemosa) — is a tree hardly occurring in New England, but largely developed in the region of the Great Lakes, west to Northeastern Iowa, and south to Central Kentucky. Its wood is considerably denser than that of U. Americana, and is largely used for va rious purposes, especially in agricultural implements, railway rolling-stock, and bridges. The beech {Fagus ferruginea) occurs through nearly the whole of the Eastern forest region, ranging from Nova Scotia south and southwest to Florida and Texas, APPALACHIAN FORESTS: LINDEN, MAGNOLIA. 185 and west to Missouri. It is, under favorable conditions of soil, a large and handsome tree, and is cultivated for ornament and shade, although not as extensively as the elm and maple. The wood of the beech is hard, tough, and close-grained, but not particularly durable ; it is somewhat extensively used in various kinds of manufactures. The linden, lime, bass-wood, or white-wood {Tilia Americana) is a tree of wide range, occurring more and more abundantly as we go west from New England through the region south of the Great Lakes, into the Ohio Valley, and found south along the Appalachians to Georgia. It has its maximum development toward the west and southwest in the rich bottom-lands. Its wood is light, soft, and easily worked, and it is much used for purposes where lightness is more iraportant than strength, as in panels and bodies of carriages, cheap furniture, and various kinds of wooden utensils. The tulip-tree {Liriodendron tulipifera), called also yellow poplar and white-wood, is one of the largest and most beautiful trees of the Eastern forest region. It is rare in New England, but has its maximum develop ment from New Jersey south along the slopes of the Appalachians to Tennessee and North Carolina, and west in the Ohio Valley. Its wood is a little lighter than that of the linden, but is in most respects similar to that, and is used for sirailar purposes. The genus Magnolia is represented in the Eastern forest region by several species, two of which are of importance, especially for the great beauty of the tree and its flowers. These species are M. glauca and M. grandiflora, and these, like the other species of the 186 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. magnolia, are pretty closely limited to the Atlantic coast and Gulf region and the lower portion of the Mississippi Valley. The Magnolia glauca, which has a variety of names, among which those of sweet bay and white-laurel are most common, is found over a very small area on Cape Ann, in Massachusetts, and in no other place in New England ; its range being frora New Jersey southward, chiefly along the coast to Florida, and west to Arkansas and Texas. Its wood is rather soft and of little importance economically. The other species {M. grandiflora), called the big laurel or the bull bay, an evergreen, and one of the finest trees of the Eastern forest region, is pretty closely limited to the southern and southwestern coast, ranging from North Carolina south to Tampa Bay, westward to South western Arkansas, and along the Texas coast to the Valley of the Brazos. Its wood is heavier and more satiny than that of M. glauca ; but it is not much used except as fuel. There are two trees, known familiarly as the locust, which are of considerable importance in the Eastern forest region. One is the Robinia pseudacacia, com monly called either simply the locust or the yellow locust ; the other is Gleditschia triacanthos, to which the popular names, honey-locust, acacia, sweet locust, and black locust are given. The former occurs natu rally in the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to Georgia, reaching its maximum development on the western slopes of the raountains of West Virginia, but has been introduced and cultivated over the whole region east of the Rocky Mountains, wherever trees can be made to grow. The wood of this species is hard, heavy, close- APPALACHIAN FORESTS : ORNAMENTAL SHRUBS. 187 grained, and durable, and has been largely used for a variety of purposes. This tree, however, over an ex tensive portion of the region where it was formerly cul tivated, has been exterminated by the attacks of the "locust borer" {Cyllene picta), a destructive pest which occurs throughout the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. The other locust — the three-thorned aca cia — ranges from Pennsylvania, along the western flanks of the Appalachians, south as far as Florida, southwest through Northern Alabaraa and Mississippi to Texas, and west from Pennsylvania through Southern Michigan to Eastern Kansas. It is the characteristic tree of the "barrens " of Middle Kentucky and Tennes see, and attains its maximum development in the Lower Ohio bottom-lands. The wood of this species is heavy, hard, and durable, and is used to some extent. This tree is widely cultivated throughout the region east of the Appalachians for shade, ornament, and for hedges. There are certain trees and shrubs in the Eastern forest region of little or no economical imj)ortance, but which, especially when in flower, are highly ornamental and very striking features in the landscape. Of these only a few can be mentioned : the mountain-ash {Pyrus Americana), ranging over nearly the whole Eastern forest region, and much cultivated as an ornamental tree on account of the beauty of its fruit, of dark-reddish or scarlet color, and remaining long upon the branches ; the sumach {Rhus ^Za&ra), a handsome shrub, from four to ten feet in height, and very striking both for foliage and fruit, and a very characteristic feature of the New England landscape, as seen along the borders of the forests, and by the sides of country roads ; the moun- 188 • NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. tain laurel {Kalmia latifolia), covering extensive areas of half-cleared forests in the hilly regions, and very con spicuous at the flowering season — June and July — and one of the most beautiful of all the characteristic native American shrubs ; the dog- wood or cornel {Cor- nus alter nifolia), a beautiful shrub, rising occasionally to sufficient height to be called a tree, ranging from the St. Lawrence to Alabama, and in certain regions, es pecially in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, very conspicuous at the time of its flowering, the landscape, from a distance, looking as if it had been snowed upon. The red-bud {Cercis Canadensis), a small tree, is a conspicuous feature of the forest in the extreme South west, especially in Southern Arkansas, the Indian Ter ritory, and Eastern Texas. When in flower this species presents a very striking and attractive appearance. Although, as stated above, the forest vegetation of the Eastern region is essentially deciduous in character, and in that respect strongly contrasting with that of the Central and Western regions, coniferous trees are widely spread over the whole country from Maine to the southern border of Georgia, and are, over extensive areas, of great economical value. The genus Pinus is by far the most widely distributed and most interesting of the coniferous genera, since it ranges over nearly all the Eastern forest region, and is also found largely represented in both the Rocky Mountain and Pacific coast belts, being almost everywhere more or less promi nent as a feature of the landscape, and over large areas of the greatest economical importance. Only a few of the most interesting of the very numerous conifer ous species can here be mentioned. First among APPALACHIAN FORESTS: THE PINE. 189 them in value is the white pine {P. strobus), a North ern tree, having its maximum development in the region of the Great Lakes, ranging from Maine west to Lake Superior, and southwest along the Appala chians to Georgia, and attaining a height greater than that of any other species in the Eastern forest region, namely, soraewhat less than half that of the tallest trees in the Pacific coast belt. The wood of this spe cies is soft and not strong, but corapact and very easily worked, and for these reasons it is, on the whole, the most economically important tree of the American forest, being the common wood of which houses are built, both inside and outside, and extensively used for furniture and for all other purposes where strength is not essential, and where a moderate cost is a raatter of iraportance. The most important pineries of the East ern States are in "Maine, where this species occurs scat tered through the deciduous forests, and where the most easily accessible trees of large size have already been pretty well thinned out ; Michigan and Wisconsin are the chief pine-producing States of the Western and Northwestern region. Saginaw Bay, on Lake Huron, may perhaps be designated as the head-quarters of the Northwestern pine luraber industry. The other pine which is also of great economical value, although decidedly inferior in this respect to the white pine, is the Southern {P. palustris), called also hard, yellow, long-leaved. Southern, and Georgia pine. This is, in contrast with the white pine, decidedly a Southern species, ranging from Southern Virginia south to Florida, and southwest through the Gulf States to the valley of the Red River in Louisiana and that of 190 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. the Trinity in Texas. It is a remarkable tree in that, quite exceptionally (reference here being had to the Eastern forest region), it occurs over extensive areas alraost entirely unmingled with other species, occupy ing the so-called " pine barren " zone of the Southern Atlantic States, of especial importance in North and South Carolina and Georgia. The wood of this tree is heavy, hard, and tough, and is used in a great variety of ways, especially for flooring, for which purpose it is shipped North in large quantities. It also furnishes almost all the tar, pitch, rosin, and spirits of turpentine used in the United States. Another important pine is the P. mitis, called also yellow, short-leaved, and bull pine. This species ranges from Staten Island south to Western Florida, through the Gulf States and Tennessee to Eastern Texas, and west of the Mississippi into Kansas and Missouri, reach ing its greatest development in Western Louisiana, Southern Arkansas, and Eastern Texas. This is an important tree in the Southwest and west of the Mis sissippi, and among the yellow pines only inferior in value to P. palustris. Still another interesting and important coniferous tree, and, next to Pinus palusty'is, the most character istic tree of the Southeastern coast tiraber belt, is the cypress ( Taxodium distichum), which ranges from Dela ware south along the coast to Florida, and southwest to Texas, forming extensive forests in the South Atlan tic and Gulf States, and also extending up the Missis sippi to Southern Illinois and Indiana. The wood of this species is soft, light, straight-grained, and durable, and is used for a great variety of purposes. The APPALACHIAN FORESTS: THE FIR AND SPRUCE. 191 cypress is a marked feature in the peculiar swamp country which extends along the coast from Virginia through North and South Carolina, of which the Great Dismal Swamp, on the borders of Virginia and North Carolina, may be taken as the type. These swaraps are locally known through the region where they occur as "dismals" or " pocosins." The largest continuous area of swamp in North Carolina lies between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, and covers an area of nearly three thousand square miles. The prevalent growth of the best swamp lands is the black gum {Nyssa syl vatica), tulip-tree or poplar, cypress, ash, and maple, the proportion of cypress increasing as the soil becomes more peaty. These so-called swamps — in large part, at least — differ essentially from what is usually called a swamp, being considerably elevated above the adja cent streams ; they are, in fact, immense accumulations of decaying vegetation, often peaty in character with more or less fine sand intermingled, and with a very considerable variety of forest vegetation. Portions of these swampy areas have been successfully drained and brought under cultivation; other portions have resisted all attempts of this kind, although there has been a large amount of money expended in attempting to reclaim them. Besides the pines, there are to be mentioned, as con stituting a quite important portion of the Eastern for est region, the spruces, firs, larches, and cedars, which together form a marked zone of vegetation decidedly Northern in character, extending through the northern part of New England, through Canada to the Upper Lakes, and far to the north and northwest, where it 192 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. unites with the forest belt of the Rocky Mountains, in alraost the extreme northerly extension of this range within the United States. The Northern forms of coniferous trees also occur in the highest portion of the Appalachians as far south as North Carolina, and are found along the most elevated ridges of the Rocky Mountain range, from the extreme North through to Arizona and New Mexico, and along the culminating portion of the Sierra Nevada nearly to the southern border of California. One of the most characteristic of these Northern trees is the balsam fir {Abies balsamea), which ranges from Labrador northwest to the base of the Rocky Mountains, occurring in Central Michigan, along the north shore of Lake Superior, and in the more elevated and damper portions of the Appalachians south to Vir ginia. Although when fully developed ¦ it reaches a height of fifty or sixty feet, at high altitudes it be comes a mere creeping shrub. This species is much admired for its regular pyramidal shape and rich green foliage ; and for this reason, and because it is hardy and of rapid growth, it is much cultivated as an orna mental tree in the Northern towns and villages. It is the tree which produces the " Canada balsam" — a substance of considerable value for various purposes. There are two species of spruce which have about the same range as the species last mentioned — the black spruce {Picea nigra) and the white spruce {P. alba). The wood of both these species is strong, elastic, and durable, and is much used in ship-building, especially for spars, and also in constructions of various kinds. It is with the fibrous roots of the spruce that the APPALACHIAN FORESTS: HEMLOCK AND LARCH. 193 « pieces of birch-bark used in making canoes are sewed together. The hemlock {Tsuga Canadensis) is another very characteristic tree of the Northern forests, where, per haps more than any other tree, it sometimes occurs in " groves " or over areas of considerable size, to the almost entire exclusion of other species. These hem lock forests constitute perhaps the most picturesque feature of the Northern forest, as the tree is often large, striking in form, and the foliage attractive. This species occurs along the higher Appalachian ranges, south as far as Alabama ; and, although much more abundant at the North than at the South, the largest specimens of it are said to be found in the high mountains of North Carolina. The bark of this tree is of great importance on account of its being the prin cipal material used in the Northern States in tanning. The larch {Larix Americana), much more commonly called the tamarack or hackmatack, is another very characteristic Northern species, although, like most of the others, ranging to a considerable distance south along the higher regions of the Appalachians. Swampy areas, over which water stands during a considerable part of the summer, are often covered with a sparse growth of this species, to the almost entire exclusion of other trees. These swamps, which are especially common in portions of the Upper Peninsula of Michi gan, are commonly known as tamarack swamps. The wood of this tree is strong and durable, and is con siderably used for a great variety of purposes. The white cedar, or Arbor Vitae {Thuya occidentalis), is a very common species at the North, and is much culti- 13 194 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. vated as a hedge and ornamental tree. Large swampy areas in the North, especially in the region south of Lake Superior, are covered with a gnarled and tangled growth of this species, and are called by the English- speaking population "cedar-swamps," and by the French voyageurs " savanes." In the farthest northwestern regions of the United States, as — for instance — on Isle Royale, and the adjacent shore and islands of Lake Superior, the dwarfed and tangled growth of the vari ous characteristic Northern species of coniferce makes travelling over the country in the highest degree dif ficult and vexatious. It is sometimes, for long stretches, almost irapossible to get over the ground except by crawling on hands and knees. The white cedar {Chamcecyparis sphceroidea, more commonly known as Cupressus thuyoides) is a tree pretty closely limited to the Atlantic and Gulf coast region, having its maximum development in the South ern Atlantic States. It is one of the characteristic trees of the Southern swampy belt. Its wood is light, close-grained, easily worked, and durable in contact with the soil ; hence it is extensively used for many purposes, especially in boat-building, for shingles, etc. Having called attention to some of the more impor tant features of the forest vegetation of the eastern s'ide of the continent within the limits of the United States, we pass to the consideration of the Western or Cor dilleran side, beginning with the narrow, but, in part, densely forested, belt of the Pacific coast, in connection with which some notice will be taken of the distribu tion of the forests of the Rocky Mountains ; since, although the two regions are separated from each other, THE PACIFIC COAST FOREST BELT. 195 over several degrees of latitude, by the intervening re gion of the Great Basin, where forests are extremely scantily distributed, there are many points of resem blance between them, and especially in their northern extension, where it is not easy to draw any distinct line of demarcation between the ranges of the Rocky Mountains and those of the Pacific Coast — a fact al ready noticed in the topographical description of the region, and which receives further illustration in the character of its botanical features. The forest belt of the Pacific coast differs essentially from the Eastern forested region in being much smaller in area, and in having a much less number of species, among which the coniferous trees greatly predominate. The econoraical importance of the forests of the Pacific coast is therefore greatly inferior to that of the region of whose resources in this line a rapid sketch has just been given. In the size and density of growth of sorae of the species, however, and in the grandeur of the forest scenery generally, portions of the Pacific coast belt surpass anything which this country has to offer. This region of dense forest growth begins on the west ern slope of the Sierra Nevada, at the southern ex tremity of the range, continuing north along that slope into Oregon and Washington Territory, and culminating in the region adjacent to Puget Sound, where the forests are most reraarkable for their density, as well as for the size and elevation of the individual trees. The most widely distributed and most valuable of the trees of the Pacific coast belt is the Douglas fir {Pseudo- tsuga Douglasii), which ranges from British Columbia south through the Coast Mountains, and along the west- 196 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. ern slope of the Sierra Nevada to Arizona, and southeast along the Rocky Mountains through Montana, Wy oming, and Colorado, but not through the Great Basin. This species often forms extensive forest?, with almost entire exclusion of other trees, especially in the North ern region, where it attains its maximum development. Its wood, which is hard and strong, is less easily worked than that of the Eastern white pine, but it is exten sively used on the Pacific coast, especially for all kinds of building purposes, the head-quarters from which it is supplied being the region adjacent to Puget Sound, where this species grows to twice or three times the height which it has in the Rocky Mountains. Another widely distributed and valuable tree in the Pacific coast and Rocky Mountain regions is the yellow pine {Pinus ponderosa), which ranges from British Co lumbia south along the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to Mexico, and occurs, irregularly distributed, along the Rocky Mountains from Montana, where it is quite abun dant, to Arizona. For size and height this species, as well as the Douglas fir, is remarkable. Its wood is variable in character, generally rather hard, brittle, and not par ticularly durable, but considerably used where a better quality cannot be obtained. The sugar pine {P. Lam- bertiana) occurs in abundance on the western flanks of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada, and is especially well • developed in the central portion of the Sierra at an elevation of from three to five thousand feet above the sea-level. This pine is remarkable for the great size and length of its cones. Its wood, although inferior to that of the Eastern white pine, is extensively used in California, especially in connection with mining opera- THE PACIFIC COAST FOREST BELT. 197 tions. It is one of the most conspicuous of the species which make up the grand forests of that part of the Sierra Nevada which lies at an altitude of from two to seven thousand feet above the sea. The digger pine {P. Sabiniana) is the characteristic tree of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is remarkable for the large size of its cones, the seeds of which were formerly an important article of food for the aboriginal inhabitants of the foothills. A characteristic tree of the California Coast Ranges, similar in many respects to P. Sabiniana, and also having large and beautiful cones, with very long, sharp, recurved points, is P. Coulteri. The wood of these two species is of little value except for fuel. Other Coast Range pines of interest are : the Monterey pine {P. insignis), a tree peculiar to the sea-coast from Pescadero south to San Simeon Bay, and much culti vated in Europe on account of its rapid growth and the beauty of its foliage ; the Obispo pine {P. muricata), limited to the Coast Ranges, from Mendocino south to San Luis Obispo. The pines of the high mountain region are : P. monticola, occurring in the Sierra Nevada at an altitude of frora seven to ten thousand feet, and common in the northern part of the Rocky Mountains, as well as in the Cascade Range, and in portions of the mountain ous regions of Idaho, where it is an important and valuable tree, and is soraetiraes called the white pine ; P. flexilis, a tree occurring in limited nurabers in the highest parts of the Southern High Sierra of California, and here and there south along the higher portions of the Rocky Mountain ranges and also in the Great Basin, from Montana south to Arizona ; P. albicaulis, by some considered a variety of P. flexilis, by others a distinct 198 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. species, and having a similar range with that species ; P. Balfouriana, and aristata, a variety of P. Balfouriana found about Mount Shasta, at from five to eight thou sand feet in altitude, and around the base of Mount Whitney, also occurring in the very highest portions of the Rocky Mountains, and in parts of the Great Basin south to Arizona ; P. Jeffreyi, by some considered a variety of P. ponderosa, reaching its maximura develop ment in the Sierra Nevada, and occurring throughout the whole length of that range at high elevations ; P. contorta and P. Murrayana (the latter often con founded with the former, and by most botanists con sidered as a variety of it), a common species on the High Sierra at from eight to nine thousand feet in alti tude, extending into Oregon and through the Rocky Mountains south to Northern Arizona, and, where occurring (like the preceding species), of value in default of better timber, especially for use in mining construc tions. There are two trees, limited in their occurrence to California, of great interest on account of their size and beauty. Both belong to the genus Sequoia, one being the redwood {S. sempervirens), the other the Big Tree {S. gigantea). The former is a tree exclusively of the Coast Ranges ; the latter is found only on the west ern slope of the Sierra. The redwood occurs in quite close proximity to the coast, in a narrow, almost unin terrupted belt, extending from a point in the Santa Lucia Range about fifty miles south of Monterey, to very, near the north line of the State. North of Rus sian River this tree forms an almost unbroken forest, extremely grand in character, individual trees rising to THE SEQUOIA. 199 nearly three hundred feet in height, it is said, the tallest one measured by the writer being two hundred and seventy-five feet. The wood is soft, not strong, but brittle and splintery, being much inferior to that of the Eastern white pine ; but it is extensively used in California in a great variety of ways, and especially for building purposes. The Big Tree occurs in some what isolated groves or patches, always intermingled with other trees, and not forming forests by itself, as the redwood does. Its range is from 36° to a little beyond 38° in latitude, there being nine groves, the largest of which is about thirty miles north-northeast of Visalia, on the tributaries of King's and Kaweah Rivers. The groves in Mariposa and Calaveras Coun ties are those most visited by tourists, and in the latter is the tallest of these trees, and the tallest tree on the American continent, so far as known. The writer, with the assistance of Mr. C. F. Hoffmann, measured, in 1863, all the principal trees of this grove, and found the tallest one to be three hundred and twenty-five feet, and that there were three others over three hundred feet in height. In no one of the other groves, however, was any tree found rising as high as three hundred feet. The wood of this tree is of little value, but has been cut and used to some extent in the region adjacent to Visalia. In the more northerly groves this species occurs with others of more value for building purposes, and is too large to be easily handled ; hence it is not likely to be molested or in jured, except by fire, as a large proportion of the finest individuals of this species have already been. Still another coniferous tree is of much interest, from its 200 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. beauty and its very limited range. This is the Mon terey cypress {Cupressus macrocarpa), a species occur ring only on Cypress Point, near Monterey, where it forms a most beautiful grove, the tree being of great size, and strikingly resembling the Cedar of Lebanon in general appearance. The Port Orford cedar {Chamcecyparis Lawsoniana) is a strictly Pacific coast species, ranging from Coos Bay in Oregon into Northern California. It is a large and valuable tree, with an odoiiferous, highly resinous wood, which has been considerably used in interior finish and for various other purposes. The resin, how ever, evaporates from the wood, and settles on objects near it, especially when it is used for drawers, in such a manner as often to occasion very considerable inconvenience. The white cedar of the Pacific coast {Libocedrus decurrens, called by some botanists Thuya gigantea) is also a Pacific coast species, ranging from the Santian River in Oregon south through the Coast Ranges, as far as Mount San Bernardino. It is a large tree, closely resembling in general appearance the Big Tree. The Thuya gigantea proper, or red or canoe cedar, is also a Pacific Coast Range tree; but, unlike the two last species mentioned, it extends its range into the North ern Rocky Mountain region. It is a large tree, which has its maximura development in the Coast Ranges of Washington Territory and Oregon, and is considerably used for various purposes, especially for canoe-building by the Indian tribes living along the Pacific coast. The deciduous trees of the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range, as well as of the Pacific Coast Ranges THE PACIFIC COAST RANGES. 201 from California north to the boundary line, are of com paratively little importance, either as ornaments of the forests or as being of economical value. There are several species of oak, but of little value, except for fuel : among them the Coast live oak ( Q. agrifolia), the largest and most generally distributed oak in the southwestern part of California ; the black oak ( Q. Kelloggii) ranging along the Coast Mountains of Ore gon, and the most characteristic hard-wood tree of the western slope of the Sierra, of no value except as fuel ; the chestnut oak {Q. densiflora), occurring in the Coast Ranges from Oregon to Central California, the wood of which is valuable for fuel, and the bark extensively used in tanning. An evergreen tree, very characteristic of the Coast Ranges of Oregon and California, and very ornamental, is the California laurel ( Umhellularia Californica), of which the wood is hard and strong, and of very ple.asing, light-brown mottled color. It has been used to some extent for inside decoration and cab inet work, and is the only tree on the Pacific coast which is sufficiently handsome to be so utilized, and even this is not easily worked, while trees of sufficient size to be cut up into lumber are not abundant. The tree called in California by English-speaking people the madrona, and by the Spanish the madrono {Arbutus Menziesii), occurs from British Columbia south through the Coast Ranges to the Santa Lucia Mountains, and is a very characteristic tree of the region, with its red bark and beautiful glossy foliage. The wood is used in the manufacture of gunpowder, and the bark to some extent in tanning. The area next to be considered is that included 202 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. between the two heavily tirabered regions of which the leading features have been indicated above, or that portion of the United States lying between the summit of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range on the west, and the western border of the great Eastern forest region of the country on the east. The essential cli matic feature of the area is paucity of rainfall, and the corresponding botanical characteristic is paucity, or alraost entire absence, of forests over much the larger portion. Space permits the mention only of the most important and interesting features of the vegetation of this vast region, which comprises fully half the entire area of the United States. In doing this, nearly t'he same geographical order will be followed as that em ployed in describing the topography of this region : and, in accordance with this, the Rocky Mountain region will first be noticed; then the Great Basin and the plateaux north and south of it ; then the " Plains," or the nearly level country lying east of the base of the Rocky Mountains ; and, finally, the Prairie region, or that portion of the scantily timbered area which for the most part lies enclosed within the Eastern forested belt, and where other causes than the absence of moisture have operated to bring about the growth of the peculiar vegetation — consisting chiefly of shrubs, flowering plants, and grasses — which we there behold. The Rocky Mountain belt is not destitute of forests, but these are very irregularly scattered over the surface, and the species are few in number, chiefly belonging to coniferous genera, and almost without exception of little economical value, although of necessity used as fuel and in mining operations, where better wood or THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 203 coal cannot be obtained. The species of coniferous trees here occurring have been already mentioned, and their range indicated, in describing the forests of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range ; since, with few exceptions, the coniferous trees which grow at a considerable eleva tion in these mountains are those which are found in the ranges east of the Great Basin, and also, to a limited extent, on the higher ranges of the Basin itself, espe cially in its eastern portion. There are few forests in the Rocky Mountains at all approaching in density, and none where the size of the individual trees will compare, with those of the Sierra and Cascade Range. What trees there are in the Rocky Mountains usually grow most densely in the moist places at the foot of the ranges, where the streams debouch from them, in the ravines and gorges, and on the lower slopes. By far the most common deciduous tree throughout this region is the aspen, or quaking asp {Populus tremu loides), often called cottonwood and sometimes poplar, both these names being familiarly given, without much discrimination, throughout the Western region, to any species of Populus. This, except for paper-stock, al most worthless tree is the one which most commonly springs up, forming dense thickets, throughout the Rocky ' Mountains wherever the coniferous forest has been burned off. It ranges from Newfoundland to Arizona, and is the most widely distributed of North American trees, and highly characteristic of Northern and ele vated regions. In various portions of the Rocky Moun tains there are scattered oaks, only here and there in sufficient quantity to be of importance. The scrub oak {Q. undulata, var. Gambelii) occurs in some quantity 204 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. on the mountains of Southern New Mexico and Arizona, and is also found in Colorado and along the Wahsatch Range. It is valuable for fuel, and its bark is used to some extent in tanning. The black oak {Q. Emoryi), the white oak {Q. grisea), and a few other species are found here and there in the southern part of the Rocky Mountains, as also in Arizona, and ranging south into Mexico. The most densely forested portions of the Rocky Mountains are the extreme northern, in North western Montana ; the northwest corner of Wyoming ; the higher part of Colorado ; the eastern slope of the range in New Mexico ; and the higher portions of Arizona. Enclosed between the densely forested Pacific belt and the poorly timbered region of the Rocky Moun tains is an extensive area, including the Northern and Southern plateaux and the Great Basin, which is not entirely destitute of trees, but which is practically nearly so. The coniferous species which have been mentioned as occurring in the Rocky Mountains are found, here and there, along the moister portions of the higher ranges in the Great Basin, especially in its eastern and higher portion ; but by far the larger portion of the (Slopes and nearly all the valleys are destitute of ar boreal vegetation, being chiefly occupied by the well- known " sage-brush " {Artemisia tridentata), which covers many thousands of square miles, especially in Nevada (familiarly known as the Sage-brush State) and Utah, but ranging from Oregon south to Arizona, and east to Colorado, and found not only in the val leys but often high up in the mountain ranges. Two ' trees are, however, very characteristic of the Great THE GREAT BASIN. 205 Basin, especially of its western portion ; these are the juniper {Juniperus occidentalis) and the pinon, or nut- pine (P. monophylla). These two species, usually much dwarfed in size and scrubby in appearance, form almost the exclusive arboreal vegetation of Western and Cen tral Nevada, where they occur hidden away in the canons, having afforded, during the early years of mining in that State, considerable fuel, even in locali ties where the region seemed, at first sight, entirely bare of forest vegetation. The pinon was formerly a tree of importance as furnishing food for the aboriginal inhabitants, the seeds being large and having a pleasant taste. Everywhere in a wide sweep adjacent to the mining districts all this vegetation has been completely cleared away. An order of plants peculiarly American, and charac terizing in a most marked manner the hot, dry region adjacent to the Lower Colorado, is that of the Cactacece. The cactus ranges frora the extreme north of the Pla teau region to the extreme South, but its most abun dant and striking development takes place in Southern Nevada, Southern California, and, in general, the region adjacent to the Mexican boundary line. The so- called prickly pear {Opuntia) is, among the members of the cactus family, that which has the widest range, since it is found from the Upper Missouri through the Great Basin to Arizona. There are many species of this genus ; the one which ranges farthest north is 0. Missouriensis. The genera Mamillaria, Echinocac- tus, and Cereus are found in various localities in the Great Basin, as well as in Southern California, in por tions of which region, as well as in Lower California 206 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. and Arizona, there are large areas where various kinds of cactus form almost the exclusive vegetation, often rising to such a height as to be properly called trees ; the loftiest of all being the Cereus giganteus, than which a more striking object can hardly be found through the entire range of the vegetable kingdom. Mingled with them are yuccas (called the " Spanish bayonet"), mez- quites {Algarobia glandulosa), and the creosote bush {Larrea Mexicana), which are among the most abundant and characteristic plants of this region, whose strange, thorny vegetation offers the most wonderful contrast to that of the extreme Northeast of the country, where moisture and coolness are as prevalent as are heat and dryness in the far distant Southwest. The vast area extending east from the base of the Rocky Mountains to near the 95th meridian is the district universally known as " the Plains," and one not at all to be confounded with the " Prairies," which lie almost entirely included within a region of dense forests, and over which the partial absence of trees is due to a cause entirely different from that which has made the Plains the home of the grasses and not of arboreal vegetation. The transition from the forested region of the East to that practically destitute of tim ber forming the region of the Plains is, alraost without exception, coincident with and strictly dependent on the diminution in the precipitation, which, in going west, is, as already indicated, rapid, and, on the whole, pretty regular. Thus we find that Dakota, lying be tween the meridians of 97° and 104°, is, to use the lan guage of the Census Report, "practically destitute of timber," with the exception of its river bottoms and the THE PLAINS. 207 small territory between the north and south forks of the Cheyenne — the region of the Black Hills, already de scribed. In Minnesota, which lies east of 97°, only the northeastern portion, and especially that adjacent to Lake Superior, is heavily timbered. The southwestern corner of the State, embracing about one third of its area, and the area west of the 96th meridian, is classed in the Census Report as having less than two cords of wood to the acre. Nebraska, next south of Dakota, and Kansas, still farther south, are almost destitute of forests. In Nebraska only a narrow strip along the Missouri, near the meridian of 96°, is given in the Census Report as having from one to two cords of wood per acre. The heavy forest growth of the Mississippi basin just reaches the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. North of this, and along the eastern border of the State, there is a belt of from thirty to a hundred miles in width in which there is valuable timber on the borders of the streams. West of the meridian of 97° the trees are confined to the immediate banks of the large streams, and are small and of little value. West of 99° we find the typical vegetation of the plains, with only a few small stunted willows and cottonwoods scat tered at wide intervals along the streams. The yearly isohyetal of twenty-six inches forms a limit beyond which arboreal vegetation is almost entirely absent, while in going east there is little of value until we reach the belt in which the precipitation is over thirty-two inches. The same may be said of the Indian Territory and Texas, the bending of the isohyetal curves to the west, as we approach the Gulf of Mexico, being, how ever, as would be expected, accompanied by a corre- 208 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. sponding extension of the forest belt in that direction. Thus, in Texas, the limit of what may be designated as the well-timbered region lies between the 96th and 97th meridians, while the line marking the entire disappear ance of the forests may be placed somewhere between the 99th and 100th meridians, and pretty closely adjacent to the isohyetal of twenty-six inches. From a compari son of these data with those given on the forest and rain maps of Eastern Europe, especially of Russia, it would appear that forests thrive there with a consider ably less supply of moisture in the form of rain than they do in the arid region of the United States. Thus portions of Russia in which, according to Kriimmel's rain map of Europe, the rainfall is between ten and sixteen inches are included in the official forest map of Russia in the regions of "mean forest-growth," or those in which the forests cover from thirty to fifty per cent of the surface. That regions of small precipitation are, in general, regions practically destitute of forests, is a well-ascer tained fact, supported by evidence obtained on all the continental land-masses. But there are comparatively few large areas where vegetation disappears altogether. Various grasses thrive where the rainfall is very small ; and there are shrubs which are able to live in regions where the amount of moisture seems to be reduced almost to nothing. Moving sands, like those occurring over portions of the Sahara and in the country southeast of the Caspian, present the greatest obstacle to the growth of vegetation ; but such areas are of small dimensions compared with those which, although exceedingly dry, do yet sustain a sparsely distributed shrubby growth. THE PRAIRIES. 209 Regions which have recently become dry land, in conse quence of the diminution of the water surface of the salt lakes — an occurrence of which there are many examples in various parts of the world — are also re gions in which vegetation with great difficulty obtains a foothold. That the interiors of the great continental masses, so far as these are not in the equatorial belt, should be, on the whole, regions of little or no forest growth is in, strict accordance with the well-understood conditions influencing the amount and distribution of the rainfall. In addition, however, to a diminution of the rainfall, and to excessive cold, as all-important agents in bringing about an absence of forests, there are, as has already been suggested, other causes operat ing in the same direction, to which our attention may now be called. A brief consideration of these causes will not only explain the occurrence in the United States of extensive areas practically destitute of forests, where the conditions, both as regards temperature and the distribution of moisture, are known to be such as are generally highly favorable to forest growth, but will also furnish an answer to the question : Why the absence of trees is so generally connected with the presence of a level or only gently undulating surface, so that the great areas of the world which are destitute of forests are, in so large a majority of cases, plains, llanos, or steppes, and not mountainous regions. The French word prairie, " a meadow or grassy plain," was employed by Father Hennepin, writing about 1680, who uses the word (spelled by him prarie) in describing the prairies of Illinois, which he does with care and accuracy, his description being 14 210 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. as good to-day as it was when written. The .word " prairie " has become current, like many other French terms — names of natural objects — in what but a few years ago was the western portion of the coun try, namely, the Mississippi Valley, and still farther west. In the northern portion of the Rocky Mountains the small grassy areas adjacent to the streams and sur rounded by mountains are called "prairies," while, farther south, they are known as " parks," the still smaller areas being frequently denominated " holes " — a word used by Lewis and Clarke and other early ex plorers and fur-hunters, but which is gradually being replaced by the more elegant designation of "prairie." In general, however, the term " prairie " is used to designate tracts of land nearly or quite destitute of forests, or over which the trees are, as a general rule, liraited to the " bluffs " — the raore or less precipitous slopes which separate the upland, or prairie proper, from the river bottom — and which treeless areas occur in the midst of a well-forested country, and, as already suggested, iri regions where precipitation is abundant. Illinois is, par excellence, the Prairie State, and may be considered the centre of the Prairie region ; the adjacent States, on all sides, having more or less prairie, and also areas of dense forest. All through the Prairie region the precipitation is abundant and pretty equally distributed through the year. The vicinity of Chicago, a typical prairie region, comes within the isohyetal of forty-four inches and over, and the same is true of a part of the treeless region of Iowa. But the prairies are by no means limited to the Upper Mississippi region. Large areas THEORY OF THE PRAIRIES. 211 in the more southern States — Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana — are prairies, portions of which are entirely destitute of forests, while others have small " clumps " of trees sparsely scattered over their surfaces. This is in a region of the largest rain fall occurring in the country, or that of fifty-six inches and over. The theory, therefore, that scarcity of rain is the cause of the absence of forest vegetation in the prairie region is entirely untenable. Equally untenable is the prevailing theory; namely, that trees once existed on the prairies, but have been destroyed by fire. In the language of the former State Geologist of Ohio — Professor Newberry — this idea is " simply puerile." With Foster, an eminent geologist, himself living in the typical prairie region, we may dis miss it as "worthy only of a passing notice." This theory could not be entertained for a moment by any one who, gifted with some power of observation, had been furnished with an opportunity of studying the distribution of vegetation, and especially of the forests, over our Central and Western regions. The real cause of the absence of trees on the prairies is — as the writer long ago became convinced, after years of investigation on the spot — the physical char acter of the soil, and especially its exceeding fineness, which is prejudicial to the growth of anything but a superficial vegetation, the smallness of the particles of soil being an insuperable barrier to the necessary ac cess of air to the roots of a deeply rooted vegetation. Whether this be the true explanation or not, the facts are patent — naraely, that the soil of the prairies is one of extraordinary fineness, and that where in the 212 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. raidst of this fine soil coarse or gravelly patches exist, there dense forests occur. This fact has been distinctly admitted in the volume of the recent Census Report devoted to Agriculture. In the volume of the same Report devoted to the subject of Cotton, some mechan ical analyses of the prairie soils are given which prove that they are of most extraordinary fineness ; one of a soil from the prairies of Mississippi- shows it as con taining 97.9 per cent of "fine earth," the remaining 2.1 per cent consisting ¦ exclusively of particles of brown iron ore of less than one millimetre in diameter. The theory that fineness of soil is fatal to tree growth finds its most remarkable support in the fact that in South eastern Russia the limits of the tschornozem (" black earth ") and the treeless region are alraost exactly iden tical, and not at all in harmony with the position of the isohyetal lines. The black soil of Russia is, as is well known, an earth of exceeding fineness — so fine indeed that it is with the greatest difficulty that the air can penetrate it so as to oxidize the organic matter which it contains. This, in the opinion of the writer, is the essential cause of the dark color of this peculiar soil, the existence of which forms so marked a feature in the physical geography of Russia. The peculiar mode of decay of the organic matter in the fine soils like the tschornozem seems analogous to that by which vegetation has been turned into coal or lignite when so buried under detrital material as to greatly impede the access of the air. Since, as has here been shown, fine texture of soil is unfavorable to a forest growth, it is easy to see why plains are more likely than mountain slopes to be tree- THEORY OF THE PRAIRIES. 213 less. It is toward the plains that the finer particles of that material which is abraded from the higher re gions are being constantly carried, as they have been in former geological ages. The more distant the region from the mountains, and the broader its area, the more likely it is that a considerable portion of it will be cov ered with fine detritus, whether this be of subaerial origin, or deposited at the bottom of the sea. There is no very extensive plain covered by coarse detrital material, neither is it possible that there should be. Deposits forming under the sea are made up, in part, of the material coming from the growth and decay of animal and vegetable organisms, and with that material will be mingled more or less inorganic detritus, which will be finer in proportion as it is farther from the source from which it has been derived. The exceed ingly fine soil of the typical prairie region consists, in large .part, of the residual material left after the re moval, by percolation of the rain and other atmospheric agencies, of the calcareous portion of the undisturbed stratified deposits, chiefly of Palaeozoic age, which un derlie so large a portion of the Mississippi Valley. The finer portions of the formations of more recent age in the Gulf States have also, over considerable areas, re mained treeless. There are in various parts of the country beds of lakes which have disappeared in conse quence of their very slow filling up with fine sediment, and which are not occupied by the forest, although sur rounded on all sides by the densest possible growth of arboreal vegetation. The economical importance of the forests of the United States is very great, but can hardly be expressed 214 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. by figures. Some facts, however, may be stated in this connection. The principal use of the forests is for fuel, and there is no part of the settled portion of the coun try where the consumption for this purpose is not of importance. Although coal exists in abundance over certain regions, and although there are parts of the thickly settled regions where forests are scanty, there is no district where some wood is not used as fuel. In the cities of the East — even those which are in the imrae diate vicinity of coal — a good deal of wood is necessa rily consumed in the form of kindlings, — an iraportant item where anthracite is the coal supplied ; and, more over, open fires are extensively used by the wealthier class, in conjunction with coal in furnaces. In other regions where coal is abundant, forests are also abun dant, and as these must be cut down to be sawn into lumber, or to clear the land for cultivation, there is a large supply of wood available as fuel, but not fit to be used for building or manufacturing. The result of these conditions is, that in the Middle and Northern Atlantic States coal is the chief fuel in the cities and large towns, and the almost exclusive fuel of the larger cities on important lines of communication, but supple mented, to a greater or less extent, by wood, either as kindlings or as a luxury; but in the country, on the farms, and in the small towns, wood is almost exclu sively used, except on, or in the iraraediate vicinity of, the coal-fields. In the coal-producing States of Illinois .and Iowa, where forests are limited to certain areas, and are not generally scattered over the surface, and in Nebraska and Kansas, which have coal of inferior quality, but where forests are still scarcer than they USES OF WOOD. 215 are in Illinois and Iowa, coal is the dominating fuel. The same is the case in certain parts of Missouri. In all the States south of Virginia and Kentucky wood is almost the exclusive fuel except in a few of the very largest towns. Wood is almost the exclusive material of which houses and barns are built over the whole United States. The exceptions are the largest cities, which are chiefly built of brick, with some stone ; the business portions of the towns of second rank ; and occasional important buildings in towns of the third rank. Fences also con sume a very large amount of wood, this material being in common use for this purpose wherever timber is abundant, and often where it is not, as in the prairie States, where, however, within a few years, wire has begun to be very extensively used for fences. There is also a very large consumption of wood for furniture and for those portions of various implements, especially agricultural, which are made of this material. An even larger supply of wood is required for the boxes and barrels in which various articles of merchandise are transported. The consumption of wood in the form of barrels, as required by the two articles flour and salt, is very large. The great demand for cheap wooden ware, and the extensive use of wood in building houses, and for vari ous portions of the finishing and fittings of houses and barns, has led to the invention of very ingenious ma chinery by the aid of which wood is wrought into almost every variety of forms with very little direct help from human hands. This makes the coarser kinds of furniture and of household implements exceedingly 216 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. cheap. As an example, it may be mentioned that bar rels strong enough to hold in transportation two hun dred and eighty pounds of .salt are made in Michigan for so small a sum as twenty cents. The building of log houses — that is, of such dwellings as are made by piling trunks of trees on each other, either in their natural shape, or partly squared with the axe — is almost a thing of the past, although once extremely common. Very few districts in the region of abundant forests are so far away from saw-mills and railroads as to make a log house the most economical form of dwelling. Occasionally some large, substan tial, and well-finished buildings are erected " log-house fashion," either as a matter of fancy, or to attract at tention by an exterior of exceptional appearance. Some idea of the importance of the forests from an econoraical point of view can be gained from the fol lowing figures given by the census of 1880, in reference to the manufacture of sawn lumber : — Number of establishments 25,708 Capital invested 1181,186,122 Average number of hands employed . , 147,956 Feet of lumber produced 18,091,356,000 Number of laths 1,761,788,000 Number of shingles 5,655,046,000 Number of staves 1,248,226,000 Number sets headings 146,523,000 Feet of bobbin and spool stock .... 34,076,000 Total value of the above specified products 1230,685,061 Value of other products 2,682,668 Total value 1233,367,729 Cords. . 140,537,439 Value. $306,950,040 1,971,813 5,126,714 787,862 1,812,083 624,845 3,548,285 s 1,157,522 3,978,331 540,448 121,681 158,208 425,239 . 145,778,137 1321,962,373 STATISTICS OF WOOD CONSUMPTION. 217 The consumption of wood "for domestic purposes" — that is, as fuel in houses — is given by the census of 1880 as anjounting to 140,537,439 cords, having an estimated value of $306,950,040. The total consumption of wood as fuel is given as follows : — For domestic fuel By railroads . . . By steamboats , . In mining and smelting In making bricks and tiles In making salt . . . In woollen manufacture Total , . . The total value of the wood used as lumber and as fuel araounts, therefore, to no less than $555,330,102, if the figures given by the Census of 1880 are to be trusted. The value of the wood consumed as fuel in the United States was more than three tiraes as great as that of the coal mined. In fact, the timber of the country is the greatest of all its material possessions. The coal, once exhausted, can never be restored, not even with the lapse of an indefinite amount of time, for the conditions favorable to the production of coal on the earth have entirely ceased to exist. The timber, on the other hand, is restored, after destruction by man, by the kindly hand of Nature. This is the case, at least, oyer the whole of the once densely tirabered portion of the country, where the various growths suc ceeding each other after the priraal forest has been reraoved offer a satisfactory substitute for that which has been made use of, either naturally or as an easily 218 NATURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS. attainable result of cultivation. In regions where the rainfall is of insufficient amount, there appears to be a tendency in Nature to replace the original growth by one of inferior quality. Whether this inferiority would be lasting or not, seeras a doubtful matter. That there has been a dirainution of the precipitation, certainly dating back to the Tertiary age, and, in all probability, to a much earlier time, is a geological fact established beyond all possible doubt. That this dimi nution has anything to do with the removal of the forests by the hand of man, or that man can to any perceptible extent influence the general cliraate of the country, there is not the slightest reason for believing.'' ^ See the author's " Climatic Changes of Later Geological Times," where this matter is discussed, and the subject of the relation of the forest to cli mate, and man's influence on climate, investigated at considerable length. PART V- SCENOGRAPHICAL. T^HE great extent of the territory occupied by the United States is a sufficient reason why there should be a corresponding variety in the scenery. In the early history of the country, when only the Atlantic coast and the eastern side of the Appalachian belt were known to travellers, the landscape was generally con sidered monotonous by those who visited this region as tourists, or with a view to the enjoyment and descrip tion of its scenery. This impression of uniformity and monotony was farther confirmed, as the Mississippi Valley and the region of the Great Lakes were added to the tourist's range. Many persons visited the prairies of Illinois and the adjacent States for the purpose of getting an idea of a vast expanse of almost unbroken country such as could hardly be obtained elsewhere in the Northern Heraisphere without visiting Southeastern Russia and the country east of the Urals. The general resemblance of the Appalachian Moun tain scenery to that of parts of Northern and Central Europe — as, for instance, that of the White Mountains to that of the Erzgebirge, or that of Northern New England to that of Scandinavia — could hardly escape notice, similarity of topographical features being sup plemented in many cases by the absence of any spe- 220 SCENOGRAPHICAL. cially marked differences in the floras of the regions in question. Thus the writer, having spent a summer in a geological exploration of New Hampshire, found himself after a very short interval of time travelling through Southern Sweden. The impression of the scenic similarity of the two regions was extremely interesting. Not only were the rocks, rock-forms, and topographical features the same, but the vegetation — although of course not identical so far as species were concerned — made, from the scenic point of view, almost exactly the same impression on the eye in the Scandinavian country that it did over large portions of New England. In those early days of travel, and especially of Eng lish travel, to the United States, the dominating idea was to see Niagara Falls, which was the great point of attraction. Occasionally an adventurous traveller went farther west, and down the Mississippi ; but for ninety- nine out of a hundred tourists who visited this country and described its scenery, Niagara was the Ultima Thule. The opening of the " Farthest West " by roads and railroads, the scientific exploration of the Cordil leran region, the development of its mineral resources, and the rapidly growing desire on the part of many to see as much of the world as possible — all this has very greatly enlarged the range of experience in the enjoyment of scenery, while the art of photography has rendered it possible for those not caring to travel, to understand and enjoy the scenic features of dis tant countries, and to compare understandingly the landscapes of regions widely separated from each other. THE APPALACHIANS. 221 To attempt to describe the principal features of the scenery of a country having an area of more than three million square miles is, of course, something not to be thought of in the present connection. All that can be done is to indicate some of the points most visited, and most worthy of being visited, by tourists, and to compare, in a general way, some of the more striking features of the landscape of this country with those of regions of similar scenic character in other parts of the world. In doing this we raay begin with the mountains. As already reraarked, the Appalachian Mountain scenery is only to be compared with that of the minor chains of Europe, since these Eastern ranges never rise to the snow-line, and are almost always wooded to their sum mits. The principal features of Appalachian topog raphy have been already dwelt upon to as great an extent as space would allow; and it needs here only to be stated that, while these features are often of ex ceeding interest to geologists and other close students of Nature, they do not exhibit any forms which in grandeur can be compared with those of common oc currence in the Cordilleras or the Alps or, still more, in the Himalaya. There are from the scenic point of view few, if any, unique features in the Appalachian ranges. The nearest approach to such is perhaps the Natural Bridge in Virginia — an arch of limestone grace fully spanning a chasm about two hundred feet deep and sixty feet wide — and the Profile in the Franconia Notch, in which masses of rock are so disposed as to represent, in gigantic dimensions, and with striking approach to accuracy in general outline, the profile of 222 SCENOGRAPHICAL. a human face. Fully as fine a profile as that in the White Mountains is to be seen in Colorado ; but as this latter locality is not easily accessible, and is sur rounded by an abundance of grand scenery, it is hardly known to the general tourist, and seems never to have been described, while of the Profile in the White Moun tains the descriptions are numerous. To the trained eye of the topographer and geologist the extraordi narily intricate and exceptional forras of the ranges and valleys in Central Pennsylvania are of vastly greater interest than such accidental and fanciful oc currences as the Profile in the Franconia Notch. A purely American name for something which is not of uncommon occurrence in mountain regions is the word "flume," which as applied in the United States, and chiefly in the White Mountains, means a narrow passage or defile between nearly perpendicular rocks, through which runs a stream, and usually with a suc cession of cascades. The White Mountain flume, in the Franconia Notch, is the locality of this kind most visited. It is about four hundred feet in length, and the walls are from twenty to fifty feet ija height, A deep cut in the sandstone at Keeseville, New York, near Lake Champlain, on the Au Sable River is called a "chasm." The term "notch" is used in the White Mountains, and to a liraited extent in the Adirondacks, for pass or mountain valley. Similar passes or de pressions in the Appalachian ranges farther south, especially in Pennsylvania, are called " gaps." Those which are deeply cut down, so as to give passage to streams, are called " water-gaps ; " those in which the depression in the ridge is not sufficiently deep to give THE APPALACHIANS. 223 passage to a water-course are known as " wind-gaps." The gorge at the great bend of the Delaware, where this streara traverses the Kittatinny Range, and which is known as the "Delaware Water Gap," is a promi nent scenic feature of this kind. The points in the New England portion of the Appalachian system which are most visited by tourists for the sake of the panoramic views which they afford are Mount Washington — the only point over six thou sand feet in elevation in the Appalachians north of North Carolina; Mount Lafayette, in the Franconia Range (5,290 feet) ; Moosilauke (4,790 feet), a little farther south ; Monadnock, near the southern border of New Hampshire (3,169 feet) ; Mount Mansfield, in the Green Mountain Range in Vermont (4,389 feet) ; Greylock, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts (3,505 feet). The Adirondacks also attract great num bers of visitors, where the .lakes and streams afford opportunities for boating and fishing, and where the scenery is extremely attractive, especially in the au tumn after the leaves have begun to change their color, most of this region being still covered with the prime val forest. Mount Marcy, or Tahawas (5,344 feet), and Whiteface (4,871 feet) are the points most frequently ascended in this region; but there are many others, ranging from three to five thousand feet in elevation, which offer fine views, and are not at all difficult of access. The Catskill group is also a region much resorted to by tourists, partly on account of the beau ty of the scenery, and partly because it is so easily reached from New York. The high mountain region in North Carolina is too remote to attract many visitors 224 SCENOGRAPHICAL. from the Northern and Eastern States ; and the facili ties for travel in that region are as yet extremely deficient, in striking contrast with the condition of things in this respect in the mountain districts of New England and New York, where almost every point can be reached by railroad, and where hotels are numerous and commodious, and the business of receiving and taking care of " summer boarders " seems to be a most important one for the permanent residents. The mountain scenery of the Cordilleran region is extremely varied in character, as has already been made evident to the reader in the sketch of the topog raphy of that part of the country given in the preced ing pages. Only a few of its more important features can here be indicated. In elevation the Cordilleran ranges are comparable to the Swiss Alps, although there is no point in the United States proper quite as high as Mont Blanc (15,784 feet) or Monte Rosa (15,217 feet); but there are several which surpass the Finster Aarhorn, — the culminating point of the Bernese Oberland (14,026 feet), — and there are a large number which have a greater elevation than the Jungfrau (13,671 feet). A very curious feature in the Cordilleras is the close ness with which the highest peaks approach each other in altitude, as shown by the following table of eleva tions of all the points in the United States supposed to be over fourteen thousand three hundred feet high, all 'of which are in the Rocky Mountains, and all in Colorado with the exception of the two volcanic cones, Shasta and Rainier : — THE CORDILLERAS. 225 Movmtain. Elevation at sea-level. Authority. Blanca Peak . , . 14,464 Hayden Survey. Mount Rainier . 14,444 U. S. Coast Survey. Mount Shasta . . 14,442 Cal. Geol. Survey. Mount Harvard . 14,375 Hayden (14,452 Whitney). Mount Elbert . . 14,351 Hayden Survey. Gray's Peak . . 14,341 Hayden (14,319 Whitney). Mount Eosalie . 14,340 Hayden Survey. Torrey's Peak . . 14,336 Hayden (14,375 Whitney), Mount Evans . . 14,330 Hayden. La Plata Mt. . . 14,311 Hayden Survey. The above are all the points in the Cordilleras be lieved to be over fourteen thousand three hundred feet in elevation, with the exception of Mount Whitney, which has been several times measured, with rather discordant results, ranging all the way from 14,600 to 14,898 feet ; there is good reason, however,-for be lieving this to be the highest point in the United States, not including Alaska. All the heights given above, with the exception of Rainier, were obtained by the aid of the barometer, and are not to be taken as being absolutely accurate. The elevations in Colo rado by the Hayden Survey, which are the result of a combination of barometrical^ and trigonometrical measurements, are probably pretty close approxima tions to the truth. The measurement of Rainier, de pending as it did on trigonometrical measurements made at a great distance, are — in the writer's opinion — not to be accepted as final, and may be farther from the truth than a single barometrical observation would have been ; but this mountain, although several times ascended, has not been measured barometrically. 15 226 -SCENOGRAPHICAL. The essential difference between the Cordilleran ranges and the Alps is that the latter are much more extensively covered with snow than are the former, and that this snow gives rise to permanent glaciers, descend ing far below the snow-line, and constituting a very prominent and exceedingly attractive feature in the scenery of the Higher Alps. With the exception of the great volcanic cones of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range there is no part of the Cordilleras where snow or ice forms a prominent feature in the scenery during the summer, at the time when the mountains are visited by tourists. The winter snow of course covers the moun tains, often to a very large extent, and summer snow falls do the same occasionally; but the effect of this latter kind of occurrence is in no respect to be com pared with that of the permanent Alpine snows and glaciers ; indeed, the irregular melting away of the summer's snow on the flanks of the ranges, leaving great patches promiscuously scattered here and there, is often rather a disagreeable than a pleasant feature. A remarkable exception is the cross of snow on the " Mountain of the Holy Cross," to which allusion has already been made. There are small masses of ice around the highest peaks of some of the Cordilleran ranges, but these are frequently covered and entirely concealed by snow, even during the summer; and whether properly called glaciers or not, they have no effect on the landscape, and are only seen by those ascending to the summits of the highest peaks, and then only in favorable seasons. The snow and ice covering the higher portions of the great volcanic cones of the Pacific coast are, however, THE VOLCANIC CONES. 227 conspicuous features in the scenic effect produced by these grand masses ; and the type of landscape which they present is a peculiar one, and perhaps the most impressive which this country offers. Lassen's Peak is the most southern of these volcanic masses, and it is nearly as high as Mount Hood ; but it rises frora a so much higher base, and, being so much farther south, is so much less covered with snow than that cone, that it is by no means as grand an object as its more northern rival. The snow-fields on the upper portion of the southern flank of Lassen's Peak have always presented nearly the same appearance in suraraer when seen in different years by the writer, indicating a con siderable degree of permanency ; yet when these fields were climbed over there was no indication of the ex istence of ice visible. Mount Shasta, seventy miles farther north, and nearly four thousand feet higher than Lassen's Peak, is, of course, much more covered with snow, which, although diminishing greatly in amount after several successive dry seasons, never disappears entirely, even on the south side. On that side, when this mountain was ascended by the writer in Septeraber, 1862, seven miles of the ascent were made over a snow-field filling one of the great ravines by which this mighty cone is furrowed. Seven years later this field was almost entirely gone at the same season of the year, and the evaporation of the snow had uncovered a large field of ice on the north side of the cone, of which nothing had been visible in 1862, in looking from the summit down upon the flanks of the mountain in that direction. At all times of the year when seen by us, from 1860 to 228 SCENOGRAPHICAL. 1864, at a distance of fifty or sixty miles. Mount Shasta presented the appearance of a dazzling white cone when shone upon by the sun. The outline of the mass, as seen from a point fifty-three miles distant in a southerly direction, was that of an almost regular cone, growing slightly steeper toward the summit, and having a slope of 25°-27° on one side, and of 30°-31° on the other, with a smaller, somewhat steeper, subsidiary cone on the western side. Mount Hood is a very conspicuous and grand moun tain mass on account of its isolation, its regular form, and the extent to which it is covered with snow. It appears higher than it really is, because it can be seen from a point only about thirty miles distant, which is but little above the sea-level, and where the fine scenery of the Columbia River and of the basaltic re gion adjacent to it makes an admirable foreground. It is a favorite subject for landscape artists, and has been repeatedly climbed by tourists, the ascent being without special difficulty. The same may be said in regard to Mount Shasta. Mount Rainier, of which the aboriginal name is said to be Tacoma, is much less accessible than either Hood or Shasta, but has been climbed several times, and first in 1870 by Messrs. Stevens and Van Trump, of Olym- pia, W. T. As seen from the southern end of Puget Sound, at a distance of forty miles from its base, this mountain is an object of surpassing grandeur. It is of almost exactly the same height as Shasta, but is much more deeply and extensively covered with snow and ice than is that cone. As Rainier is in the midst of a tangled forest without roads, and almost without THE VOLCANIC CONES. 229 trails, it can only be reached by travellers fitted out with pack aniraals and camp equipage, and who are able and willing to bear the fatigues of camp life in a difficult forested country. So far as known to the writer, its higher portions have never been visited by any skilful photographer ; while Shasta and Hood have been finely photographed from a great number of points of view by Mr. C. E. Watkins, of San Francisco. Speaking from personal experience, the writer would say that, on the whole, these great isolated snow-covered volcanic cones of the Pacific coast are, from the scenic point of view, the grandest objects which this country presents. In the picturesque effect which they pro duce they may be fairly placed on an equality with anything which the Alps have to show. Indeed, so far as an opinion can be relied on which is based on comparison of photographs only, these almost extinct volcanoes of the Cascade Rangp must be fully as at tractive from a scenic point of view as the higher ones of Mexico, and perhaps not much less admirable as scenic objects than the much loftier cones of South America, which all rise from very high bases, and of which the snow-covered portions seem but insignifi cant in extent as compared with the uncovered rocky slopes. Among the scenic features of the Cordilleras in the United States there are two forms of rock-masses which are, in certain regions, developed to such an extent as to make them peculiar and exceedingly im pressive as eleraents of the landscape. One is the pinnacled character of the granitic masses ; the other the dome-shaped summits of the same rock. The pin- 230 SCENOGRAPHICAL. nacles are something like the Aiguilles of the Mont Blanc group, but in the latter the rock is chiefly slaty and not granitic. In parts of the Cordilleras, notably in the vicinity of Mount Whitney; in a group of mountains called the Castle Range, near Mount Shasta ; and in the Wind River Range, the granite occurs in the form of alraost isolated pinnacles, or groups of pinnacles, which rise literally thousands of feet above the general level or crests of the ridges on which they stand, so sharp and so vertical that the descriptive term " spike " is one which involuntarily suggests itself to the mind on seeing them. These pinnacles are, of course, too steep to be covered by snow, but they rise often from great snow-fields, presenting a wonderful appearance of mingled desolation and grandeur, and making perhaps as strong an impression on the mind as any type of mountain scenery can. The dome structure of the granitic masses, so won derfully exhibited in parts of the Sierra Nevada, is also a feature of great scenic interest, and one which, so far as known to the writer, is not seen anywhere else in the world on so grand a scale. These domes are especially well exhibited in the region just above the Yosemite Valley ; and here also is that unique fea ture of the scenery — one of those great, rounded, and exceedingly steep masses, rising almost five thousand feet above the adjacent valley, and which has been split in two, so that on the side fronting that valley it presents an absolutely vertical face of somewhat over fifteen hundred feet in height. Next to mountains, water-falls perhaps offer the greatest scenic attractions, and the number and variety WATER^FALLS. 231 of form of those occurring in the United States is very great. Indeed there are in the Cordilleras great num bers of water-falls which have been seen by explorers, but which have never been described or named ; and some of these unknown localities are finer than any of the much-visited falls of the Alps, or even of Norway. Among the well-known and frequently visited water falls, there are three which deserve special notice — Niagara, the Shoshone, and the Yosemite Falls. The first is the type of a fall in which volurae of water is the all-important feature. In the Shoshone fall, the volume of water is large, although greatly inferior to that of the Niagara, the height is considerable — somewhat greater than that of Niagara — and the sur rounding scenery grand and entirely uninjured by the so-called "improvements" of civilization. The Yo semite fall, on the other hand, is one in which the volume of water is sraall, but the height extraordinary, while the setting of the fall is surpassingly grand. Niagara is so well known that description is unneces sary. It is the one of the scenic attractions of the country most frequently visited, not only because it is one of the greatest of the water-falls of the world — only the Falls of the Zambezi surpassing it in eleva tion and perhaps in volume — but because it is within a few hours' easy ride of the Atlantic coast. The Yosemite Valley, with all its water-falls, is farther away from the East than the Shoshone Falls, but really much more accessible than the latter, which lies at a considerable distance from any inhabited re gion. Among the entirely unvisited regions of water falls, that of the Canon of the Tuolumne River, a few 232 SCENOGRAPHICAL. miles north of the Yosemite Valley, is perhaps the most interesting. Here are falls and cascades of large vol ume and great height, set in the midst of the wildest and most romantic scenery — a region into which hardly a traveller has ever found his way. Very much the same may be said with truth of the region of the Southern High Sierra adjacent to Mount Whitney, where we find many of the same features as those which characterize the Yosemite, and on almost as grand a scale as in this now very frequently visited and comparatively accessible locality. A most reraarkable type of scenery, and one which combines features equally interesting to the tourist and the scientific observer, is that of the plateaux of the Cordilleras, of which a brief account has already been given in the preceding pages. The canons of the Colorado and its branches, once so remote, have now been brought comparatively near by the extension of railroads toward the Southwest, and the tide of pleas ure travel is beginning to flow in that direction. In the peculiar type of scenery which is unfolded along the Colorado this country is without a rival. The loess region of Northern China may be stranger and more unintelligible in the record which it presents of past geological events ; but from a scenic point of view the tremendous canons of the Southern Plateau region, with their many-colored walls, may unhesitat ingly be included in the list of the earth's greatest wonders. A portion of the country which has within the past few years become the resort of travellers in search of the picturesque, and which is now quite accessible by THE GEYSER REGION. 233 railroad, is the Geyser region of the Yellowstone. Here the scientifically interesting and the picturesque unite to furnish a type of scenery without a rival of its kind, surpassing even the now devastated wonder land of New Zealand. The Yellowstone Park, as it is frequently called, because reserved by the United States and devoted to public use as a visiting ground or park, with the idea of protecting it from speculators and mischief-makers, was early known to sorae of the raore adventurous of the fur-hunters who roaraed over the Great Northwest ; but it is only within a few years that descriptions of it have been published, and its extraor dinary character so clearly established as to induce travellers to undertake the long journey necessary for its inspection. Thermal springs in great number, many of which are of the periodically spouting, or geyser type ; pools of hot water, both large and small, the sides and bottoms of which are lined with the most exquisitely and brilliantly colored microscopic vegeta tion; remarkable deposits from the hot springs, some of which exhibit curious forms, seen nowhere else ex cept in Asia Minor, and in New Zealand, as it was before the volcanic eruption of 1886 ; grand mountain scenery, with water-falls, lakes, and deep canons whose walls are fantastically colored by volcanic deposits and sulphurous emanations, — these are the principal features of the Yellowstone region. It can be reached by the Northern Pacific railroad, from a station on which road, called Livingstone, ten hundred and thirty- two miles from St. Paul, a branch fifty-one miles in length runs to Cinnabar, on the boundary line of the so-called " Yellowstone National Park." There are 234 SCENOGRAPHICAL. numerous excellent photographs of this region, which has also been finely illustrated in a folio volume with chrorao-lithographs frora paintings by Thoraas Moran. The geological and scenic peculiarities of the Yellow stone region have been fully elucidated in various United States Geological Reports, and especially in a volurainous one by Dr. A. C. Peale included in the sec ond volume of Hayden's Report for the year 1878. There is a type of scenery of a remarkable character well exhibited along the base of the Rocky Mountains at various points, and especially at a locality called the Garden of the Gods, near Pike's Peak, and easily accessible by railroad. The attraction here is the re markable effect of the erosion and weathering of the soft sandstones, which occur in beds of great thickness. Many fantastic shapes, such as columns or obelisks, of large dimensions, occurring either singly or in clusters, and often capped in the most curious manner by great flat tables of harder rock, are seen in this interesting region. Indeed, all along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado are many strange and picturesque forms, partly the result of direct uplift, and partly of erosion, which are alike interesting to the lover of the picturesque and the student of geology. The long crested uplifts of sedimentary rock worn into curved outlines, and often of grand dimensions, which characterize this region are known by the familiar name of " hog-backs," and the region itself as the " hog-back country." Of the scenic effect of the vegetation of the country, and especially its forests, notice has already been taken to as great an extent as space here permits. PAET VI. POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION. '"PHE first census of the United States was taken in 1790, and there has been one taken every tenth year since that time. The following table shows the absolute number ' of inhabitants, " excluding Indians not taxed," at each decennial period, and also the rate per cent of increase during the previous ten years : — Year. Population. Percentage of Increase. 1790 3,929,214 1800 5,308,483 35.11 1810 7,239,881 36.40 1820 9,633,822 33.06 1830 12,806,020 33.55 1840 17,069,453 32.67 1850 23,191,876 35.86 1860 31,443,321 35.58 1870 , . . . 38,558,371 22.63 1880 50,155,783 30.08 The effect of the Civil War on the growth of popula tion in the United States is easily seen in the dimin ished ratio of increase shown by the figures for the decade 1860-70. With that exception, the rate has been extraordinarily large and uniform, but less in the decade 1870-80 than in any preceding one. That this rapid growth of the population, due in so large a 236 POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION. part to immigration, will continue to be maintained is in the highest degree improbable. The fact that nearly the whole of the more valuable portion of the public lands has been already taken up, as will be seen farther on,^ can hardly fail to check immigration, although the population is, at present, far from dense, and far from being so large that there is not ample room for a much larger number. The area embraced within the United States at the time of taking the first census was about eight hun dred and fifty thousand square miles, a precise state ment of the amount being impossible, owing to the peculiar wording of that part of the treaty in which the northern and western boundaries of the country are defined. The density of the population at that time was about 4.6 persons per square mile, this popu lation being almost exclusively confined to the Atlan tic sea-board. At' that time not more than five per cent of the inhabitants of the country lived west of the Appalachian range, the settlements being very closely limited to the borders of the navigable streams. At the time of taking the census of 1850, the boundaries of the United States had become definitely established, the only addition made since that time being the terri tory acquired in 1853 by the Gadsden purchase (about 47,330 square miles). At that time the average den sity of the population of the whole country was a little less than eight persons per square mile. The following table shows the density of the popula-. tion at the epoch of each census which has been taken during the time when the area of the country remained 1 See page 257. MOVEMENT OF THE POPULATION. 237 (with the exception of the purchase of Alaska, not here included) unchanged : — Tear. Area of U. S. Popniatlon per sq. mile. I860. 3,025,600 10.39 1870 " 12.74 1880 " 16.57 The movement of the population has, frora the be ginning, been from the east toward the west, the first settlements having been made on the Atlantic coast, and the emigration to the United States having been almost exclusively from European countries. The Pacific coast had, previously to the annexation of Cali fornia, received a small nuraber of whites coming from Mexico, and since that time there have been some accessions to the population in that region by means of emigration from China; but the nuraber added from this direction is almost insignificant in comparison with that which has come into the country from the east. Hence the centre of population has been moving west ward, and the investigations of the Coast Survey and of the Census Bureau have shown that this movement has been in an almost exactly westerly direction, and that the centre of population has always remained very near the parallel of 39°. In 1790 it was in lat itude 39° 16'. 5, at a point about twenty-three miles east of Baltiraore ; in 1880 it was eight miles west by south from Cincinnati, in latitude 39° 4'.1, having moved westward 457 miles in ninety years. The most southerly point reached was that of 1830, when the centre was in latitude 38° 57'.9; the most rapid move ment was in the period 1850-60, namely, eighty-one miles, this being due to the rapid transfer of a con- 238 POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION. siderable population from the Eastern to the Pacific States, consequent on the discovery of the gold of California. The division of the population by sexes, as shown by the census of 1880, was as follows : — Males 25,618,820 Females 24,636,963 The number of females for each 100,000 males in 1870 and 1880 was as follows: — 1870 1880 Number of females to 100,000 males 97,801 96,514 As a natural result of the conditions influencing emi gration from the older to the newer States, it is found that females are in excess in the Atlantic States. In the District of Columbia, Rhode Island, and Massachu setts the excess of females over males is five per cent or more ; in Connecticut, New Hampshire, North Caro lina, South Carolina, New York, Virginia, and Alabama it is frora two and a half to five per cent ; in Maryland, Georgia, New Jersey, Louisiana, Tennessee, Pennsylva nia, and Maine it is less than two and a half per cent. The States, on the other hand, in which the males are considerably in excess of the females, are those situated in the Cordilleran region, where mining is the chief pursuit, and where the conditions of life are such as are more easily borne by men than by women. In Michi gan, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska, which are not Cordilleran States, but which are on the extreme north ern, western, or southwestern borders of the Central region, the number of females is frora eighty to ninety per cent of that of the males, and New Mexico is in the COLORED POPULATION. 239 same category. In the Pacific coast States the number of females is from fifty to eighty per cent that of the males ; and the same is true of Colorado and Dakota, which are situated on the eastern borders of the Rocky Mountains, and which are partly agricultural and partly mining States. In those States in which mining and stock-raising are by far the predominating interests, and which are entirely enclosed in the Cordilleras, namely, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, and Mon tana, the inequality in the nurabers of the sexes is greatest, there being in these Territories less than half as many females as males. Of the colored population the census of 1880 showed the number to be 6,580,793 to 43,402,970 whites, or 15,162 colored in every 100,000 whites. The slight increase in this ratio from that given by the census of 1870 (14,528 to 100,000) is believed to be chiefly — if not entirely — due to the imperfection of the census of 1870. The colored population is still, in spite of some slight emigration, almost entirely confined to the for mer slave States, and in three of them — South Caro lina, Mississippi, and Louisiana — the colored are - in excess of the whites. In Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia the colored element runs from fifty to ninety per cent of the white ; in Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, and Maryland, from twenty-nine to thirty-five per cent; in Delaware and Kentucky, from nineteen to twenty- two per cent ; in Missouri, Kansas, West Virginia, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, from two to seven per cent ; in all the remaining States it is less than two per cent; and in most of them, 240 POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION. especially the more northern ones, it is less than one per cent. The distribution of the population in reference to the topographical and climatic features of the country is such as naturally arises from the constant operation of two causes, both acting in the same direction. Emi gration and overflow from a more thickly settled region toward one more thinly inhabited takes place, with insignificant exceptions, from the east toward the west. Immigrants arrive from Europe, are landed on the Atlantic coast — about three fourths at one point. New York — and thence in large part find their way west ward in the direction of lands unoccupied or only thinly settled. To the east of the Mississippi the land is alraost everywhere exceptionally fertile, and the cli matic conditions are, over a large area — as explained elsewhere — very much the same and on the whole highly favorable. Soon after crossing the Mississippi, we find that this favorable condition of things begins to change. Not only is the immigrant getting farther and farther from his home, but he is finding his envi ronment less and less suited to the development of those conditions which favor the existence of a dense popula tion. Never, by any possibility, can the region of small rainfall and, in large part, of rugged mountains, ' extending from the first belt of States beyond the Mis sissippi to the belt lying directly on the Pacific coast, become a densely populated portion of the country. This dryer region is also the most elevated, as has been already fully explained. The results of the conditions thus indicated are sufficiently shown by the following figures : — DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION. 241 Disteibution of the Population of the United States in 1880, BY Drainage Basins. Area in sq. miles. Population. Drainage Basin. Total. Per sq. mile. New England Coast Middle Atlantic Coast South Atlantic Coast Great Lakes 61,830 83,020 132,040175,340 1,725,980 3,788,3349,240,8974,114,563 5,684,147 25,884,117 61.2 111.3 31.232.4 Gulf of ISlexico 14.9 Total Atlantic Great Basin 2,178,210 228,150 619,240 48,717,293 227,107 1,211,383 22.4 1.0 1.9 Total 3,025,600 50,155,783 Geographical Distribution of the Population op the United States in Accordance with the Topographical Features. * Region. North Atlantic Coast Middle Atlantic Coast South Atlantic Coast Gulf Coast Northeastern Appalachian Region Central Appalachian Region Region of the Great Lakes Interior Table-land Southern Appalachian Region Ohio Valley Southern Interior Table-land Mississippi River Belt, south , . Mississippi River Belt, north Southwestern Central Region Central Region Prairie Region Missouri River Belt Western Plains Heavily Timbered Region of the Northwest Cordilleran Region Pacific Coast 16 Popalation. Percentage of Total Population. 2,616,882 4,375,194 875,387 1,055,8511,669,226 2,344,223 3,049,470 5,716,326 2,695,085 2,442,7923,627,478 710,268 1,991,362 2,932,807 4,401,246 5,722,485 835,445323,819 1,122,337 932,311 715,789 5.2 8.7 1.7 2.1 3.3 4.7 6.1 11.4 5.44.9 7.2 1.4 4.0 5.8 8.8 11.4 1.7 0.72.2 1.91.4 242 POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION. The larger divisions of the country are represented as follows, both as to the aggregate population and its different elements : — Percentage of Population. Total. Foreign. Colored. Atlantic Plain 29.84 53.50 13.38 3.28 32.74 61.62 8.407.24 40.50 Central Valley Appalachian Region Cordilleran Region 50.02 7.222.26 In regard to the distribution of the population of the United States in towns and cities, and the positions of those centres, the following may be stated : — In 1790 there were in the country four cities having a population of from 8,000 to 20,000, and two above 20,000, but not one surpassing 75,000 in number. Fifty years later, there were forty-four towns and cities having a population of 8,000 and over, and one of about 500,000. In 1880 there were 286 towns with over 8,000 inhabitants. The following stateraent gives the names and popu lation of all the cities having, in 1880, a population of over 100,000: — Over 1,000,000. Name. Population in 1880. New York 1,206,299 Over 600,000 and under 1,000,000. Philadelphia 847,170 Brooklyn 666,663 Chicago 503,185 Over 250,000 and below 500,000. Boston 362,839 St. Louis 360,518 Baltimore 332,313 Cincinnati 265,139 POPULATION OF THE CITIES. 243 Over 100,000 and below 250,000. Name. Population in 1880. San Francisco, Cal 233,969 New Orleans, La. 216,090 Cleveland, Ohio 160,146 Pittsburg, Penn 166,389 Buffalo, N. Y 166,134 Washington, D. C 147,203 Newark, N. J 136,608 Louisville, Ky 123,758 Jersey City, N. J 120,722 Detroit, Mich 116,340 Milwaukee, Wis 115,687 Providence, E. 1 104,857 According to the census of 1880, there were thirteen cities having a population of more than 50,000 and less than 100,000, making a total of thirty-three cities having over 50,000 inhabitants, of which three are situated south of the parallel of 38°, namely, San Francisco — which, however, is very near that parallel — New Orleans, and Richraond. A census taken at the present time (1888) would show very considerable changes from what is here stated. The list of cities having over 50,000 inhabi tants would be considerably enlarged, and an increase would be noted everywhere, and an especially large one in the Northwest. The census of 1880 showed that of the total popula tion, 50,155,783, there were 6,679,143 born in foreign countries, or 15,364 persons foreigners to 100,000 na tive-born : this ratio was a little less than in 1870, when the number of foreign-bom was 16,875 to 100/000 native. 244 POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION. The following tables show the number of immigrants arriving in the United States for each decade from 1821 to 1880, and for each year from 1881 to 1887. The yearly average during each decade rose rapidly, from 14,344 in the decade 1821-30 to 294,469 for the decade 1871-80. The number of immigrants for the year 1881 was more than twice as great as the yearly average of the preceding decade. The maximum was reached in 1882, when the number of immigrants reached 730,349, frora which time forward there was a falling off, the figures in 1885 being 350,510. A por tion of this apparent decrease seeras to be due to the fact that the statistics of the immigration by laad from Canada and Mexico — the latter very small in amount, however — could not be collected ; so that since July 1, 1885, arrivals of this kind have been excluded from the tables of immigration. In the first table herewith given, the nationality of the immigration is only imper fectly given, the British Islands being separated from the rest of Europe, and the figures also being given for China. As will be noticed, the immigration from Europe and China made up about five-sixths of the total during the decade 1871-80. But in the decade 1851-60 the immigration from Europe made up twenty- four twenty-fifths of the total, that from China being practically null. The apparent increase of immigra tion from extra-European countries indicated in the table for the decades since 1860 is chiefly due to the rapid increase of immigration into the United States from the adjacent Dominion; but this is made up in part of persons who have come to the United States from Europe by way of Canada : — IMMIGRATION STATISTICS. 245 Statement or Immigrant Arrivals in the United States for THE Decades 1821-80. Feom 1821-30. 1831-40. 1841-50. 1851-60. 1861-70. 1871-BO. British Islands . . Rest of Europe . China Rest of the World 75,80323,013 2 44,621 283,191212,497 8 103,429 1,047,763 549,739 35 115,714 1,338,0931,114,564 41,397 104,160 1,106,9701,073,429 68,059 349,756 989,163 1,357,801 122,436 475,295 Total 143,439 599,125 1,713,251 2,598,214 2,466,752 2,944,695 Yearly Average . 14,344 59,912 171,325 259,821 246,675 294,469 Statement Showing Immigrant Arrivals in the United States FOR the Years 1881-87. From 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887. British Islands .... Rest of Europe . . . China Rest of the World . . 165,230 435,101 20,71199,003 161,428 441,658 35,614 91,649 157,361 341,136 381 71,438 121,756 285,850 84 53,656 105,610 221,592 57 23,251 126,601 258,847 8 7,431 179,609 328,651 28 8,645 Total 720,045 730,349 570,316 461,346 350,510 392,887 516,933 [In this and the following table notice must be taken of the fact that for the last half of 1885 and for 1886 and 1887 the immigration from British North America and Mexico is not included.] Still further light will be thrown on this subject by the following table, in which the nationality of the immigra tion into the United States is given in considerable de tail for the years 1881 to 1887, in percentages of the total amount. From this table it will be seen that Ger many has furnished during the past seven years some what less than one third of the total immigration; Great Britain and Ireland, somewhat more than a quarter; Norway and Sweden about a tenth ; British North America about a tenth ; Austro-Hungary a little over six per cent ; Russia (including Poland) from four to five per cent ; and Italy nearly the same. These nationali- 246 POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION. ties together have furnished during the past six years about ninety-five per cent of the total. The immigra tion from Italy and Russia shows a moderately rapid, but pretty uniform, increase from year to year : — Percentage Table Showing the Nationality of Immigrants into the United States for the Years 1881-87.1 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. 188B. 1886. 1887. Great Britain Ireland Austro-Hungary Belgium Denmark Prance Germany Italy Netherlands Norway and Sweden . . . Russia Spain and Portugal .... Switzerland Other European Countries China British North America . . All Other Countries . . . 13.10 9.853.92 .27 1.24 .78 34.66 2.79 1.50 11.51 2.01 .06 1.62 .06 2.87 13.22 .54 12.11 9.99 4.10 .15 1.75 .76 31.80 4.03 1.08 12.00 3.07 .66 1.62 .06 4.87 11.90 .65 12.92 14.67 5.30 .29 1.71 .70 32.33 5.18 .86 9.45 1.78 .16 2.00 .06.07 11.74 .78 13.6912.70 6.81 .37 1.65 .80 33.72 3.14 .81 8.224.32 .11 1.78 .23.02 10.38 1.25 15.9214.21 7.31 .39 1.67 .90 30.72 4.42 .71 9.47 5.72 .26 1.46 .19 .02 5.22 1.41 18.75 13.4710.22 .42 1.691.04 21.96 7.78 .68 11.73 8.45 .13 1.15 .64.00 1.89 20.64 14 06 7.56 .58 . 1.80 1.08 21.53 8.991.02 13.46 5.95 .01 1.26 .25.00 1.81 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 The immigration into the United States is very un equally distributed over the surface of the country. An inspection of the census tables and the accompanying maps shows that immigrants in very large proportion seek Northern regions. In the Southern States, with the exceptions of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, the foreign element is practically null. Virginia, North Carolina, 1 The immigration into the United States arriving at the six principal ports (embracing about ninety-eight per cent of the entire immigration) was, for the first nine months of the year 1888, 432,802, a slight increase over that of the corresponding months of the preceding year. FOREIGN ELEMENT. 247 South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi have less than one per cent of foreign-born population ; and no State south of Pennsylvania and the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi has as much as four per cent. In the belt of States between the parallels of 41° and 45°, on the other hand, the foreign element is most strongly represented. Thus in Massachusetts, Connecti cut, Rhode Island, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Dakota the foreign-born population is over twenty-five per cent of the native, and in the two last-named States over fifty per cent. Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas, forming a belt of States extending south westerly from Wisconsin and Minnesota to the 37th par allel, have a foreign-born population ranging between ten and twenty-five per cent of the native, except in the case of Nebraska, where the foreign is a little over twenty-five per cent. In some of the thinly inhabited States farther west the foreign element is still more prominent, as in Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California. In Nevada, for example, according to the census of 1880, the foreign-born inhabitants were to the natives in the ratio of 70,065 to 100,000. But it must be remerabered in this connection that the entire popu lation of Nevada at that time was only 62,266, and that of Arizona 40,440. In no State or Territory does the foreign eleraent equal the native, and only in Nevada, Arizona, Dakota, Minnesota, and California is it more than half as large, while in the two last-named States it is but little more than half. Texas forms an excep tion to the other Southern States, the foreign element being of importance, especially in the southwestern por tion of the State. The State as a whole has, however. 248 POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION. only a little less than eight per cent of foreign-born inhabitants. The percentage increase of the native white element of the population was, for the three decades 1851-80, as follows : — 1851-60 32.35 1861-70 22.95 1871-80 31.25 Early in 1882 an Act was passed by Congress sus pending ' Chinese immigration into the United States for the term of twenty years. This was vetoed by the President, and another one was passed having nearly the same provisions as the first, but limiting the time of its operation to ten years. This Act was not vetoed : but became a law May 6, 1882. This second Act is entitled " An Act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese." From and after ninety days after the passage of this Act the entrance of Chinese " laborers " into the United States was forbidden, and any master of a vessel bringing them here was punish able by a fine of $500 for each laborer so brought, and also by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year. The pretext for this unprecedented act was "that the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities " within the territory of the United States. The term " labor ers" was held to mean "both skilled and unskilled laborers, and Chinese employed in mining." Further legislation relating to the exclusion of the Chinese from the United States was had by Congress in 1888. Two Acts were passed, the first having been EXCLUSION OF THE CHINESE. 249 approved Sept. 13, 1888, and a second, supplementary to this, October 1 of the same year. The object of these two Acts was to prevent the Chinese who were then in the United States from returning after having left this country. The first Act (approved September 13) allowed a native of China to leave the country and return, provided he had " a lawful wife, child, or parent within the United States, -or property therein of the value of one thousand dollars, or debts of like amount due him and pending settlement." This privi lege was entirely cancelled by the supplementary Act, approved October 1 ; and as the matter now ptands, only " Chinese ofiicials, teachers, students, merchants, or trav ellers for pleasure or curiosity are perraitted to enter the United States." Furtherraore, it is provided that in order to become entitled to such entrance they must " obtain the perraission of the Chinese Government or other Government of which they may at the tirae be citizens or subjects." This permission, and the personal identity of the party having obtained it, must be au thenticated by the diplomatic or consular representative of the United States at the port or place from which the party comes. It is farther provided that any master of a vessel landing, or attempting to land, any Chinese laborer, " in contravention to the provisions of this Act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on con viction thereof, shall be punished with a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, in the discretion of the Court, for every Chinese laborer or other Chinese person so brought, and may also be imprisoned for a term of not less than one year, nor more than five years, in the discretion of the Court." 250 POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION. Provisions have also . been made by Act of Con gress for the regulation of the immigrant carrying business, and rules have been prescribed as to food, water, light, space occupied, etc. A tax of fifty cents is also imposed on all immigrants landing in this country to be used " in defraying the expense of regu lating immigration under this Act, and for the care of immigrants arriving in the United States, for the relief of such as are in distress, etc." ^ By an Act of Congress approved Aug. 3, 1882, it is provided that no convict, lunatic, idiot, or person " unable to take care of himself or herself without be coming a public charge" shall be permitted to land. Under the provisions of this Act it appears that from 1883 to Sept. 25, 1888, 7,764 immigrants had been returned from the United States to their own coun tries — or an average of about 1,300 persons a year. Of those thus returned from 1883 to 1888 inclusive, there were 27 convicts, 371 lunatics, and 131 idiots. The reraainder (7,235 persons) were returned as "liable to become a public charge." ^ ' This tax is not collected from immigrants coming from Canada or Mexico. 2 A very stringent Act was passed by Congress in 1885, prohibiting the importation and immigration of foreigners and aliens "under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its Territories, and the District of Columbia." This Act can have little practical effect on the number of immigrants arriving in this country ; nor has the writer been able tb procure any definite information as to whether any persons have ever been sent back under its provisions. PART VIL THE PUBLIC LANDS. T^HE emigration from Europe and other countries consists largely of people seeking homes in the New World ; and this want is chiefly supplied by the purchase of government land — " public lands," as usually designated by the authorities — that is, of such land as is offered for sale by authority of the General Government, under the direction of the General Land Office — a branch or sub-department of the Department of the Interior. It is desirable, therefore, that the way in which the General Government carae in possession of these lands should be briefly stated, and some idea given of their extent and position. The boundaries of the United States, as fixed by the provisional treaty made with Great Britain in 1782, and by the definitive treaty in 1783, gave to the United States essentially the region south of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi, as far south as the parallel of 31°; and the southern boundary east of the Mississippi, as thus established, nearly along the 31st parallel, was, in 1795, reaffirmed by treaty with Spain, by which the line between the United States and the Floridas was fixed ; but difficulties soon arose in regard to the northern boundary, both in its eastern and west ern portions, which were, during many years, the sub- 252 THE PUBLIC LANDS. ject of heated discussion, and which more than once threatened to involve the two countries, Great Britain and the United States, in war. The most important points were, however, peaceably settled in 1846, and the last point in dispute finally disposed of, by refer ence to the Emperor of Germany as arbitrator, in 1872. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution by the original thirteen States, most of them had claims, rather vague, and in many cases decidedly conflicting, to a more or less indefinite area of country west of their settlements, and extending back to the Mississippi River. After much discussion, the States having these clairas, infiuenced by the distinct realization of the trouble which would ensue in case an attempt was made to maintain them, did, in response to a resolution of Congress, consent to a transfer of these claims to the United States. The first cession of this kind was that of New York, in 1781, and, the last, that of Georgia, in 1802. The region thus ceded was divided into two territories, one of which was called the " Territory Northwest of the River Ohio," the other the " Territory South of the River Ohio." This region forraed the nucleus of the public lands of the United States. This did not include the present States of Kentucky and Tennessee, the former having been admitted to the Union without any claim on the part of the United States to proprietorship in the soil, and similar rights in regard to the latter having been relinquished by Act of Congress. The total area of the United States at this time was about 850,000 square miles. The first addition made to this was by the French cession of the CESSION OF LOUISIANA. 253 undetermined area known as Louisiana. This was brought about by Jefferson, who recognized the fact that France would not be able to hold the region against the English, with whora Bonaparte, at that time (1803-1804) First Consul, was about to go to war. The treaty of cession with Bonaparte gave no precise limits to the territory ceded, but only described it as being the same as that ceded by Spain to France ac cording to the treaty of San Udefonso. This vagueness was, no doubt, agreeable to the wishes of the American negotiators, who did not lack foresight, and who must easily have comprehended the fact that the more vague the terms of the cession the better the chance of a future extension of the claims of the United States westward. In point of fact the French cession did not include the country west to the Pacific, as it was after ward held to do, for the French had no claim whatever to the region west of the head of the Missouri. As a consequence of this cession, however, this vast region did come into possession of the United States, the boundary having been finally settled in 1872, after ninety years of discussion. The final settlement was by a reference of the point in dispute to the Emperor of Germany, who decided in favor of the United States ; the main question with regard to the extension of the boundary along the line of the 49th parallel to the Pacific having been settled in 1846 by the Webster- Ashburton treaty, which fixed the boundary as far west as the Straits of Fuca. This cession of Louisiana, as finally settled by treaty with England, added largely to the area of the United States, extending its limits to the Pacific Ocean, and giving that country complete 254 THE PUBLIC LANDS. possession of the Central River system of the continent. The cost of this cession to the United States was about twenty-three and a half million dollars in principal and interest. A further addition to the territory of the United States was by a cession from Spain of the territory comprised in the present State of Florida, which took place in 1819, the area thus conveyed being about 58,680 square miles, and the cost about six and a half millions of dollars. Previoiis to this cession, however, the United States had, by Act of Congress passed in secret session in 1812, but not promulgated until 1818, taken possession of an area of about 9,740 square miles in West Florida, which was claimed by the Spanish Government as its property, but which claim was re linquished by the cession of 1819. The next acquisition of territory by the United States was the result of the admission into the Union of the Republic of Texas, a former province of Mexico, having an area of 265,780 square miles. This annex ation led to a war with the country to which Texas had formerly belonged, the result of which was the conquest of Mexico, the occupation of its capital by the United States army, and the dictation of a treaty of peace called the "treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo," which was proclaimed July 4, 1848. By this treaty the southern boundary of the United States was estab lished; but subsequently, Dec. 30, 1853, a purchase was made of a strip of land lying south of the Gila River, in New Mexico and Arizona, and containing about 47,330 square miles. This is known as the' " Gadsden purchase." PURCHASE OF ALASKA. 255 The claims of both Great Britain and Mexico to the region lying west of the Missouri and northwest of Texas being extremely vague, it is not possible to state, with any approach to precision, what portions of this area originally belonged to the two powers in question. All that can be said is that, remotely, in consequence of the purchase of "Louisiana" from Bonaparte, and more directly, as the result of treaties with Great Britain and Mexico settling the northern and southern boundaries of the United States, the last-named country came into possession of a little over 1,800,000 square miles of land, as shown in the following statement of the nature and size of the areas added from time to time to what was the original domain of the Colonies at the time of their establishment as an independent government : — Square miles. Original area of the United States 849,145 Added by purchase of Florida, 1819, including 9,740 square miles previously in dispute, but in possession of the United States 58,680 Annexation of Texas, 1848 .... 265,780 Gadsden Purchase, 1853 47,330 Purchase of Louisiana and cessions by Mexico, 1804-48 1,804,665 Total 3,025,600 One other addition to the area of the United States was made in 1867, namely, by the purchase frora the Russian Government of the region known as Alaska, which comprises an area of about 530,000 square miles. The price paid for this piece of land was $7,200,000. The purchase of this territory, the nearest point of 256 THE PUBLIC LANDS. which is four hundred miles distant from the northern line of Washington Territory, was an entirely unpre cedented act on the part of the United States, all the rest of the possessions of this country forming one compact mass of land. Whenever, in the course of this work, mention is made of the United States, it will be understood that Alaska is not included, unless a statement to that effect is specially made in the same connection. The entire area of the public lands of the United States (exclusive of Alaska, no portion of which has yet been surveyed) is estimated by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, in his Report for the year 1886, at 2,836,725 square miles, or 1,815,504,147 acres. Of this area there had been surveyed, up to June 30, 1886, 971,174,878 acres, leaving 844,329,269 unsurveyed. In reference to this unsurveyed portion the Commissioner makes the following remark : " The volume of land in the unsurveyed portion of the public domain suitable for homes and subject to set tlement under the laws of the United States is of comparatively small proportions." Of the public lands of the United States a large quantity has been sold for cash, and a much larger amount taken, under various Acts of Congress, for schools and other educational purposes ; as military bounty ; as " swamp land " given to the respective States where it occurs, or has been claimed to occur ; as a bonus for the construction of various lines of railroad, especially those traversing the continent from east to west ; as " homesteads " to actual settlers, and for various other purposes. It is impossible to state THE VALUABLE LAND ALREADY GONE. 257 the exact amount of the public land which has been thus disposed of, but it is certain that nearly all the valuable portion of the nation's great inheritance has been^taken up already, or has passed out of the control of the Government. In regard to this point, the fol lowing quotation may be made from the introduction to the volume entitled " Statistics of Agriculture," forming a part of the Report of the census of 1880, and published in 1883, the remarks here quoted being from the pen of General Walker, formerly superin tendent of that census : — " It thus appears that, notwithstanding the imposing total of 1,400,000 square miles of still unsettled territory, the amount of land available for occupation for ordinary agri culture is not large. The Public Land Commission, in their Eeport of 1880, say : ' It was estimated June 30, 1879, that (exclusive of certain lands in Southern States) of lands over which the survey and disposition laws had extended, lying in the "West, the United States did not own, of arable agri cultural public lands, which could be cultivated without irri gation or other artificial appliances, more than the area of the present State of Ohio, namely, 25,576,960 acres. The quantity of land taken up in the arable region during the year ending June 30, 1880, was about 7,000,000 acres. The Com mission,- therefore, reaches the startling conclusion that, at the same rate of absorption, the arable lands so situated will all be taken up within three years, or by June 30, 1883.' " It is indeed an astonishing announcement that the public land system, so far as relates to agricultural settlers, has virtually come to an end ; that the homestead and pre-emp tion acts are practically exhausted of their contents." Professor A. B. Hart has compiled frora public docu ments the following approximate statement of the 17 258 THE PUBLIC LANDS. manner in which the public lands, had been disposed of up to the various periods mentioned. The numbers given indicate acres: — Date. Sales. Grants to in dividuals other than for internal im provements. Grants to States other than for inter nal improve ments. Grants for internal im provements to States and corporations. Total. To 1790 1,487,986 1,574,917 19,423,212 93,043,927 161,796,816181,837,359 192,584,116 35,040 2,154,660 7,260,152 9,765,033 75,466,345 140,524,032167,483,506 1,523,026 3,729,577 33,375,901 113,420,119 382,826,534 642,778,684 680,715,315 1801 1820-21 .... 1841 1861 1881 1884 8,830,654 1 13,962,531 158,187,194 158,417,594 1,780,505 31,600,842 162,230,099 162,230,099 In reference to the wasteful and reckless manner in which the public lands of the United States have been given away, until but little of value remains. Professor Hart makes the following remarks : — " Experts in the Land Office assure us that, making all deductions and allowances, the remaining lands are worth upwards of a thousand million dollars. There is no evidence in the past policy of the government for believing that we shall actually net one-tenth of that amount. The greater part of the region is officially classified as ' desert lands,' and is for sale in tracts of six hundred and forty acres, at a dollar and a quarter an acre. Nothing but the temporary increase of pre-emption enables the Land Office at present to pay its running expenses out of income. The golden time is past ; our agricultural land is gone ; our timber lands are fast going ; our coal and mineral lands will be* snapped up as fast as they prove valuable." ^ 1 Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. i. p. 181 (number for January, 1887). PART VIIL MINERAL RESOURCES. L — HISTOEICAL. TN 1619 the erection of " works " for smelting the ores of iron was begun at Falling Creek, near James town, Virginia, and iron appears to have been made in 1620 ; but the enterprise was stopped by a general massacre of the settlers in that region. Nothing far ther seems to have been done in the Colonies in this direction until 1643, when the business of smelting and manufacturing iron was again begun at Lynn, Massachusetts, where it was successfully carried on at least up to 1671, furnishing most of the iron used in the Colony. Frora the middle of the seventeenth century the smelting of this metal began to be of importance in the vicinity of Massachusetts Bay ; and by the close of the century there had been a large number of iron works established in that Colony, which for a century after its settlement was the chief seat of the iron manufacture on this continent. It was the bog ores, taken from the bottoms of the ponds, which were chiefly smelted in those early days. Early in the eighteenth century the iron-manufacturing business began to extend itself over New England and into New York and New Jersey, the German bloomery or forge being employed for reducing the ore directly to 260 MINERAL RESOURCES. bar iron ; and by the middle of that century the busi ness had taken a pretty firm hold in the Atlantic States. About 1789 there were fourteen furnaces and thirty-four forges in operation in Pennsylvania. Be fore the separation of the Colonies from the mother country took place the manufacture of iron had been extended through all of them, with the possible excep tion of Georgia. As early as 1718 iron began to be exported to Great Britain, the only country to which this export was permitted. The amount thus shipped between 1730 and 1775 varied ordinarily between two and three thousand tons annually ; but rose in one year (1771) to between seven and eight thousand tons. Both pig and bar iron were exported. The shipments were from various points near the coast, ranging from New England to North Carolina. The business of mining for other metals than iron within the territory of the United States is of much more recent origin. To this statement, however, an exception must be made in reference to the metal copper, which had been extensively mined in the Lake Superior region long before the first visit of the Eng lish to these shores. Indeed, so ancient are these workings that no positive knowledge exists as to the people or tribes by whom they were executed. When the region in question was opened to the whites for set tlement, in 1844, it was found that the copper -bearing rocks had been mined through their whole extent along the southern shore of Lake Superior, and even on the almost inaccessible island called Isle Royale. There is no reason to suppose that these ancient workings, which in some places had been carried to a depth of HISTORICAL. 261 more than fifty feet in the solid rock, were known to the Indians inhabiting that region at the time of the first visit of the Jesuit Fathers in 1659-60 ; and the appearance of the excavations indicates, beyond possi bility of doubt, that they had been made long before that time. About the middle of the seventeenth century the metalliferous indications common in New England, and especially in Connecticut, engaged the attention of Governor Winthrop, by whom mineralogical notices of that region were sent to England and published in the Transactions of the Royal Society. Just at the beginning of the eighteenth century a Frenchman, Le Sueur, explored the region of the Upper Mississippi, and sent back to France rock which he had mined, supposing it to be an ore of copper; but it proved to be of no value. Later, in 1719 and 1720, the French again attempted to explore what was then called the western portion of the country, along the Mississippi near the junction of the Missouri ; and some mining of the lead ore, which at that time had already become known, was attempted. The precious metals being what was sought for, and there being none found in the region, the enterprise was soon abandoned. So far as known, the first metal — other than iron — which was mined by the whites was copper. Several occurrences of the ores of this metal in Connecticut and New Jersey, along the lines of contact of the erup tive rocks with the sandstones of Mesozoic age, were opened and worked, although on a limited scale, and apparently with little pecuniary success. The first 262 MINERAL RESOURCES. mining company chartered in the United States began work about 1709, at Simsbury, Connecticut. The ore obtained there and in New Jersey seems to have been mostly shipped to England. A few years later attempts were made to work mines of lead and cobalt in Con necticut and Massachusetts, but none of these enter prises seem to have been conducted with much vigor or to have met with any success. The first metal, with the exception of iron, mined and smelted on any scale of importance in the United States was lead. The ore of this metal — galena — occurring in considerable quantity, and in many locali ties, on and near the Mississippi, and being easily smelted by the roughest possible methods, was made use of at an early date. While this region — then called Louisiana — was in possession of the Spanish, some mines were opened and worked, although in a very rude manner ; the ore being taken out from mere pits, and smelted on log-heaps. In 1774 Julien Dubuque began mining lead ore in the region of the Upper Mississippi, at the place where is now the flourishing city which bears his name; but no real de velopment of the mining interest took place in that region until half a century later. At the beginning of the present century, as it ap pears frora what has been stated, all that had been done in the way of discovering and developing the metallic wealth of the United States was the mining and smelting of the ores of iron, on a limited scale, in the Atlantic States, and a small production of lead in the mining region of Missouri. Exact statistics of these metals at the beginning of the nineteenth cen- HISTORICAL. 263 tury are wanting. The amount of iron produced in 1810 has been estimated at fifty thousand tons; the production of lead about that time may have been approximately one thousand tons a year. The first mining excitement of the United States dates back to the discovery of gold by the whites in the Southern States, along the eastern border of the Appalachian Range, in Virginia, and in North and South Carolina. As has already been mentioned, the existence of gold in that region had been long known to the aboriginal inhabitants, but no attention was paid to this by the whites until about the beginning of the present century, when nuggets of gold were found, one of which weighed twenty-eight pounds. From 1824 on, the search for the precious metal continued in this region, and by 1829 the business had become of importance, and was attended with no little excitement. In 1833 and 1834 the amount ob tained had risen to fully a million of dollars a year. A rapid development of the lead mines of the West, both in Missouri and on the Upper Mississippi in the region where the three States of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois corner, took place during the first quarter of the present century; and as early as 1826 or 1827 the amount of this metal obtained had risen to nearly ten thousand tons a year. By this time the make of iron had also become of importance, the production for the year 1828 being estimated at 130,000 tons. In 1820 the business of mining anthracite coal — now of such great importance in the Atlantic States — was begun, that being the date of the shipment of the first cargo of anthracite to Philadelphia. From 1830 264 MINEKAL RESOURCES. on, the increase in the production of this invaluable arti cle of fuel was very rapid ; and in 1841 the shipments from the Pennsylvania anthracite region had nearly reached the figure of a million of tons a year, the make of iron at that time being estimated at about three hundred thousand tons. The development of the coal and iron interests, the increasing importance of the gold product of the Appa^ lachian auriferous belt, and also that of the lead of the Mississippi Valley, led to a more general and decided interest in geology and mining throughout the country than had been previously manifested. About 1830 geological surveys of several of the Atlantic States were begun, and more systematic explorations for the ores of the metals, as well as for coal, were carried on over all parts of the country at that time opened to settlement. An important step forward in the development of the mining interests of the country was made in 1844, when a cession of the region on the south shore of Lake Superior was obtained from the Chippeway Indi ans. Here explorations for copper immediately began, and were carried on with the greatest activity, the existence of this metal in that part of the country having been long known ; and here, for the first time in the United States, the business of mining for the metals began to be developed on an extensive scale, with suitable appliances, and with financial success. An event of still greater importance than the open ing of the copper region of Lake Superior took place almost immediately after the value of that mining district had been fully ascertained. This was the HISTORICAL. 265 demonstration of the fact that gold existed in large quantities along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada of California, a region which had just come into the possession of the United States. The occurrence of gold on that portion of the Pacific coast, called by the Mexican-Spanish Upper California, had been known for several years prior to its discovery by immigrants from the United States, and workings had been carried on for this metal in the Coast Ranges, far south of the locality where it was discovered in 1848. The demonstration of the fact that over a vast ex tent of that distant country gold was to be had in almost unstinted quantity, as it at first — not without reason — appeared, led to an extraordinary excitement throughout .the older States, and to an emigration from all parts of the world toward the newly discovered land of gold on an unprecedented scale of magnitude. Almost immediately the production of this precious metal rose to figures far surpassing anything definitely known in history, and compared with which in value the yield of silver poured forth by the mines of Potosi during the period of their greatest productiveness is hardly to be mentioned. In five years from the dis covery of gold at Coloma on the American River, the yield of gold from the auriferous belt of the Sierra Nevada had risen to an amount estimated at between sixty-five and seventy millions of dollars a year in value, or five times as much as the total production of this metal throughout the world at the beginning of the century. This japid development of the metallic, wealth of the country, followed and supplemented as it was almost 266 MINERAL RESOURCES. immediately after by similar discoveries in Australia, gave an immense impetus to commerce, manufactures, and emigration throughout the civilized world. It also led to a great miining excitement in the Eastern United States, as a result of which new veins and deposits of the various metals were discovered, and many which had been previously worked to a limited extent and then abandoned were taken up again. This excitement was at its height in 1852 and 1853, but soon slackened off as it began to be demonstrated by the results of actual working that, while " indications " of the valua ble ores of the metals are very abundant in the Appa lachian belt, the localities where these ores occur in sufficient abundance to be profitably worked are com paratively few. The following rSsumS of the progress which had been made in the United States in the development of the mineral resources of the country at the middle of the present century will be of interest, for comparison with the present condition of the same industry, now that we are so near the close of a second semi-centennial period since the colonial condition of the country came to an end. To begin with the most important articles — coal and iron. In 1850 the shipments of anthracite coal from the mines amounted to nearly three and one half millions of tons ; those of Cumberland, or semi-bitu minous, coal to about two hundred thousand tons. The yearly production of pig-iron had risen to between five and six hundred thousand tons. The annual yield of gold in the. Appalachian belt had fallen off to about half a millon of dollars in value ; that of California had HISTORICAL. 267 risen to thirty-six millions, and was rapidly approach ing the epoch of its culmination (1851-53). No silver was obtained in the country except that which was separated from the native gold ; that mined in Califor nia containing usually from eight to ten per cent of the less valuable metal. The ore of mercury had been discovered in California before the epoch of the gold excitement, and at the locality called New Alraaden, about one hundred miles south of San Francisco, was being extensively and successfully worked, the yield of this metal in the year 1850-51 being nearly two mil lions of pounds. At this tirae the copper mines of Lake Superior were being successfully developed, and nearly six hundred tons of metallic copper were produced in the year 1850. At many points in the Appalachian belt attempts had been made to work mines of copper and lead, but none of these had been so successful as to have developed anything of permanent importance, or to have added materially to the metallic produce of the country. About the middle of the present century the development of the zinc industry was beginning in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, extensive works having been erected at Newark for the manufacture of the oxide of zinc for paint, of which about eleven hundred tons were produced in 1852. The extent and value of the deposits of zinc ore in the Saucon Valley, Penn sylvania, had also just become known in 1850, and preparations were making to develop them. At this epoch the lead production of the Missouri mines had for some years been nearly stationary, or had declined slightly from its former iraportance ; while that of the Upper Mississippi region had, in the years just previ- 268 MINERAL RESOURCES. ous to 1850, risen to a figure of from twenty to twenty- five thousand tons a year, and was gradually declining from this amount, having in 1850 sunk to a little less than eighteen thousand tons. What was said in regard to the cupriferous deposits of the Appalachian belt is true of those of lead in the same region. The ores of this metal are found at numerous points along that range, from Maine to Georgia, and in many localities they occur in well-developed veins, some of which proraise well at the surface. In hardly a single in stance, however, has any one of these veins been worked with profit either for lead or silver. Neither has the mining of auriferous quartz in the Appalachian belt been on the whole successful, although at a few points a considerable quantity of the precious metal has been obtained during a short period of time. In no case has a large, permanent, paying mine of any metal other than iron and zinc, been developed in the Appalachian belt. With this preliminary sketch of the conditions of the mining industry of the United Spates at a period about midway between the epoch of separation of the country from British control and the present time, we present a rapid review of the existing condition of that industry, from a perusal of which it will be evident that the progress of the development of the mineral resources of the country within the past half century has been extremely rapid. COAL. 269 IL — COAL. The first and most important mineral production to be cpnsidered is coal, which exists in the United States in large quantity in each of its important varieties : hard coal, or anthracite, as it is almost universally called in this country ; soft, or bituminous, coal ; and lignite, or brown coal. Semi-bituminous coal, which stands midway between hard and soft coal, is also an article of importance, as being especially well adapted for blacksraiths' use, as also for ocean-going stearaers. Geologically speaking, the anthracite, serai-bituminous, and bituminous coals nearly all belong to the same formation — the Carboniferous par excellence. All the coal of the Appalachian region and Central Valley is of this geological age, excepting the sraall field near Richmond, Virginia, and two in North Carolina — the Deep River and the Dan River fields; these are of Mesozoic age. That of Richmond was the first coal field worked in the United States ; but it is no longer of any importance. The North Carolina Mesozoic areas have never been developed to any extent. All of the Cordilleran coal and that at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains is either Tertiary or else belongs in the very uppermost portion of the Cretaceous. Sorae of it is decidedly lignite, and is so called by the people who use it; but most of it, although of such recent geological age, is called coal, and, in point of fact, does not differ essentially from Palaeozoic coal in external appearance. The area underlain by the coal-naeasures in the United States is very large, as will be seen from the 270 MINERAL RESOURCES. following table, which represents approximately the coal areas of Carboniferous age east of the Cordilleran re gion. That different portions of the areas here desig nated are of very different value, as respects quality and quantity of coal, is certain ; and that portions of them do not contain coal-beds of sufficient thickness or of good enough quality to be worked with profit, either at present or at any future time, is also an undoubted fact, although these unproductive portions are, except perhaps in the case of the Western and Michigan fields, of comparatively small extent : — Name of the field. Area. Rhode Island 500 sq. miles Appalachian 59,165 " Central (Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky) . 47,250 " Western (Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Arkan sas and Texas) 78,430 " Michigan 6,700 « Total 192,045 sq. miles Of these fields the Appalachian is at present by far the most important, and is likely to remain in this position for an indefinite period. The coal-field of Rhode Island is not now, nor has it ever been, worked to such an extent as to be of special importance. The Michigan coal-field has also no present value, the qual ity of the coal being inferior, and the conditions not such as to allow successful competition with the coal of adjacent regions. The present relative importance of the different States as regards the production of coal and the yield of the various fields will be easily recog nized from an inspection of the following table : — COAL. 271 Coal produced in the several States and Territories, not including the local and colliery consumption, and the value at the mines in 1885. Pennsylvania Tons. vaiue. Anthracite 32,265,421 $72,274,544 Bituminous 23,214,285 24,700,000 Illinois 8,742,745 11,456,493 Ohio 6,978,732 8,206,988 Maryland 2,865,974 3,209,891 Missouri 2,750,000 3,850,000 West Virginia 3,008,091 3,369,062 Indiana 2,120,535 2,731,250 Iowa 3,583,737 4,819,230 Kentucky 1,700,000 2,094,400 Tennessee 892,857 1,100,000 Virginia 567,000 666,792 Kansas 1,082,230 1,410,438 Michigan 45,178 75,000 Alabama 2,225,000 2,990,000 Georgia 133,929 180,000 Colorado 1,210,769 3,051,590 Wyoming 720,828 2,421,984 New Mexico 271,442 918^606 Utah 190,286 426,000 California 63,942 214,844 Oregon 44,643 125,000 Washington 339,510 950,615 Texas 133,928 300,000 Arkansas 133,928 225,000 Montana 77,179 302,540 Dakota 23,214 91,000 Idaho 893 4,000 Indian Territory 446,429 750,000 Totals 95,832,705 $152,915,268 In this table account has been taken only of " com mercial coal," or that mined for shipment. If that consumed for local and colliery use were added, the total amount would be increased five or six per cent. Including all the coal thus consumed, the figures for 272 MINERAL RESOURCES. the six years ending with 1887 stand as follows, the value at the mine being added for each year ; but for the year 1885 the value of the "commercial coal" only is given : — Tear. Quantity. Value. 1882 92,219,454 tons 102,867,969 " 106,906,295 " 99,069,216 " 100,663,750 " 116,004,962 " $146,632,581 1883 159,494,855 1884 143,768,578 1885 152,915,268 1886 154,600,176 1887 182,491,837 1882-87 average of six years . . 104,621,941 " The United States, then, stand next to Great Britain as producers of coal, the former country having pro duced during the past six years nearly two thirds as much as the latter.^ The Appalachian coal-field does not occupy any por tion of the State of New York, but extends from near its southern boundary southwest into Georgia and Ala bama. Its division among the different States may be seen from the following table : — states. Areas. Pennsylvania 9,470 square miles. Maryland 550 " Ohio 10,000 West Virginia 16,000 " Virginia 185 " Kentucky 9,000 " Tennessee ... 5,100 " Georgia ... 200 " Alabama 8,660 « Total 59,165 square miles. 1 The produce of coal in the United Kingdom in the year 1887 was 162,119,812 tons, an increase of a little over four and a half million of tons over the yield of the previous year. The average of the six years 1882-87 ¦was 159,997,466 tons. COAL. 27 By far the most important portion of the Appala chian coal-field is that lying within the boundaries of the State of Pennsylvania. This predominating im portance is due to several causes ; namelj'^, the large amount and excellent quality of the coal itself, the fact that the anthracite of the country is practically limited in its occurrence to Pennsylvania, and also that this State lies nearest to the most thickly populated portion of the Union — New York and New England — a region having no coal resources of its own. Hence Pennsyl vania produces more than half the coal raised in the United States, and about one eighth of the total yield of the world, while the increase during the past few years has been astonishingly rapid. Ohio stands next to Pennsylvania, among the States so situated as to have a portion of this field within their borders, in the importance of the coal produce. The yield of the for mer State, however, is only one eighth of that of the latter. Maryland produces about one third as much as Ohio. The produce of the remaining States over which the Appalachian field extends is small as compared with the extent of the area underlain by coal within their borders. This is due partly to the fact that the southern portion of the field is at a considerable dis tance from tide-water, in a sparsely settled region remote from manufacturing centres, and one where coal is not required as a domestic fuel, since forests are everywhere abundant. In Kentucky and Alabama, however, some progress has been made within the past few years in the development of this portion of their resources. About three quarters of the coal mined in the United States is from the Appalachian field. 18 274 MINERAL RESOURCES. The Central coal-field is the one next in importance to the Appalachian. It is from this field that Illinois draws its supplies of fuel ; this State ranking next to Pennsylvania in respect to its produce of coal, although at a considerable distance, since its yield is somewhat less than a fifth of that of the last-named State. In diana, from the same field as Illinois, produces about one fifth as much coal as the last-raentioned State. Kentucky is exceptionally favored in respect to coal, having portions of both the Appalachian and Central fields within its borders ; its produce at present is, how ever, but small. The coal of the Central field is de cidedly inferior to that of the Appalachian, since it contains on the average considerably more ash and more water. Of the latter the various analyses of the Illinois coals show from six to sixteen per cent, the ordinary quantity present being eight or nine per cent. These coals also contain more sulphur than the Appa lachian, and are soft and crumbly, so that the loss in transportation is considerable. Still, as Illinois is sparsely wooded, and since a large part of this State is underlain by coal in such a position as to be easily and cheaply mined, this article of fuel, although of inferior quality, is of great importance. Portions of this coal field in Indiana are considerably superior in quality to the average of the Illinois coal. The quality of the coal of the Western field, which is the largest one in the country in superficial extent, is somewhat variable, but on the whole inferior to that of the Illinois field. The region over which it is spread is, however, one not well supplied with forests, so that its coal resources are of great importance as furnishing COAL. 275 the necessary domestic fuel. Hence the amount of coal raised from this field is considerable, it being at present for Iowa nearly four millions of tons, and for Missouri two and a half millions, a year. The southern exten sion of this field through Arkansas and Texas has, as yet, been very little explored or developed. The occurrence of coal, as it is called by some, or lignite, as it is designated by others, along the base of the Rocky Mountains, and in various portions of the Cordilleran region, is a matter of great importance, in view of the scarcity of forests in that part of the coun try and its distance from the great Central and Eastern fields of Carboniferous coal. The coal-producing areas of the Cordilleran region are all of comparatively small size, and no one of them is capable of furnishing- a large supply for any considerable number of years ; but taken together they are of great value, and not only for local consuraption, but for supplying the Mexican Plateau, a region very poorly provided with fuel of any kind. The Cordilleran coal is all newer than the Carbonifer ous ; and it is not known that there is any coal at all, either in the Rocky Mountains or farther west, in that portion of the geological series which is the equivalent from a palasontological point of view of the true " Car boniferous." A large part of the Cordilleran coal has a gieological position close upon the line between the Cretaceous and Tertiary. By some palaeontologists it is referred to the one, by some to the other division. The quality of this newer coal is very variable ; in sorae localities it is quite good, but in general it is decidedly inferior to the average coal of true Carboniferous age. Much of it shows to the unaided eye no signs of its 276 MINERAL RESOURCES. vegetable' origin, and may properly be designated as coal ; other portions are distinctly lignitic in character. Thus the coal of Carbon, in Wyoming, of which over three hundred thousand tons were mined in 1884, con tains from six to eight per cent of water, and about five per cent of ash. The coal of Almy, also in Wy oming, on the line of the Union Pacific railroad, and extensively used in locomotives, contains about fifteen per cent of water. The coal mined at the base of the Rocky Mountains, in Northern Colorado, and exten sively used on the railroads of that State, contains from twelve to fifteen per cent of water. The coal from the more southern counties of Colorado is, on the average, of better quality, some of it containing but little moist ure, coking and being a good gas coal. At the Moro mine coal is extensively mined the analyses of which show only about one per cent of water. Coal of the same geological age is also mined to a liraited extent in Utah, and various outcrops have been opened and examined along or near the line of the Northern Pacific railroad in Dakota and Montana. There is no coal of any importance in the Great Basin ; but there are several localities on the Pacific coast where mines have been opened and worked to a considerable extent. The most important of these fields is near Seattle, in Wash ington Territory. There is also a coal-field on Belling- ham Bay, and one of very considerable value on the eastern side of Vancouver Island, beyond the limits of the United States. From this last-named locality the market of San Francisco has been largely supplied, since the coal mined at Monte Diablo, near that city, is of decidedly inferior quality. COAL. 277 The coal resources of the United States are large, as will have been gathered from that which has here been stated. Not even an approximate estimate can be made, however, of the total amount of available coal existing in the country. The most exaggerated statements have been published in regard to this point ; but it will be many years before the investigations of the geological and topographical surveys, combined with, and "aided by, the results of actual workings, have been carried to such a degree of perfection that, even for the Appalachian field, an estimate worthy of credence can be given of its total available resources. It is safe to say, however, that, while the amount of coal in the country is large, it is not by any means so much larger than that of England as it has been always inferred to be from the simple consideration of the comparative dimensions of the areas over which coal is known to exist in greater or less quantity in the two countries. In the Central and Western fields the number of beds is small, and they are never of great thickness ; nor is it known how far the total area embraced within the limits usually assigned as that of these fields was really originally continuously underlain by coal-seams, or how much of these seams has been, removed by erosion. Even in the best-known portion of the Appalachian field actual workings have as yet thrown but little light on the question : how far it is safe to assume that the various coal-seams which have been laid down on the vertical sections, made by combining observations at various localities in which beds have been identified and naraed by reference to sorae supposed fixed geological horizon, do really persistently underlie each other. In other 278 MINERAL RESOURCES. words, it is not known how far the various coal-fields are of a basin character, and how far of a littoral. In the former case the seams might be expected to be more or less persistent and capable of being followed and worked one under the other at the same locality and at any point where the strata have not been removed by erosion ; while, in the other case, the beds would not be persistent, and only from the results of actual work ings, or by the aid of trial-borings, could it be ascer tained how far any one seam of coal extended under any other one higher in the series. The data at present available are far from sufficient for even an approximate solution of this question. Only in regard to the anthracite fields can even an approximate statement of the total remaining available quantity of coal be made ; and this does not come di rectly from the Geological Survey or from the State Geologist, although it has been indorsed by him, in a manner, by having been republished, without hostile comment — in regard to the essential point, namely, the total quantity of available coal — by the assistant in charge of the survey of the anthracite region. Mr. P. W. Sheafer, a inining engineer of long experience in that region, and who has probably given this subject more attention than any one else, has made a state ment that the anthracite fields originally contained about 25,000,000,000 tons of coal. Mr. Ashbumer, the assistant in charge of the State Survey of the Anthracite Coal District, has stated that, up to Jan. 1, 1883, the total production of that district had amounted to 509,333,695 tons. He also estimates that this amount had been obtained from an area which COAL. 279 originally contained 1,500,000,000 tons, two thirds of the coal actually attacked having been lost in the mining. This would leave 23,500,000,000 tons un touched — an amount which, at the rate of production in 1882 (31,000,000 tons), would be exhausted in a little over two hundred years. To this statement, Mr. Ashburner adds as follows : — " Such a conclusion is quite untenable, for our yearly pro duction is rapidly increasing. In 1870 there were shipped from the region 16,192,181 tons, and in 1880, 23,437,242 tons. The abrupt exhaustion pf the coal-fields is a practical impos sibility, nor is it reasonable to suppose that if, on an average, for every ton of coal won, there are two lost, this will be the practice in future mining." With a very raoderate allowance for the rate of in crease of the population in the region dependent on the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania for its supply of fuel, or at least using this kind of coal in preference to any other, it is evident that there must be a considerable corresponding increase of its production for many years to corae ; nor can we foresee the time when the maximum wUl have been reached. That there will be increased economy in the winning of the coal is also possible; while this advantage will be, to a certain extent, counterbalanced by the increased difficulty and cost of mining at lower depths and in beds of less thickness, as also in those in which the coal has been more or less crushed by crust movements. On the whole, therefore, it would appear that two hundred years must be taken as the maximum time during which the anthracite fields will hold out ; while it is probable that they will be practically exhausted of their 280 MINERAL RESOURCES. available contents at a considerably earlier period than this.^ The only estimate worthy of notice made in regard to the quantity of available coal in any portion of the bituminous coal-fields of the country is that of the State Greologist of Pennsylvania, who in February, 1886, read a paper on the Geology of the Pittsburg Coal Region before the American Institute of Mining Engi neers. In this paper Professor Lesley estimates the amount of available coal in the Pittsburg seam at 5,000,000,000 tons. The area for which these figures are given embraces the Pittsburg region, which is said to have " an outspread fifty miles long by fifty miles wide within the limits of the State." But he farther adds that " any exact calculation of the total amount of coal which the Pittsburg region possesses is impos sible." If Professor Lesley's estimate of the quantity 1 In the " Engineering and Mining Journal " of Sept. 29, 1888, the state ment is made, editorially, that the available supply of anthracite " does not much, if at all, exceed 9,000,000,000 tons." This statement is said " not to be based on any mere guess, but to be founded on reliable data." Further more, the produce of anthracite for the present year (1888) is said to be likely to be about 40,000,000 tons, representing an exhaustion of 120,000,000 tons. Hence it is inferred that " at the present rate of production and present percentage of waste in mining our entire supply of anthracite coal will last only seventy-five years." This estimate of the quantity of anthracite still available differs so greatly from that of Mr. Sheafer, given above, that it would seem as if the data for any even approximately exact computation were not yet in existence. Mr. Sheafer, in a communication in the same journal, under date of November 3, seems to admit this ; and adds that the work of the geological survey of the anthracite coal-fields will prob ably be so far advanced during the present winter that an estimate may be made, " based on more extensive and exact information." He also adds as follows : "Since my publication in 1880, constant connection with anthra cite mining satisfies me that the time then allowed for exhaustion was too great ; nor am I satisfied that we can exceed at any time a shipment of fifty millions per annum." PETROLEUM. 281 of coal available in the Pittsburg seam in the Pittsburg region be an approxiraation to the truth, and if the consumption remains at the figure at which it stood in 1884 (11,000,000 tons), this quantity will last about four hundred and fifty years. But in proportion as allowance is made for a more or less rapid increase, the length of this period will be shortened. III. — PETROLEUM. A knowledge of the occurrence of petroleum in the United States dates back to a very early epoch. At various times, from 1632 on, notices of the oil springs of Southwestern New York and Northwestern Pennsyl vania found their way into print. The Seneca Indians, who occupied that region, used the oil for medicinal purposes and in some of their religious observances. During the early part of the present century it was collected in considerable quantity by skimming it off the surface of the water with the help of a broad fla.t board, or by soaking it up in blankets. The material thus obtained was sold under the name of "Seneca oil," and was used in external application for sores and sprains, for both man and horse. The borings for brine to be used in the manufacture of salt, carried on in West Virginia on and near the Kanawha River, brought up large quantities of petroleum ; this was early in the present century. The oil which thus came to the surface was not considered of any value ; on the con trary, it was a nuisance, and every effort was made to get rid of it. A similar condition of things was ex perienced on the Muskingum River in Ohio, and also 282 MINERAL RESOURCES. in Kentucky. In 1829 a well bored for brine near Burkesville, Kentucky, yielded astonishing quantities of oil, which continued to flow for several years, cov ering the surface of the water of the Cumberland River for many miles in its downward course. Up to this tirae, however, there had been no practical utilization of this material as a source of illumination. The gradually increasing price of whale oil and of veg etable oils, which furnished light for places where gas was not available, led to various attempts to supply the place of these substances by substitutes obtained from coal and bituminous shales. For this purpose the so- called " Bog-head coal " was used, in Scotland ; and the "Albert coal " and all kinds of cannel coals, asphaltums, and bituminous shales were experimented with in the United States with the same end in view. This in dustry was being more and more successfully carried on, and was already of very considerable importance at the time boring for petroleum was begun. In 1854 a company was incorporated for the purpose of boring Artesian wells for oil, and in 1858 operations were begun at Titusville, on Oil Creek, a branch of the Alleghany River. After many vexatious delays oil was struck on the 28th of August, 1859 ; and this was the beginning of an industry of great importance to the country. From this time forward the excitement on the subject of petroleum spread rapidly over the coun try, and wells began to be bored in great numbers. For a considerable tirae operations were confined to the valleys of the Alleghany River and its tributaries, on the supposition that oil would only be found in such localities. The valley of Oil Creek, from Titusville to PETROLEUM. 283 Oil City, French Creek, from Union City to Meadville and Franklin, and the Alleghany at Tidioute, were the scenes of these earlier operations. The refineries then at work on coal oil began at once to use petroleum ; but time was required for the introduction of a new article of commerce, so that the markets were soon overstocked with their products, and the price of crude oil fell to a very low figure. As the deraand increased the supply fell short, prices rose again, and a period of great exciteraent and of wild speculation followed, in the course of which the whole country was ransacked for petroleum, great nurabers of companies formed, and borings begun in many localities, most of which were soon abandoned; for it was not long before it became evident to sober-minded inquirers that no other region could — for sorae tkne, at least — successfully compete with Pennsylvania in the petroleum business. And before making some statements in regard to the present production of petroleum in the other States, that of Pennsylvania and the small adjacent productive area of New York will be considered, since this region has been from the beginning, and still is, of over whelming importance as corapared with the rest of the United States. The present condition and the prospects of the pe troleum business in Pennsylvania and New York may be appreciated by the following stateraent condensed from a paper read by Mr. C. A. Ashburner, of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, at a meeting of the Institute of Mining Engineers, in September, 1885. The districts producing oil which are or have been of importance are nearly all in Pennsylvania ; but there 284 MINERAL RESOURCES. are sraall productive areas in the adjacent portions of New York. These districts are the following : — 1. The Alleghany District, including the Richburg, and several small outlying pools in Alleghany County, New York. The area which has proved productive embraces thirty-one square miles. This district had, up to January, 1885, produced 15,000,000 barrels — an average of about 419,000 barrels per square mile. 2. The Bradford District, embracing the oil-pools in Central and Northern McKean Cojinty, Pennsylvania, and Southern Cattaraugus County, New York. The area of productive territory in this district is 133 square miles, 121 of which are included in the Bradford field proper. The geological position of the oil-bearing strata is indicated by the fact that the uppermost oil-sand is, at Bradford, 1,775 feet below the bottom of the lower meraber of the Millstone Grit, or Pottsville Conglom erate, which in Western Pennsylvania is one of the most persistent and best-recognized .geological horizons, and is there known as the Olean Conglomerate. This district had, up to January, 1885, produced 109,000,000 barrels of oil — an average of al;)out 820,000 barrels per square mile. 3. The Warren District lies in Eastern Warren and Northeastern Forest Counties, Pennsylvania, and has an area of thirty-five square miles. It had up to January,^ 1885, produced 12,000,000 barrels — an average of about 343,000 barrels per square mile. The oils from differ- - ent subdivisions of this district vary considerably in color and gravity, although generally spoken of as "amber oils." They come from "sands" (sand-rocks) of varying geological horizons, having soraewhat the gen- PETROLEUM. 285 eral appearance of the Bradford and Alleghany sands, but frequently coarse-grained, and sometimes containing sraall pebbles, which are not known to have been found in the sands of the other two districts mentioned. The various sands of the Warren District are from 1,100 to 1,850 feet below the Olean Conglomerate. 4. The Venango District — the scene of all the earlier oil developraents — has an area of sixty-five square miles, and includes forty distinct and well-recognized oil-pools, the largest of which lies between Oil City on the south and Pleasantville on the north, and covers an area of twenty-eight square miles. The production of this district up to January, 1885, had been about 55,000,000 barrels — an average of about 846,000 bar rels per square mile. The oil of the Venango District comes from three principal sand-beds, of which the up permost one lies about four hundred and fifty feet be low the base of the Olean Conglomerate. They are all contained within an interval of three hundred and fifty feet. The oils of this district are generally green, but frequently black, and sometimes amber. The peb bles of the sand-rocks are water-worn, sometimes as large as hazel-nuts, loosely cemented together, and bedded in fine sand ; but the sands of this district are not so regular or homogeneous as they are in the Bradford and Alleghany fields, whose sands — as Mr. Ashburner remarks — are phenomenal in this respect ; consequently, the- risk of obtaining dry or unproductive holes and wells of variable production has always been greater in the Venango than in the Bradford and Alle ghany Districts. 5. The Butler District includes the oil-pools in But- 286 MINERAL RESOURCES. ler and Clarion Counties, and in Southeastern Venango County. The area of this district is eighty-four square miles, and it had up to January, 1885, produced about 69,000,000 barrels— an average of about 821,000 bar rels per square mile. The oil in this district comes from the same group of sand-rocks as in the Venango District, and the same variability of the character of the rocks and of the oil exists in both these districts. 6. The Beaver District includes the two principal oil-pools, known as " Slippery Rock " and " Smith's Ferry," having an area of about sixteen square miles, with a production of 1,000,000 barrels, or 62,000 per square mile, up to January, 1885. In both the oil- pools of the Beaver District heavy oil is obtained from the representative of the Pottsville Conglomerate, and amber oil from the Berea Grit — a meraber of the Sub- Carboniferous series. The geological position of all the other oil-fields is considered by the geologists of the Pennsylvania Survey as being Devonian. The total area of the productive oil-areas is given by Messrs. Carll and Ashburner at 369 square miles, and the general boundaries of the oil-regions of Penn sylvania are now considered as having been fully estab lished. In the words of Mr. Ashburner — the highest authority on this subject — " That all the sands in which oil will ever be found in paying quantities are known, and have been drilled through at different localities in the oil-region, seems quite certain ; so that we have no reasonable expectation that any new and extensive field will be found which could compare in area, or in the amount of oil to be obtained from it, with the Butler, Clarion, and Armstrong pool, the Oil PETROLEUM. 287 City and Pleasantville pool, the great Bradford pool, or the Alleghany pool." To this may be added the re marks of Mr. Lesley, in June, 1883, on the same sub ject, to the effect that "the discovery of a few more pools of two or three million barrels each can make but little difference in the general result ; " and of Mr. Carll, in September of that year, who stated that there were not, at that time, "any reasonable grounds for anticipating the discovery of new fields which would add enough to the declining products of the old to en able the output to keep pace with the shipments or consumption." This declining production is still farther illustrated by the following figures, showing the number of productive wells at various times during the past few years, as also the average production of each well : — July, 1883. July, 1884. July, 1885. Number of producing wells .... Average daily product of the wells 17,100 3.8baiTels, 21,844 3.0 barrels. 22,524 2.5 barrels. Again, in illustration of the same condition of things, the following tables may be consulted. The first gives the number of new wells drilled in the Pennsylvania and New York petroleum region during each year from 1882 to 1887:' — 1882 3,304 1883 2,847 1884 2,265 1885 2,761 1886 3,478 1887 1,660 1 From a report on Petroleum by Mr. J. W. Weeks, in the " Mineral Resources of the United States," for the year 1887, by David T. Day, chief of the Division of Mining Statistics of the United States Geological Survey. 288 MINERAL RESOURCES. The largest number drilled in any one year was 4,217 ; this was in 1880. The average daily production, of crude petroleum in the same region for the years 1882-1887 was as follows (in barrels) : — 1882 82,338 1883 63,365 1884 65,129 1885 56,921 1886 70,679 1887 58,846 The total production of crude petroleum in Pennsyl vania and New York frora the beginning of the petro leum business (1859) down to the end of 1887 will be seen in the table given on page 289. The decrease in the production of petroleum, indicated by Messrs. Lesley and Carll, has therefore now become a fully established fact ; and since July, 1882, when the maximum, average daily production for any one month was realized ( 105,102 barrels ), there has been an irreg ular, but in the long-run steady, decline. In 1884 the shipments of petroleum were more than a million of barrels in excess of the production. At the end of August, 1884, the stock of oil on hand had reached its maximum — 39,084,561 barrels ; in September, 1885, it had declined to 35,343,771 barrels; in December, 1887, it was 28,006,211 barrels. The production of petroleum in the Pennsylvania and New York fields declined from 30,053,500 barrels in 1882 to 22,356,193 in 1887 ; but the total produc tion of the United States in 1887 was slightly in excess of that of the preceding year. This was chiefly due to PETROLEUM. 289 the increased production of the Ohio petroleum field, as will be seen in the following table of the yield of all the petroleum-producing States from the beginning of this business down to the end of 1887 : — Production of Crube Petroleum in the United States from 1859 TO 1887. (In barrels.) Tears. Pennsylvania and New Tork. West Virginia. Ohio. Kentucky,Tennessee, and other States. California. Total. 18591860 186118621863 1864 1865 186818671868 186918701871 187218731874 1875 1876 18771878 1879 18801881 18821383188418851886 1887 2,000 500,000 2,113,6093,056,690 2,611,309 2,116,109 2,497,700 3,597,700 3,347,300 3,646,1174,216,000 6,260,7456,205,234 6,293,1949,893,786 10,926,945 8,787,5748,908,906 13,135,47515,163,462 19,685,17626,027,63127,376,50930,053,50023,128,38923,772,20920,776,041 25,798,000 22,356,193 3,000,0001 120,000172,000 180,000 " 180,000 179,000151,000128,000126,000 90,00091,000 102,000 145,000 200,000> 31,76329,88838,17929,11238,94033,86739,76147,63290,081 650,000 1,782,9705,018,015 225,0002 61,817 175,0001 12,000 13,000 15,227 19,86840,55299,862 128,636 142,857262,000 325,000877,145678,572 2,000 600,000 2,113,609 3,056,690 2,611,3092,116,1092,497,700 3,697,7003,347,300 3,646,117 4,216,0006,260,7456,205,234 6,293,1949,803,786 10,926,94512,162,514 9,132,669 13,350,36315,396,868 19,914,14626,286,12327,661,23830,349,89723,444,87824,214,290 21,842,041 28,285,115. 28,249,597 Total 330,312,443 4,664,000 8,030,208 276,817 2,289,709 345,873,177 1 This includes all production prior to 1876. 2 This includes the production prior to 1886. The price of petroleum had not, up to July, 1885, been influenced by the condition of things indicated above. At that time crude oil was worth 92^ cents a 19 290 MINERAL RESOURCES. barrel, which was 13 J cents less than the average price for the year 1884. The following table shows the ex traordinary fluctuations in the price of petroleum dur ing the years 1880 to 1886, the figures being the price in cents per barrel for crude oil : — Tear. Highest Price. Lowest Price. Amount of Fluctuation. 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 124flOOJ 135125 115} nil 92i 70|72 49i 84|5168 59| 53| 28J 85| 40i 64| 44| 32J That these figures have but little reference to, or de pendence on, changed conditions of production will be evident at a glance. The fluctuations indicated are simply the result of a colossal system of gambling on the Petroleum Exchange, of the magnitude of which some idea can be had when it is stated that the " clear ances " on the. " Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange " for the year 1886 amounted to about 2,275,000,000 barrels. The daily average exports of petroleum for that year are given at about 44,300 bar rels, there having been a constant although slow in crease in the amount since 1882. The production of oil remained about the same in 1886 that it had been in 1885, and the stock on hand at the end of the former year was only a little less than it was in the latter. The price during the year 1887 fluctuated between 89^ and 54 cents; the tendency to lower prices having been caused in part b/ the remarkable yield of the oil-wells PETROLEUM. 291 at Baku, and in part by discoveries, supposed to be of importance, during the year in Ohio. During the year 1888 the price of petroleum fluctu ated between 100 and 71| cents per barrel. In No vember, 1887, an agreement was made for checking the production in the Pennsylvania fields, but this arrange ment seems to have been only of a temporary character. As the matter now stands, the supply of Pennsylvania petroleum is diminishing, and the stock on hand is being rapidly exhausted, since there is little or -no les sening of the consumption at home, or of the exporta tion. The Ohio petroleum has not yet been utilized for producing a high grade of illuminating oil, and it is claimed by the Standard Oil Company that this can not be accomplished, 'although they have a refinery at Libia, where experiments* have been carried on with this aira for more than two years. There is a pipe-line from Lima to Chicago, whither the crude pretroleum is shipped to be utilized as fuel, for which purpose it is weU adapted. The fear that, at any time, sorae pro cess may be discovered by which the sulphur will be eliminated from the Lima oil, and that this will then come upon the market for illuminating purposes, is un doubtedly one of the principal reasons why Pennsylvania petroleum does not rise more rapidly. It raust rise . very soon, unless new territory can be found, of which there is no promise at present, or unless it is proved that the Ohio product can be utilized as a basis for the production of refined oil of a high grade. Tables showing the importance of petroleum as an article of export in the United States will be found far ther on, under the head of "Exports and Imports." 292 MINERAL RESOURCES. IV.— NATURAL GAS. The use of natural gas for illumination, and even for metallurgical purposes, has become of late years a mat ter of considerable importance in the United States. The existence of outflows or springs of gas in the region west of the Alleghany range has been long known ; and the gas obtained from wells or bore-holes was used for illumination in Fredonia, New York, as early as 1821. One well after another was bored for this purpose at that place, until, in 1880, the supply had reached the amount of 110,000 cubic feet per month. According to Mr. Swank,^ natural gas was first used as a fuel in connection with the manufacture of iron and ^teel at Leechburg, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, in 1874, when it was taken from a well twelve hundred feet deep, and where it at that tirae furnished all the fuel required for puddling, heating, and making steam at the rolling-mill of Messrs. Rogers and Darchfield. Be tween 1874 and 1881 the use of natural gas was intro duced g-t various other establishments for puddling and rolling. The use of this new fuel spread so rapidly, that in 1887 there were ninety-six rolling-mills and steel works either wholly or in part using natural gas ; and Mr. Swank states that at the present time nearly one fourth of all' the establishments of this kind in the United States are thus supplied with fuel. The terri tory in which are located iron and steel works using natural gas extends as far east as Johnstown, seventy- 1 In a Report on the Iron and Steel Industries of the United States in 1887 and 1888, by James M. Swank, General Manager of the American Iron and Steel Association. NATURAL GAS. 293 nine miles east of Pittsburg. Some gas is used in Ohio, piped frora wells in the adjacent region of Pennsylva nia, and some is also obtained from local wells. Penn sylvania gas is also used to a limited extent in West Virginia. Natural gas has also been obtained at vari ous localities in Indiana, but not as yet in sufficient quantity to justify its employment in the iron and steel manufacture. According to Mr. Ashburner, of the Pennsylvania Survey, there were, in 1885, no less than 1,500 dwell ings, 66 glass factories, 34 rolling-mills, and 45 other industrial establishments supplied with natural gas in the city of Pittsburg alone ; and this was estimated as representing or displacing an araount of coal equal to ten thousand tons a day. The following figures, re ported by T. P. Roberts, show the estimated value of the coal displaced by natural gas in the region where this source of heat and light was in use, for the years 1882-84: — Tear. Pittsburg Region. Elsewhere. Total. 1882 1883 1884 $75,000 200,000 1,100,000 $140,000 275,000 360,000 $215,000 475,000 1,460,000 Gas seems to be a general concomitant of the oil all through the petroleum region ; or, as Mr. Ashburner re marks, the oil and gas regions are one in a geological sense. The essential thing here to be noticed is simply, that, as it was a long time after petroleum was dis covered in this region before it began to be utilized, so it was not immediately after the abundance of gas was made known that an economical application of it to 294 MINERAL RESOURCES. various purposes for which coal is commonly used was thought of. Indeed, for a long time the outflow of gas from the oil-wells was looked upon as a decided nuisance. In a paper read before the American Institute of Mining Engineers, at a meeting held in St. Louis in October, 1886, Mr. Ashburner remarks that the amount of gas at present flowing from the explored sands of Pennsylvania is probably two or three times greater than is required to meet all present demands. He adds, however, that although little alarm need be entertained in regard to the exhaustion of the gas-sands of Pennsylvania in the near future, yet it is a matter of vital importance that the extravagant waste of natural gas now going on everywhere throughout the oil and gas region should be stopped. He also adds that, in his opinion, the present consumers of natural gas — both domestic and manufacturing — will not return to coal for fuel when the gas has been consumed, but will use a manufactured fuel gas. Mr. Ashburner, in the same paper, gives an account of the development of the nathral gas resources of Ohio, which are likely to prove of importance, since gas has been found in regions where the coal is not of sufficiently good quality to enable them to compete with Pennsylvania, and also in other places many miles removed from any coal-field. The quantity of gas which the rocks of Ohio will be able to supply is not as y6t ascertained with any degree of certainty, but it seems likely to be large. It all comes from the Palaeozoic strata, from the upper coal-measures down to the Trenton limestone; the most prolific gas-bearing NATURAL GAS. 295 rocks being the Berea grit in the Sub-Carboniferous, and the Trenton limestone of Lower Silurian age. During the past two or three years (1886-88) there has been a quite general excitement, or "fever," on the subject of natural gas, which has been sought for by boring throughout the whole country, with the excep tion of New England and the extreme Southern Atlan tic States. Up to this time, however, only Western Pennsylvania and the adjacent portion of New York, Northwestern Ohio, and Central Indiana have furnished this valuable article in sufficient quantity to be consid ered oi commercial importance. The quantity of gas consumed in the United States at the present time can not be stated with any approach to accuracy, since the amount given off by the same well varies greatly with the season, and even the hour of the day. The con sumption of the gas in different furnaces is also ex tremely variable.^ The estimates by Mr. Roberts, presented above, for the years 1882-84, give, therefore, the value of the coal displaced by the use of natural gas, as the only possible method of arriving at a statis tical result. This table may be supplemented by another, ' published by Mr. J. W. Weeks,^ in which the amount and value of the coal displaced by natural gas through out the country is given, as nearly as it could be esti mated, for the years 1885-87 : — Amounfc. Value. 1885 2,796,000 tons $4,857,200 1886 5,761,000 " 10,012,000 1887 8,800,000 " 15,838,500 1 Mr. J. W. Weeks, in an article devoted to Natural Gas in the Report on the Mineral Resources of the United States for 1887, says that at Pitts burg some furnaces use no more than 13,000 cubic feet of gas to make a ton of iron, while others require as much as 66,000. 2 I. c. p. 466. 296 MINERAL RESOURCES. The rapid increase in the amount of natural gas con sumed during the past few years is easily seen in the above table. The surpassing importance of Pennsyl vania in general, and of the Pittsburg District in particular, as consumers of this kind of fuel, and the progress which has been made in other States in the development of this branch of industry may be seen in the following table, also compiled by Mr. Weeks, in which the detailed statistics for the year 1887 are given : — Amount of Coal Displaced by Natural Gas. Locality. Coal Displaced. Value. Pennsylvania : 4,890,000 tons 1,437,900 " 1,603,100 " 7,931,000 tons 94,600 " 446,000 " 53,500 " 268,000 " 2,500 " 4,460 " 4,460 " $6,846,250 2,415,750 4,487,500 $13,749,500 333,000 1,000,000 120,000 600,000 6,000 15,000 15,000 Remainder of Pittsburg District Western Pennsylvania (outside of Pittsburg District) Total Pennsylvania. . New York Ohio , Indiana Illinois Kansas Elsewhere Total 8,804,520 tons 115,838,500 v. — lEOK AND STEEL. The development of the iron and steel business in the United States during the last half century has been as rapid as that of the mining of coal. In 1850 the total production of iron throughout the world was about six million tons, of which fully half was to be. credited to IRON AND STEEL. 297 Great Britain : that of the United States was about one million tons, or one sixth of the whole amount. In the years from 1881 to 1887 the total production of pig- iron throughout the world varied between nineteen and twenty-two millions of tons, averaging a little over twenty millions, of which about four fifths were due to England, the United States, and Germany. In the last fifteen years the proportional production of England has gradually declined ; for the five years ending 1885 it was very nearly five twelfths, and in 1887 a very little over one third, of the total. England and the United States together made in 1887 very nearly five eighths of the total. The following table, giving a summary of the more important results obtained by the census of 1870 and that of 1880, will convey an idea of the status of the iron industry in the United States at the date of the last census, and of the progress made during the ten years previous to that : — No. of estebliBh- menta. Amount of capital inrested. Value of products. Weight of products in tons. 1870 1880 808 1,005 $121,772,074 230,971,884 $207,208,696 296,557,685 3,245,720 6,486,730 Percentage of increase in 10 years 24.38 89.68 43.12 98.76 The phrase " weight of products," as given above, in cludes the products of all the various processes or opera tions ; hence there is a certain amount of duplication, as is evident, since rolled iron, for instance, is mainly produced from pig. Another table is therefore ap pended, giving the production in each branch of the steel and iron industries : — 298 MINERAL RESOURCES. • 1870. 1880. Pig-iron and castings from furnace All products of iron rolling-mills Bessemer steel finished products Open-hearth steel finished products .... Crucible steel finished products Rlitstpr a.nf\ othpr steel Tons. 1,832,8761,287,347 17,324 0 25,061 2,040 98,935 Tons. 3,375,9012,101,114 794,550 83,16362,784 4,424 Products of forges and bloomeries 64,784 The distribution of the iron business throughout the country is extremely irregular. West of the Mississippi River, with the exception of the angle between that river and the Missouri, adjacent to St. Louis, the amount of iron made is so small that it need not be taken into consideration. The percentage of total pro duction in 1880 was distributed as follows among the States: Pennsylvania, 50; Ohio, 13; New York, 8; Illinois, 6 ; New Jersey, 3 ; Wisconsin, West Virginia, Michigan, and Massachusetts, each nearly 2 ; Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland, between 1^ and 2 ; Indiana and Tennessee, about 1 ; all the other States and Terri tories, an aggregate of about 4 per cent. Pennsylvania has for a hundred years been the leading State in the production of iron, and her position in this respect has been little changed since 1870. That State produces about half the coal and half the iron of the country. The principal centre of production in Pennsylvania is the vicinity of Pittsburg, in Alleghany County, where nearly a quarter of the total amount furnished by that State is made. Other important centres in Pennsyl vania are, in the order of their iraportance : Lehigh, Northampton, Cambria, Dauphin, Berks, Mercer, and Lackawanna Counties, in each of which the production IRON AND STEEL. 299 in 1880 was over one hundred thousand tons, and in the first four enumerated more than double that amount. Mahoning and Cuyahoga Counties are the most impor tant centres in Ohio ; Cook, in Illinois ; Rensselaer, in New York ; Milwaukee, in Wisconsin ; and St. Louis County, in Missouri. In regard to the geographical distribution of special products the Special Agent of the Census of 1880 in charge of this department — Mr. J. M. Swank — makes the following statement : — " A glance at the statistics for 1880 shows that New England now makes but little pig-iron, and that the South makes con siderable pig-iron and scarcely any rolled iron ; that the West has largely embarked in the manufacture of steel by the Bes semer process, while New York cannot boast a single Bessemer establishment, but has preferred the open-hearth process ; that New York makes most of the blooms that are made from ore, and Pennsylvania most of the blooms that are made from pig and scrap iron ; that Michigan is the leading producer of charcoal pig-iron, and now makes no other kind ; that West Virginia has developed a remarkably active interest in the manufacture of cut nails ; that only five States make Bessemer steel ; and two States, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, make nearly all of our crucible steel; and that Pennsylvania has made a greater effort than any other State to manufacture all kinds of iron and steel." The census year 1880 was one of exceptional pros perity for the iron and steel industries of the country. During that year the products of this manufacture were in such demand that the home supply was far from sufficient, and large quantities of both iron and steel had to be imported to make up the deficiency. But 300 MINERAL RESOURCES. remarkable as was the production of that year, the in crease since that time has been large and pretty steady, as will be seen in the following statements and tables. At the close of the year 1887 there were 613 blast furnaces, then either coinpleted or building (not count ing any which had been abandoned), in the United States, and they were thus distributed : — Division. Atlantic Central . . Cordilleran Subdivision. {North Atlantic . . Middle Atlantic . . South Atlantic . . /^Northeastern Central \ Northwestern Central j Southeastern Central (Southwestern Central I Rocky Mountain . . Plateau Pacific Coast . . . Total .... Number. 315 54 6 147 13 71 2 2 0 3 Total. 375 233 5 613 Of the 613 blast furnaces, 243 were in Pennsylvania, Ohio coming next in order with 78. In the Northern States there were 459 ; in the Southern 154, of which 44 were in Alabama (24 completed and 20 building). Of 414 iron and steel rolling-mills, 189 were in Penn sylvania, Ohio coming next with 55. Of Bessemer and Clapps-Griffiths steel works there were 43, of which 19 were in Pennsylvania, and 6 in the Southern States. Of open-hearth steel works there were 50, of which 27 were in Pennsylvania, and 2 in the Southern States. Of crucible steel works there were 41, of which 21 were in Pennsylvania, and 2 in the Southern States. The production of pig-iron and of Bessemer steel ingots and rails in the United States since 1880 is IRON AND STEEL. 301 stated in the following table, compiled from the sta tistics collected by the American Iron and Steel Association : — 1881. 1884. 1885. 1887. Pig-iron Bessemer steel iogots . . BesBemer steel rails . . 4,114,253 1,374,2471,187,769 4,623,3231,514,6871,284,066 4,595,510! 4,097,868 1,477,345 1,875,317 1,148,709J 996,465 4,044,5261,519,426 959,470 6,683,3292,269,1901,562,409 6,417,1482,396,033 2,101,903 From the above table it will be seen that 1882 and 1883 were years of large production, both of iron and steel ; that in 1884 and 1885 there was a considerable falling-off in the amount of pig-iron raade, while the production of steel remained nearly the same ; and it will also be noticed that in 1886 there was a large in crease both in iron and steel, which increase was con tinued in 1887 — the production of the latter year being more than a million and a half of tons greater than it was in 1884. The increased use of Bessemer steel for purposes other than the manufacture of rails is also clearly indicated in the following table : — 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887. Production of Bessemer steel Percentage used in rails . . . 1,514,687 85 1,477,345 78 1,375,317 72 1,519,426 63 2,269,190 78 2,936,033 72 The production of Bessemer steel was forty-nine per cent larger in 1886 than it was in 1885, and twenty- nine per cent larger in 1887 than in 1886. The total number of completed Bessemer steel works in the United States at the close of 1886 was thirty-three, with sixty-nine converters. Pennsylvania in that year made 59 per cent of the ingots produced ; Illinois, 21 ; and other States, 20. 302 MINERAL RESOURCES. The rapid growth and present importance of the steel industry in the United States will be appreciated on exaraination of the following table, in which the amount of steel, of all kinds, produced is given for each fifth year from 1870 on, and also for the years 1886 and 1887, in tons: — Bessemer steel ingots. Open-hearth steel ingots. Crucible steel ingots. All other steel. Total. 1870 1875 1880 1885 1886 37,500 335,283 1,074,2611,519,430 2,269,1902,936,033 1,339 8,080 100,850133,375 218,973 322,069 31,250 35,179 11,256 64,664 7,558 57,599 1,514 71,972 2,366 75,376 5,593 70,089. 389,799 1,247,3341,711,919 2,562,502 3,339,071 1887 The production of rails of all kinds in the United States is given in the following table for the year 1867, in which the manufacture of Bessemer steel rails began, and also for 1870 and for each succeeding fifth year, as well as for the years 1886 and 1887 : — Bessemer Bteel rails. Open-hearth steel rails. Total steel rails. Iron rails, all kinds. Total iroQ and steel. 1867 1870 1875 1880 1885 1886 1887 2,277 30,357 259,699852,196 959,471 1,574,703 2,101,903 12,156 4,2794,691 17,145 2,277 80,357 259,699 864,852 963,750 1,579,394 2,119,048 410,319 523,214 447,900440,858 18,227 21,142'20,591 412,596 553,571 707,600 1,305,211 976,977 1,600,536 2,139,639 The ores of iron are widely disserainated over the United States, and are of very different qualities ; but there are certain regions of greatly predominating im portance, and certain geological horizons or formations from which much the larger portion of these ores is derived. To each of these a few words of description may be devoted. IRON AND STEEL. 303 By far the largest production of iron ore in this country is from the rocks which lie below the Lower Silurian — the Azoic series of Foster and Whitney, and the Archaean of Dana. In this formation the ore occurs in immense quantity — in what may without exaggera tion be called mountain masses, which in many cases exhibit all the evidences of an eruptive origin, as in the case of the Iron Mountain of Missouri, or in some of the localities in the Marquette and Menominee regions of Lake Superior. At the first-mentioned locality the ore is intimately associated with an undoubted eruptive rock, with which it is intermingled in such a manner as to show that the two — ore and rock — must have had one and the same origin. A similar condition of things is revealed on Lake Superior, where the ore occurs in repeated interlaminations between sheets of unquestion ably eruptive material — a condition of things which need no longer excite surprise after what has been found out in regard to the occurrence of masses of iron, in great number and of large size, in the basalts of Green land. The ores thus occurring in the United States are hematite, or specular ore, and magnetite, with some hydrated oxide, or limonite — the result of the action of water pn the previously formed hematite. They are in general extraordinarily free from deleterious ingredients, especially phosphorus and sulphur, although usually containing a small amount of silica. The purity of these ores is a strong indication of their origin, in a manner different from that of ordinary sedimentary deposits. Many of the analyses of Lake Superior ore show the presence of only a few hundredths of one per cent of phosphorus. 304 MINERAL RESOURCES. The most important district in which these ores occur is the south shore of Lake Superior, and the most im portant port of shipment for them is Marquette, on that lake. A considerable amount is also shipped from Escanaba, on Lake Michigan. The shipments from this region began to be of importance about thirty years ago, and already in 1882 had reached the amount of nearly three millions of tons for that year. The amount shipped during the years 1884, 1885, and 1886 will be seen a little farther on, in the appended table. From 1856 to 1887 the total shipments of iron ore from the Lake Superior region amounted to 35,374,811 tons. A district in which the ore has similar charac ters, and where the quantity is believed to be very large, has been recently opened in Minnesota, on the north shore of Lake Superior. It is known as the Ver milion Lake iron district. The Iron Mountain region, a little less than a hun dred miles south of St. Louis, although small in area, is of considerable iraportance. Here also the ore is remarkably free from deleterious ingredients; but the shipments from this district are by no means so large in amount as those from the Lake Superior iron region, the area covered by these ores in Missouri being small, and the access to them less favorable than it is to points on the Great Lakes. A very large portion of the Lake Superior ores goes to the Appalachian coal-field to be smelted, and especially to the vicinity of Pittsburg ; and this was formerly the case with the Iron Mountain ore, which now is used in nearer localities, but where the con ditions in regard to quantity and quality of fuel are not so satisfactory as they are in Ohio and Pennsylvania. IRON AND STEEL. 305 There is a very iraportant iron ore deposit in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, which, to borrow the language of Mr. Swank, appears to be no nearer exhaustion than it was when first opened, one hundred and fifty years ago. The ore is chiefly magnetite, and its mode of occurrence in close connection with an eruptive rock is to the present writer strong, if not absolutely convinc ing, evidence of its igneous origin. There are iraportant deposits of iron ore on the east ern border of New York, especially in the Adirondacks and along the Hudson River. The geological position in which a portion of these ores occurs is certainly the sarae as that of the ores of Lake Superior — namely, the Azoic. That is the character of the Adirondack ores, which have been for a long time, and still are, ex tensively worked. The localities are chiefly in Clinton, Essex, and Franklin Counties. In the last-named county are the Chateaugay mines, which are very extensive, as will be seen from the annexed table. The ores of this region are chiefly magnetite, but they often contain too much phosphorus to be used in the manufacture of steel. There are iraportant occurrences of magnetic ore near New York City and also near the Hudson Eiver, in Orange, Rockland, Putnam, and Columbia Counties. Some of these ores are adapted to the man ufacture of Bessemer steel. It is not certain whether these localities near the southern part of the Hudson River are in the Azoic, or in the Palseozoic; and the same may be said of somewhat similar occurrences in New Jersey, in a formation designated by the State Geological Survey as Azoic, but which, although highly crystalline and apparently destitute of fossils, may be 20 306 MINERAL RESOURCES. only metamorphic Palaeozoic. The mode of occurrence of the ores in Southern New York and Northern New Jersey is peculiar, and not as distinctly eruptive as are the ores of Missouri and Lake Superior. The State Geologist of New Jersey, Professor Cook, however, con siders the New Jersey ores as being unquestionably of sedimentary origin. This New Jersey district is not in a flourishing condition at the present time ; since the ores, as a rule, are not adapted to the manufacture of Bessemer steel. Similar ores occur at many points, and often in large quantity, in the Azoic or crystalline belt of the Appalachian system, in the States lying farther south than New Jersey. In Mitchell County, North Carolina, is a deposit of ore kno"wn as the Cranberry bank, of which the quality is excellent, and the quantity believed to be very great. Up to the present time, however, but little of this ore has been shipped, although used on the spot in a small way in bloomeries and in one or raore charcoal blast furnaces. Next to the Azoic ores in importance, but decidedly inferior in quality, are the ores of the Clinton group — a member of the Upper Silurian series. The ore occurring in this geological position is known by various names, the most comraon ones being " fossil" or " dye-stone" ore. It is a red hematite, not crystalline like the specular variety of the peroxide, but usually in a more or less granular or concretionary form, that of flattened grains resembling flax-seed being a common mode of occur rence of this ore, which, for this reason, is often called " flax-seed ore." This ore deposit occurs at many points along the outcrop of the Clinton group all the way around from Wisconsin, through Canada and New York, IRON AND STEEL. 307 into Pennsylvania, and down the eastern slope of the Appalachian range to Georgia. This deposit is thought by Professor Kimball to be the most extensive occur rence of iron ore in the world yet discovered. The fossil ore, though large in quantity, contains too much phosphorus to be used for making steel in the ordi nary method ; but owing to the fact that it is in places favorably situated with regard to fuel, and to the satis factory quality of the cast-iron made from it, is quite extensively mined at various points. Next to the Clinton ore in importance comes the brown hematite ore (limonite), which occurs in numer ous localities in the United States, but of which the most extensive deposits are those which occur in the Lower Silurian limestones of the Appalachian systera, and especially along the line of the Great Valley. Some of the ores from this geological position are of excellent quality, notably those of Litchfield County, Connecticut, in the so-called Salisbury district. The iron made in charcoal furnaces in this region is con sidered as being of the highest value for articles in which strength and toughness are essential — as, for in stance, car wheels, and rolls of iron-rolling mills. Carbonate of iron, in the form of spathic iron, is a kind of ore of rare occurrence in the United States. The argillaceous carbonates (clay iron-stone) are also of comparatively little importance, although used to some extent, especially as mixed with other ores, in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio. The coal-fields west of the Appalachians are very poorly supplied with iron ores. Black-band ore is also of somewhat rare and limited occurrence in the United States. 308 MINERAL RESOURCES. The distribution of the ores of iron in this country is a very general one, large, and what may practically be called inexhaustible, quantities occurring in many local ities widely apart from each other. It is a peculiar feature of the iron manufacture here that so large a part of the ore is carried for a long distance to be smelted. Availability of fuel and enterprise are seen to be much more important than accessibility of ore. Pennsylvania has long had the lead in the manufacture of iron, as well as in the production of coal ; but the ores used in the western portion of the State are, in large part, drawn from a very distant region. In spite of the abundance of iron ore in the United States and the existence of a heavy protective duty (seventy-five cents per ton), a large quantity of ore is imported from abroad, and chiefly from Spain, Elba, Algiers, and Cuba. The amount thus imported was, in 1886, 1,039,433 tons, valued at |1,912,437. Almost all of this was used in Pennsylvania, and chiefly in the manufacture of Bessemer pig-iron and spiegeleisen. Mr. Swank states that, up to 1884, no pig-iron suitable for the manufacture of Bessemer steel, by any process now in use in this country, has ever been made south of the Potomac or south of Wheeling. The Southern ores, with rare exceptions, contain — as he remarks — too much phosphorus to be used for this purpose. The basic process has not yet been successfully introduced in this country, on any scale df magnitude. Neither has iron suitable for crucible steel been made here which could compete with that of Sweden. The annexed table, published by Mr. Swank, shows GOLD AND SILVER. 309 the production of iron ore in tons in the leading ore- producing districts for the years 1886, 1887: — 1886. 1887. Lake Superior mines of Michigan and Wisconsin 3,263,961 4,344,651 Vermilion Lake mines of Minnesota 304,396 394,252 Missouri mines 379,776 427,785 Cornwall, Pennsylvania .... 688,054 667,210 New Jersey mines 500,501 547,889 Chateaugay mines, New York . . 214,800 219,390 Crown Point mines, New York . . 60,084 64,940 Port Henry mines, New York . . 298,868 428,522 Other Lake Champlain mines, New York 15,000 29,000 Hudson Eiver Ore and Iron Com pany, New York 75,000 142,422 Tilly Foster mines, New York . . 17,728 14,316 Forest of Dean mines, New York . 18,000 21,164 Salisbury region, Connecticut . . 36,000 30,000 Cranberry mines, North Carolina . 24,106 45,032 Tennessee Coal and Iron and Rail road Company's mines .... 81,650 102,601 Ohio (whole State) 344,484 377,465 Alleghany County, Virginia ^ . . . 150,000 Preston County, West Virginia ^ . . 15,408 Calhoun, Etowah, and Shelby Coun ties, Alabama^ 129,000 Total of the above districts . 6,322,408 8,161,047 VI. — GOLD AND SILVEE. The production of gold in the Southern States^ rose to nearly a million of dollars a year in a few years after the first mining excitement began in that region. 1 Statistics not collected in 1886. = See ante, p. 263. 310 MINERAL RESOURCES. This was in 1833 and 1834. Then there was a fall ing off to about half that; but from 1842 on, until the time of the discovery of gold in California by the Americans, there was a rise in the product of the Southern Appalachian region to nearly a million a year (1842-48). The discoveries of the precious metal in California have already been noticed.^ By the end of the year at the beginning of which the first nugget of gold had been picked up in Sutter's mill-race on the American River (1848) miners were at work along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada from the Tuolumne to Feather River, a distance of full a hundred and fifty miles. There are supposed to have been not less than fifty thousand men mining for gold at the close of the year 1850 ; and those who had good opportunity for observing estimate the nuinber thus engaged during the years 1852 and 1853 at not less than one hundred thousand. At first some assistance was had from the aboriginal population ; but in general there was no hired help, each man working for himself, or a sraall number of persons owned the same claim and mined together as joint partners. The earliest washings were along the rivers, on the " bars," or gravel accumulations along the sides or on the beds of the streams, and in the " gulches," or ravines leading down the steep sides of the valleys, or canons, through which these rivers fiow. Soon the rivers themselves were partially turned from their courses by means of wing-dams, or entirely carried to one side of their natural channels by " fluming," or building artificial channels of timber. The sands and * See ante, p. 265. GOLD AND SILVER. 311 gravels thus exposed were the most productive " pla cers ; " and those who first got hold of the rich bars on the American, Yuba, Feather, Stanislaus, and other smaller streams in the heart of the gold region made sometimes frora one to five thousand dollars a day per man. These very rich spots were, however, soon worked out, and it might be days or weeks before another of equal richness was found. From the spring of 1848 to 1851 nearly all the mining was of the char acter thus indicated, that in the river-beds being called " wet-diggings," and that in the ravines or gulches adjacent to the rivers " dry-diggings." As localities of this kind could not furnish room for the many thousands who came to California, search began to be made on higher ground and away from the rivers ; and quartz mines were also opened at a very early period in the history of the country, the outcrops of some of the veins being very conspicuous. The dig gings having gradually become extended to the flats above the rivers, and to still higher ground, where the gravel was much less rich than it had been in the river beds themselves, so that much larger quantities of ma terial had to be handled in order to procure the same amount of gold, the necessity for improveraent in the system of attacking the gravel became apparent.-^ This ^ The simplest implement used in gold washing is the " pan," — a sheet- iron or tin vessel with a flat or shghtly concave bottom, a foot or more in diameter, which is partly filled with the material to be operated on, and then, with the repeated addition of water, shaken with a peculiar motion not easily described, the earthy portion being aUowed to pass over the edge of the utensil, until finally only the heavy metallic particles remain behind. The next most simple instrument used in gold washing is the " rocker," or "cradle," — a wooden trough about forty inches long and twenty wide, having at one end a hopper, or box, about twenty inches square, the 312 MINERAL RESOURCES. led to the invention of the "sluice," which in 1851 took the place of the "cradle" and "tom," and this improvement was soon followed (in 1852) by the intro duction of the so-called " hydraulic method " of attack ing the auriferous gravel, the invention of Edward E. Matteson, a native of Sterling, Connecticut.^ These inventions went pari passu with a great increase in the amount of water available for the miners' use, brought about by the building of numerous " ditches," or small canals, by which the rivers were tapped higher up on the slope of the Sierra, and as much of their con tents as was needed brought to the placers, and at a bottom of which is a piece of sheet-iron pierced with holes half an inch in diameter. This is for the purpose of keeping back the coarser part of the material to be washed, which is thrown out of the hopper by the hand. The finer portion, aided by the rocking motion and the water, passes through the holes, and the gold is caught on the bottom of the cradle by projecting cleats, or "riflJes," as they are universally called by the miners. The rapidity of the current through the machine depends on the angle at which it is placed anii on the amount of water used. It is a very rough instrument, losing much of the gold except when this is very coarse ; but cheap, portable, and not requiring much water for its operation. The " tom " is somewhat longer than the rocker, but stationary. 1 The " sluice " is simply a trough, or box, which may be of any size and length, according to the quantity of material to be washed and the amount of available water. The bottom is provided with riffles, the object of the whole arrangement being to imitate nature as closely as possible by aUow ing the auriferous materials to be carried by the current in such a way that the particles of gold will have an opportunity of settling to the bottom, where they wUl be caught by the rifiles, aided by the mercury with which these are charged. The " hydrauUc method " of mining is extremely simple in principle. It consists in throwing one or more jets of water, issuing from the pipes under high pressure and therefore with great velocity, against the face of the bank of gravel, by which operation the gravel is first loosened from its bed, and then washed down into the sluice. When the gravel is too firmly compacted to be " cut " by the stream of water, it is first shaken up to a certain extent by the use of powder, which operation is not unfre quently performed on a grand scale, by the use of many tons of the explosive material. GOLD AND SILVER. 313 suf&cient elevation above them to furnish the necessary head. The auriferous deposits worked by the hydraulic pro cess consist of sands and gravels, lying usually high above the present rivers, and belonging to a system of drainage existing in the Sierra during the Tertiary epoch. These old rivers were, so far as their general direction is concerned, not essentially different from those at present existing; but the volume of water which they carried was undoubtedly very much larger than that which the modern streams convey. A change in the climatic conditions of the Sierra since Tertiary times is thus clearly indicated, and this is in harmony with evidence of a similar character obtained through out the whole Cordilleran region. Furthermore, the ancient gravel deposits, which are often hundreds of feet in thickness, became gradually covered, to a greater or less degree, with volcanic materials, issuing from numerous vents on the flanks and along the crest of the Sierra; and the amount of gravel available and the methods of attacking it are largely conditioned by the position, thickness, and greater or less compactness of the overlying eruptive deposits. The long, rapid, and rather uniform slope of the Sierra in the mining districts makes it almost every where possible to carry the ditches with such a grade and in such a position as to give the necessary head at the point of working ; and the great elevation of the important gravel masses, and the deep canons into which the whole mining region is cut up, afford, in almost every locality, the necessary facilities for dispos ing of the tailings. These canons are an important 314 MINERAL RESOURCES. element in the hydraulic mining business ; their exist ence is as essential to its prosperity as is an abundance of water. The use of a large quantity of water implies the handling of a correspondingly large amount of gravel ; and it is an essential feature of the hydraulic system that a very large quantity of gravel can be run through the sluices, provided water be abundant and cheap, without any considerable increase of expense beyond what would be required for working a small amount bf material. So far as known to the writer, it is only on the west /slope of the Sierra Nevada that all the conditions — climatic, topographical, and geological — exist which are necessary for the develop ment of the hydraulic system of mining on a large scale.^ Mining for gold in the solid rock — or " quartz mining," as it is almost universally called — has been carried on in California since 1851. The mines are scattered along the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, but the most iraportant ones are in Amador and Nevada Counties. The distribution of the precious metal in the veins is, as a general rule, very irregular ; consequently the business of quartz mining has been a very uncertain one, although some mines have been both permanent and profitable. A large number of the principal work ings are on, or in the neighborhood of, what is known in California as the "Great Quartz Vein," or the 1 Even in Australia, where many of the conditions of the occurrence of the gold so strikingly resemble those prevailing in California, the use of the hydraulic system of mining is possible in but a few localities, and there only on a smaU scale. This is due partly to the general scarcity of water, and partly to the fact that the auriferous gravels lie at so low a level that there are no facihties for disposing of the tailings. GOLD AND SILVER. 315 " Mother Lode " — an immense development of quartz, which has been traced from Mariposa to Amador, over a distance of eighty miles, not continuously, but in a series of nearly parallel belts, or lenticular masses, with barren intervals between them, the general direction of the quartz masses being parallel with the axis of the Sierra. The yield of gold in California during the ten years of its greatest productiveness — namely, from 1850 to 1859 inclusive — has been estimated as averaging as high as 58| millions of dollars a year.'^ During the pentad 1860-64 there was a rapid falling off in the yield, which may be accounted for not only by the approach ing exhaustion of the river diggings, but also by the fact that the discovery of the Comstock Lode turned the attention of the miners in the direction of Nevada, whither great numbers of stamp-mills were transported bodily ih the course of the years 1861 and 1862, these mUls being such as had been worked in California with little or no profit to the owners. From 1865 on, the gold-mining business in Califor nia assumed a certain degree of permanence ; at least, the yield of the precious metal became, for a number of years, pretty nearly stationary, never falling below fifteen millions, nor rising quite as high as twenty millions ; the average for the fifteen years 1865-79 being about seventeen millions. The figures for the 1 See table in Mr. A. J. Bowie's paper, entitled "Mining Debris in California Rivers," read before the Technical Society of the Pacific Coast, Feb. 4, 1887. This table was prepared by Mr. L. A. Garnett. The present writer's estimate of the yield of California for the four years 1850-53, made in 1854, was an average of 58.7 millions of doUars per annum. 316 MINERAL RESOURCES. years 1881-87, as given in the reports of the Director of the Mint, are as follows : * — 1881 $18,200,000 1882 16,800,000 1883 14,120,000 1884 13,600,000 1885 12,700,000 1886 14,725,000 1887 13,400,000 In 1884 an important decision was rendered by the Circuit Court of the United States in California, by which hydraulic mining has been made illegal. This was done on complaint of the farraers occupying lands on to which a portion of the tailings — or mining de bris, as this refuse is now generally called in California — was carried. The result of this decision has been — to use Mr. Bowie's words — " that the principal hydrau lic mines in the State have been closed, and suits have been instituted against parties for drift mining ; and in one instance, the North Bloom field Gravel Mining Com pany has been adjudged guilty of contempt of court, and fined heavily for violating this injunction, by drift mining." ^ Mr. Bowie adds : " That this decision of the ' court applies to all classes or kinds of mining, there can be no doubt." That the stoppage of the hydraulic mines has not very seriously affected the yield of gold in California would appear evident from the statistics given above. From the best information that the pres- 1 Mr. Garnett's figures for the years 1881-83, as given in the tabte to which reference is made in the note on page 315, are considerably higher than those accepted at the Mint. They are as foUows: 1881, 19,223,155 ; 1882, 17,146,416; 1883, 17,256,873 doUars. 2 Bowie, Z. c. p. 13. GOLD AND SILVER. 317 ent writer could obtain in 1880, it appears that about two thirds of the produce of gold in California at that time carae from the hydraulic and drift or tunnel mines.^ If this were true, and hydraulic mining has been almost entirely stopped, as Mr. Bowie has stated, it would seem that quartz mining must have been much more actively carried on since the injunction was issued against other kinds of mining.^ The latest phase of the "mining debris question" is indicated by the passage of an Act of Congress (ap proved Oct. 1, 1888) directing the Secretary of War " to detail three officers from the Engineer Corps of the United States Army, as a commission for the purpose' of making a thorough examination and investigation of the mining debris question in the State of California, for the purpose of ascertaining whether some plan can be devised whereby the present conflict between the mining and farming sections may be adjusted, and the inining industry be rehabilitated ; and for a complete examination of the injured river channels, their tribu taries, and lands adjacent thereto, with a view to the improvement and rectification of said rivers." The diminished yield of the placer mines of the Sierra Nevada set free a large nuraber of miners who had more or less of the skill required for successful pros pecting ; and the natural consequence was, that in the ^ See Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California, 1880, p. 368. '^ Professor Reyer, who in the summer of 1884 travelled through the , hydrauUc mining districts of CaUfornia, made to the present writer verbal statements indicating that up to that time — the injunction having been issued in January of that year — there was stUl considerable mining activity in that resion. 318 MINERAL iRESOURCES. latter part of the decade 1850-59, the Territories adjacent to California on the east, north, and south were overrun by thousands of men in search of deposits of the precious metals ; and within a few years an ex traordinary number of discoveries were made, some of which proved to be of great iraportance. The most powerful impulse to mining operations, and the imme diate cause of a somewhat lengthy period of wild excite ment and speculation, was the discovery and successful opening of the so-called Comstock Lode — a metallif erous deposit which, considering all the circumstances and conditions connected with it, may be truthfully said to be the most interesting one ever discovered. The conditions which have given this lode its pre-emi nence are: the great extent and depth of the work ings ; the rapidity with which they have been carried on ; the large amount of the precious metals pro duced ; the extraordinary temperatures encountered ; and, finally, the very full record which has been kept of the facts observed. The Comstock Lode is situated in the western part of what is now the State of Nevada, but which at the time of the discovery of the metallic wealth of the region was a part of the Territory of Utah, and known as the "Washoe Country," from its being the camping-ground of a small tribe of Indians of that name. The locality of the Comstock Lode, where there soon grew up a large town called Virginia City, is about twenty miles east of the boundary of California, and nearly due east of the northern end of Lake Tahoe. This region was not on the great emigrant trail from the East to California, but was quite near it, so that the streams coming from GOLD AND SILVER. 319 it — tributaries of the Carson — -had been more or less prospected for gold as eiarly as 1852. In 1858 a quartz- mining district was organized at Gold Canon, in the immediate vicinity of the outcrop of the Comstock Lode. In 1859 the outcrop of the lode itself was dis covered by miners engaged in washing the surface detritus for gold. This outcrop was soon attacked, and samples of the ore obtained were sent to California for analysis, the results of which indicated a surprising richness for the lode, to which the name of "Comstock" has become attached, without its being possible to say with truth that a man of that name was its real dis coverer, or had any rightful claim to have his name associated with it. From July, 1859, on, the development of the Com stock Lode was extraordinarily rapid, considering the fact that the locality was so reraote, and that all com munication with California had to be carried on across the summit of the Sierra Nevada, over which at that time there was only a trail. Within a short time after the discovery of the richness of the ore, four thousand mining claims had been taken up within a radius of thirty miles from Virginia City. As early as August, 1860, two mills were already at work, stamping and amalgamating the ore from the lode ; mining had been begun on a large scale ; and ingenious metallurgists were endeavoring to ascertain experimentally how the some what complex metalliferous combinations there occur ring could be best and most economically treated. These operations were — so far as quantity of bullion pro duced is concerned — eminently successful, as is shown by the following table, which is taken from the Report 320 MINERAL RESOURCES. of the Director of the United States Mint for the calendar year 1887 : — Gold and Silver Production of the Comstock Lode from the Commencement of Operations to 1887. , Year. 1859 . . . I860 . . . 1861 . . . 1862 . . . I86B . . . 1864 . . . 1865 . . . 1866 . . . 1867 . . . 1868 . . . 1869 . . . 1870 . . 1871 . . . 1872 . . . 1873 . . . 1874 . . . 1875 . . . 1876 . . . 1877 . . . 1878 . . . 1879 . . . 1880 . . . 1881 . . . 1882 . . 1883 ... 1884 ... 1885 . . . 1886 . . . 1887 . . . , Totals $30,000.00 525,000.00 2,450,000.00 4,690,000.00 7,440,000.00 9,600,000.00 7,700,231.90 8,944,736.51 8,243,170.805,087,861.40 4,443,346.80 5,222,595.24 6,149,717.19 7,341,839.79 13,003,187.1213,486,071.09. 15,495,312.93 18,971,196.12 21,780,922.02 11,796,838.46 4,202,091.493,077,409.00 645,372.00 1,046,078.40 1,203,809.30 1,561,313.60 1,729,531.25 2,054,920.15 2,481,176.85 1190,403,729.41 Silver. $225,000.00 1,060,000.00 2,010,000.004,960,000.00 6,400,000.00 5,133,487.935,963,157.67 5,495,437.20 3,391,907.60 2,962,231.20 3,481,730.16 4,099,811.46 4,894,559.868,668,791.41 8,990,714.06 10,330,208.6112,647,464.08 14,520,614.68 7,864,555.65 2,801,394.332,051,606.00 430,248.00697,885.60 802,539.53 1,277,438.401,415,071.04 1,681,298.31 2,030,053.78 $126,276,706.56 Total. $30,000.00 750,000.00 3,500,000.00 6,700,000.00 12,400,000.00 16,000,000.00 12,833,719.83 14,907,894.18 13,738,608.00 8,479,769.007,405,578.00 8,704,325.40 10,249,528.65 ¦ 12,236,399.65 21,671,978.53 22,476,785.15 25,825,521.54 31,618,660.20 36,301,536.70 19,661,394.11 7,003,485.82 5,129,015.00 1,075,620.00 1,743,464.00 2,006,348.83 2,888,752.00 3,144,602.293,736,218.46 4,511,230.63 $316,080,435.97 For the years from 1870 on, the figures given in the above table were obtained from official sources.^ For the earlier years there is some uncertainty in the re- ' Sworn quarterly statements of mining companies to the Assessor for bullion tax purposes, or official returns furnished by the secretaries of the various companies. GOLD AND SILVER. 321 turns, but the discrepancies in the various estimates are small as compared with the totals. The estimates collected and published by Mr. Eliot Lord run from $304,752,171.54 to $306,181,251.05 for the total yield of the lode from its discovery up to June 30, 1880. The average value of the ore milled during that time is variously estimated at from |43.71 to $43.91 per ton of 2,000 pounds. The average of five estimates is $43.86. The relative proportion of gold to silver in the bul lion varies somewhat in different parts of the Comstock Lode. Mr. Lord gives the percentage as follows : — Gold. Silver. Gold Hill Group $47.25 $52.75 Central Group 35.93 64.07 Bonanza Group 46.83 63.17 From the table given above it will be seen that the yield of the Corastock Lode rose rapidly frora 1863 on, with considerable fluctuations, attaining its culraination in the years 1876, 1877, from which tirae it fell off, more rapidly than it had risen, to its present condition, no important new ore-bodies having been developed by the workings extensively carried on since 1873-74, the date of the discovery of the great Consolidated Vir ginia-California bonanza. The tables arranged by Mr. Lord show that the stocks of the various mines on the lode had, in January, 1875, a market value of $262,- 669,440 ; and that in February, 1881, this had sunk to $6,905,580. The importance of the production of the Corastock Lode raay be better appreciated by the state ment that the mines on this lode added to the bullion 21 322 MINERAL RESOURCES. stock of the world $100,000,000 more in eighteen years than the whole Freiberg district in Saxony had fur nished in a little over 700 years, namely, during the period from 1168 to 1875. The Comstock Lode is an ore-channel of great dimen sions included within volcanic rocks of Tertiary age, which themselves have broken through pre-existing Triassic strata. The lode exhibits some of the features of a fissure vein, combined with those of a contact deposit in part, and of a segregated vein in part. The gangue is quartz, very irregularly distributed in bodies often of great size, and for the most part nearly or quite barren of ore. The metalliferous portions of the lode — " bonanzas," as they are here generally called — are usually of great size, but extremely irregular in their po sition. The number of these bonanzas has been about twenty, most of them lying near the surface ; but the last important one discovered — that of the California and Consolidated Virginia Companies — was struck at a little over one thousand feet below the surface. Its dimensions were — according to 'Mr. Church — about seven hundred feet in length, by five hundred deep and ninety wide; the average yield, $93.55 per ton; and the total value of the bullion obtained from it $104,007,653. The mines on the Comstock Lode have been worked to a greater depth than any mines in the world extend ing over an equal amount of ground. Already in 1879, the time of the publication of Mr. Church's book, all the principal mines had reached the two-thousand- foot level, while many had gone several hundred feet deeper. In 1882 numerous shafts and inclines along GOLD AND SILVER. 323 a line of nearly three thousand feet in extent had opened the lode to a depth of between three and four thousand feet measured on its dip from the outcrop, several vertical shafts being nearly three thousand feet, and one a little over three thousand feet, in depth. Up to October, 1886, work was still being carried on at several points below the depth of three thousand feet, but without any new discoveries of importance having been made. The lower levels, below that of the Sutro Tunnel — which intersects the lode at a point about two thousand feet below its outcrop — were therefore abandoned at that time, and allowed to fill with water. Workings are still going on, however, above the great adit level, where there still remain considerable bodies of low-grade ore, which can perhaps be extracted with moderate profit, since more economical methods have been introduced both in mining and milling. The ground above the Sutro Tunnel along the whole line of the lode has been so thoroughly prospected by mining and by the use of the diamond drill that it is hardly probable that any new bonanzas of iraportance will be discovered. The abandonment of the lode below the level of the Sutro Tunnel was occasioned in part by the failure tq find rich bodies of ore in the lower workings, and also in part by the great cost of opening the ground by the necessary shafts and levels driven for exploration, due in large part to the extraordinarily high temperature encountered in the workings. Had the conditions in this respect been those of ordinary mines, it is ex tremely improbable that the works in the lower levels would have been abandoned until much greater depths 324 MINERAL RESOURCES. had been attained than were reached, even if no rich bodies of ore had been discovered.^ The following table exhibits the financial status of the principal mines on the Comstock Lode at the close of the year 1888. From it will be seen that thirteen mines levied 'assessments during that year, and that two paid dividends in 1888 and 1889. There is con siderable activity manifested in getting out the ore lying above the level of the Sutro Tunnel, and which was considered to be of too low a grade to be worked with profit during " bonanza times." The yield of the lode at the present time, although sraall as compared 1 The present writer visited these mines at the time of their greatest productivity, as well as at various times before the maximum had been reached. He was an eye-witness of the effect of the high temperatures to which the miners were exposed, always injurious and not infrequently fatal to them. How the men suffered, aud how greatly the work was retarded, and the expense increased, of course, in proportion, may be un derstood from a perusal of a few quotations bearing on these points from Mr. EUot Lord's volume, already cited : " At some slopes in the great ore- body of the California and Consolidated Virginia mines, four miners could hardly do the ordinary work of one man in a moderately cool drift ; yet no mines were more carefully ventilated than these. When the incline from the Savage Mine shaft uncovered a hot spring, in July, 1877, ordinary miners would have refused to press the work farther. The temperature of the water as it issued from the rock was 157° Fahr., and the incline was filled with almost scalding vapor ; picks could only be handled with gloves, and rags soaked in ice-water were wrapped about the iron drills. . . . At the head of the incline, when it was necessary to attach a V-bob to the pump-rod . . . the men employed could not leave their work as often as the miners who guided the drills [all drilling was done by machinery ; any other would have been impossible], but were forced to breathe this suffocating vapor till they often staggered forth from the station half bUnded and bent by agonizing cramps. When the pain was so great that men began to rave or talk incoherently, their companions would quickly take them up and carry them to the coolest place on the level, when they were subjected to a vigor ous rubbing on all parts of the body, but particularly on the pit of the stomach. When the so-called ' stomach-knots ' disappeared under the friendly hands, the checked perspiration began again to flow, and the men regained their senses. " GOLD AND SILVER. 325 with its former productiveness, is by no means unim portant ; it is, in fact, several times larger than that of the mines of the Freiberg District : — Tabular Statement of Assessments and Dividends of the Mines on the Comstock Lode.^ AasesBments. Dividends. Date of last. Total Assessed. Bate of last. Total Divided. Utah Oct. 1888 $120,000 Sierra Nevada . . Nov. 1888 6,150,000 Jan. 1871 $102,000 Union Con Nov. 1887 2,185,000 Mexican Aug. 1888 2,725,760 Ophir Sept. 1888 4,109,440 July,1882 1,595,800 Con. Cal. & Va.2 Jan. 1885 108,000 Jan. 1889 2,548,800 Best & Belcher . . Oct. 1888 2,054,590 Gould & Curry . . Oct. 1888 5,355,000 Oct. 1870 3,826,800 Savage Oct. 1888 6,436,000 July, 1869 4,460,000 Hale & Norcross July, 1887 5,086,000 Aug. 1888 1,822,000 ChoUar Oct. 1888 1,320,000 Potosi July, 1888 1,849,600 Bullion Aug. 1888 4,007,000 Exchequer Sept. 1888 790,000 Yellow Jacket . . Dec. 1885 5,448,000 Aug. 1871 2,184,000 Kentuck Nov. 1881 342,000 Dec. 1886 1,350,000 Crown Point .... Oct. 1888 2,825,000 Jan. 1875 11,588,000 Belcher Sept. 1888 2,770,000 Apr. 1876 15,397,200 Overman Aug. 1887 3,737,180 The success of the operations on the Comstock Lode. led to a great mining excitement, which manifested itself especially in the active exploration of the whole adjacent region, now included within the State of Nevada, as well as throughout the entire Cordilleran region. The result was tha discovery of a great num ber of localities where auriferous and argentiferous ores 1 In the above table the mines are enumerated, beginning with the north end of the lode and proceeding in order toward the south. 2 Previous to the consolidation, in 1884, the California had paid $31,320,000, and the Consolidated Virginia $24,890,000, in dividends. 326 MINERAL RESOURCES. occur ; and some of these have been extensively wrought and have produced largely. In very few of these locali ties do the ore deposits bear the distinguishing charac ters of true or fissure veins, and they have nearly all lacked the permanency which is a frequent concomitant of that mode of occurrence of the metalliferous ores. Some of these localities have already become apparently entirely exhausted and have been abandoned ; others are still struggling along under difficulties ; while others have not yet reached the point when the workings cease to be profitable. Where valuable deposits of ore have been found they have usually been worked with aston ishing energy, considering the remoteness of the region and the high cost of all supplies and materials ; but this energy has often been accorapanied with a great waste of the resources thus made available. Although it will be impossible to enumerate all the regions where mining has been or is still carried on in the Cordilleras, some of the principal and most produc tive ones may be mentioned, and their most striking features sketched. The district on the borders of California and Nevada called the "Esmeralda," and in which was situated the town of Aurora, was one of the first localities where the precious metals were discovered after the opening of the Comstock Lode. There was a wild excitement here ; a town of eight thousand inhabitants grew up in a few months. Several costly mills were erected, and ore to the amount of several millions of dollars in value extracted. The ore occurred in a volcanic rock in ex tremely irregular bodies, having none of the characters of permanent deposits. When the region was visited GOLD AND SILVER. 327 by the writer, in 1872, the place was found entirely deserted. All the mills had been sold for a mere trifie in comparison with their cost, that which was most valuable having been removed to other mining districts, and the remainder abandoned. The mines of Austin, in the Toyabe Range, in what is now Lander County, Nevada, were also for a short time, soon after the discovery of the Comstock Lode, the scene of much excitement. Most of these mines have been abandoned ; but those of one company are still being worked, and are moderately profitable. Here the mode of occurrence of the ore is in well-defined veins, occurring in granite, carrying rich silver ores, consisting near the surface of chlorides, but below one or two hundred feet of much less manageable com binations. In Lincoln County, at various localities, and espe cially at the Meadow Valley and Raymond and Ely mines, there was at an early date much mining excite ment, and a large but quite fieeting productiveness. The Meadow Valley mine is in Pioche, 273 miles south of Palisade Station on the Central Pacific Railroad. The enclosing rock is quartzite of Lower Silurian age ; the veins varying in width, but averaging from two to two and a half feet, the ore being carbonate of lead near the surface, with chloride of silver, passing into sulphurets, as usual, in going down. At the end of 1873 this mine was 1,100 feet deep, and a large body of ore had been struck, yielding $300 in value of silver per ton. The culminating years of the prosperity of these mines were 1872, 1873, and the yield of the Ely district for those years, respectively, $5,321,007 and $3,735,596, of 328 MINERAL RESOURCES. which much the larger portion was produced by the two mines mentioned. The Eureka district in the central part of Nevada lies partly in the county of Eureka, and partly in that of White Pine, and is of importance on account of the magnitude of its yield, and because the mining and smelting operations there have been carried on uninter ruptedly since 1869, so that a large amount of ground has been laid open, offering great facilities for scientific investigation of the mode of occurrence of the ores. An elaborate monograph of this region was published in 1884, by Mr. J. S. Curtis ; and from that the following brief summary of facts is compiled, with some modifica tions based on personal exaraination by the present writer. The ores of this district are chiefly galena, accompanied by the various oxidized combinations re sulting from its decomposition. Similar ores of zinc are also present, but in much smaller quantity. As is usually the case, the oxidized combinations are chiefly above the water-level. These ores are rich in gold and silver ; their average tenor is, according to Mr. Curtis, 15 per cent lead, 0.079 silver, and 0.00248 gold. The rocks in which they occur are chiefly limestones, and of Lower Silurian age. The ore deposits are very irreg ular in form, having little resemblance to fissure vems, although connected with the existence of fissures, and especially of such fissures as have been widened out into caves. In many of their features they closely resemble the so-called pipe-veins of the North of Eng land lead mines. Much of the ore has become decom posed, and has been subjected, since decomposition, to a rearrangement by water, analogous to stratification. GOLD AND SILVER. 329 The mineralization of the rock is more or less intimately connected with the presence of adjacent large eruptive masses. The total yield of the Eureka district from 1869 to 1883 is stated by Mr. Curtis at about $60,000,- 000 in value of gold and silver, and about 225,000 tons of lead. According to present indications, this district is approaching exhaustion. As Mr. Curtis expresses it, the results of explorations in the lower workings " have not, as yet, given any certain indica tions of the future." The Territory of Utah has important mines which re semble, to a considerable extent, those of the region just described as occurring at Eureka in Nevada. The ores are galena, with all the usual products of its decomposi tion and oxidation, the carbonate being especially abun dant. The deposits, which are very irregular, occur chiefly in limestone, but also to some extent in quartz- ites, chiefly of Paleozoic age, and with these are asso ciated volcanic rocks. Some of the more striking characteristics of the most important mines may be briefly noticed. The Hornsilver mine, at Frisco, in Southern Utah, is a large contact deposit between dolomitic liraestone and an eruptive rock, called rhyo- lite by some, and trachyte by others. It is frora thirty to fifty feet wide. The ores are sulphate of lead with sorae carbonate, associated with heavy spar (a rare gangue mineral in the United States), which occurs chiefly near the wall of eruptive rock. This mine has paid $4,000,000 in dividends, but none since 1884, and from the present low price of the stock would seem to be nearing exhaustion. The Carbonate raine, also near Frisco, is a peculiar one, the ore — according to Mr. D. 330 MINERAL RESOURCES. B. Huntley — occurring in a fissure vein, in so-called trachyte, and consisting of a conglomerate of pebbles of trachyte cemented by talcose clay and argentiferous galena. According to Professor Reyer, the lode is a contact deposit between porphyrite and dolomitic limestone. The Little Cottonwood district, at the head of the canon of that name, high up in the Wahsatch Range, shows a record of about thirty-five hundred "locations" made within an area two and a half railes square, lying at an elevation of over ten thousand feet. In this dis trict is the famous Emma mine, whdre a large body of ore occurred occupying an egg-shaped cavity in the Carboniferous Limestone, which yielded largely until it was nearly worked out, when it was sold at a high price to an English company. This mine is said to have furnished ore to the araount of over two and a half millions of dollars in value. The Flagstaff mine, in the same canon as the Emma, is a " pipe vein," or de posit, occupying several irregular cave-like openings or pipes in the limestone. This mine seems also to have been nearly or quite worked out. One of the largest and most productive mines in the country, and the most important one in Utah, is the Ontario, in the Uintah district. Summit County. The vein seems to be — in the lower levels, at least — a contact mass between walls of quartzite and highly decomposed eruptive rock (called porphyry), and it varies in width from a few inches to fifteen feet. It was discovered in 1872, and has been worked by a corapany with $15,000,000 capi tal since 1877, and has paid, up to January, 1889, $9,725,000 in dividends. The Silver Reef district, in GOLD AND SILVER. 331 Washington County, is a region of remarkable interest, where sandstones of Triassic age have been broken through and invaded by eruptive masses (andesites and trachytes), and where the ore, according to Professor Reyer, occurs in flat masses and impregnations between the strata adjacent to the eruptive rock, and is espe cially largely developed in contact with the remains of plants with which the rock is filled. The ores are car bonate of copper with chloride of silver, passing into the sulphuret at depths. According to the sarae au thority, these mines produced a few years ago over a million of dollars a year ; but they have much fallen off of late. The Census Report of 1880 gives the total product of the district, up to June 1, 1880, at a little over three and a quarter millions of dollars. The State of Colorado is an important one, from the point of view of the magnitude and the variety of its metalliferous deposits. The following clear and con densed statement of facts bearing on these points is taken from that portion of the Report of the Census of 1880 which relates to the precious metals (published in 1885) and is from the pen of Mr. S. F. Emmons : " The ores of Colorado present an almost infinite variety of mineralogical composition, so that it is difficult to formulate any general laws with regard to their distribution or manner of occurrence. Of the actual precious-metal production of the State, by far the largest portion is derived from pyrites and galena and their decomposition products. The telluride ores of Boulder County and the auriferous pyrites of Gilpin County, with a few individual deposits in the southern portion of the State, constitute the source from which it is derived. With these exceptions, its mineral deposits may be considered as 332 MINERAL RESOURCES. essentially silver-bearing. The principal source of silver is argentiferous galena and its decomposition products ; while argentiferous gray copper, or Freibergite, is, next to this, the most important silver-bearing mineral. The sulphides of sil ver also occur, and in some cases bismuth is found in sufficient quantity to constitute an ore. As yet, so far as known, no copper is extracted from the ores of the State, except as an adjunct in the reduction of silver-bearing copper ores. Placer deposits are generally confined to the valley bottoms among high mountain ridges ; and while they are locally of consider able value and importance, and were the original attraction which brought the mining community to the State, their pres ent yield forms a very inconsiderable portion of its precious- metal production. Prior to the discovery of the silver ores of Leadville, mining in this State was principally confined to approximately vertical veins, either in the Archaean rocks of the Front Range or the eruptive rocks of the San Juan re gion ; but since the limestone deposits of tlie Mosquito Range have proved so exceptionally rich, the attention of prospectors has been more and more turned to the ores which occur in sedimentary rocks, and many new districts have been discov ered, but none to rival that of Leadville." The ore deposits of Leadville, in Lake County, are second in importance only to those of the Comstock Lode, and they surpass them in the rapidity of their development, since they produced nearly $96,000,000 in value of gold, silver, and lead, during the first eight years of their exploitation. The city of Leadville is situated at the base of the Mosquito Range, which forms a portion of the western boundary of South Park. Its population, in 1877, was estimated at two hundred, but in two years it had increased to fifteen thousand. In 1880 there were in and about the town fourteen smelt ing works, with an aggregate of thirty-seven shaft fur- GOLD AND SILVER. 333 naces, of which twenty-four were in operation, while the number of its productive mines was about thirty. The principal ore-deposits of Leadville occur in a limestone formation of Lower Carboniferous age, lo cally known as the " Blue Limestone," and at or near its contact with overlying masses of an eruptive rock, which has been called " felsite " by some writers, but which Mr. Emmons designates as " porphyry." It is an aggregate of plagioclase, orthoclase, and quartz, form ing a rock of very uniform grain.^ The ores consist chiefly of carbonate of lead, chloride of silver, and argentiferous galena, in a gangue of quartz, together with the oxides of iron and manganese, and some heavy-spar intermingled with clay. These ores occur chiefly as contact-deposits (sheets, or " blan kets," as they are frequently designated in the Cordil leran region) between the limestone and the porphyry ; but they also occur in variously shaped cavities (pock ets) ih the former rock, which, according to Mr. C. M. Rolker, are " more or less directly connected with the plane of contact by irregular and often minute conduits [pipes] which a careful search reveals." These ores are mainly of secondary origin, and have been formed by the action of surface waters on the metallic sulphurets, which were originally deposited from aqueous solutions, and brought in from above. The following table gives, as nearly as it could be estimated by Mr. Emmons, the yield of the Leadville mines from 1877 to 1884 : — 1 See the report, by Mr. S. F. Emmons, on the Geology and Mining In dustry of Leadville, Washington, 1886, one of the publications of the United States Geological Survey. From this elaborate work most of the facts here stated in regard to the mines of Leadville have been taken. 334 MINERAL RESOURCES. Gold. Silver. Lead. Total value. Reduced at Leadville Shipped out of the district . . . Ounces. 77,197 25,825 103,022 Ounces. 42,089,722 9,012,644 Tons. 18,200 9,184 174,358,395 21,506,343 Total 51,102,366 27,384 $95,864,738 Accurate statistics of the Leadville mines for later years do not seem to be forthcoming. While the total value of the metallic produce of Colorado for the year 1887 is estimated by the ofiicials of the Denver Mint at |27,335,912 in value. Lake County is credited with nearly half this amount, or $13,370,655.-^ It appears to be a fact that, in general, throughout Colorado the average value of the ores treated is diminishing ; but that the amounts now handled are much larger than they were a few years ago, and that these lower grade ores can be mined and smelted with profit, owing to improvements which have been made in the machinery and methods of both mining and smelting. From the mode of occurrence of the Leadville ore deposits it would appear probable that, with the energy and rapidity with which they are now being worked, they will within a few years become practically ex hausted. The area over which the Blue Limestone has been found in places productive is, however, very large, covering — according to Mr. Emmons — no less than 225,000,000 square feet. What portion of .this ground is likely to pay for mining does not appear as yet to be known ; so that no statement, even approximative, can be given of the length of time which will elapse before these deposits are exhausted of their contents. 1 Report of the Director of the Mint on the Production of the Precious Metals in the United States, during the Calendar Year 1887, p. 190. GOLD AND SILVER. 335 Montana holds a high place among the metalliferous States of the Cordilleras. The Census Report for 1880 (published in 1885) estimates the yield of the placers to have been up to that time fully $50,000,000. These deposits seem now to have been pretty much worked out, since it does not appear that there is anything there corresponding to the great Tertiary auriferous deposits of California. The workings from which the metalliferous ores of Montana are now chiefly obtained appear to be of the class of segregated veins, occurring in the crystalline rocks ; which deposits may often be large and for a time highly productive, but which ex perience shows, in much the larger number of cases, to be not so reliable in depth as are true fissure veins. The ores of Montana consist largely of auriferous py rites in a gangue of quartz, oxidized in their upper por tions and there being easily manipulated ; but, in depth, passing into the more refractory sulphurets. Unlike the ores described as occurring on so large a scale in Colorado and Utah, they are accompanied by copper rather than by lead, and they are also rather manganif- erous than ferriferous. Much yet remains to be done before the nature and value of the metalliferous occur rences in Montana will have become fully understood ; and the same may be said of Idaho, a State in which the production of the precious metals is already of con siderable importance, although by no means rivalling that of the adjacent State of Montana. The aurifer ous gravels of Idaho reserable those of the last-named State, and have been next to those of California and Montana in importance. Their total yield to the pres ent time is estimated in the Census Report of 1880 336 MINERAL RESOURCES. (published in 1885) at $30,000,000. The deep gravels of Boise Basin seem to be of an exceptional character, and to resemble in their mode of occurrence, and proba bly in their geological age, the deep or high gravels of California. A very large portion of the mines, other than placer, of Idaho, appear to be of the fissure class, and to be enclosed in a country-rock of granite, resera bling in many respects the veins of the vicinity of Austin in Nevada. Arizona, which stands about on a par with Idaho in reference to the production of the precious metals, and is next in importance to Michigan and Montana as a producer of copper, is also a State in which the mode of occurrence of the metalliferous ores is complicated and varied, and in regard to which but little is definitely known. The slow and irregular development of the mining resources of this State would indicate that the metalliferous deposits are of a rather uncertain charac ter. They appear to be largely of the nature of contact masses, dependent on the presence of some ancient or modern eruptive rock for their existence. The famous Tombstone district, in Pima County, has been a produc tive one, but seems at present to be on the wane. The mode of occurrence of the ores in that district is an interesting one, and is said to resemble that of the Chanarcillo district in Chili. The Tombstone Mining Company, which has paid over a million of dollars ia dividends, has not declared one since 1882. On the whole, as may easily be inferred from what has here been stated, the metalliferous deposits of the Cordilleran States and Territories are extremely numer ous, and many of them complicated in character, and GOLD AND SILVER. 337 the region, taken as a whole, is one of high importance. So far as the production of the precious metals is con cerned, it would appear that the maximum has been reached, since no new district of great productiveness has been discovered in recent years — a fact of much sig nificance in a region the development of whose mineral resources has been conducted with such extraordinary energy. It is now fully thirty years since the impor tance of the Comstock Lode became known, and during those years the history of Cordilleran mining has been one of extreme interest and of startling surprises. Twelve or thirteen years have passed since the last of these surprises — the discovery of the importance of the Leadville district — and where or when, if ever, another one of similar importance and interest wUl occur, cannot be guessed. The following tables will supplement that which has here been said in regard to the interesting subject of the gold and silver mining interests of the Cordilleran region. The first table, frora the Report for 1887 of the Director of the United States Mint, will show the rela tive importance of the different States and Territories, in relation to their production of the precious metals. The figures are for the year 1887. The second table exhibits the total amount of gold and silver produced in the United States for the years 1880-87. The va rious estimates differ somewhat, since there can be no such supervision of the mines and smelting-works as would be necessary in order to insure absolute accuracy. All that can be said of the figures here given is, that they are a fair approximation to the amount obtained. The present great difference between the coining value 22 338 MINERAL RESOURCES. of silver as issued by the United States Mint, and the actual market value makes it necessary that it should be stated which of these is adopted as the standard. This cannot always be done ; and this fact of course gives some uncertainty to statements of the value of the production of silver in later years : ^ — Gold and Silver Production op the Different States for THE Year 1887. state or Territory, Gold. Silver. (Coining value.) Total. Alaska Arizona California Colorado Dakota Georgia Idaho Michigan Montana Nevada New Mexico North Carolina Oregon South Carolina Utah Washington Other States and Territories . Total. »75,000 830,000 13,400,000 4,000,000 2,400,000 110,000 1,900,000 26,000 5,230,000 2,500,000 500,000 225,000900,000 50,000 220,000150,000 20,000 133,136,000 3,800,000 1,500,000 15,000,000 540,000 500 3,000,000 85,000 15,500,000 4,900,000 2,300,000 5,000 10,000 500 7,000,000 100,000 250,500 153,941,800 1675,300 4,630,000 14,900,000 19,000,000 2,940,000 110,500 4,900,000 61,000 20,730,000 7,400,000 2,800,000 230,000910,000 50,500 7,220,000 250,000 270,500 $87,077,800 1 The depreciation in value of silver as compared with gold began to be a matter of importance financially and commercially about the beginning of the decade 1871-80. In 1871 the ratio of value of gold to silver was 15.58 ; at the end of that decade it was 18.06. During the pentad 1881-85 there was a still further depreciation of silver to 19.39. The relative value of the two metals had remained very nearly stationary, at about 15^, from the beginning of the present century up to the year 1871. The highest price of silver in London during any of the decades 1801-71 was 61| pence per ounce; the lowest, 591J-. During the pentad 1876-80, the price of silver averaged 52{^ pence per ounce ; during the pentad 1881-85, 50|. In 1887 the average price was 44^^ pence per ounce ; at the beginning of the pres ent year (1889) it was about 42^. QUICKSILVER. 339 Production op Gold and Silver in the United States for the Years 1880-1887. Gold. Silver. Coining Value. Commercial Value. 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 136,000,000 34,700,000 32,500,000 30,000,000 30,800,000 31,800,00035,000,000 33,000,000 139,200,000 43,000,000 46,800,00046,200,000 48,800,000 51,600,000 51,000,000 53,357,000 142,000,000 42,504,447 39,445,312 40,450,000 The annexed table still farther illustrates this branch of the subject by showing the consumption of the pre cious metals in the United States in the industrial arts, as reported by the Mint, for the years 1880, 1881, 1883, and 1885 : — Gold. Silver. 1880 $8,634,193 $3,464,169 1881 10,086,723 3,388,421 1883 14,469,464 5,556,530 1885 11,152,120 4,598,413 VII. — QUICKSILVER. Nearly all the quicksilver produced in the United States comes from California, although small quantities of the ores of this metal have been obtained at various points in Colorado, and also in New Mexico. A little quicksilver has also been produced in Oregon.^ The Californian mines are all in the Coast Ranges, in rocks of Cretaceous age. Small veins of quartz containing a little cinnabar have been found in the Sierra Nevada ; * The production of Oregon, in 1887, was sixty-five flasks. 340 MINERAL RESOURCES. but this ore is not known to exist anywhere in that range in workable quantity. The mercurial ores of the Coast Ranges occur in very irregular deposits, in the form of strings and bunches, disseminated through a highly metamorphosed, silicious rock. The first local ity where this metal was successfully mined was New Almaden, about a hundred miles south of San Fran cisco. Another locality — New Idria — about a hundred miles still farther south, has also been somewhat pro ductive, but not nearly as much so as that of New Almaden. Quicksilver ores have also been mined more or less extensively at several points north of ,San Fran cisco in the neighborhood of Clear Lake, where they occur not only in metamorphic Cretaceous strata resem bling those of New Almaden, but also in recent volcanic rocks. In one or more localities of this last-mentioned character, gold has been found in intimate association with the cinnabar. The New Almaden mine has been productive since 1850, but the yield of quicksilver has varied greatly from year to year, partly on account of the irregularity of the mode of occurrence, and partly on account of interference on the part of the United States, this hostile action having been based on a ques tion of title to the property. The most productive year was that of 1876, when the number of fiasks (of 76|- pounds) obtained was 47,194. The following is the production of the later years, in flasks : — 1880 23,465 1881 26,060 1882 28,070 1883 29,000 1884 20,000 QUICKSILVER. 341 1885 21,400 1886 18,000 1887 20,000 The total produce of the Californian mines, during the years 1880-87^ has been as follows : — 1880 59,926 1881 . 60,851 1882 52,732 1883 46,725 1884 31,913 1885 32,073 1886 29,981 1887 33,825 No new discoveries of localities of importance have been made during the past few years, and the mines which are now worked in California have been of late years in a rather depressed condition, owing to the low price of the metal, the increased expense of production consequent on the greater depth of the workings, and the growing scarcity of the ore. No quicksilver mine earned or paid any dividend in 1885; but since that time there has been a rise in the price of the metal, and a somewhat increased activity in its exploitation. Two mines paid dividends in 1886 : the New Almaden, $118,010.75, and the ^tna, $20,000 ; the former also paid, in 1888, $282,663. A considerable proportion of the quicksilver mined in California is used in that and the adjacent Cordilleran States, a part goes to Mexico, and there is a small and varying export to China. The low price of silver has materially affected the profits of exports to foreign countries. According to Mr. J. B. Randol, who for: some years has been the chief authority 342 MINERAL RESOURCES. in regard to the quicksilver-mining business in the United States, the average production of this metal from the ore at New Almaden is small, having been, in 1886, only L69 per cent ; and it is only by great and important improvements made in the reduction-works, since 1874, that such poor ores could be handled with profit. In regard to the production of quicksilver for the year 1888, Mr. Randol remarks, that he is of the opinion that the American mines cannot increase their production, even with the stimulus of an increased price, and that for the year 1.888 he looks for a falling off in their production.^ VIIL — TIN. The ore of tin has been discovered in several lo calities in the United States, and there have been many atterapts raade to open mines in various parts of the country ; but up to the present time the amount of this metal produced has been entirely insignificant. Among the localities in the Appalachian region where mining for tin has been attempted are : Winslow, Maine ; Jackson, New Hampshire ; one on the north western slope of the Blue Ridge, in Rockbridge County, Virginia ; and one near Ashland, in Clay County, Ala bama. The veins in the first two localities mentioned are unquestionably too small for successful working. In regard to the other places, it does not yet seem to be known whether the conditions there existing are sufficiently favorable to warrant the expectation that 1 Engineering and Mining Journal, Feb. 11, 1888. TIN. 343 they will become profitable. The fact that there are no apparent indications — judging from the descriptions which have been published — of superficial deposits which could be successfully streamed for tiri seems a strong reason for believing that in no one of these lo calities could there be a successful competition carried on with the stanniferous districts of the East Indies and of Australia, where the detrital ores of tin exist in the greatest abundance. Of course tin mining could be made profitable in this country if a sufiiciently high duty were laid upon this metal. The stanniferous region from which the most has been expected is the Black Hills of Dakota, at a local ity about twenty miles southwest of Rapid City. The occurrence of the tin ore and the associated minerals, as described by Mr. G. E. Bailey, at the mine to which the name of Etta has been given, is very sirailar to that of the ores of this metal in the Erzgebirge. The cas- siterite is disseminated through a granitic or granitoid rock in irr.egular bunches, strings, and even masses, associated with the usual minerals which accompany tin. According to the official Report of Mr. A. Wil liams, Jr., on the Mineral Resources of the United States, for the years 1883-84, a large amount of money has been expended in opening and prospecting the Etta mine, and in erecting mills and reduction-works. It is not known to the present writer, however, that up to this time (January, 1889) there has been any produc tion of tin of comraercial iraportance in Dakota, or that regular shipraents of this metal from that region have been begun. Tin ore has also been found in the south ern part of the State of California, and several attempts 344 MINERAL RESOURCES. have been made to put the mines upon the market. The observations of the present writer in this region, in 1860, did not lead him to the conclusion that it was likely ever to become of importance for its production of this metal. IX, — COPPEE. The present sources of supply for copper in the United States are chiefly the Lake Superior region and the Territories of Montana and Arizona. The produce of the other States is comparatively insignificant. The mines of Lake Superior, of the date of the open ing of which mention has already been made, are of a peculiar character. They are the only mines in the world of importance in which the metal is exclusively obtained in the native state. The mode of occurrence of the copper in the Lake Superior region varies, how ever, considerably, in different portions of the mining district, which extends from Point Keweenaw along the southern shore of the lake to a little beyond the Onton agon River. The most productive mines at the present time are those in the vicinity of Portage Lake, about half-way between the eastern and western extremities of the cupriferous range. The rock in which the copper occurs is an old basalt, much metamorphosed from its original condition, and in the form now generally called melaphyre by lithologists. This cupriferous belt of rock, commonly known in the region as the " trap range," is a volcanic material, interbedded in numerous alternating layers with sandstone and conglomerate, equivalent geologically to the Potsdam Sandstone of the COPPER. 345 New York Survey, or the Primordial of Barrande. The metal occurs along nearly the whole extent of Kewee naw Point in veins crossing the formation, and having all the characters of true fissure veins, the gangue being a mixture of quartz and calcite with various zeolitic minerals. The most extensively wrought mine of this character was the so-called "Cliff mine," which was worked frora 1845 to 1872 to a depth of nearly fifteen hundred feet. This mine is of historical importance in the development of the mining industry of the country, as being the first permanent deep mine worked, and as being the first mine of any ore, other than that of iron, to pay regular dividends. The Minnesota mine, near the Ontonagon River, was another one of interest, and, like most of those to the west of Keweenaw Point, of a somewhat different character from that of the Cliff mine, since the cupriferous lode ran parallel with the formation instead of across it. These longitudinal occurrences are, apparently, intermediate in character between contact-deposits and segregated veins. Copper in large masses has been found in various mines on Lake Superior, but in none of such great dimensions as at the Minnesota. The largest mass here discovered weighed about five hundred tons. Its length was 46 feet, its breadth 18 J, and its maximura thickness 8|-. It took twenty men fifteen months to isolate it from the country-rock ; and the chips made in cutting it up weighed 27 tons. While a considerable amount of copper has been obtained on Lake Superior in the form of large masses, and of smaller ones, too small to be shipped separately, and hence put in barrels and called " barrel- work," much the larger portion occurs in sraall 346 MINERAL RESOURCES. grains, scales, and strings, disseminated through the rock, which has to be stamped and washed to liberate the metallic particles. For crushing rock of this char acter a new form of stamp "was invented, on the prin ciple of the Nasmyth hammer. This is known as the Ball stamp, from the name of its inventor, William Ball, of Chicopee, Massachusetts ; and, as perfected by E. D. Leavitt, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, one head is capable of crushing from 220 to 250 tons of rock in the twenty-four hours. The most interesting mine on Lake Superior, and, indeed, the largest and most important one — not an open-work — in the world, is that of the Calumet and Hecla Company. The mode of occurrence of the cop per, which is all in the metallic form, and, like that of the other Lake Superior mines, almost cheraically pure, and hence of very superior quality, is peculiar. The cupriferous raass is a bed of eruptive material, inter stratified with other masses of similar origin, but which itself is a conglomerate made up chiefly of more or less rounded pebbles of eruptive rock — rhyolite, trachyte, and basalt — cemented together by native copper. The Calumet and Hecla mines, which form one connected work, have been opened over a length of fully one and three fourths miles, and to a depth, on the inclination of the metalliferous bed, which averages nearly 39°, of thirty-three hundred feet. The number of men em ployed in all departments of the Calumet and Hecla mine and concentrating works is about twenty-eight hundred. The average production of metallic copper for the years 1886-88 was 21,669 tons, and the total amount produced since the mine was opened, in 1866, is COPPER. 347 244,563 tons. The average yield of the metalliferous rock is about 4J per cent of copper, and twenty-two hundred tons of rock are handled in the twenty-four hours. The total araount paid in dividends by the Company, up to January, 1889, is $31,350,000. The Lake Superior region soon after it was first opened, in 1845, began to produce largely, and for many years it supplied from seven to nine tenths of the copper furnished by the United States. The yield of the Lake Superior mines for the years 1882-88 will be found farther on. The development of the Calumet and Hecla mine will be made apparent in the following statement of its production for various years from 1867 to 1888: — Ions. 1867 603 1870 6,277 1875 9,586 1880 14,140 1885 21,093 1886 22,552 1887 20,643 1888 22,491 Montana is next in importance to the Lake Superior district as a copper-producing region. The mines are chiefly in the vicinity of Butte City. From an article by E. D. Peters, Jr., published in Mr. Williams's Re port on the Mineral Resources of the United States for 1883 and 1884, supplemented by another article by C. Kirchhoff, Jr., in the volume of the sarae work for the year 1885, the following brief sketch of this most inter esting district is compiled. The really iraportant min ing operations of Montana seem to be pretty closely 348 MINERAL RESOURCES. limited to an area only two and a half miles long by one mile wide. Within this area are three important silver mines, as well as the copper mines which make the district so famous. There are two great classes of mineral occurrences : . cupriferous veins, carrying more or less silver ; and silver veins, with a manganese gangue, which carry little or no copper. These two groups of veins have certain features in common : they all occur in granite ; are all accompanied by zones of decomposed country-rock, which run parallel with and usually form the walls of all the large, copper veins which have been opened to any great depths, and which are called porphyry dikes by the miners, but which, according to Mr. Peters, are really granite altered by the chemical changes which have accompanied the for mation of the lode. They all pitch vertically, or nearly so, and lack entirely the well-defined walls and the selvages which are characteristic of fissure veins, which Mr. Peters, nevertheless, considers them to be. The cupriferous veins appear on the surface as wide bands of quartzose rock, much decomposed and stained with gossan. The surface ore always carries silver, is almost entirely in a free-milling condition, and gener ally in paying quantity. Nearly all the lodes at pres ent worked for copper were at first worked for silver ; and this condition continued until the water-line was reached, when the " base ores " • set in — " without warning," as Mr. Peters expresses it. These ores are mainly the ordinary sulphuretted combinations of cop per and of copper and iron, especially copper glance or vitreous copper, and erubescite or variegated, peacock, and horseflesh, ore. These veins are of great size, being COPPER. 349 often thirty feet wide for several hundred feet in length. The average width of pay-ore in the copper veins is stated by Mr. Peters as being not less than seven feet : the Anaconda — the widest of any yet opened — aver ages over twelve feet of profitable ore, and in many places widens to thirty or forty feet for a great distance, , showing no dirainution in richness at the depth of eight hundred feet. In a part of these veins — as, for in stance, the Anaconda and Liquidation — the ore is copper glance in a gangue of quartz and decoraposed feldspathic rock ; while another type of veins, repre sented most perfectly by the Parrot vein, has nearly its entire metallic contents in the form of erubescite. 'This last-mentioned vein is also of great iraportance for its silver, carrying on the average two thirds of a per cent of that metal for each per cent of copper, and having also above the water-line a fine body of free-milling . silver ore. The veins of the second division mentioned above — the manganese-silver group — lie all within a small area, but are of much interest and value. The gangue is quartz, heavily charged with its various oxidized combinations of manganese, all more or less argentifer ous, the amount of silver ranging from three or four to several hundred ounces of that metal per ton. In these manganese veins the transition from decomposed oxi dized combinations to the hard silicate and carbonate of that metal at the water-line is as sudden and striking as that from oxidized to sulphuretted ores in the class of veins first noticed. An exceptional occurrence in this district is that of the Gagnon mine, of which the gangue is chiefly quartz, and the ore argentiferous zinc blende. 350 iUNERAL RESOURCES. The yield of the Montana mines in copper for the years 1882 to 1888 will be found farther on in the table giving the production of this metal for various copper- producing regions of the country. Although there has, of late years, been a falling off in the production of copper in Arizona, so that at pres ent this Territory is overshadowed by Lake Superior and Montana, it appears that this is due to its unfavor able situation with reference to a market, rather than to any exhaustion of its cupriferous deposits, which are numerous and important. Their geology and metal lurgy has been the object of an elaborate report by Mr. A. F. Wendt, from which the following much con densed stateraent in regard to these occurrences has been compiled.^ The Santa Rita mines, in New Mexico near the Ari zona line, were the first to be worked in that region, but are at present idle. The original workings were for metallic copper, occurring near the contact of a bed of limestone with an eruptive rock resembling felsite, the whole deposit being one of irregular character, " presenting the appearance of a stockwork." Near the junction of the felsite and the limestone there is a series of parallel veins, in which the copper occurs in the form of carbonates and oxides. The Clifton district has been the scene of continuous mining operations since 1872, and is at present the largest producer of copper in the Southwest. The cupriferous deposits of this district are divided by Mr. Wendt into three classes : those occurring in limestone, 1 Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, vol. xv. pp. 26-52. COPPER. 351 those associated with porphyry, and those in the gran ite. The ores of the first class are the red oxide in a gangue of compact hematite, and the carbonates in a gangue of brown manganese ore. The ores of the second and third classes are oxides and oxysulphides, changing into copper glance at a trifling depth, and into yellow sulphurets in the deepest workings. The depos its of ore are irregular, in some respects resembling contact-deposits, and in others the metalliferous occur rences in the North of England lead mines. They are called by many mining geologists " pockets ; " but Mr. Wendt considers them true veins. The most produc tive mine of the district — the Longfellow — is de scribed by him as being " an almost vertical fissure in stratified liraestone, at or near its junction with a dike of felsite." The section given by Mr. Wendt indicates that it is a contact-deposit, with connected flat sheets running into the limestone, and also forraing highly inclined masses parallel with the main contact-mass. The Globe district, in Maricopa County, has been since 1882 a large producer of copper, although not steadily worked, chiefly on account of lack of transpor tation facilities. The ore-body of the Globe claim is of large dimensions, but not very rich in metallic contents. It resembles in general character the deposits in the Clifton district, occurring in limestone of Carboniferous age, near its junction with an eruptive rock. Accord ing to Mr. Kirchhoff, the Old Dominion mine, at Globe, which had been idle during the last half of 1887, resuraed work in January, 1888, and was then turning out copper at the rate of about two hundred tons per month. 352 MINERAL RESOURCES. There are many localities in the Atlantic States, from Maine to North Carolina, where mining for copper has been attempted, but in few of these has anything like a permanent paying mine been developed. The Ver mont Copper Corapany, located at Vernon, has made perhaps the nearest approach to a success of any cop per-mining company on the eastern side of the Appa lachians, since operations were carried on here for many years uninterruptedly and with moderate profit. This mine was abandoned for a time, but work has lately been resumed. The present high price of this metal has been a great stimulus to mining, and within the past few months many localities which had been abandoned have been taken hold of again by capitalists. This is true for both Eastern and Cordilleran States. The effect of this excitement will be seen in the annexed table, arranged and condensed from the vari ous official reports on the Mineral Resources of the United States. It affords a comprehensive view of the progress of the copper-mining business in this country during the years 1882 to 1888 : the amounts are given in tons : — states or Distriota. 1888. 1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887. 1888. Lake Superior 25,433 4,043 8,0292,957 26,653 10,65811,010 3,263 30,96119,238 11,935 2,574 32,20930,267 10,137 1,438 35,69325,n9 6,9891,340 33,693 35,134 7,910 4,031 38,768 43,973 14,821 Otlier States and Ter- 6,553 Total Domestic Cop- 40,46T 446 51,574 726 64,708 1,276 74,051 2,271 69,809 2,000 80,768 1,674 103,126 From Imported Ores 2,232 Total 40,913 62,300 66,984 76,322 71,809 82,442 106,357 ZINC. 353 The total production of copper throughout the world for the year 1888 has been estimated at 255,000 tons. Of this amount a little over two fifths is to be credited to the United States.^ X. — ZINC. Zinc has become within the past few years an im portant article of production in the United States. The ores of this metal are found in very numerous lo calities, usually in connection with those of lead, both in the Appalachian range and throughout the com paratively undisturbed Palaeozoic region of the Missis sippi Valley. The business of making metallic zinc had not become of any importance previous to 1875. Since that time it has increased at a moderate and pretty uniform rate. The zinc furnaces of Illinois are at Peru, La Salle, and CoUinsville ; those of Missouri mostly at Caron deiet, near St. Louis, but there is one at Rich Hill and one at Joplin, and one at Nevada. Those of Kansas are at Pittsburg, Scammonville, and Girard. There is also a small establishment at White River in Arkansas. There are also zinc works at Bergen Point, New Jersey ; at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania ; also one small establish ment in Tennessee, and another at Pulaski, Virginia. The latest and most reliable statistics of zinc are those given by Mr. C. Kirchhoff, Jr., in the "Mineral Re sources of the United States for 1887," as follows, in tons : — 1 This is the estimate given in the Engineering and Mining Journal of Jan. 12, 1889, from which the figures, given in the table on the preceding page for the year 1888, are taken. 23 354 MINERAL RESOURCES. State. 1888. 1883. 1884. 188S. 1S86. 1887. lUinolB 16,250 14,992 15,709 17,346 18,818 19,892 Kansaa 6,576 8,044 7,017 7,591 7,975 10,674 Missouri 2,232 6,118 4,669 4,178 6,241 7,732 Eastern and Soutliern States 5,087 4,768 7,019 7,216 6,037 6,648 Total 30,146 32,922 34,414 36,528 88,071 44,946 The production of zinc in the United States for the year 1888 is estimated at 50,800 tons, a moderate increase over the preceding year. This country fur nishes, therefore, at the present time, a little over one sixth of the total production of the world, which has increased since the beginning of the present decade from about 225,000 to very nearly 300,000 tons.^ XI. — LEAD. The production of lead in the United States was for many years limited to two districts near the Mississippi River — one, the so-called " Upper Mines," covering an area of three to four thousand square miles included within the States of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois ; the other, the "Lower Mines," in Southeastern Missouri; and of the early operations in these regions, dating back for more than a hundred years, mention has already been made. The yield of the Upper Mines reached its culminating point about 1845 ; and in 1852 it had fallen off to about fifteen thousand tons. The yield of the Missouri Mines also fell off, so far as the Southeast ern district was concerned, but this loss was more than 1 See Engineering and Mining Journal, Jan. 12, 1889. LEAD. 355 compensated by discoveries of lead ore in Southwestern Missouri, and, later, in the adjacent State of Kansas. The production of all these districts (the lead of which contains but a trace of silver) amounted, in 1880, to about twenty-five thousand tons a year. From this time on it has declined somewhat, but was greater in 1887 than it had been before since 1882.^ The mode of occurrence of the galena in both the Upper and Lower Mines of the Mississippi Valley is extremely simple. In the Upper Mines the geological age of the group of strata in which this ore is found is Lower Silurian. In these mines the principal lead- bearing rock is a crystalline dolomite, from 250 to 275 feet in thickness where not partially removed by ero sion. The upper portion of this formation is some what argillaceous ; the middle, a very pure heavy-bedded dolomite ; the lower, a similar rock, but containing numerous cherty or fiinty masses. This group of strata is locally known as the Upper Magnesian Limestone. It is separated from a rock of very similar lithological character, called the Lower Magnesian Limestone, by three groups of strata, which are commonly designated as the Blue Liraestone, the Buff Limestone, and the St. Peter's Sandstone. The first of these is a thin-bedded, highly fossiliferous, purely calcareous rock ; the second, a heavy-bedded argillaceous dolomite ; the third, a nearly chemically pure quartzose sandstone. The Blue Limestone is from fifty to seventy .feet in thickness ; the Buff, fifteen to twenty ; and the Sandstone, from eighty to a hundred. The Blue and the Buff limestones 1 See, farther on in the table of the production of lead, under the head of " Non-argentiferous." 356 MINERAL RESOURCES. are of about the sarae geological age as the Trenton and Black River groups of the New York Geological Survey. ' In the Upper Magnesian, or galeniferous dolomite, the ore occurs in so-called " crevices," or fissures, which belong to the category of "gash-veins," since they do not extend downward or upward from the formation which they especially characterize. These crevices frequently widen out and form so-called " open ings," the result of the disintegration of the rock on both sides of the original fissure ; and these openings, which sometimes assume such dimensions that they may with propriety be designated as " caves," are more or less completely filled with clay and ore, the latter occasionally forming bunches of crystals on the sides of the cavity, but being more frequently mingled with the clay, which is the insoluble residuum left behind by the decomposition of the calcareo-magnesian rock form ing the walls of the fissures, to which may frequently have been added raaterial of sirailar origin washed in from above. In the lower portion of the galeniferous dolomite the ore occurs not infrequently in the form of flat sheets ; and the tendency to this mode of occurrence is still more strongly manifested in the Blue Limestone, which over a limited part of the district is also a metal liferous formation, but only in its upper portion. It is in connection with these flat deposits of galena, with which is associated much pyrites, that the ores of zinc occur, which in later years have become of considerable importance, after having been for a long time almost entirely neglected. The yield of the Upper Mines is gradually diminish- LEAD. 357 ing ; and this will continue to be the case, since the extent of the lead-bearing rock is limited, and the verti cal range of the crevices confined to a moderate thick ness, there being no probability that paying mines will be discovered in the Lower Magnesian Limestone. The lead ores of Missouri occur, and almost always in association with those of zinc, in three somewhat distinct districts : in the southeastern portion of the State, where also nickel and cobalt ores are found ; in the central ; and in the southwestern. The mines of the Southeastern district are in the Lower Silurian. They have been worked for a great length of time, and one — Mine la Motte — is among the best-known min ing localities in the ' country, although at present of little importance. The mode of occurrence of the ore is, in general, similar to that prevailing in the Upper Mines, but the flat-sheet form predominates, and these deposits sometimes extend continuously over several acres. The mines of this district were, in 1886, credi ted by local authorities with about two thirds of the entire produce of the State. The Central district is of less importance. An interesting feature of this district, however, is the occurrence of barytes (heavy-spar) in connection with the galena, this being a rather un common veinstone in the United States. The geological age of the formation in which the lead and zinc deposits of Southwestern Missouri occur is the Lower Carbonif erous. The principal miues are in Newton and Jasper Counties, at or near Granby, Joplin, and Oronogo. The mode of occurrence of the ore is, on the whole, similar to that prevailing in the other lead and zinc mining districts of the Mississippi Valley. A peculiarity of the 358 MINERAL RESOURCES. Joplin district is, however, the existence of so-called " runs " — a name here given by the miners to deposits of very considerable length, but quite limited in breadth and thickness, having the form — as Dr. Schmidt de scribes it ^ — of long, thin, flat cylindrical masses, which sometimes extend for two or three hundred feet, with a breadth and thickness of not more than six or eight feet. Besides these "runs," there are flat sheets and breccias of hornstone, the interstices of which are filled with ore, dolomitization and silicification of the lime stone having been in this region a concomitant of the deposition of the ore. The numerous lead mines opened and worked in various States situated in the Appalachian region, from Maine to North Carolina, have nearly all proved unsuc cessful ventures. A few have for a short time produced a moderate supply of this metal ; one or two have been quite permanent, although yielding but a very small amount of lead ; while rauch the larger number have proved entire failures. While the Mississippi Valley lead mines have fur nished, of late years, but a small proportion of the world's supply of this metal, the United States has largely increased its product ; so that, from 1880 on, this country has furnished a quarter or more of the entire amount of lead smelted in the world. This greatly increased production is due, chiefly, to the dis covery and successful working of various lead ores con taining silver in sufficient quantity to pay for separation, in several of the Cordilleran States and Territories. 1 Dr. Adolf Schmidt, Die Blei- und Zink- Erz- Lagerstatten von Siidwest- Missouri. Heidelberg, 1876. LEAD. 359 The mode of occurrence of these argentiferous lead ores has been already indicated under the head of " Silver." The total yield of metallic lead throughout the United States for the years 1873-87 is given (in tons) in the following table, prepared by Mr. Kirchhoff.' The desilverized lead of the Cordilleran States is sepa rated from the non-argentiferous of the Mississippi Valley, and its percentage of the total stated. The table as here presented extends back to the time when the argentiferous lead ores of the country began to be of importance : — DesilTerlzed Lead. Non-Argen tiferous Lead. Amount. Per Cent of Total. 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 17,999 31,168 33,615 45,310 57,401 57,723 62,620 77,067 92,745 109,068 107,112 95,926 102,526121,028 47.7 58.558.8 62.070.6 69.7 71.7 73.778.3 84.8 86.4 83.0 85.0 84.3 19,983 22,08223,59027,815 23,902 25,11624,724 27,47325,907 19,465 17,79618,728 18,571 22,454 37,98246,410 53,250 57,20573,125 81,30382,839 87,344 104,540118,652128,533 124,908114,654121,097 143,482 1 Mmeral Resources of the United States, for the year 1887, p. 99. The Engineering and Mining Journal estimates the production of lead in the United States for the year 1888 at no less than 168,700 tons. It is an in teresting fact that Idaho is beginning to be of considerable importance as a lead-producing State. The principal mines are in the Coeur d'Algne district. 360 MINERAL RESOURCES. XII. — NON-METALLIFBKOUS MINERALS. Of the non-metalliferous mineral substances mined or quarried in the United States, the two most interesting and important — coal and petroleum — have been al ready discussed. To other very important articles — such as lime, cement, and building-stone — only brief allusion can here be made, since their mode of occur rence is so varied, and the manner in which they are utilized so irregular, that they hardly come within the scope of the present work. Only very imperfect statis tics could be obtained in regard to such materials as lime and building-stones, of which the use is so wide spread and so little under possible control. According to the estimates of the officer in charge of the division of Mining Statistics of the United States Geological Survey, the value of the lime and building-stone used in the country in the year 1887 was, for each of these articles, greater than that of the petroleum produced. The item of coal alone constitutes nearly seven tenths of the value of the non-metalliferous minerals mined ; and the five items of coal, petroleum, natural gas, build ing-stone, and lime together make up fully nineteen twentieths of the same total. Other important articles are : salt, of the produce of which in 1887 the value was $4,093,846 ; cement, $5,186,877 ; limestone for flux in the iron manufacture, $3,226,200 ; phosphate-rock, $1,836,818. The importance of the salt manufacture in the United States is so great that space may be found here for a few remarks on the geological mode of occur rence of salt, and the geographical distribution of the salt industry. NON-METALLIFEROUS MINERALS. 361 The common salt of the world is obtained for use in four different ways ; namely, the evaporation of the ocean water, the evaporation of the water of saline lakes, the evaporation of saline water or brine obtained by boring, and the mining of solid or rock-salt. By each of these methods salt is, or has been, produced in the United States ; but the third of these is at present by far the most iraportant source of supply of this sub stance in this country. In the early history of the country the salt used was in part imported from England, and in part produced by the evaporation of sea-water on the islands adjacent to the coast in a low latitude, and especially Turk's Island. Towards the end of the last century, however, the utilization of the brine springs of New York and Virginia was begun, and has become developed to an extensive business ; and to this development has been added that of similar saline resources in Ohio and Michigan. Previous to this, however, some salt had been made by the evaporation of sea-water at points along the coast, and especially in the neighborhood of Massachusetts Bay. This industry has not entirely ceased ; as, by the census of 1880, there were still six establishments of this kind in existence, producing nearly ten thousand bushels of salt per annum. In California the business of evaporating sea-water has attained some , importance, the climatic conditions on that coast being much more favorable for this industry than along the Northern Atlantic. The amount made in this way in 1880 in California is given at 884,443 bushels, the value of which was equal to about one for tieth of that of the total produce of the country in that 362 MINERAL RESOURCES. year. A very small amount of salt was also made on the Florida coast. There are various lakes and partially or wholly dried-up beds of former lakes in the Cordilleran region, which are capable of furnishing a large quantity of salt. Some of these localities ¦ have been worked to a limited extent for supplying the salt required in the metallurgi cal processes employed at Virginia City in Nevada, and elsewhere. The water of Great Salt Lake, in Utah, is strongly impregnated with coramon salt, the quantity of which varies with the changes in the size of that body of water. The water collected by Stansbury, in 1850, contained 22.4 per cent of solid matter : that ob tained by the Fortieth Parallel Survey, in 1869, gave only 14.8 per cent ; of this, 79.11 per cent was com mon salt, the remainder consisting chiefly of chloride of magnesium, and the sulphates of soda and potash. This closely resembles the composition of the residuum of sea-water in the relative amount of the chlorides of sodium and magnesium, but the chloride of potassium and the sulphates of soda and lime are deficient in the Salt Lake water. The amount of salt made in Utah in 1880, presumably all, or nearly all, from the evapo ration of the water of Great Salt Lake, was 483,800 bushels. A very small amount is also given in the Census Report of 1880 as having been made in Texas frora the water of inland lakes. By far the larger portion of the salt manufactured in the United States comes frora the evaporation of brine obtained by boring; and there are four States where this business is carried on, and which supply fully nine tenths of the salt produced in the country : these are, NON-METALLIEEROUS MINERALS. 363 in the order of their importance, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia. Sorae particulars as to the mode of occurrence of the more iraportant brine-pro ducing regions and of the history of the developraent of the industry may be appended. That portion of the New York salt-producing region which is best known and has been longest worked is in the centre of the State, near Syracuse. The land on which the salt springs are situated was obtained by the State from the Onondaga Indians, in 1795, for a trifling consideration, and the business of manufacturing salt began immediately afterward. The statistics go back to 1797, in which year 25,474 bushels were made, the amount increasing gradually in iraportance, and reach ing its culmination in 1862, when it rose to 9,053,874 bushels. Since that year the production has varied between five and eight and a half millions of bushels : in 1887 it was 5,695,797 bushels. The brine of the Syracuse salt-producing district is obtained from borings not in the solid rock, but in a detrital deposit, vary ing in size from the coarsest gravel to the finest sand, which fills depressions in the Onondaga or Salina shales, to the depth, in places, of three or four hundred feet. These shales are of Upper Silurian age. No rock-salt has been struck by boring ; but farther west, in the same geological formation, at various points in New York, Canada, and Michigan the presence of large bodies of salt has been proved by the aid of the dia mond drill. The diuainished yield in recent years of the Syracuse salt-producing district has been more than compensated by the exploitation of discoveries made during the latter 364 MINERAL RESOURCES. part of the last decade in the western portion of the State, in Wyoming, Genesee, and Livingston counties. The first locality where salt was discovered was War saw, on the line of the Rochester and Pittsburg railroad, where in a boring for oil a bed of salt was struck, at a depth of nearly fifteen hundred feet, and found to be about forty-five feet in thickness. Other discoveries were raade in the adjacent region ; and this district has now become quite as important as that of Syracuse, having produced 6,072,000 bushels of salt during the year 1887, at which time there were fifty brine wells in operation, varying in depth from eight to twenty- five hundred feet. Some rock-salt has also been mined in this district. In July, 1886, about two hundred tons a day were being mined in the Genesee Valley, at a depth of about a thousand feet. This salt was sent to the Solvay soda-works at Syracuse, where it was pre ferred to that made from brine. Most of the salt of this district is, however, made from brine obtained by boring, as. is exclusively the case at and near Syracuse. The salt of Michigan comes from several distinct geological horizons. The uppermost one is in the coal measures, the next lower in the Lower Carboniferous, and the lowest in the Onondaga or Salina salt-group — the salt-bearing formation of New York. It is only in the latter formation that rock-salt has been found in Michigan, namely, at Bay City, on Saginaw Bay, where, at a depth of 2,085 feet, a bed of salt 115 feet in thick ness was bored through. The conditions with regard to fuel are extremely favorable in the Saginaw Valley, hence salt can be produced there more cheaply than anywhere else in the country. The business of salt- NON-METALLIFEROUS MINERALS. 365 making is associated with that of sawing lumber^ and the refuse of the saw-mills feeds the fires under the salt pans. As will be seen from the table given farther on, the production of salt in Ohio and Virginia, at the present time, is much less than that of Michigan and New York. The advantages which the two last-named States offer are, on the whole, decidedly superior to those of the former; so that the production of Ohio has remained nearly stationary during the last six years, while that of the Kanawha Valley, once the most im portant salt-producing region in the country, has during that time decidedly decreased, so that at present it is hardly one tenth as large as that of New York, and less than one seventeenth of that of Michigan. The quantity of rock-salt which has been shown by geological observation, or proved by the drill, to exist within the limits of the United States is very large. To the existence of large bodies of this material in Western New York and Michigan allusion has already been made. Salt has also recently been discovered in Kansas, by persons engaged in prospecting for oil and gas, in several localities, and in quantities said to be large. Neither in Kansas nor in any of the States men tioned as important producers of salt, has the mining for rock-salt been of any iraportance up to the present time. A locality where this raaterial occurs in large quantity, and the existence of which has been known for a long tirae, namely, Petite Anse, an island in Vermilion Bay, on the coast of Louisiana, and which became of importance during the Civil War, is now quite extensively worked, and is the only source from 366 MINERAL RESOURCES. which salt is obtained to any extent in Louisiana. The quantity mined at this locality has risen from 276,000 barrels in 1882, to over 340,000 in 1887. Rock-salt also occurs in large quantity in various por tions of the Cordilleran region, and it has been mined at some localities both for household and metallurgical purposes. A deposit has been long known to exist on the Rio Virgen, in Lincoln County, Nevada, where the salt appears to occur in very large quantity, it being — as is stated — exposed in a canon cut through it for a distance of two miles, the deposit occupying an exten sive area, with an unknown, but certainly very con siderable, thickness. There are also large deposits of' this mineral in Utah, especially in San Pete County, near the town of Nephi. Most of the salt used in that State at present, however, comes from the salt-farms around Salt Lake. The following table gives, in barrels, the amount of salt produced in the United States from 1883 to 1887:' — State. 1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887. Michigan New York 2,894,6721,619,486 350,000320,000265,215214,286 107,143 21,429 400,000 3,161,8061,788,454 320,000310.000223,964 178,571 114,285 17,857 400,000 3,297,4032,304,787 306,847 223,184 299,2n 221,428 107,140 26,593 250,000 3,677,257 2,431,563 400,000250,000299,691214,285 164,285 30,000 240,000 3,944,3092,353,560 365,000 225,000341 093 ' Ohio West Virginia CaUfornia Utah Nevada Other States 28,000 325,000250,000 Total 6,192,231 6,514,937 7,038,653 7,707,081 7,831,962 ^ By W. A. Raborg, in Mineral Resources of the United States for the year 1887, p. 611. A barrel is five bushels of fifty-sbc pounds each. GENERAL SUMMARY. 367 XIII. — GENERAL SUMMARY. The astonishing rapidity with which the mineral and metalliferous resources of the Cordilleran region have been developed during the past thirty years will have been made apparent to the reader who has ex amined the preceding pa,ges. In 1854 the present writer estimated the total value of the metals produced in the United States at $79,827,000, of which nearly $50,000,000 was to be credited to gold.' The change which has taken place since that time will be seen on examining the following tables, which give, in com pact forra, results obtained and published by the Chief ' of the Division 'of Mining Statistics, of the United States Geological Survey. The first table shows the total value of the non-metallic products of the United States for the years 1882 to 1887, and also the grand total of both metallic and non-metallic products for the same years. The second shows the amount and value of the metallic products of the United States for the years 1882-87. The value of the iron is the spot value ; that of the gold and silver, the coining value ; that of the copper, lead, and zinc, the value at New York ; that of the quicksilver, the value at San Francisco : — 1888. 1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887. Metallic Non-MetallicAdditional un- epecifled 8219,755,109 228,410,380 8,000,000 8203,116,859 242,111,889 8,000,000 8186,414,074 220,059,674 7,000,000 8181,599,365 240,114,544 7,000,000 8215,364,825 243,963,063 6,000,000 $250,419,283 285,864,942 6,000,000 Total 8456,165,489 $453,240,748 8413,485,748 8428,713,909 8465,327,888 $542,284,226 See Metalhc Wealth of the United States, pp. 505-510. Amount and Value of Metallic Products in the United States. CO oo Metala. 1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887. Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value. Pig-iron (tons) . . 4,595,610 891,910,200 4,097,868 873,761,624 4,044,525 864,712,400 6,683,329 895,196,760 6,417,148 8121,925,800 Silver (ounces) . . . 85,733,622 46,200,000 37,744.605 48,800,000 39,910,279 61,600,000 39,445,312 61,000,000 41,269,240 63,441,300 Gold (ounces) . . . 1,451,249 30,000,000 1,489,949 30,800,000 1,538,376 31,801,000 1,881,250 35,000,000 1,696,500 33,100,000 Copper (tons) .... 52,300 18,064,807 66,984 18,106,162 76,322 18,292,999 71,980 16,527,661 82,442 21,052,440 lead (tons) 128,533 12,322,n9 124,908 10,537,042 115,546 10,469,431 121,097 12,667,749 143,482 14,463,000 Zinc (tons) 32,921 3,311,106 34,414 3,422,707 36,328 3,539,856 38,072 8,752,408 44,946 4,782,300 Quicksilver (flasks) 46,726 1,253,632 31,913 936,327 32,073 979,189 29,981 1,000,000 33,826 1,429,000 Nickel (pounds) . . 58,800 52,920 64,550 48,412 277,904 191,753 214,992 127,167 205,656 133,200 Antimony (tons) , 31 7,000 67 15,500 Flatina (ounces) . . 200 60O 150 450 260 187 50 idB 448 1,838 Aluminium (ounces 1,000 876 1,800 1,350 3,400 2,550 27,000 74,905 Total 8203,116,859 8186,414,074 8181,589,365 8216,364,826 8250,419,283 I— I WH ooO oW CO PART IX. AGRICULTURE. T^HE following statements and tables present a suc cinct view of the nature and importance of the agricultural interests of the United States, beginning with the cereals. L— THE CEREALS. The following table shows the production of the cereals in bushels, as returned by the census of 1880 : Production in bushels. Barley 44,113,495 Buckwheat 11,817,327 Indian corn 1,754,861,535 Oats 407,858,999 Rye 19,831,^95 Wheat 459,479,505 The production of barley was largest in California (twelve and a half million bushels) ; other States pro ducing considerable quantities were : New York, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio. No other State produced as much as one million bushels. In 1886 the total pro duction of barley in the United States was 59,428,000 bushels : of that amount California produced 16,038,000 bushels; and New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa each over five million and less than ten million 24 370 AGRICULTUEE. bushels; while Nebraska, Michigan, and Dakota eadh produced over one million and less than five million bushels. The total production of buckwheat in the United States, according to the census of 1880, was 11,817,327 bushels : of this amount New York and Pennsylvania produced, respectively, 4,461,200 and 3,592,326 bushels. No other State produced as much as half a million bushels ; the production of this cereal in the Gulf States being extremely small, that of the Pacific States being also very insignificant. No one of the States, other than New York and Pennsylvania, produced as much as a half niUlion bushels. In 1886 the total production of buckwheat was 11,809,000 bushels, or almost exactly the same as in the last census year (1879). Indian corn is the most bulky crop among the cereals, the total yield as reported by the census of 1880 being 1,754,861,535 bushels. The principal production of this crop is in the belt of States lying north of the Ohio, and in the same latitude on the west of the Mississippi, as will be seen from the following table : Production in State. bushels in 1879. Illinois 325,792,481 Iowa 275,024,247 Missouri 202,485,723 Indiana 115,482,300 Ohio 111,877,124 These five States produced, as will be seen, consider ably more than half the total yield of the country in the year for which the statistics are given. As we go THE CEREALS. 371 north, south, east, or west frora this belt we find the yield of Indian corn dirainishing. Still, this cereal is a product of importance even as far south as the Gulf States, but is of comparatively little consequence in New England, the total production of the six New England States in 1879 being only 8,376,133 bushels. In 1886 the total yield of Indian corn was 1,665,- 441,000 bushels, and the States producing over one hundred million bushels each were : — Production in Slate. bushels in 1886. Illinois 209,818,000 Iowa 198,847,000 Missouri 143,709,000 Kansas 126,712,000 Indiana 118,795,000 Nebraska 106,129,000 These six States produced in that year considerably more than half of the total, and the gradual advance ment westward of the agricultural development of the country is shown in the appearance of Nebraska in the above column of figures as a producer of over a hundred millions of bushels. The yield of Indian corn in this State, according to the census of 1870, was 4,736,710 bushels, and in 1879 it had increased to 65,450,115 bushels. The figures for Dakota for the same years were 133,140 and 2,000,864 bushels. Of this crop, so important as it is for home consump tion, but a very small fraction is exported. The fol lowing table exhibits the total produce of the country for the years since the 'census year (1879) up to and including the year 1886, together with the percentage exported for each year : — 372 AGRICULTURE. Production Per cent Year. in bushels. exported. 1880 1,717,434,543 5.5 1881 1,194,916,000 3.7 1882 1,617,025,100 2.6 1883 1,651,066,895 3.0 1884 1,795,528,000 2.9 1885 1,936,176,000 3.3 1886 1,665,441,000 2.5 The yield of Indian corn in 1887 is given by the De partment of Agriculture as 1,456,161,000 bushels, and that of 1888 is estimated at 1,987,790,000 bushels. Since 1879 the home consumption of this cereal has averaged about twenty-seven bushels per annum for each inhabitant of the country ; in the ten years pre ceding it averaged about twenty-five bushels. The total yield of oats as reported by the census of 1880 was 407,858,999 bushels. The distribution of this crop is pretty uniform all over the country, with the exception of the Gulf and Pacific Coast States, where the yield of this cereal is very small, barley taking the place of oats in California almost entirely. The following table exhibits the production of oats in the United States from 1880 to 1888 : — Tear. Production in bushels. 1880 417,885,380 1881 416,481,000 1882 488,250,610 1883 671,302,400 1884. 583,628,000 1885 629,409,000 1886 624,134,000 1887 659,618,000 1888 701,735,000 THE CEREALS. 373 The increase in the number of acres cultivated in oats since the census year has been very marked ; more so than in the case of wheat or Indian corn. The aver age for the decade 1870-79 was 11,000,000 acres; that for the years 1880-87 was 21,000,000 acres. The amount of rye grown in the United States as returned by the census of 1880 was 10,831,595 bush els ; the principal States where this crop is raised being, in the order of their yield, Pennsylvania, 3,683,- 621 ; Illinois, 3,121,785 ; New York, 2,634,690 ; Wis consin, 2,298,513 ; and Iowa, 1,518,605 bushels. The production of this cereal in the States south of Ken tucky and Virginia is extremely small, but some rye is given as grown in every State and Territory, except Arizona and Nevada. The production of rye in 1886 was 24,489,000 bushels ; Kansas appearing this year as a producer of a little over two million bushels, and Nebraska of nearly one million. Wheat is an extremely important crop in the United States, and is the only cereal of which the export is considerable. The great wheat-growing States are those along the north side of the Ohio, from New York west ward and across the Mississippi into Iowa, Kansas, and northwest, including Nebraska, Minnesota, and Dakota. The yield of the census year (1879) was 459,479,505 bushels. In that year Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and Iowa each produced over thirty million bushels : the total yield of those six States was some what more than half that of the whole country. In 1887 the total was very nearly the same (456,329,000 bushels), but the distribution of this yield was some what different. There were in that year also six States 374 AGRICULTLTIE. producing each more than thirty million bushels. Of these six, four are among those included in a similar category for the year 1879. Michigan and Iowa have dropped out of that list, and Dakota and California must be inserted in their places.-' These six States, as before, produce almost exactly half the entire yield of the country. What is more remarkable is, that Dakota, which in 1879 only figured with a produce of 2,830,289 bushels, appears in 1887 as furnishing no less than 52,406,000 bushels, or more than one tenth of the whole crop of this cereal. Other States of importance, in 1887, were Missouri, Iowa, and Michigan, each of which produced between twenty and thirty millions of bushels ; and Nebraska, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Wiscon sin, Kentucky, and New York, each of which produced between ten and twenty millions of bushels. In the tabular statement of the yield of wheat for the year 1887, as given by the Department of Agriculture, forty-two States and Territories appear as producing more or less of this cereal, but the quantity grown south of Kentucky and Virginia is very sraall. The yield of the Gulf States is entirely insignificant, Florida and Louisiana not appearing at all in the list ; and that of New England is equally unimportant, the whole prod uce of that section of the country being in that year only 74,547 bushels. The following table gives the production of wheat, total value, value per bushel, and amount exported for each of the years 1880-87 : — 1 The yield of California remained nearly the same in 1887 that it -was in 1879. In the former year it was a trifle over thirty millions ; in the latter a trifle under that amount. GRASS AND HAT. 375 Year. Total production (bushels). Total value of crop. Av, value per bushel (in cents). Amount exported (bushels). 1880 498,549,868 383,280,090 504,185,470 421,086,160 512,765,000357,112,000 457,218,000 456,329,000 448,815,699 $474,201,850 456,880,427444,602,125 383,649,272 330,862,260 275,320,390314,226,020 310,612,960 373,794,413 95.1 119.3 88.2 91.064.6 77.1 68.7 68.1 83.3 186,321,514 1881 1882 1883 121,892,389147,811,316 111,534,182 1884 1885 132,570,367 94,565,794 153,804,970 1886 1887 Average 135,500,076 The estimate of the Agricultural Department of the yield of wheat for the year 1888 is 415,868,000 bushels. II. — GKASS AKD HAY. The grass crop is wejl understood to be the greatest of all the crops of the United States. Altogether, in addition to the very large amount consumed from the ground during the grazing season, the value of the har vested hay reaches nearly to that of the greatest of the cereal crops. The following statistics are presented : The area mown in 1879 was 30,631,054 acres; in 1886, 36,501,688 acres. The value of the hay cut in the latter year was $353,437,699.^ In one State (New York) the value amounted to over, fifty millions of dollars ; in one (Pennsylvania), to over thirty and less than forty millions ; in three States (Illinois, Ohio, and Iowa), to over twenty and less than thirty millions. The grass and hay producing industry decreases in importance as we go from the north toward the south. Thus, the thirteen States in each of which (in 1879) 1 This includes only hay cut on farms, and not that cut on public lands and lands of non-residents. 376 AGRICULTURE. more than a million of acres were mown are all north of the parallel of 37°; and all but two (Missouri and Kansas) north of 39°, excepting very small fractions of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. IIL — ANIMALS AND DAIEY PEODUCTS. The number and value of the animals on farms in the year 1886 was as follows : — Number. Value. Horses 13,172,936 $946,096,154 Mules 2,191,727 174,853,563 Milch cows 14,856,414 366,252,173 Oxen and other cattle . 34,378,363 611,750,520 Sheep 43,544,755 89,279,926 Hogs 44,346,525 220,811,082 The importance of the crop of Indian corn has given a great development to the business of fattening swine, and an average of about fifteen per cent of this pro duction has, during the past twenty-seven years, been exported. The average value of " hog products " (live hogs, bacon, hams, pork, and lard) exported has been, during the years 1881-87, |73,671,607 per annum, as against $65,136,498 in the decade 1871-80.^ The statistics of dairy products given in the Agricul tural Eeport of the Census of 1880 for the year 1879 are presented in a very condensed form, as follows : Milk sold, or sent to butter and cheese factories . 530,129,755 galls. Butter made on farms . ' 777,250,287 lbs. Cheese made on farms 27,272,489 lbs. 1 For further details in regard to production and exports of farm products, see under " Foreign Commerce," pp. 398-400. COTTON. 377 The very great extent and importance of the poultry industry in the United States is made apparent by the following statement of facts gathered by the census of 1880 : — Barnyard poultry on hand, June 1, 1880 102,272,135 Other poultry on hand, June 1, 1880 . . 23,235,187 Eggs produced in 1879 456,910,916 doz. At twelve cents a dozen, the annual value of the egg product to the farm would reach nearly $55,000,000, and the value of the fowls consumed as food may fairly be estimated at $20,000,000. The average yield of eggs per fowl is fully twice as great in the Northern States as it is in the Southern. IV. — COTTON. The cotton production of the United States is of great importance, both from the extent to which this material is manufactured within the country, and because it is the first on the list in value among the exports. Cotton is mentioned in the records of the Colony of South Carolina as early as 1664, and a small quantity was exported in 1747. The invention of the cotton- gin, by Eli "Whitney, in 1794, was followed by a rapid development of the cotton-raising business throughout the Southern States. The first crop of sea-island cotton was raised in 1790, from seed that came either from the Bahama or Barbadoes islands. The total production of the country in the year 1879 is given by the census of 1880 at 5,737,257 bales, of 378 AGRICULTURE. 375 pounds ; this having been assumed to be the weight of the bale, in 1879, the average proportion of seed to fibre, or lint, in the crop as it comes from the field,, being given as two to one. The stated number of bales is equivalent, therefore, to 1,362,599 tons (of 2,000 pounds) of lint or fibre, and 2,725,197 of seed. This production was divided among the States as follows : — Field. ¦*¦'¦ ^'¦°'*""=' per acre. Bales. Fraction of bale. Mississippi 955,808 0.46 Georgia 814,441 0.31 Texas 803,642 0.37 Alabama 699,654 0.30 Arkansas 608,256 0.58 South Carolina 522,548 0.38 Louisiana 508,569 0.59 North Carolina 389,598 0.44 Tennessee 330,644 0.46 Florida 54,997 0.22 Missouri 19,733 0.60 Indian Territory 17,000 0.49 Virginia 11,000 0.46 Kentucky 1,367 0.51 Total 6,737,257 gen. av. 0.40 From the above table it will be seen that the limit of profitable cultivation of cotton is pretty sharply drawn at about the parallel of 37° ; the production of Virginia . and Kentucky — the southern border of which States is in latitude 36° 30' — being exceedingly small. The pro duction of Missouri is liraited to a highly fertile region lying in the extrerae southeastern portion of the State ; while that of Kentucky pertains to the country lying adjacent to Western Tennessee, and to the rich bottom- COTTON. 379 lands along the Mississippi River. It does not appear that any cotton is produced north of the Ohio River. According to Professor E. W. Hilgard, Special Agent of the Census of 1880, in charge of the subject of Cot ton Production, the high production of Mississippi is due in part to the great fertility and large area of the " bottora-land " along the Mississippi River within the limits of that State, and in larger part to the fertil ity of the ""uplands," or table-land bordering the Mis sissippi bluff, and the interior "prairie-belts." These favorable conditions have as a result that cotton-culture is the one pursuit to which the population of this State devotes itself. It is rather great natural advantages than skill and industry which give Mississippi the first place in the production of cotton. Professor Hilgard thinks that by enlarging the area of tillable land in the Yazoo bottom, by simple exclusion of the overflows of the Mississippi, without any change in the methods of culture, the produce of the State might be raised to 2^ millions of bales ; and that with iraproved cultivation the production might be brought up to five millions, so that under these conditions Mississippi alone could pro duce the entire crop now, grown in the United States. Georgia stands second in total production among the States, but the average production per acre is but two thirds that of Mississippi. The area of what would be called in the last-named State first and second class cot ton soil is in Georgia quite limited, far more so than is the case in the neighboring State of Alabama ; yet the forraer State is slightly in advance of the latter in the average product per acre. The high position of Georgia as a cotton-producing State is due, therefore, not to 380 AGRICULTURE. natural advantages, but to better cultivation of the soil, the use of fertilizers, and the thrift of an industrious population. Texas — much the largest in area of the cotton-pro ducing States, and also slightly larger in population than any of the other Gulf States — stands third on the list of total production. In the average product per acre it is among the very lowest. This fact seeras to be due, in large part at least, to the position of Texas in refer ence to precipitation. In this State the total amount of rainfall is considerably less than in the other Gulf States, owing to its position in reference to the prevail ing winds ; and the diminution in rainfall is rapid as we recede from the coast. The precipitation is largest in the extrerae northeastern portion of the State, and here — north of the 32d parallel and east of the 98th meridian — more than half the cotton product of the State is grown. The fact that Texas is so rauch larger than the other cotton-producing States must also be borne in mind in connection with its position as the third on the list. It has, in fact, an area more than five times as great as the average area of the six other principal cotton States. Alabama is naturally as well suited for the growth of cotton as the two States adjacent to it on the east and west, Georgia and Mississippi ; and its position as fourth on the list, and as inferior to both these States, is considered by Professor Hilgard to be due to the fact that Mississippi is still within the period of the first flush of fertility, while Georgia has reached the stage where her fields are being renovated by the use of fer tilizers ; while the soil of Alabama has begun to be COTTON. 381 exhausted, but this exhaustion has not yet proceeded so far that the cultivators realize the necessity of making good this deficiency by proper modes of cultivation, as is done to a certain extent in Georgia. In South and North Carolina the average cotton pro duction per acre is high as compared with that of Ala bama and Georgia, and in the case of North Carolina approaches that of Mississippi itself. The reason for this condition of things is to be found chiefly in the introduction of improved methods of culture, and the use of fertilizers. In South Carolina the so-called sea- island cotton is produced — a variety of cotton of great value, although small in amount, the production of it for the year 1880 being set down in the Census Report as 9,966 bales. The finest cotton ever known to have been produced is the long-staple cotton of Edisto Island, which sold for two dollars a pound when other cottons were bringing only nine cents. The islands where this crop is grown line the coast, sometiraes forming three or four parallel belts, having their greatest development at the mouth of Broad River, from which in each direc tion along the coast they diminish in numbers. All the important cotton-producing States, with the exception of Arkansas and Tennessee, lie either on the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic coast ; but the princi pal cotton-producing areas in the case of each of these States are at a considerable distance from the coast. Thus, in Mississippi by far the greater portion of the area planted in cotton lies in the northern and west ern part of the State, while in the extreme south there is an area where cotton culture is either very subor dinate or practically non-existent ; nor is this decrease 382 AGRICULTURE. of cotton culture accompanied by a corresponding in crease of some other production. In Louisiana an ob vious fact — rendered apparent by a glance at the map showing the relative areas given to cotton culture in the State — is the decrease of cotton culture as we advance southward. In Alabama the central prairie region, or black-soil belt, a narrow strip of country only about twenty-five miles wide, running east and west through the centre of the State, more than a hundred miles frora the coast, produces forty per cent of the en tire cotton crop. Adjacent to this particularly rich belt on the north and south is a belt of less but still large productiveness, making the total width of the central cotton-belt about seventy-five miles ; and here at least sixty per cent of the cotton of the State is raised. In Georgia the principal cotton-producing belt runs nearly parallel with the coast, and at a distance of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles from it. A simi lar condition of things is clearly indicated in both North and South Carolina. On comparing the facts here stated with the posi tion of the isothermal and isohyetal curves in the region where cotton is grown, it will be seen that nearly the entire production of cotton conies from the area included between the isothermals of 60° and68°, ^nd there is none cultivated in any region of lower mean annual tem perature than 56°. It also appears that the cotton-pro ducing area is one of comparatively large precipitation, being nowhere less than thirty-eight inches, and gener ally considerably over that amount ; and also that this precipitation is pretty uniformly distributed through out the year. From this we learn that the climatic COTTON. 383 conditions favoring the growth of cotton are of such a nature as to limit its successful production to a com paratively small area, differing in this respect materially from some of the other staples of the country, espe cially Indian corn and wheat. It will also be evident that the conditions existing on the Pacific coast do not favor the successful cultivation of cotton in that region. The following table exhibits the production of cotton and the amount exported for each year from 1880 to 1887. The average annual yield during the twenty years previous to 1861 was 1,335,000,000 pounds ; during the twenty-three years from 1865 to 1886 it was 2,207,000,000 pounds, an increase of 65.3 per cent. During the pentad 1883-87 the average was 2,036,- 345,355 pounds, or a little less than the average of the years 1865-86: — Year. Production in Pounds. Exports in Pounds. 1880 3,199,822,682 2,588,236,636 3,405,070,410 2,757,544,4222,742,966,011 3,182,350,531 3,157,378,4433,300,000,000 2,190,928,772 1,739,975,961 1881 1882 2,288,075,062 1883 1,862,572,530 1884 . 1,891,659,472 1885 2,058,087,444 1886 2,169,457,330 18871 2,200,000,000 For other important matters connected with cotton, reference may be made to the subdiYisions of this volume entitled "Manufactures" and "Foreign Com merce. Approximate. 384 AGRICULTURE. v. — TOBACCO, EICE, AND SUGAR. The climatic conditions under which tobacco can be raised seem to be quite variable, since more or less of this crop is furnished by almost every State in the Union. The yield of the extreme Southern and ex treme Northern States is, however, very small : as (in 1879), of Maine only 250 pounds ; of Oregon, 17,325 ; of New Mexico, 890 ; of Louisiana, 55,954. The largest tobacco-producing State is Kentucky, with 171,120,784 pounds in 1879, according to the census of 1880. Next comes Virginia, with 79,- 988,868; then Pennsylvania, 36,943,272; Ohio, 34,- 735,235 ; Tennessee, 29,365,052 ; North Carolina, 26,986,213; Maryland, 26,082,147; Missouri, 12,015,- 657 ; Wisconsin, 10,608,423. From this it is evident that the culture of tobacco is carried on most success fully in the Middle Atlantic States and those bordering on the Ohio River, diminishing gradually in this lati tude westerly and having no importance in the extreme western States. The mean temperature of the chief tobacco-producing area is indicated by the statement that it lies between the isothermals of 52° and 60°. As regards precipitation, a somewhat moist climate seems to be required, and there is little tobacco raised where the rainfall averages less than 38 inches. The isother mal of 32 inches seems to be the limit beyond which it cannot pass. The total yield of the United States in the year 1879 was 472,661,159 pounds, having an estimated value as raised, in the producers' hands, of $51,104,870. The production of tobacco in 1886 was about eleven per cent larger than in 1879 — namely, 532,537,000 TOBACCO, RICE, AND SUGAR. 385 pounds. The relative rank of the States in the pro duction of this crop was almost exactly the same at the two periods. Kentucky and "Virginia together fur nished in 1886 more than half the total, or 285,104,000 pounds. The entire value of the tobacco raised in 1886 was $39,468,218. The production of rice for the year 1879 as returned by the census of 1880 was as follows : — Founds. Average yield per Q«re. Alabama 810,889 514 Florida 1,294,677 508 Georgia 25,369,687 725 Louisiana 23,188,311 652 Mississippi 1,718,951 491 North Carolina 5,609,191 517 South Carolina 52,077,515 664 Texas 62,152 186 Total 110,131,373 gen. av. 632 The production of sugar from the sugar-cane is ex tremely small as compared with the consumption of this article. Louisiana is the only State of any impor tance in this connection, although a small quantity of sugar is made in each of the following States : Georgia, Florida, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The total production in the year 1879 as returned by the census of 1880 was — of sugar, 178,872 hogsheads, and of molasses, 16,573,273 gallons, of which Louisiana fur nished 171,706 hogsheads and 11,696,248 gallons. The census of 1880 gives the following statistics of the production for that year of sugar and molasses from sorghum and the maple : — Sugar. Molaases. Sorghum 12,792 lbs. 28,444,202 gals. Maple 36,576,061 1,796,048 25 386 AGRICULTURE. The principal production of sorghum molasses is in the States of Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Iowa ; that of maple sugar, in Vermont and New York, in each of which States the produce was over 10,000,000 pounds. VL — GENEEAL SUMMAET, The following additional facts in regard to the agri culture of the United States are condensed and arranged from the volume entitled " Statistics of Agriculture," in the Census Report for 1880 : — 1870. 1880. Total number of farms . . . 2,659,985 4,008,907 The term " farm," as here used, is understood to mean a tract of not less than three acres, unless $500 worth of produce has actually been sold off frqm it during the year, and owned or leased by one man and cultivated under his care : — Total area of United States in acres . . 1,856,108,800 Number of acres in farms 536,081,835 I860. 1870. 1880. Proportion of unimproved land in farms to improved, in percentage 69.9 53.7 46.9 Of the 4,008,907 farms returned, 74 per cent were cultivated by their owners, 8 per cent by tenants on basis of fixed money rental, and 18 per cent by tenants paying a share of the product or rent. The total value of the farms of the United States, including land, buildings, and fences, is given by the census of 1880 at $10,197,096,776 ; and the estimated GENERAL SUMMARY. 387 value of all farm productions sold, consumed, or on hand, in 1879, was $2,212,540,927. The following tabular statement, from the volume of the Census Report of 1880, entitled " Statistics of Agri culture," and published in 1883, presents a r^sum6 of the principal facts connected with the agricultural interests of the country, so far as concerns the amounts or values of the different products : — CoxDENSED Tabular View of Agricultural Products, chiefly IN the year 1879, arranged from the Census Report, volume entitled " Statistics op Agriculture," published 1883. Number of farms Value of farms, including land, fences, and buildings. . Estimated value of farm products for 1879 Wool produced Milk (not including that sent to butter or cheese factories) Butter (including that made on farms and in factories) Cheese (made on farms and in factories) Barley 43,997,495 bushels Buckwheat .... 11,817,327 " Indian corn .... 1,754,591,676 " Oats 407,858,999 " Eye Wheat Cotton Flaxseed Flaxstraw Flax fibre Hemp Sugar (sugar cane) Molasses (sugar cane) Sugar (sorghum) Molasses (sor ghum) Sugar (maple) . . Molasses (maple) Hay mown Clover-seed Grass-seed 19,831,595 " 459,483,137 " 5,755,359 bales 7,170,961 bushels 421,098 tons 1,565,546 pounds 6,025 tons 178,872 hhds. 16,573,273 gallons 12,792 pounds 28,444,202 gallons 36,576,061 pounds 1,796,048 gallons 35,150,711 tons 1,922,982 bushels 1,317,701 " Honey Wax Rice Tobacco Potatoes, Irish . . Potatoes, sweet . Orchard prod ucts (sold or consumed) . . Market-garden products .... Hops Broom corn Peas Beans Wood, amount cut Forest products, value of all consumed or sold 4,008,907 $10,197,096,776 $2,212,540,927 240,681,751 pounds 530,129,755 gallons 806,672,071 pounds 243,157,850 " . . 456,910,916 dozen 25,743,208 pounds 1,105,689 " . . 110,1.31,373 " . . 472,661,157 " 169,458,539 bushels 33,378,693 " $50,876,154 $21,761,250 26,546,378 pounds 29,480,106 " 6,514,977 bushels 3,075,050 " 51,442,624 cords $95,774,735 388 AGRICULTURE. The following general summary presents in one table the estimated quantities, number of acres cultivated, and aggregate value of the principal crops of the coun try in the year 1886 : — Products. Quantity. Number of Acres. Value. Indian corn 1,665,441,000 bushels 457,218,000 " 24,489,000 " 624,134,000 " 59,428,000 " 11,869,000 " 168,051,000 " 75,694,20836,806,184 2,129,918 23,658,474 2,662,957 917,915 2,287,186 $610,311,000 314,226,020 13,181,330 186,137,930 31,840,510 6,465,120 78,441,940 Wheat Rye Oats Barley Buckwheat Potatoes Total Tobacco Hay 3,010,630,000 bushels 632,570,000 pounds 41,796,499 tons 6,445,864 bales 144,146,792 750,210 36,501,68818,454,603 $1,240,603,850 39,468,218 353,4,37,699 257,295,327 firand totfil 199,853,293 $1,890,805,094 PART X. MANUFACTURES. nPHE most important facts connected with the manu facturing interests of the United States, as revealed by the census of 1880 and those of the preceding dec ades may be stated, in the most condensed form, as follows : — First, a table is given showing certain of the princi pal items connected with manufactures in the form of totals for the whole United States, for the three census years 1860, 1870, and 1880 : — Tabular Statement of Manufactures in the United States. 1860. 1870. 1880. Number of Establishments 140,433 252,148 253,852 Capital Invested 11,009,855,715 $2,118,208,769 $2,790,272,606 Average Number of Hands Employed. Males above 16 years. . Females above 15 years 1,615,598 2,019,035 323,770 631,639 114,628 181,921 Total amt. paid in Wages during the Year $378,878,966 $775,584,343 $947,953,795 Value of Materials used. . $1,031,605,092 $2,488,427,242 $3,396,823,549 Value of Products $1,885,861,676 $4,232,325,442 $5,369,579,191 Next may follow a statement of the various most extensive manufacturing industries arranged, in the order of their importance, with reference to the value of 390 MANUFACTURES. their products. In this table all branches of manufac ture are included in which the total production exceeds 1,000,000 in value : — Table of Individual Manufacturing Industries in the United States, according to the Census of 1880. Flouring and Grist Mill Products Slaughtering and Meat Packing Iron and Steel Woollen of all classes Lumber, Sawed Foundry and Machlne- Shop Products Cotton Goods Clothing, Men's ....> Boots and Shoes Sugar and Molasses, Re fined Leather, Tanned Liquors, Malt Carpentering Printing and Publishing Furniture Leather, Curried Agricultural Implements Mixed Textiles Bread and other Bakery Products Carriages and Wagons ... Tobacco, Cigars, etc Paper Tobacco, Chewing, Smok ing, and Snuff Tin ware. Copper ware, and Sheet-ironware... Blacksmithing Liquors, Distilled Silk and Silk Goods Number of Establish ments. 24,338 872 1,005 2,689 25,708 4,9581,0056,166 1T,972 49 3,105 2,1919,184 3,467 5,2272,319 1,943 470 6,3963,8417,145 477 7,595 28.101 844 Number of Hands em ployed. 68,407 27,297 140,978161,557147,956145,357185,472160,818133,819 5,'857 23,81226,220 54,13868,47859,30411,053 30,580 43,37322,48845,394 63,297 24,422 32,756 26,248 34,526 6,502 31,337 Amount paid in Wages. $17,422,316 10,508,53055,476,785 47,389.087 31,845,97465,982,13345,614,41946,940,363 50,995,144 2,875,0329,204,243 12,198,053 24,682,07730,531,65723,695,080 4,845,413 15,359,61013,316,753 9,411,328 18,988,61518,464,562 8,525,3556,419,024 10,722,97411,126,001 2,663,967 9,146,705 Value of Materials. $441,545,226 267,738,902191,271,150164,371,561146,165,385103,345,083113,765,637131,363,282114,966,575 144,698,499 85,949,207 56,836,500 51,621,12032,460,39535,860,20659,806,609 31 ,.131,170 37,227,741 42,612,027 30,597,086 29,677,833 33,961,297 34,397,072 25,232,281 14,572,35327,744,245 22,467,701 Value of Products. S606,185,712 303,562,413 296,667,685 267,252,913 233,288,729214,378,468 210,950,383209,648,460 196,920,481165,484,915113,348,336101,058,385 94,152,139 90,789,34177,845,725 71,351,297 68,640,48666,221,70365,824,89664,961,61763,979,57555,109,91452,793,056 48,096,03843,774,271 41,063,663 41,033,045 The proportion in which the various branches of raanufacture are geographically distributed-' over the 1 For the meaning of this geograpliical division of the United States, see remarks on page 132. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 391 country, according to the census of 1880, is shown by the following percentage statement : — Table of Geographical Distribution of Manufactures in the United States. Proportion of Total Area. Number of Illstablisb- ments. Amount of Capital Invested. Hands Employed. Wages Paid. Gross Product. North Atlantic South Atlantic 5.6 9.4 25.3 20.3 39.4 44.87 10.16 34.33 7.653.09 61.94 5.89 25.78 3.75 2.64 62.23 7.59 24.39 3 85 1.94 64.33 4.99 24.86 3.11 271 59.64 6.26 Northern Central Southern Central Western (Cordilleran) 28.94 3.47 2.69 The remarkable concentration of the manufacturing interests of the United States in the extreme northeast ern portion of the country will be evident from the above table. New England, New York, New Jersey, • and Pennsylvania, embracing only a little over one twentieth of the area of the whole country, produce six tenths of the total gross product of its manufactures. Similar conditions are shown in contrasting the north- em with the southern sections of the country. The North Atlantic and North Central divisions, with thirty-one per cent of the total area, furnish over eighty-eight per cent of the gross product. The West ern or Cordilleran region, with nearly forty per cent of the total area of the country, furnishes only a little over two and a half per cent of its manufactures. The Census Report of 1880 gives a great mass of statistics in reference to the manufacture of cotton in the country, from which the following are selected as representing the most essential features of this ex tremely important business : — 392 MANUFACTURES. Number of spindles 10,653,435 Number of looms 225,759 Bales of cotton consumed 1,570,344 Number of persons employed 172,544 Wages paid $42,040,510 These are said to be the final figures of the specific manufacture of cotton yarn and woollen fabrics, includ ing some cotton hosiery ; and by the term " specific " is meant cotton " worked into a fabric known and sold under that name." Including the cotton used in mixed goods and up holstery, the total consumption is estimated at 1,760,- 000 bales. The total number of operatives employed, including those engaged in print and dye works and bleacheries, and also in manufacturing special fabrics in which cotton forms a part, is 198,338. The operatives employed in the specific cotton mills are thus classed as to age and sex : — Men 59,685 Boys 16,107 Women 84,539 Girls 13,213 Total 172,544 The average wages earned in the cotton mills araount, iot 300 days in the year, to 81 cents per day. Since 1840 the hours of labor have been reduced from 13 or 14 to 10 or 11, and the average earnings per hour are now more than double what they were at that time. The manufacture of cotton is carried on in nearly all the Atlantic, Central, and Southern States, but is prin cipally developed in and near Massachusetts. This State alone consumed considerably more cotton in 1880 COTTON. 393 than all the other States outside of New England. Of 1,570,344 bales consumed in '' specific " cotton manufac ture in the country, in 1880, 1,129,498 were taken by New England. Massachusetts and Rhode Island, hav ing together about ten thousand square miles of area, consumed 742,337 bales, or nearly half the whole con sumption of the United States. Some cotton cloth is still made by hand in the moun tainous sections of the South, some two or three hun dred thousand persons being supplied in this way. As a measure of their work, it is said by Mr. Atkinson, Special Agent of the Census in charge of the subject of Cotton, that " two carders, two spinners, and one weaver could produce eight yards of coarse cotton cloth in a day of ten hours." To this he adds, "Of the whole force engaged in the specific cotton manufac tures, about 160,000 are employed on goods for home consuraption. It would take 16,000,000 to make the same number of yards by hand-work, and the cloth would be of a far different kind — more durable, it is true, but coarse and unsightly." From a coraparison of the facts given in the various tables herewith presented, it will be evident that, with the exception of those iteras called " manufactures " in the Census Reports which are not properly manufac tures, but the conversion of articles of food into a more suitable and convenient form for shipment to foreign countries — as, for instance, slaughtering of animals, and grinding and packing of wheat in barrels — the manufactures of the United States are intended and used for home consumption. The amount of these exported is very small as compared with the total of 394 MANUFACTURES. the exports. There is no one manufactured article of which the United States has anything like a monopoly abroad, or which greatly predominates in importance as an article of export over any other article. The relation of materials to product, in the statistics of industry, needs to be carefully borne in mind ; and for the purpose of throwing light on this subject, the Census Report of 1880, in the volume devoted to manu factures (published in 1883), groups the manufacturing and mechanical industries into four classes, as follows : I. Those industries in which the subject-matter is of a distinct and iraraediate commercial value, but the prop erty does not reside in the person who treats it; II. Those industries in which the entire value of the sub ject-matter is carried into the value of "materials," and appears again in the product, enhanced by the value of labor, use of capital, rent, freight, etc., but in which the value is small, compared to the cost of labor ; III. Industries which are otherwise under the sarae condi tions as those of the second class, but in which the value of the materials approaches, or even moderately exceeds, the value of the labor employed, and becomes thus an iraportant element in the final value of the product, enhancing the apparent production of the in dustry in a high degree ; and IV. Industries in which the value of the materials far exceeds all other elements in the cost of production combined, although, in fact, comparatively little value has been added by these operations, and only a small number of artisans or laborers supported. The following table is intended to illustrate the relation of materials to product, indi cated above ; — Relation op Wages and Materials to Products in Manufacturing and Mechanical Industries.* 1880. Class. Numberof Hands Employed. Amount paid in Wages. Value of lUaterials. Value of Products. Excess of Products over Materials. Excess of Products over Wages and Materials. Wages in »100 of Products. Materials inSllOOofProducts. Wages and Materials in SlOO of Products. Product, per capita, gross. Product, per capita, deducting MateriaLi. I 123,787 240,365 2,254,204 114,239 S46,972,802 91,618,876 768,628,877 40,733,240 $64,875,494 86,007,672 2,227,225,636 1,018,714,747 S164,523,518 252,180,128 3,796,006,0631,156,869,482 $99,648,024 166,172,456 1,568,780,427 138,154,736 S52,675,222 74,653,580 800,151,550 97,421,495 828.55 36.3320.25 3.52 839.43 34.1068.67 88.05 867.98 70.43 78.9291.57 81,329 08 1,049.161,683.96 10,126.74 8804.99 II. 691.33 TTT IV 696.93 1,209.34 Total... 2,732,595 8947,963,795 §3,396,823,549 »5,369 ,579,191 a!l,972,756,642 $1,024,801,847 S17.66 863.26 $80.91 $1,965.01 $721.93 1870.2 I 110,504 835,689,883 $67,850,482 8164,692,177 $86,841,695 i|j51,151,812 823.07 $43.86 866.93 81,400.00 $785.87 II 380,112 160,543,329 172,617,561 603,281,690 830,664,129 170,120,800 31.89 34 30 66.19 1,324.03 869.91 Ill 1,420,345 636,293,694 1,483,951,729 2,636,790,545 1,162,838,816 617,646,122 20.30 56.28 76.58 1,856.44 811.66 IV 98,778 30,769,841 692,676,576 822,792,139 130,116,663 99,345,722 3.74 84.18 87.92 8,329.71 1,317.25 Total... 2,009,739 8762,296,747 82,417,096,348 84,117,666,551 $1,700,460,203 8938,163,466 $18.61 858.70 877.21 82,048.80 S846.U 1 All the industries tabulated were assigned entire to one class or another, according to the principles indicated in the text. The lines of division taken for the second, third, and fourth classes were : (1) where the value of the materials is less than two fifths of that of the ultimate product ; (2) where the value of the materials is from two fifths to four fifths of that of the ultimate product ; and (3) where the value of the materials is over four fifths of that of the ultimate product. * In this table the same groups of industries in 1870 are compared with each other. The table differs from that contained in the volume on Manufactures of the Ninth Census and in the Compendium of that census in this, that the mining and fishing interests, and the statistics of a few industries which form the subject of special reports in the census of 1880 are, for purposes of comparison, excluded herefrom. pi w CO1:0cn 396 MANUFACTURES. The high price and scarcity of skilled labor in the United States has stimulated the inventive genius of the country ; and labor-saving machinery of all kinds has been contrived, the use of which, combined with an extreme subdivision of labor, has made it possible to supply many articles in immense deraand at an extraordinarily small advance on the cost of the raw material. The vast field occupied by the agricultural interest, and the enormous scale on which many farming operations are carried on, together with the difficulty of finding a sufiicient number of laborers at the right moment, has led to the invention and perfection of agricultural machinery, especially of the kind intended to be employed in harvesting, which has had a marvel lous effect in reducing the cost of production of various crops, and especially of the cereals. For the working of wood in all its branches, especially in the prepara tion of doors, windows, blinds, and other articles re quired in house-building, in making barrels, house and farm utensils of all kinds, wood-working machinery has been contrived ; so that the amount of hand-work ac tually put into these articles is absolutely insignificant, as compared with that which was needed before this machinery was contrived. As remarkable instances of the kind of invention produced by this sort of stimulus, may be mentioned the cotton gin of Eli Whitney, the reaper of Cyrus McCormick, the wood-working machin ery of Baxter D. Whitney, the sewing-machine of Elias Howe, and many other machines or groups of machin ery, such as those used in the manufacture of various articles with interchangeable parts, as, for instance, the watch, and the gun as a military weapon. PART XI. FOREIGN COMMERCE. I. — EXPORTS. A N idea will be had of the nature and importance of the foreign commerce of the United States by in spection of the following tables, in which is given, first, the value of the products of domestic agriculture ex ported during the years 1880-85, the more important items being separately designated. The total value of all exports of domestic merchandise is also stated, together with the percentage value of the agricultural products as a whole. More details are added in subsequent tab ular statements in regard to the very important arti cles : cotton, animals and meat products, and petroleum. Of meat and petroleum the amounts exported increased with great rapidity during the decades 1861-70 and 1871-80. Since 1880 there has been no very marked change in regard to these important articles of export. The value of the cotton exported has not been subject to any considerable fluctuations since the effect of the Civil War ceased to be felt. The average value of the exports of this article during the pentad 1879-83 was $213,735,453 ; during the pentad 1884-88 it was $206,660,424. CO to Values in Dollars of the Products of Domestic Agriculture Exported from the United States for the °° Years ending June 30, 1880-85. 1880. 1881. 188S. 1883. 1884. 1885. 15,882,120 839,966 132,486,302288,036,835 2,090,6342,776,823 211616,688 9,376,465 16,379,107 6,336,161 16,412,398 618,935 156,807,605270,332,519 4,439,7191,062,766 247,715,394 7,798,098 18,737,043 6,470,466 9,729,116 487,860 122,020,357182,670,528 1,750,3984,219,600 199,849,992 6,727,788 19,067,721 6,693,151 10,789,268 417,589 109,217,119208,040,850 3.005,9424,420,413 247,350,911 6,320,493 19,438,06610,268,798 20,293,629 1,170,425 114,353,788162,644,715 1,746,4183,477,383 197,018,277 8,733,722 17,406,234 9,571,827 14,667,081 631,262 ProYisions, comprising Meat and Dairy Products Breadstufl^ .' 107,332,436 160,370,821 Fruits 8,515,708 Seeds 2,166,674 201,979,197 Vegetable Oils and Oil-cake ... 9,327,278 21,799,251 8,483,107 685,961,091 730,394,943 652,216,511 619,269,449 636,315,318 630,172,835 Total Value of all Exports of Domestic Mer chandise 823,946,353 883,926,947 733,239,732 804,223,632 724,964,852 726,682,946 Percentage Value of Agricultural Products 83.26 82.63 76.31 77.00 73.98 72.96 o WI— I Oooo EXPORTS: COTTON. 399 The table on the preceding page is continued for the years 1886-88, as follows : — 1886. 1887. 1888. Animals Animal Oils 12,518,660 718,654 90,625,216 125,846,658 3,308,303 1,949,990 205,661,916 9,265,170 27,158,457 8,011,666 10,598,362 810,670 92,783,296 165,768,662 2,669,9651,907,409 206,300,059 9,011,451 26,948,277 7,275,647 12,885,000 924,136 ProTisions, including Meat and Dairy Products. BreadstuflS Fruits Seeds Textiles, Unmanufactured Vegetable Oils and Oil-cake 93,058,705 127,191,687 3,510,2081,516,690 223,022.032 8,458,608 21,936,084 All Otlier Agricultural Products 8,356,746 Total Value of Agricultural Products 484,954,595 523,073,798 500,840,086 Total Value of all Exports of Domestic Mer chandise 665,964,852 703,022,923 683,862,104 Percentage Value of Agricultural Products 73.82 74.40 73.23 The value of the exports of unmanufactured cotton from the United States during the thirteen years end ing June 30, 1888, has been as follows : — 1876 $192,659,262 1877 171,118,608 1878 180,031,484 1879 162,304,260 1880 211,536,905 1881 247,695,746 1882 199,812,644 1883 247,328,721 1884 197,015,204 1885 201,962,458 1886 205,085,642 1887 206,222,057 1888 223,016,760 400 FOREIGN COMMERCE. The value of the exports of manufactured cotton from the United States for the years 1860 and 1870, and for the ten years ending June 30, 1884, was as follows : — ¦ 1860 $10,934,796 1870 3,787,282 1875 4,071,882 1876 7,722,978 1877 10,235,843 1878 11,438,660 1879 10,863,460 1880 9,981,418 1881 13,571,387 1882 13,222,979 1883 12,951,146 1884 11,885,211 The value of the exports from the United States to foreign countries of cattle, sheep, and hogs is given as follows for eight periods between 1861 and 1888 : — 1861 $15,116,708 1870 18,288,115 1875 68,341,862 1880 117,872,536 1885 103,699,082 1886 89,667,346 1887 90,101,308 1888 89,941,019 This statement, however, only includes the value of cattle, sheep, and hogs exported alive, of their meat product, and of lard. It does not include tallow, butter, cheese, condensed milk, wool, neatsfoot oil, candles, hides, leather, soap, hair, or bones. EXPORTS: PETROLEUM. 401 The following table will furnish the necessary data for an understanding of the importance of the petroleum business in the United States : — Exports, in gallons. Tear Production in Barrels of 42 gallons. ending June 30. Illuminating Oil. Crude Oil. Total. Total Value of Exports. 1864 2,478,709 12,791,518 9,980,654 23,210,369 $10,782,689 1865 2,424,905 12,722,005 12,293,897 25,496.849 16,-563.413 1866 3,165,700 34,255,921 16,057,943 50,987.341 24,830.887 1867 .3,591.900 62,686,657 7.344,248 70,255.481 24,407,642 1868 3,613,709 67,909,961 10,029,659 79.456,888 21,810,676 1869 4,046,558 84,403,492 13,425,566 100.636,684 31,127,433 1870 4,411,016 97,902,505 10,403,314 113,735,294 32,668,960 1871 5,558,775 132,608,955 9,859,038 149,892.691 36,894.810 1872 5,842,497 122,539,575 13,559,768 145.171,583 34,058,390 1873 7,242,343 158,102,414 18,439,407 187,816,187 42,050,756 1874 11,188,741 217,220,504 17,776,419 247,806,483 41.245,815 1875 10,083,828 191,551,933 14,718,114 221,955,308 30,078.568 1876 8,82:5,142 204,814,673 20,520.397 243,660,152 32,915.786 1877 10,822,871 262,441,844 26,819,202 309,198,914 61,789.438 1878 14,738,262 289,214,541 26,936,727 338,841,303 46,574,974 1879 16,917,606 331,586,442 25.874.488 378.310.010 40,305,249 1880 22,382,509 367,325,823 28.297,997 423,964,699 36,218.625 1881 25,805,363 332,283,045 39,984.844 397,660,262 40.315,609 1882 28,650,181 488,213,033 41,304,997 559.954,590 51,232,706 1883 26,662,808 419,821,081 52,712,306 505.931,622 44,913,079 1884 23,744,924 415,615,693 67,186.329 513,660,092 47,103.248 1885 21,750,619 458,243,192 81.037,992 574,628,180 50,257,947 1886 22,463,744 469,471,451 80.246,763 577,781,752 50.199,844 1887 25,816,000 480,845,811 76,062,875 592,803,267 46,824,933 1888 28,249,597 456,417,221 85,538,725 578.351,638 47.042.409 The other items, besides the illuminating and crude oils, which go to make up the total given in the above table, are " naphtha, benzine, gasoline, etc.," " lubricat ing," and " residuum " (tar, pitch, and all other from which the light bodies have been distilled). From the above table and that on page 289 it will be noticed that, while the production of exportable petroleum has 26 402 FOREIGN COMMERCE. decreased since 1883, the value of the exports has increased slightly since that time. The exports of illu minating oil have slightly decreased since 1882 ; those of crude and lubricating oil have considerably increased. A larger percentage of the mineral oil product of the country is exported than of any other product, except ing cotton.^ II. — IMPOETS. The following data, compiled from the reports of the Bureau of Statistics, will give a sufficiently complete and a comprehensive view of the nature of the imports into the United States. The imported articles, including those admitted free of duty and the dutiable, are thus classified : — A. Articles of food and live animals. B. Articles in a crude condition which enter into the various processes of domestic industry. C. Articles wholly or partially manufactured for use as materials in the manufactures and mechanic arts. D. Articles manufactured ready for consumption. E. Articles of voluntary use, luxuries, etc. The following table gives the amount in value of each of these classes imported during the years 1884 and 1885, and the average for the five years (1881-85); also the ad valorem rate of duty on the dutiable articles of each class, and the percentage relation of the ad valorem duty to the entire duty collected : -— 1 It will be noticed that the figures given for the production of petro leum on page 289 do not exactly agree with those found in the table here presented. In the former case the amounts stated cover the calendar year ^ in the latter they are for ihe fiscal year, ending June 30. For further infor mation in regard to the occurrence of the petroleum of Pennsylvania and New York, wliich is the only kind exported, see pages 281-291. 1884 and 1885. Average of Tears 1881-85. Tear. Free of Duty. Dutiable. Ad Valorem Rate on Dutiable. Per Cent of Total Duty. Free of Duty. Dutiable. Ad Valorem Bate on Dutiable. Per cent of Total Duty. 1884 A. 1885 192,589.286 86,559,991 1132,136,969 107,706,369 44.75 57.28 31.15 34.79 $86,851,648 86,066,234 $130,072,238 129,907,732 44.90 46.41 29.4730.57 1884 B. 1885 94,039,567 82,507,747 44,457,174 37,101,595 26.8225.48 6.28 5.33 97.895,97595,001,401 54,358.66849,163,985 29.96 28.67 821 7.12 1884 C. 1885 12,186,427 11,185,487 69.774,21661,045,053 26.48 27.88 9.739.61 11,719,623 11,850,883 66,492,197 66,169,652 29.42 29.01 9.87 9.73 1884 D. 1885 11.035.112 10.617,405 123,205.489 108,636,576 47.5448.28 30.86 29.58 10.207,857 10,504,966 135.602,292 133,155,050 47.2247.52 37.31 32 08 1884 E. 1885 1.429,873 2.041,604 86,721.27672,178,227 48.1250.84 21.9820.69 1,199,3221,453,551 78,128,835 79,690,207 51.0950.69 20.14 20.49 Total 1884 " 1885 $211,280,265 192,912,234 1456,195.194 386,667,820 aT. 41.6145.90 100.00 100.00 $207,904,425 204,877,035 $464,634,230 458,086,576 a.v. 42.06 43.05 100,00100.00 oH COH>td nf>¦ w w >> H o 404 FOREIGN COMMERCE. Of Class A by far the larger portion of the importa tions which are admitted free are tea and coffee, of which two articles together the average yearly value of the imports is about |65,000,000. Sugar is by far the most iraportant dutiable article, the value of the sugar and molasses imported during the years 1880 to 1884 ranging between $90,000,000 and $95,000,000 per an num, on which nearly |50,000,000 a year duty is paid. The only sugar admitted free of duty is that of the Hawaiian Islands, in accordance with a reciprocity treaty with that country. From these islands came during the years 1882-84 an araount of sugar equal in value to about $7,000,000. Other important dutiable articles, under the head of A, are fruits and nuts, of which an amount equal in value to $16,504,727 was imported in 1884. Of the non-dutiable articles belonging in Class B, and which may in general be designated as " raw mate rials," the most important are the following : hides and skins (not including fur skins), averaging in amount about $27,000,000 in value per year ; chemicals, drugs, and dyes, nearly $17,000,000 ; unmanufactured silk,, over $13,000,000 ; India-rubber, gutta-percha, about $13,000,000; crude paper stock, nearly $6,000,000; and tin. in blocks or granulated, about $5,000,000. Of the dutiable articles in Class B, flax, hemp, jute, and other textile grasses constitute a large item — namely, about $10,000,000 a year; wool and hair, nearly $13,000,000. The imports of iron-ore, pig and scrap iron, and of steel in the form of billets, blooms, ingots, etc., varied greatly in amount and value during the years 1880^84, being less than one third as much in 1884 as IMPORTS: GENERAL REMARKS. 405 in 1880 ; and a similar remark may be made in regard to the manufacture of iron and steel. But this subject will be found treated more fully under another head. Of Class C, the free list is made up almost entirely of chemicals, drugs, and dyes, a part of which are included in Class B ; also coir yarn, feathers, adhesive felt, and certain oils. Among the more iraportant articles in cluded in this category are : indigo, of the imports of which the value has varied during the years 1880-84 between one and a half and three and a half millions of dollars; and quinine, of imports of the salts of which the value was, in 1884, nearly $2,000,000. In the dutiable group of Class C figure most prominently soda and its salts, some other chemicals, furs, manufactures of gold and silver, and also of iron and steel, among which tin-plates — an article of great iraportance — are included, as also manufactures of wood and leather. In this class opium in its various forms may be mentioned, the value of the imports of which varied between one and three and a half millions of dollars in the years 1880-84. In Class D, under the head of non-dutiable manufac tured articles, are included no items of any iraportance, except " articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of the United States returned," and " household effects of persons arriving in the United States, and of citizens of the United States dying abroad." Among the few manufactured articles, not included in these categories, which are admitted free, the following may be specified : " philosophical and scientific apparatus, etc., for the use of any religious or scientific institution, and not intended for sale;" "books which have been published more than 406 FOREIGN COMMERCE. twenty years;" "fashion plates;" "gold beaters' skins;" " bolting cloths ; " " platina for chemical uses ; " " fire wood, hop-poles, and railroad ties," etc. The total amount in value of all these miscellaneous non-dutiable articles imported varied during the years 1880-84 be tween one and a half and three millions of dollars, the item of " firewood, hop-poles, and railroad ties " being much the largest in value. Of the dutiable articles in Class D, the largest values are as follows : raanufactures of wool, A'^arying in value during the years 1880-84, between thirty and forty-two millions of dollars ; of flax, herap, and jute, very steady in value, the lowest year between 1880-84 being a little over twenty and a half millions, and the highest a little over twenty-two and three quarters millions of dollars ; of cotton, averaging $25,000,000, and fluctu ating in value from year to year somewhat more than the raanufactures of flax and herap. In Class E, the following articles may be mentioned as of importance : of manufactures of silk, the average value of the imports is about $35,000,000 ; of liquors and wines, about $10,000,000 ; of tobacco and cigars, about $8,000,000 ; of jewelry and precious stones, about $9,000,000 ; of cotton embroideries, an amount appar ently rapidly increasing, since it rose from a little over $3,000,000, in 1881, to over $10,000,000 in value in the year 1884, and was nearly as much in 1885. A comparison of the facts here stated with the figures already given of the manufacturing status of the coun try, together with a general knowledge of the nature of the consumption of the people, leads us to the following conclusions. IMPORTS: GENERAL REMARKS. 407 The exports of the United States are almost exclu sively articles to be used as food or raw materials of manufactures. Wheat is the most important simple article of food exported ; but the item of provisions, comprising meat and dairy products, is also one of great importance, as will be seen from the table of values of the exports of products of domestic agricul ture. Cotton is by far the most important raw mate rial to be used in manufacturing which is exported. Another item of great comparative importance is petro leum and its products, as will also be seen from the table of exports under that head. The overwhelming comparative importance of the exports of agricultural products from the United States is shown in the fact that for the years 1880 to 1885 these products formed from seventy-three to eighty-three per cent in value of the total exports from this country, the average for the six years being 77.52 per cent. The other items in the exports from the United States are extremely numerous; but aside from agricultural products and petroleum, there is no one of considerable importance. This statement may be illustrated by reference to the fact that, of the exports to Mexico during the year ending June 30, 1885, amounting to a total value of $7,370,599, aside from breadstuffs and other agricul tural products, the principal items were : manufactures of iron and steel, in value, $1,208,979 ; manufactures of cotton, $699,790 ; manufactures of wood, $317,475 ; mineral oil, refined, $237,278; gunpowder and other explosives, $235,821 ; chemicals, drugs, dyes, and medi cines, $202,799, etc. ; no other items reaching as much as $200,000 in value. Of very similar miscellaneous 408 FOREIGN COMMERCE. character are the exports to the Central and South American States. The total value of the exports from the United States to these States and to Mexico was, in 1885, $63,960,151. Finally, the great comparative importance of the commercial relations of the United States with Eng land and the English Colonies will be made apparent in the following tabular statement : — Statement showing the Value, in Dollars, op Exports from AND Imports into the United States for the Years 1884 AND 1885. Countries. 1884. 1885. Exports. Imports. Total. Exports. Imports. ToUl. Qr. Britain & Ireland British Colonies 364,885,570 66,999.069 139,339,238 69,253,682 539,938,831 153.701,912 389.293,150 74,498,075 160,645,681 79,203,837 639.938.631153,701.912 Gr. Britain & Colonies All otter Countries... 431,884,639 317.481,789 208,692,920 420,668,940 693,640,743684,987,545 463,791,225 224,458,573 229,849.518357,848,073 693,640,743 682,306,646 Total 749,366,428 629.261,860 1,378,628,288 688,249,798 687,697,591 1.275,947,389 APPENDIX. APPENDIX. SKETCH OF THE PEOGRESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL DIS COVERY ON THE PACIFIC COAST, AND IN THE CORDILLERAS OF NORTH AMERICA. TN 1513 Vasco Nuiiez de Balboa saw the Pacific Ocean, and -»- in the name of his sovereign took possession " of all the countries, shores, and islands of that sea, from North to South Pole." Prom this time forward it began to be admitted that the " New World " must form a separate and distinct conti nent, and was not a part of Asia, as up to that time it had been generally supposed to be. Fernao de Magalhaes (the Magellan of French and English writers), a Portuguese in Spanish service, entered the Straits since known by his name, Oct. 21, 1520, and after an ad venturous passage of three weeks through its intricacies, reached the Pacific, which he crossed in its widest portion. This most adventurous, most persistent, and greatest of all geographical explorers met his death at the hands of the natives on the island of Matau, one of the Philippines, April 27, 1521. In 1532 Fernando Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, began a systematic exploration of the region to the north of that of which the Spaniards had already taken possession. He reached the Peninsula of Lower California, met with various disasters, and finally returned to Mexico in 1537. Another expedition sent by him, under the command of Francisco 412 APPENDIX. Ulloa, iu 1538, was also unsuccessful ; one vessel having been injured at the very start and obliged to return, and the other, on which was the commander, having never returned or been heard of. The first person to cross the Continent by a route which led, for a portion of the way, through a region which is now within the limits of the United States, was Alvar Nunez Cabe9a de Vaca, who, with three companions, relics of the unfortunate expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez, after several years of residence among the natives along the route, finally succeeded in reaching the Spanish settlement at Culiacan. This was in 1536, the expedition of Panfilo having landed on the coast of Florida (probably in Tampa Bay) in June, 1528. De Vaca must have crossed the Rocky Mountains somewhere within what is now New Mexico, and he may have traversed a portion of Arizona. From the time of the firm establishment of the Spaniards in Mexico, their attention was more and more called to the region lying to the north. Rumors in regard to the remark able structures known to us as the dweUings of the Pueblo Indians began to be common, their size and importance being, as was natural, greatly exaggerated. These reports led An tonio Mendoza, the successor of Cortez in the viceroyalty of Mexico, to give directions that explorations should be extended toward the north from Culiacan, where a settlement had been formed ; and a priest named Marcos de Niza was sent, in 1539, in the direction of the wonderful cities. He started with two companions. Of these one was soon left behind on account of sickness, and the other was killed by the Indians. Niza, however, pushed on, and came in sight of a city, which, how ever, he did not dare to enter, fearing death at the hands of the Indians. On his return he gave such a glowing account of what he had seen that another person, Melchior Diaz, was sent in the same direction. He did not succeed in getting as far as Niza had gone ; and finally Francisco Vazquez Coronado, the Commandant of Culiacan, himself started in 1540, with a GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 413 body of no less than a thousand Spaniards and Indians. A part of the expedition reached Cibola — a place which we now know to have been Zuni, one of the " pueblos." Pedro de Alarcon bad gone up the coast at the same time that Coronado started, with two vessels, for the purpose of lending help in case of necessity, or of joining him if possi ble. Alarcon sailed up the Gulf of California, and ascended, for a distance of a hundred miles, the river which is now called the Colorado, but to which he gave the name of Rio de Buena Guia. His attempts to effect a junction with Coronado were not successful. After Coronado had established himself at Cibola he took measures to explore and get possession of the region lying still farther north. For this purpose various expeditions were sent out. One, under Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, explored the table-lands east and southeast of the Colorado, and became acquainted with the extraordinary topographical features of this region. Another party, under Hernando de Alvaradp, started to explore the country to the east and northeast. They reached the divide between the Colorado and the Rio Grande (del Norte), crossed the latter, and came upon the Pecos River — a branch of the Rio Grande which runs parallel with it for a long distance, but about a hundred miles farther to the eastward. In this region they heard continually stories of fabulous wealth of gold as abounding in places still more remote, but the expectations thus raised were never realized. Finally a chief was taken captive, and the party returned to Coronado. Again, in 1541, an expedition was started, under Coronado, with the object of pushing still farther in the same direction as that before taken. This party extended its explorations beyond the Pecos, and crossed the Arkansas, called by them Rio de San Pedro y San Paulo, which they reached in about a month's journey ; some natives whom they met giving them to understand that they had seen men of the same race be fore, who may probably have been Cabei^a de Vaca and his 414 APPENDIX. companions. From the description given by Coronado of the country through which this expedition passed it would appear probable that they reached the Missouri River somewhere in the northeastern portion of the present State of Kansas. An accident which happened to Coronado prevented hia carrying out his intention of making further explorations in this di rection ; and since no auriferous districts had been met with, the expedition was looked upon as a failure. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, in 1542, was sent out to explore the west coast of the Californian Peninsula. He passed the Cerros, or Cedros, Islands, and saw high mountains — the Coast Ranges of California — entered a bay supposed to be the Bay of Monterey, and went still farther north, probably reaching Point Arena. The expedition then returned south again ; and in January, 1543, Cabrillo died, leaving the com mand to his chief pilot, Ferrelo. After this another attempt was made to the northward, but there is considerable doubt as to the highest latitude attained. Probably 42J° was the limit in that direction. From this time forward the zeal for maritime exploration on the Pacific coast north of Mexico was greatly slackened. The rich silver-mining regions of Mexico and Peru began to attract general attention. The attempts to find a passage through to the Atlantic by going north from Mexico were failures ; but it was not until long after the time of Cabrillo that the mysterious " Straits of Anian," by which the Atlantic and the Pacific were supposed to be connected, disappeared from the maps and from the popular belief. In 1579 Sir Francis Drake appeared on the Californian coast. He had left England in December, 1577, on a piratical and privateering expedition, following the track. of Magellan until he reached the Pacific. Then he turned north, plunder ing and burning as he went. He is supposed to have reached latitude 48° ; and on his return southward he stopped for re pairs in the bay since known by his name, a little to the north of the Golden Gate. He called this part of the coast New GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 415 Albion — a name which long hold a place on all maps, except ing those issued under Spanish jurisdiction. Drake's expedition started the Spaniards into activity again. They feared that the English would get possession of the Pacific coast, either by way of the Straits of Magellan, or through the unknown but dreaded northern passage (Anian), and endeavored to block the way in both directions. More over, it was discovered that, owing to the nature and direction of the winds and currents of the Pacific, the return voyage from the Philippine Islands must be made in higher latitudes than the outward, and this carried the vessels toward and near the coast of California. This led the Spaniards to favor the idea of sending vessels intended for California from the Philippine Islands rather than by way of Mexico. In pursuance of this plan a ship was despatched, under command of Sebastian Rodriguez Cermenon, who reached the coast of California, and then was wrecked, probably in or near the Bay of San Francisco. It is very uncertain exactly where this occurred, nor does it seem likely that it was within the Golden Gate ; but it is in connection with this shipwreck (which took place in 1603) that we hear for the first time of the Bay or Harbor (Puerto) of San Francisco. Just at the close of the sixteenth century, the Spanish Government determined to make an effort to bring about the colonization of California. To that end Sebastian Vizcaino sailed from Acapulco at the beginning of the year 1596, with three vessels and such things as were needed for founding a settlement. An attempt was made on the Peninsula (Lower California) ; but the climate of that almost rainless region is by no means of a kind to encourage immigration, and the expedition proved an entire failure. Vizcaino, however, waa sent again three years later (in 1599), with two vessels of considerable size, and a much better outfit than that with which any preceding expedition had been furnished. He had an experienced pilot and a skilful cartographer. One of the ships, in command of Martin de Aguilar, was driven by 416 APPENDIX. a gale of wind beyond Cape Mendocino, which had been fixed as the northern limit of the exploration, because this was the point on the American coast which vessels bound from the Philippine Islands to Acapulco endeavored to make. Aguilar perhaps went as far north as Port Orford, but the precise latitude he reached cannot be definitely made out. This expedition of Vizcaino resembled very much that of Cabrillo, so far as the extent of country seen was concerned ; but the former had decidedly better opportunities than the latter for observing and describing the region examined. No light was thrown by this expedition on the whereabouts of the Straits of Anian ; nor was the plan for the colonization of either Lower or Upper California advanced by Vizcaino's voyages. If progress toward the colonization by the Spaniards of the Pacific coast north of Mexico was slow, so that during the seventeenth century but little was done to advance the geo graphical knowledge of that region, much greater success attended their exertions in the direction of New Mexico. As early as 1581 Augustin Ruiz, a Franciscan monk, made a journey through the valley of the Rio Grande, and returned with highly favorable accounts of the country he had seen. This led to the settlement of that region, under the auspices of the Government, aided by the zeal and wealth of Antonio de Espejo, who immediately after the return of Ruiz started with a large party of soldiers and priests for the promised land. Explorations were made in all directions from the valley of the Rio Grande, and were pushed north almost to the source of that river. The region to the west was also examined, as far as the Gila and the scene of Ooronado's earlier discoveries. A new province, to which the name of New Mexico was given, was organized. Juan de Oiiate became (in 1611) its first governor; and Santa F^,its capital, soon attained considerable importance, and was long the centre of trade for the whole extent of the Rocky Mountains through to the Columbia River. This was more than a hundred years earlier than the first GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 417 visits of the French explorers to any portion of the Rocky Mountain region. Indeed, at the time the French were first trying to acquire some knowledge of what we now designate as the Cordilleras, the Spanish were, and had long been, in possession of it, bad initiated the Indians into the use of the horse, and had even carried on considerable mining. It was long after the efforts of Vizcaino before anything satisfactory was accomplished toward the colonization of the Californian coast. The expeditions sent out were unsuccess ful, notably that of Isadoro de Atondo (1683-85), and finally the Government abandoned the idea, refusing even to lend assistance to private enterprises looking in that direction. In the early part of the eighteenth century, however, the Jesuits entered into the work of Californian colonization, and they established missions or stations, first on the eastern coast of the Peninsula, and later on the western or seaward side. Tlie name of Juan Maria Salvatierra is that best deserving to be known in this connection. His labors occupied the years 1697 to 1716, and the centre of his operations was the mission of San Loreto, on the eastern side of the Peninsula, in about latitude 26°. It was through his exertions and those of Father Kino (Kiihn), a Jesuit missionary stationed at Sonora, that the question in regard to the supposed insular character of Lower California was finally settled, or, at least, brought so near a settlement that there could be but little doubt remaining.^ About the same time that the Spaniards were establishing missions in Lower California, the Russians made their first appearance on the northwest coast of America. The explora tions of Veit Bering (or Behring, as he is more generally called by the English), a Dane in the employ of the Russian Government, fall between the years 1728 and 1741, in which 1 This question was not definitely settled until much later (1766), when Father Link advanced with a party by land around the head of the Gulf, to a distance of about a hundred miles from the mouth of the Colorado. 27 418 APPENDIX. latter year his death occurred, he having been shipwrecked on a small island in the sea which now bears his name. The furs brought back by Behring's expedition called attention to the Aleutian Islands ; and various private parties visited the region, which is the particular home of the fur-seal. In 1764 the Russians established trading stations on the Alaskan Peninsula, and from this time on the ships of this nation began to be seen on the Pacific coast of America. Early in the eighteenth century the French began to con sider the advisability of making explorations to the northwest of the Great Lakes, with the idea of reaching the " Sea of the West " (the Pacific) by means of a connected chain of lakes and navigable rivers — a theory in regard to the geography of the northern part of North America which long held possession of the French mind, and in accordance with which their maps were drawn. It was a delusion somewhat similar in character to that of the existence of the Straits of Anian. Up to almost the end of the eighteenth century maps published in France represented a great river (the River of the West), with lake-like expansions, extending from Lake Superior westward to tide water (the Sea of the West). By some cartographers, how ever, this Sea of the West was considered as having an existence independent of that of the " Sea of the South " (the Pacific), and as forming a great interior sheet of water occu pying a large portion of the central area of the continent. In spite of the strong desire of many of the French explorers to penetrate the country lying to the west of their settlements, they never succeeded in accomplishing this ; in fact, they never even reached the base of the Rocky Mountains, and never had any realization of the vast extent and elevation of the mountain ranges which they would have had to traverse before the Pacific could have been reached. That they were aware, however, that the region which they desired to explore and occupy, if possible, was already in possession of the Span iards, is abundantly evident from the various ofiicial com munications sent from Canada to the home Government, from GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 419 early in the eighteenth century up to the time when Canada was abandoned by the French.^ The expulsion of the Jesuits from Lower California (in 1767) and the transfer of their missions to the Franciscans led to a greatly increased activity on the part of the Spanish Government. The fear of encroachments of the Russians on Spanish territory, and the desire of the Franciscans to show themselves worthy successors of the Jesuits, co-operated in hastening the exploration and settlement of the coast north of the California Peninsula ; and soon other nations joined in the work, so that by the end of the eighteenth century the position of the Pacific coast line of North America had been pretty accurately fixed, and the Straits of Anian and the River of the West almost obliterated from the maps. But there was still much to learn in regard to the interior, and it was not until nearly the middle of the present century that all the geographical problems in this region were solved. The extension of the Franciscan missions into Upper Cali fornia, and the occupation by the monks of that order of nu merous points in the coast ranges between San Diego and San Francisco, are events which have been so often and so fully described that it is not necessary to enlarge upon them. The indications given by Vizcaino,^ more than a century and a half earlier, were the guide in the establishment of these missions, and Monterey and San Diego were the points first selected. The name of Father Junipero Serra is that which most deserves mention in this connection, as it was to his zeal 1 In 1769 the longitude of a point on the Peninsula of California (St. Joseph) was fixed by Chappe d'Auteroche, an astronomer sent out by the French Government to observe the transit of Venus. This was the first approximately accurate determination of longitude on the Pacific coast, and it differed three degrees from that which had been previously generally adopted. ^ It was almost a hundred and seventy years after Vizcaino's visit to Monterey that Father Junipero reached that place (May 31, 1770), and, in concert with Father Crespi, established there the first Franciscan mission in Upper California, to which the name of San Carlos de Monterey was given. 420 APPENDIX. and intelligence that the successful establishment of these missions was largely due. The foothold thus secured at various points along the Upper Californian coast added greatly to the facilities for exploration in that region, and Father Junipero was most active in forwarding this work. At his solicitation various expeditions were sent up the coast, one of which was under command of Juan Perez ; but of this nothing was made known until the publication of Humboldt's great work on New Spain (Mexico) .^ Perez reached so high a latitude that he saw the Queen Charlotte group and Vancouver Island. The great navigator, James Cook, found traces of the former presence of the Spaniards in the harbor to which Perez had given the name of San Lorenzo, and which Cook called King George's Sound, the native name being (as was afterward ascertained) Nootka.^ Another Spanish expedition visited the northwest coast in 1775, or three years before the arrival of Cook on these shores. The name of the commander was Bruno de Heceta. Subordinate commands were assigned to Juan de Ayala and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, and Perez was also employed on this expedition.^ The ship under the command of Bodega reached latitude 57°, and a high mountain was seen and called San Jacinto. This was the Mount Edgcombe of Cook. The most interesting fact connected with Heceta's expedition is, that the mouth of the river first called " Ore gon " by the Spaniards, and now better known to us as the Columbia, was seen, but the surf on the bar was too heavy, and an entrance could not be effected. The name, of Heceta became a familiar one, because the mouth of the Oregon was known for a time as the " Bntrada de Heceta," and also as the ^ See Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne, vol. i. p. 333. ^ Cook's Third Voyage, vol. ii. p. 288. Cook here saw articles of Spanish manufacture in the hands of the natives, one of whom wore a silver spoon as a neck-ornameut. " The account of this expedition was written by the second pilot, Antonio Maurelle, and was published, in 1 781, by Barrington in his " Miscellanies." GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 421 " Rio de San Roque," which was the name Heceta gave to a headland to the north of the entrance (Entrada). Immediately after Ayala's return to Monterey, he started with the ship " San Carlos" — to the command of which he had been transferred during the Heceta expedition, in consequence of the insanity of the commander — for the purpose of explor ing the harbor of San Francisco, the entrance to which (the Golden Gate) had been discerned in the distance by a party travelling by land from Monterey. Ayala fully recognized the importance of this noble bay and harbor, and got a general idea of its configuration. Soon after, a more detailed survey was made, and a site for a mission selected. Santa Clara, about midway between San Francisco and Monterey, was also fixed upon for a similar purpose. The desire to ascertain something more in regard to the Russian settlements to the north, and the danger to be ap prehended from them, led to another expedition under the command of Ignacio Arteaga, and of Bodega, who had been associated with Ayala in the exploration of 1775. This party, starting in 1779, reached as high a latitude as that of Mount St. Elias (about 60° 21') ; but they had been preceded in these waters by English navigators. Cook was sent on his third voyage expressly for the purpose of settling the question whether there was a practicable pas sage between the two oceans around the northern coast of America. It was pretty well understood that there could not be any such passage except in a high northern latitude ; but the idea was still entertained that there was some way of getting through from one ocean to the other which might become of commercial importance. Cook sailed from Ply mouth July 12, 1776. Nearly the whole of the year 1777 was spent in exploring the islands of the Southern Pacific. Just at the close of that year the expedition crossed the equator, and discovering the Sandwich Islands on their route,i made 1 There is abundant evidence that the Sandwich Islands had been pre viously seen by Spanish navigators. In fact, a group of islands was repre- 422 APPENDIX. their way to the northwestern coast of America, in pursuance of the main object of the expedition. The coast was' struck in latitude 44° 55', and surveyed as far north as Icy Cape (about 70°), beyond which it was found impossible to penetrate.^ On returning to the Sandwich Islands, where he proposed to spend the winter of 1778-79 in making more detailed sur veys of this group, he met with his deatli, having been killed in a skirmish with the natives, the origin of which is not fully understood. One of the most important results of this voyage was the introduction to the knowledge of the English of the marine fur-bearing animals of the North Pacific, especially of the sea-otter.^ Cook's instructions contemplated the possibility of the dis covery of a " northeastern " passage (around the coast of Europe), in case the search for a " northwestern " one, in the opposite direction, should not be crowned with success. His sented on a chart captured ,by Anson, in his voyage around the world (1 740-44), in nearly the right latitude, but very incorrect as to longitude, which group must have been intended for the Sandwich Islands. It is remarkable that Cook, who must have been acquainted with this fact, did not make a search for these islands somewhere in the position indicated on the chart, in which case he would probably not have found them. 1 At this time the means of determining geographical position were so far advanced toward their present stage of perfection, that tolerably accu rate work could be done in the way of fixing the coast Une. Cook had a chronometer (a " watch or time-keeper," as he calls it), which he says was " a copy of Mr. Harrison's, constructed by Mr. Kendall." It was one which had " performed its part so well " in his second voyage. The com panion ship — the " Discovery," commanded by Captain Clerke — was similarly furnished. They were also provided with the sextant — that most important aid to navigators. ^ Kohl remarks, in relation to this point (United States Coast and Geo detic Survey Report for 1884, p. 584) : " The statement by Captain Cook in regard to sea-otter skins moved the commercial and seafaring world more than his geographical developments. The mention of them in the history of his voyage (published in 1 784) excited a strong spirit of enterprise, and induced ' a general starting for the northwest,' as there once had been for Peru and Mexico. All maritime nations were incited to action, and from 1 785 to 1 793 followed a series of private and public expeditions which, in less than ten years, made the northwest coast of America well known, though it had been a mystery during three centuries." GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 423 death prevented hia attempting to accomplish this. His suc cessor in command (Charles Clerke) sailed north again for this purpose, but went no farther than Kamtchatka, the men being exhausted with fatigue and exposure. He himself died on the return voyage. In 1790 the Spanish Government took regular armed pos session of the northwest coast of America, establishing them selves at Nootka, where they erected fortifications. After this had been done various explorations were made along that coast, among which that of Malaspina deserves mention, because he made determinations of latitude and longitude more accurate than those of previous Spanish explorers in this region.^ He also measured the height of Mount St. Elias, which appears to have been the first important mountain in America — or certainly one of the first — to have its altitude determined, although the earlier Tesults were only rough approximations.^ The voyage of John Meares to the northwest coast of America is of interest, because his narrative revived for a time the idea that there might be a navigable passage around or through the North American Continent. Meares was a private adventurer, sailing from Calcutta, and his expeditions were chiefly at the expense of British merchants resident in India. On his third voyage (in 1788) he was at Nootka, with two small vessels, of 200 and 230 tons burden, and he there established a trading-post, and explored the coast both north and south. At Nootka he met the American captain, Robert 1 Malaspina's determinations of longitude seem to have been about as near the truth as those of Vancouver. The accurate work of the Coast Survey has established the fact that the real coast line lies about midway between the position assigned by these two navigators. See Kohl in the Coast Survey Report for 1884, page 615. " In 1786 La Perouse measured Mount St. Elias (which was first seen and named by Behring in 1741), but his result (12,600 feet) fell far below the real height. Malaspina (in 1791) came nearer the truth: he made it 17,581 feet. Mr. W. H. Dall, of the United States Coast Survey, in 1874 made a series of observations from which the height was fixed as 19,500 J- 400 feet. 424 APPENDIX. Gray, and seems to have got from him the idea that he had gone around the land on which Nootka is situated (Vancouver Island), and had discovered an extensive inland sea, which Meares indicated upon the chart accompanying the narrative of his voyage, without, however, giving it any definite position or outline, at the same time greatly enlarging the size of ' Lake Athabasca, and putting it some twenty degrees west of its true position, as if with the idea of bridging over the inter val between the Canadian lakes and the Western Sea. This misunderstanding or exaggeration, on the part of Meares, of the explorations of Gray, and the inferences which he drew therefrom, together with certain purely fabulous narratives of pretended discoveries published not long before, and which seemed to furnish further evidence in the same direction, led some of the most eminent French geographers to revive the old, not yet entirely dormant, theory of a " Sea of the West," which was so prominent a feature on the charts published before and after the middle of the eighteenth century. The peculiar configuration of the northwestern coast of America ; the numerous narrow inlets extending far into the interior ; the belt of islands — some of which are of large size — whicli lines the coast from the Straits of Fuca north through twenty degrees of latitude ; the immense indentation on the Atlantic side, Hudson's Bay, the western border of which would have to be moved but very little farther west to mark the centre of the land-mass ; the great number and size of tho interior lakes which form an almost continuous water-way from Lake Superior, not to the Pacific or South Sea, as the early French explorers hoped and believed would turn out to be true, but to the Arctic Ocean — all this furnishes an excuse for the theory, which so long held its ground, that a communication between the two oceans in not too high a northern latitude would eventually be found. The English did not long allow the Spaniards to retain undisturbed possession of the country to which Drake had given the name of New Albion. The trade in furs and the GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 425 fisheries in the Northern Pacific had become of importance, and the naval power of England was too great to be withstood by Spain. Without coming to blows, the position at Nootka occupied by the weaker power had to be given up to the stronger, and George Vancouver was sent to take possession of it. This able navigator left England April 1, 1791, with two ships, the " Discovery " and the " Chatham," the latter com manded by W. R. Broughton. It would appear that the English contemplated the possibility of claiming the Pacific coast of North America as far south as the thirtieth degree of latitude, since Vancouver was ordered not to touch at any point south of that. He explored from Cape Mendocino north, and saw the mouth of the Columbia River, but did not enter, as there was a dangerous-looking surf on the bar, and he, of course, could not foresee of what importance this matter would be when the river and the adjacent region should come to be claimed by a power which had, at that time, hardly begun to exist. Meares also had missed this opening.^ While Vancouver was off the coast of what we now call Washington Territory, he met (April 29, 1792) Robert Gray, who with a ship named " Columbia " was making a second visit to the Pacific side of the Continent. This gentleman was recognized by Vancouver as having been in this region before as commander of the " Washington," and as the per son from whom Meares professed to have derived his informa tion in regard to tlie inland sea, of which mention has already been made.^ Gray not only set Vancouver right in tliis 1 The reason for this was clearly the heavy sea on the bar. He remarks that " breakers were observed to extend across the bay," and, after stating that the name of Cape " Disappointment " was given to the promontory, and that of " Deception " to the bay, he adds : " We can now with safety assert that there is no such river as Saint Roc [Roque] exists [sic^, as laid down in the Spanish charts." ^ See ante, p. 424. In reference to this Vancouver remarks as follows: " It is not possible to conceive any one to be more astonished than was Mr. Gray, on his being acquainted that his authority had been quoted, and the track pointed out that he had been said to have made in the sloop ' Wash ington.' " Voyage of Discovery to North Pacific Ocean, vol. i. p. 214. 426 APPENDIX. matter, but also informed him of the existence of a river, in latitude 46° 10', " where the outset or reflux was so great as to prevent his [Gray's] entering for nine days." This, as Van couver remarks, " was probably the opening passed by us on the forenoon of the 27th, and was apparently inaccessible, not from the current, but from the breakers that extended across it." After receiving this and other valuable information in regard to the coast, Vancouver continued his explorations in that region. He noticed and named many points adjacent to the Straits of Fuca ; notably Puget Sound and the Gulf of Georgia, as also the great volcanoes of the Cascade Range — Baker, Rainier, Hood, and St. Helen's.^ After further explo rations by Vancouver and Broughton, the commander of the expedition took possession of the country (New Albion), from latitude 39° 20' north to the Straits of Fuca. This was on the 4th of June, 1792. Later in the season Broughton succeeded in passing the dreaded bar of the Columbia, and explored that river, nearly up to its intersection with the Cascade Range, or for a dis tance of about eighty miles. The river had, however, been entered by Gray himself, after his interview with Vancouver, and previous to the visit of Broughton. Gray did not ascend the river to as high a point a§ did his successor, but anchored near the mouth, where he stayed for several days trading witli the Indians. In view of the popularity of the word " Colum bia " in the United States as a geographical designation, it is remarkable that the name given by Gray to this river, which had been previously called the Oregon (Rio de los Orejones) by the Spaniards, did not for many years meet with general acceptance. The river and the region adjacent to it, back as far as the Rocky Mountains, were generally known under the 1 Baker was named by Vancouver in compliment to one of his- officers, who were, in general, men of zeal and ability ; Rainier, after Rear Admiral Rainier ; Hood after Lord Hood ; and St. Helen's, in honor of the British Ambassador of that name at Madrid. GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 427 name of Oregon, both in tha United States and in Europe, until near the middle of the present century, when conven ience began to demand distinctive appellations for the two distinct things — the country itself and the principal stream by which it was traversed. Hence it became more and more customary to call the region north of California, extending for an indefinite distance east, by the name Oregon, while the river was designated as the Columbia.^ Before the cession of " Louisiana " ^ to the United States was an accomplished fact, Jefferson had made preparations for an exploration of that vast and vaguely limited region lying between the Lower Missouri and the Pacific. Meriwether Lewis and William Clarke, captains in the United States Army, were the men selected by him for this work. Imme diately after the cession had taken place they started, with a party numbering in all about forty persons. Their original intention was, starting from St. Louis, to spend the winter of 1803-4 at La Charrette, the highest settlement on the Mis souri, so as to be able to push forward early the next spring. The Spanish commander of the province, not having received any official notice of its transfer to tlie United States, did not consider himself authorized to allow the party the privilege of passing through Spanish territory ; so that they were obliged to camp outside of his jurisdiction, at the mouth of Wood River, where they passed the winter in disciplining the men and making necessary preparations for the arduous journey before them. They finally started May 14, 1804. The winter of 1804-5 was spent among the Mandan Indians, not far from the site of the present town of Bismarck. The next year was 1 See the author's " Names and Places," pp. 28-75, where this matter is treated with considerable detail, and the origin of the name " Oregon " explained. It is the Spanish Orejon, " big ear " — the designation in that language of a tribe of Indians living high up on the river, and chiefly known to us by the French name, " Pend' Oreilles," from the habit which they formerly had of enlarging the lobe of the ear to a monstrous size by the insertion of metal or wood into a cut made for that purpose. 2 See ante, p. 253. 428 APPENDIX. devoted to an exploration of the head-waters of the Missouri, and in July they crossed the Rocky Mountains and reached the Columbia River, down which they travelled, coming in sight of the Pacific — "the object of all our labors, the reward of all our anxieties," as Clarke, the historian of the expedi tion, remarks — Nov. 7, 1805. The winter of 1805-6 was passed on the coast, near the mouth of the Columbia, where much was learned of the character of the adjacent country, of its climate, and of the native tribes by which it was inhabited. Early the next spring the return journey was begun, and by dividing the expedition into two parties, over a portion of the route, the area reconnoitred was considerably enlarged. The whole company, after reunion at the mouth of the Yellow stone, reached St. Louis in safety and without having met with any serious mishaps, Sept. 23, 1806. The publication of the full report of this expedition was considerably delayed by the death of Captain Lewis. ^ The map by which it is accompanied gives a general idea of the vast region lying at the head of the Missouri, and of two of the principal branches of the Columbia, Clarke's and Lewis's Forks — or Snake River, as the latter is now generally called. Of the course of the main Columbia, to ttie north of the pres ent boundary of the United States, little or nothing was found out. The topography of the Rocky Mountains is indicated, but — as would naturally be expected — with but a vague approach to correctness. The most striking error of the map is in regard to the course of the Willamette (called by Lewis and Clarke the Multonomali), which is made to head far to the southeast, in the vicinity of the sources of the Rio Grande (Rio del Norte) as laid down by them, and not very far from the real position of Great Salt Lake. On the whole, how ever, this map and report formed a most important addition to the existing stock of knowledge in regard to a vast and previously cartographically unknown region. 1 Both the American and English editions of this Report bear the date of 1814. GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 429 At about the same time with the starting of Lewis and Clarke's expedition, the Russians, who had already estab lished themselves at' Sitka, made an attempt to open com munication with Cahfomia. Two ships were sent from St. Petersburg in 1803, under' command of A. I. von Krusenstern and U. Lisiansky. A portion of this party reached San Fran cisco in April, 1806, and there made purchases of pro visions, with which they returned to Sitka. This expedition led the Russian Government to take up the idea of found ing a permanent settlement on the coast far to the south of Sitka ; but this was not effected until several years later. In 1812 a party, sent from Sitka by the Russian governor of that post, established themselves at Bodega Bay, near the mouth of a stream now known as Russian River, only fifty miles north of San Francisco, and held their ground at that point for nearly thirty years, in spite of the opposition of the Spaniards, who, however unwilling they were to see that region taken possession of by the Russians, had no naval force with which to drive them away. It was not until the year 1841 that the Russians themselves were obliged to yield to superior power, and retire from the Pacific coast of North America — at least from all except that portion of it which lies to the extreme north. The time was rapidly approaching. when the region in question would be divided between the two strong powers, England and the United States, to whom Spaniards as well as Russians would have to yield their claims. Previous to and during the efforts of the United States Government to find out something of the geography of the vast area embraced between their most western settlements and the Pacific coast, much information had been gained, both with regard to that portion of this area which is comprised within the present limits of the United States and that which lies still farther north, by the explorations set on foot by the fur-companies engaged in trading with the native inhabitants. As early as 1789 Alexander Mackenzie, in the employ of the 430 APPENDIX. North West Company,^ had reached the mouth of the river called by hjs name, and seen the Arctic Ocean. Simon Eraser, an agent of the same Company, in 1806 crossed the mountains near the source of the river which bears his name, but which river had been previously seen and navigated for a short dis tance by Mackenzie in 1793.^ Samuel Hearne had, however, long before Mackenzie — July, 1771, namely — reached the Arctic Ocean by way of the Copper Mine River, starting from Fort Churchill on Hudson's Bay. This river had become known to the officials of the Hudson's Bay Company as early as 1715, or immediately after the establishment of the " factory " at that locality, specimens of copper having been brought there by the natives. Indeed, as early as 1719 an attempt was made by the Company to find the place where the metal was obtained, and also at the same time " by God's permission, to find out the Straits of Anian, in order to discover gold and other valuable commodities to the northward." For this purpose two vessels were despatched from Gravesend ' by the Hudson's Bay Company, in June, 1719, under command of James Knight, who had been many years Governor at the different factories on Hudson's Bay, and who had made the first settlement at Fort Churchill. For many years nothing was heard from this expedition, and it 1 This was one of the two great English fur-companies controlling for many years the western portion of the region which we now call British America : the other was the Hudson's Bay Company. After years of quar-' rels — and sometimes these quarrels were on a sufficiently large scale to be properly designated as war — the two rival concerns were united, in 1821, under the name of the Hudson's Bay Company. 2 Mackenzie made an attempt to descend this river, which he reached in crossing over the divide between it and Peace River, in about latitude 54° 30'. Having learned from the natives that it emptied into salt water, but was greatly obstructed by rapids, he retraced his steps and made his way to the Pacific by land, reaching it at a point on the Bentinck Arm, where is now a settlement called New Aberdeen. The river which we now know as the Fraser was first called the Tacoutche Tesse (Tesse being the equivalent of " river " in the Chipewyan tongue), and this name is seen on maps published in England as late as 1832. As late as 1811 Humboldt was uncertain whether the Tacoutche and the Columbia were not the same river. GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 431 was for a long time the general belief that Knight had made the northwest passage and " gone through it into the South Sea, by way of California." In 1767, however, proof was obtained, by one of the expeditions annually sent northward to trade with the Esquimaux, that both vessels had been wrecked in the Bay. Hearne, in his narrative of his important explorations, takes occasion to exonerate the managera of the Hudson's Bay Company from the charge brought against them, that they were " averse to making discoveries." He speaks of various efforts made to find a northwest passage as proofs that the " present members are as desirous of making discoveries as they are of extending their trade." Indeed, it is well known that the expeditions sent out by the British Government, during the first half of the present century, in search of a northwest passage were very much aided in their work by the Hudson's Bay Company. Franklin, Richardson, and others, who from 1819 on were engaged in the arduous duty of tracing out the north coast of America, all make it clear in their reports that their explorations could not have been carried on, except under the auspices and with the aid of the Company .^ The Hudson's Bay Company had their centre of operationa for the Pacific coast region, from 1824 on, at Fort Vancouver; and the whole country drained by the Columbia and Fraser Rivera and their branchea waa occupied by them and under their exclusive control. This region was then known almost exclusively as the " Oregon country." As early as 1809 John Jacob Astor began his efforts to establish a foothold on the Pacific coast, and these were con- 1 Washington Irving, in " The Rocky Mountains, or Adventures in the Far West," 1837, vol. ii. p. 243, says : " From their emporium of Vancouver, companies are sent forth in every direction, to supply the interior posts, to trade with the natives, and trap upon the various streams. They thread the rivers, traverse the plains, penetrate to the heart of the mountains, extend their enterprises northward, to the Russian possessions, and south ward, to the confines of California." 432 APPENDIX. tinned until the War of 1812 forced him to sell out his estab lishment at Astoria to the North West Company. The Rocky Mountains south of the region yisited by Lewis and Clarke were explored by an expedition under command of Lieutenant Z. M. Pike, of the United States Army, in the years 1805-7. He went as far as the sources of the Arkan sas River, and crossing a divide, saw a stream running in a northeasterly direction, which he supposed to be the Yellow stone (Pierre Jaun, he calls it), and which may have been one of the branches of the Grand, which unites with Green River to form the Colorado, or perhaps some tributary of the Platte.^ The name of Pike was, for a number of years, a familiar one throughout the West ; since the time when the mineral wealth of the region now known as the State of Colorado began to attract immigration, that part of the coun try was generally designated as the " Pike's Peak country," and the emigrants thither as " Pike's-Peakers." It was not long after Pike's explorations were completed that Humboldt's map, accompanying his great work on New Spain, was published.^ This map, the northern limit of which is the paraUel of 42°, contains all that its author had been able to collect, during his stay in Mexico, in regard to the region which had been so long in the possession of the Mex ican-Spanish race. Two great chains of mountains are indi cated upon it. One is -drawn near to and parallel with the Pacific coast, extending from the southern end of Lower California through to the northern limit of the map ; the other stretches through the whole extent of the Continent, bending north near the present boundary of Mexico, and following approximately the 109th meridian (west of Paris) 1 General Warren thought this stream to have been on the west side of the Continental divide ; but the details of Pike's map are so vague, and the latitudes so erroneous, that it does not seem possible to say positively what . river it was. ^ This map, compiled from Humboldt's materials by J. B. Poirson, bears the date of 1811. GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 433 to the 42d parallel. The Sierra Nevada is also vaguely indicated as a short range, in about its proper position with reference to the Coast Range, and ia called the Sierra San Marcoa. Between that range and the eastern one, which is designated as the Sierra de las Grullas, there is a broad area, occupying the region which we now call the Great Basin, in which are shown two large lakes, with limits undefined to the west ; one of which is described in the engraved text as being a saline lake of unknown extent, and the other is called Lake Timpanogos, and its existence said to be doubtful.^ An expedition sent by the United States Government in 1819-20, under command of Major S. H. Long, of the Topo graphical Engineers, did something toward elucidating the geography and natural history of the region lying near the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. This party was pro vided with a scientific corps, consisting of a zoologist, a botan ist, an assistant naturalist, and also a landscape painter. The account of the expedition was edited by Edwin James, who held the position of botanist and geologist, and was published in 1823. The two best-known peaks (although not the highest) of the Rocky Mountains bear the names of Pike and Long.^ The various expeditions mentioned above, and othera of leaa importance, for a notice of which it is not possible here to find room, gave a general idea of the Cordilleran region in that portion belonging to the Rocky Mountains proper, as well as of the Columbia and Colorado basins. Up to 1837, however, nothing definite had been ascertained in regard to that part of the country which is now known as the " Great Basin." Maps published in thia country and in Europe during the first third of the present century represented the region lying 1 This information seems to have been taken from one of the maps ac companying Pike's Report, copyrighted in 1808, but of which the titlepage bears the date of 1810. 2 The mountain now known as Pike's Peak was first ascended by James, of Long's expedition, and in' their report it is called James's Peak. It seems, however, to have early become known to the emigrants to that region under Pike's name, and was so designated by Fremont in his Reports. 28 434 APPENDIX. between the Colorado and Snake River, or the Lewis Fork of the Columbia, as traversed by rivers heading in the Rocky Mountains and running nearly due west to the Pacific. San Felipe, Buenaventura, Timpanogos, and Los Mongoa were the more uaual names of these hypothetical streams; but there was little uniformity among the map-makers with regard either to their nomenclature or position. Humboldt's map was much more correct in this respect than most of those published twenty years later, since he gave no encouragement to this theory of the drainage of the Great Basin ; on the contrary, his Buenaventura River ends in Salt Lake, and thus correctly indicates the stream which we now know as Bear River.i B. L. B. Bonneville, of the United States Army, obtained leave of absence, but no pecuniary assistance, from the Gov ernment, and started in 1832, with the design of exploring the unknown portion of the Cordilleran region. The expenses of this exploration were to be paid from profits which might be gained from trading with the natives, or by information col lected in regard to facilities for new commercial enterprises.^ ^ The present writer has within ten years purchased in London and on the Continent, from prominent map establishments, maps offered for sale as including all the newest investigations, on which the drainage of the region between the Colorado and the Columbia is represented as it was generally assumed to be before the existence of a closed basin between these two rivers had been made known by Bonneville. '^ Captain Bonneville did not return from his adventurous expedition until 1835, and, nothing having been heard from him at the War Depart ment, his name had been dropped from the Army Register. He was, how ever, restored to his rank, served with distinction, and was wounded in the Mexican war. He was put on the retired list in 1865, having previously been brevetted Brigadier-General for " long and faithful services," and died in 1878. His journal was edited by Washington Irving, and published in 1837, with the title of " The Rocky Mountains ; or. Scenery, Incidents, and Adventures in the Far West." Irving had no personal knowledge of the region explored by Bonneville, neither had he any special interest in geo graphical discovery ; hence much is lacking which might have been included in the work if Bonneville had been able to ha,ve his leave of absence from the Army prolonged, so that he could himself have written out his observa tions in full. GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 435 Bonneville wandered over a large part of the country between the Snake and the Colorado. He waa unquestionably the scientific discoverer of the existence of the Great Basin. One of his parties descended the river then known as Ogden'a River, but afterward called the Humboldt by Fremont, reached its " sink," and then croaaed the Sierra Nevada, and made their way to Monterey. From here they went round the -southern end of the Sierra, and returned — in part, at least — by way of the old Santa F^ trail, thus making a nearly complete circuit of the Great Basin.^ J. N. Nicollet, a Savoyard, who came to thia country about 1831, waa a skilful practical astronomer, and he did a large amount of valuable geographical work in the years 18§6-43, first on his own private responsibility, and later in the employ of the Government. The field embraced by his labors waa chiefly the region about the head of the Mississippi, now included within the State of Minnesota. He was the first scientific explorer in this country who used the barometer with skill on an extensive scale, for hypsometrical purposes ; and it was from him that Fremont learned the use of this instrument, and methods of determining geographical posi tions in the field. The expeditions of Fremont may be said to form the close of the " reconnaissance stage " of geographical work in the Cordilleras. This energetic explorer was far better fitted out for his work than any of his predecessors had been. He was 1 General Warren remarks, in regard to Bonneville's explorations, as follows : " Captain Bonneville's maps are the first to correctly represent the hydrography of this region west of the Rocky Mountains. Although the geographical positions are not accurate, yet the existence of the great in terior basins, without outlets to the ocean, of Great Salt Lake, of Mary's or Ogden's River (named afterward Humboldt by Captain Fremont), of the Mud Lakes, and of Sevier River and Lake, was determined by Captain Bonne ville's maps, and they proved the non-existence of the Rio Buenaventura and of other hypothetical rivers. They reduced the WaUamuth or Multo- nomah (Willamette) River to its proper length, and fixed approximately its source, and determined the general extent and direction of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers." (I. c. p. 33.) 436 APPENDIX. bimaelf, aa already mentioned, skilled in the use of portable instruments for hypsometrical and astronomical purposes, and — which was of inestimable advantage — he had with him an excellent professional topographer, Charles Preuss ; and from their combined labors excellent results might reasonably be expected. Fremont's first expedition, in 1842, was up the Platte to the Sweetwater, then to the Wind River Range, and back down the North Platte. The reports of thia and of the next expedi tion — that of 1843-44 — were issued together, and were for a time much more widely circulated and read than any other geographical documents ever published in this country. The second expedition started from Kansas in May, 1843. They followed up one of the branches of the Platte through the Laramie Hills, and up the Sweetwater to South Pass, which was then supposed to be the only practicable route for a rail road across the Continent. Then by a circuitous route they reached Snake River, along which they travelled nearly to its junction with the Columbia, which they followed as far as the Dalles. Thence the party made their way down the east side of the Cascade Range, by Mud and Pyramid Lakes, and along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, which they crossed in mid-winter, amid many hardships, finally reaching the ranch of Captain Sutter, on the Sacramento. Prom this point the journey back was made down the Tulare Valley, around the southern end of the Sierra, and through the southern portion of the Great Basin to the Parks of the Rocky Mountains, and down the Arkansas, back to the starting-point, which was reached after fourteen months of almost continuous and arduous journeying. Another expedition was made in 1845-46, but no detailed report of this was published. In_1848, however, a pamphlet entitled " A Geographical Memoir upon Upper California " was issued, and it was accompanied by a map, which gave a rSsumS of Fremont's work, and which was greatly in advance of anything which had previously appeared. Indeed it may GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 437 be said, with truth, that it waa the firat map of the Cordilleran region which made anything more than the most distant ap proach to correctness. On it the main geographical features of that part of the country are more or less distinctly indi cated : the Parks, and the general features of the Rocky Mountains as far north aa the Platte ; the Wahsatch Range ; the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range ; the Coast Ranges of California ; the general character of the Great Basin ranges — very imperfectly represented, however ; the Great Lava Plain of the Columbia, with indications of the Salmon River and Blue Mountains — these are the principal features in the topography of the region which are here seen on Fremont'a map for the first time, in their ensemble delineated with some approach to correctneas, so far as general features are concerned, but of courae without any attempt at accuracy of detail. With Fremont'a work the epoch of geographical exploration cloaed, and that of proper cartographic work began. The war with Mexico, the wresting of California from the Spanish- Mexicans, and the discovery of gold along the slopes of the Sierra Nevada — these events succeeded each other with rapidity, and it soon became apparent that a more accurate geographical knowledge of the vast region of which possession had been taken was a matter of necessity. 438 APPENDIX. B. SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN CARTOG RAPHY DURING THE PAST HALF-CENTURY. THE establishment of the United States Coast Survey was the beginning of accurate cartographic work in this country. Previous to that there had been nothing but more or less inaccurate surveys, made chiefly by chain and compass — always more or less erroneous — and there had been no deter minations of latitude and longitude which were anything more than rough approximations to correctness. The United States Coast Survey, or " Coast and Geodetic Survey," as it is now called, was started in 1807, under the direction of F. R. Haaaler, who remained its Superintendent until his death, which took place in 1843. During a consider able portion of this time, however, the work had been inter rupted by the war with England. In 1844 Alexander Dallas Bache was appointed the successor to Hassler ; and under liis most admirable management the work gained rapidly in scope, accuracy, and rapidity of execution. Bache, whose executive and scientific abilities were equally great, was able to secure from Congress the appropriations necessary for carrying on the work on both sides of the Continent, and in a considerable number of independent sections. That which waa done under his direction was fully up to the standard of modern exact science. He retained the nominal Superintendency until his death, in 1867 ; but some years before had been obliged to retire from active participation in the work, in consequence of the breaking down of his health — the result of manifold cares and responsibilities incident to the Civil War. In 1870 a considerable enlargement of the scope of the Coast Survey took place, having for its object the extension of its triangulation " ao as to form a geodetic connection CARTOGRAPHIC PROGRESS. 439 between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States;" and the next year a still further provision was made by Con gress, to the effect that the Coast Survey " shall determine points in each State in the Union which shall make requisite provision for its own geological surveys." Under these new conditions a belt of primary triangulation is now being ex tended across the country, having been begun in several distinct sections, and work of a similar character has been done along the Appalachian Range. Various geographical positions have also been determined with accuracy, on the coast and in the interior, by the aid of the telegraph. A similar survey of the Great Lakes has been made, under a separate organization, and this work has also been carried on in a highly creditable manner. Theae surveys furnish the basis for cartographic work of a more detailed character ; and those States which lie upon the Atlantic coast, and wliose area is comparatively small, have thus been furnished with that whicli will be of great value to them, in case they wish to proceed farther and supply them selves with accurate maps. Much geographical information has been obtained through the operation of the so-called " Land Office Surveya," the primary object of which is to furnish the necessary data for the sale of the public lands ; as a preliminary to which some kind of a map or diagram is needed, on which theae lands are located, and the position of the subdivisions offered for sale indicated by lines, accompanied by a more or less complete statement of the character of the region surveyed. The Land Office Surveya, being done with chain and com pass, can make no pretension to any considerable amount of accuracy ; and, in fact, the so-called " meridian linea," which should have the same longitude throughout their whole length, have been found on examination to be more or leaa crooked, aa might have been expected, from the nature of the methoda employed in the work. This system of public surveys has been useful for cutting up the land and bringing it rapidly 440 APPENDIX. into the market ; and perhaps no better method could, under the circumstances, have been devised : it is evident, how ever, that it is much better adapted for the great level or gently undulating plains of the Mississippi Valley, than for the mountainous region of the Cordilleras. Lines cannot be run with the compass with any approach to accuracy over lofty mountain regions ; hence, while the Land Office Surveys have furnished useful maps of the central portion of the country, tliey have been of but little assistance farther west, wliere narrow valleys and precipitous ranges alternate with each other in close proximity. In addition to the work of the Coast and Lake Surveys, considered as furnishing material for an accurate geographical map of the "country, the various Boundary Surveys, made by joint commission of the nationalities interested, should be mentioned. That of the Mexican boundary line, executed under the direction of Major Emory, should be especially noticed, as being worthy of high commendation for the care with which the work was planned and executed. The limits of the country on all sides, whether bounded by ocean or by land, may therefore be considered as having been satisfactorily determined ; while the Land Office Surveys, limited of course to the national domain, furnish much detailed material which can be utilized, after a net-work of accurately established points has been obtained into which these details can be fitted. Some of the States have availed themselves to a limited extent of the provision, mentioned above, by which the Coast Survey is authorized to furnish the primary triangulation, when assurance has been given that this will be utilized for more detailed work of a geographical and geological charac ter. New Hampshire and Kentucky appear to be the States where the most has been done in this direction. Other States have begun, and some have completed, or nearly completed, geographical maps, either independently of aid from the general Government, or in connection with as sistance furnished by the United States Geological Survey. CARTOGRAPHIC PROGRESS. 441 Massachusetts began, in 1829, to consider the subject of " procuring such a map or maps of the Commonwealth as the public good requires." A triangulation was actually begun, and completed in 1839, of a fairly satisfactory character, con sidering the time and the circumstances ; but when the town surveys, made with chain and compass, came to be fitted into the net-work of triangles, according to the scheme of the sur vey, the result was, as might have been expected, far from satisfactory. The scale of the map (two miles and a half to the inch) was too small, and tho topography, or hill-shading, linartistic and hardly making any approach to accuracy. The State of New Jersey began, as early as 1864, the neces sary surveys for an accurate map, based on the Coast Survey triangulation ; and this work has recently been completed, in seventeen sheets, on a scale of" one inch to the mile. In this case the net-work of triangles was furnished, without expense to the State, by the Coast Survey ; and after the topographical details had been about half done, the further cost of com pleting the work was assumed by the United States Geological Survey. In Maasachusetts an arrangement was made somewhat similar to that adopted by the State- of New Jersey. In 1884 the Legislature created a " Commission of Topographical Survey," made an appropriation of |40,000, and authorized thia Commission " to negotiate with the Director of the United States Geological Survey for the joint expenditure of the ap propriation made by the Commonwealth with such moneys as the United States intended to expend in topographical work within the Hmits of Massachusetts." Shortly after the ap pointment of this Commission, a contract was made with the director of the Geological Survey, by which Massachusetts agreed to pay one half the expense of preparing the map, " provided the cost to the State did not exceed $40,000 ; the Geological Survey at the same time agreeing, that if the total cost exceeded $80,000, the additional expense should be borne by that Survey." As the result of thia arrangement a map 442 APPENDIX. is now preparing, and is nearly completed, which is on a scale of about one mile to the inch, and on fifty-five sheets, the mechanical execution being similar to that of the New Jersey map, and the elevations given by contour-lines at a vertical distance of twenty feet. That the triangulation on which the New Jersey map ia based is more accurate than that done for the map of Massachusetts would seem to be probable, since the work in the former case was done by the Coast Survey, and with more deliberation than in the latter. The State of Rhode Island has also made arrangements with the United States Geological Survey similar to those made by Massachusetts ; but as to how far the work has advanced toward completion the present writer is unable to give any information. In 1876 the Legislature of th'e State of New York organized a " State Survey," which was placed under the direction of a Board of Commissioners, and a Director appointed. The work was begun by a triangulation based on that of the Coast Sur vey, so far as this could be utilized, and waa continued for several years, when it came to an abrupt stoppage. Much attention has been paid to the intricate and interest ing topography of Pennsylvania by the Geological Surveys which have been carried on for many years in that State, and valuable detailed maps of various portions of it have been published. There has been, however — ao far as known to the preaent writer — no attempt made to prepare a gen eral map of this State, based on a systematic, accurate triangulation. A few words may be added in regard to the progress of cartography in the Cordilleran region since the time of the publication of Fremont's geographical memoir and its ac companying map. The annexation of the vast territory taken from Mexico, and the discovery of gold, with the consequent rush of emi gration to the Pacific side of the Continent, gave to this region a sudden overwhelming importance. But a very short CARTOGRAPHIC PROGRESS. 443 time elapsed before the idea of a transcontinental railrbad began to be a familiar one, and Congress was induced to organize a survey for the purpose of ascertaining the most feasible route across the mountains. The work was placed under the direction of the Secretary of War, and the execution of it intrusted to the Engineer Corps. Surveya were made along, or near, six parallels of latitude, aud were continued from 1852 to 1857. Little or no accurate work was done in the course of these surveys, and no points fixed with even as much care and skill as had been taken with the principal sta tions determined by Fremont. The results obtained were of the nature of a somewhat detailed reconnaissance, the moun tain ranges being sketched in with the eye from the valleys, without any triangulation basis. From all the materials obtained by these surveys a general map was compiled by Freihold, under General G. K. Warren's • direction, on a scale of about forty-seven miles to the inch, which included the region lying between the Mississippi and the Pacific. Much difficulty was met with In reconciling the erroneous and conflicting determinations of longitude over thia vast area, as is fully set forth in General Warren's Memoir accompanying this map,^ which may properly be con sidered aa repreaenting a stage of transition from reconnais sance to accurate work. In 1860 the State of California authorized a topographical survey of that portion of the Cordilleran region lying within its boundaries. This work was continued for some years, and quite a large portion of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Rangea mapped with considerable detail, and with some approach to accuracy. A portion of this cartographic work had been pub lished at the time of the stoppage of the survey in 1874, and notably two sheets of a map of Central California, on a scale of six miles to an inch, and which, if completed, would have embraced nearly half the area of the State, and covered the 1 This Memoir, to which reference has already been made, appeared in the thirteenth volume of the Pacific Railroad Report. 444 APPENDIX. region occupied by about nine tenths of its population. The only points on this map fixed with absolute accuracy were those taken from the Coast Survey ; but on it were shown, for the first time, in considerable detail, and with approximate accuracy, the topographical features of any portion of the Cordilleran region. As a sort of continuation of the California topographical work, and under the direction of one of the assistants on that Survey, Clarence King, a belt of country was mapped and explored geologically, about a hundred miles in width, and extending along the fortieth parallel, between the eastern border of California and the eastern base of the Rocky Moun tains. This work was based on a triangulation superior in accuracy to that of the California Survey, although not fully equal to that of the Coast Survey. The maps, however, were of great value, and marked a most important step in the cartographic history of the Cordilleras. This work, known as the " Fortieth Parallel Survey," and which was under control of the Department of War, was begun in 1867 and completed in about ten years. The geographical map is com prised in ten sheets, on a scale of four miles to an inch, the topographic features being represented in crayon-work, on stone, and the geological work exhibited on contoured sheets, the curves being drawn at vertical distances of four hundred feet. After the Fortieth Parallel Survey had been continued for about three years, the survey at that time being made of the Territories of the United States, under the direction of the Department of the Interior, and which had previously had no geographical basis, but had been simply a geological reconnais sance, was converted into a " Geological and Geographical Survey." This waa the so-called " Hayden Survey," under the direction of Dr. F. V. Hayden, who had for several years been engaged in the geological exploration of the Cordilleras. Under his direction, and with the adoption of the methods of the Fortieth Parallel Survey, much valuable geographical work CARTOGRAPHIC PROGRESS. 445 waa done, especially iu the region now embraced within the State of Colorado, of which State a complete geological and geographical map was issued on a scale of four miles to the inch. Later, this survey was continued through the Rocky Mountains to the north of Colorado, and several topographical maps issued, embracing portions of Wyoming and Montana. During the years 1869-78 considerable topographical work was done, under the direction of the Engineer Department of the United States, by Lieutenant George M. Wheeler. This work waa officially known as the " Geographical Surveys West of the 100th Meridian ; " but ia more commonly designated as " Wheeler's Survey." According to the plan adopted, a map was to be issued comprised in ninety-five sheets, on a scale of eight miles to an inch, and about fifteen of these were finished and given to the public. This work is on a considerably smaller scale than that of the Fortieth Parallel and Hayden Surveys, and inferior to them in point of accuracy. Considerable work was also done in 1876-77, under the direction of the Department of the Interior, by Major J. W. Powell, in Southern Utah and Southwestern Nevada. This survey was essentially geological and ethnographic in char acter, but some topograpliy was done in connection with it. While these various surveys were going on, with more or less duplication of the work, and without much system in the planning of the details, the attention of Congress was called to the matter, and the whole subject of national topographical and geological surveys was referred to the National Academy of Sciences, with the request that some plan should be sug gested by which these different surveys should be consoli dated, to the end that economy and efficiency might be pro moted. The final result of this movement was the cancelUng of all the then existing topographical and geological surveys, and the organization of a new one, called " The United States Geological Survey," which was at first placed under the direc tion of Clarence King, and of which J. W. Powell is now the head. The policy of this Survey has thus far been to work up 446 APPENDIX. certain districts or subjects, supposed to be of special impor tance, and to issue the results in the form of monographs. To thia end some careful topographical maps have been prepared of certain important mining diatricts, aa of the region adjacent to the Comstock Lode, of the Eureka District (Nevada), and of the Plateau Region of the Colorado. There has been no continuation, however, of work begun by the Fortieth Parallel, Hayden, and Wheeler Surveya, having for its object the gath ering of material for an approximately accurate general map of the whole Cordilleran region, and in that respect there has been little or nothing gained since their stoppage.^ No State in the Union has, up to the present time, matured any plan looking to the construction of a map made with suffi cient accuracy, and on a sufficiently large scale, to be regarded aa a finality. Neither has the Legislature of any State be come aware of the value and importance of such accurate surveys as have been executed in England and elsewhere, on the Continent, and in some of the Colonies of European States. The primary objects of such surveys are : to furnish the Gov ernment with the necessary data for fairly and accurately determining and apportioning taxation, and to render it pos sible for transfers of real estate to be made with ease and pre cision. To this stage of civilization no State in the Union has yet arrived, not even Massachusetts, with its comparatively dense population and small area. The maps used by the assessors, throughout the country, are the work of private individuals, and are certainly, in the majority of cases, more or less erroneous.^ ^ Detailed surveys have been made of the region adjacent to the Yel lowstone National Park, but these have not yet been published. 2 See various reports of the Board of Commissioners of the State Survey (of New York), and especially a report to the American Geographical Society " On the Uses of a Topographical Survey to the State of New York," made by James T. Gardner, January 26, 1876, and published in the Bulletin of that Society. BAROMETRIC HYPSOMETRY. 447 c. REMARKS ON THE METHODS BY WHICH THE ELE VATIONS OF THE MOUNTAINS OF THE UNITED STATES HAVE BEEN DETERMINED, AND THB PROB ABLE ACCURACY OF THE RESULTS OBTAINED. MUCH the larger proportion of the heights of the moun tains within our territory have been determined with the aid of the barometer ; hence' it appears desirable that a brief statement should be made in regard to the character of the results obtained by the use of this instrument, in order that readers who are not familiar with hypsometric methods may be able to form an opinion in regard to the probable value of the figures given in the preceding pages, in connection with the description of the physical features of the country. Jonathan Williams, an 'officer in the United States Engi neers, appears to have been the first person who used the barometer in thia country for hypsometrical purposes.^ As early as 1791 he travelled through Virginia from east to west, and made meaaurementa of the elevations he crossed in the Blue Ridge, and west to the " Alleghany Ridge." The results were communicated to the American Philosophical Society, and published in its transactions ^ in 1799. It ia impossible, however, to identify the points at which these observations were taken, so aa to judge of their correctness. In 1810 Alden Partridge made barometric measurements of a few points in the Catskills. The results aeem, ao far as his 1 General Williams was born in Boston, in 1752. He was a grand- nephew of Franklin, and was conspicuous in his day in various lines of em ployment. He was for a time Superintendent of West Point Academy. 2 Vol. iv. pp. 216-223. 448 APPENDIX. points of observation can be identified, to have been pretty close approximations to the truth.^ The elevations of numerous points in the State of New York were determined barometrically by the Geological Survey from 1837 on. Among the results thus obtained, and published in the Annual Report for 1838, ia a measurement of Mount Marcy — the culminating peak of the Adirondacks — its ele vation being there given at 5,467 feet. Professor F. N. Bene dict, in 1839, made another determination of the height of this mountain, obtaining as a result 5,345 feet above tide water, which differs only by a fraction of a foot from the elevation as determined later by the Adirondack Survey, by meana of the spirit-level. Profeaaor Benedict's other observa tions — which, however, were but few in number — led him to results which are, on the whole, remarkably near the truth. In a few instances the apparent errors are very considerable, indicating mistakes arising from duplication of names, causing uncertainty as to the identity of the point measured, or possi bly, in some cases, typographical errors.^ The elevation of Mount Washington, the culminating point of New' England, was early a matter of scientific investiga tion ; and barometric observations were made on the summit in July, 1804, which on computation gave for the altitude of this mountain 7,108 feet — a result more than eight hundred feet too great.^ Another meaaurement was made in 1816 by a party 1 Captain Partridge was born in Vermont in 1785. He, like General Williams, was for a time an officer in the United States Engineer Corps, and also Superintendent of the West Point Military Academy, and, later, of one or more private military schools of his own founding. He gives for the elevation above the Hudson River of Round Top, in the Catskills, 3,566 feet. Guyot gives " Old Roundtop " ¦ — supposed by the writer to be the same point which Partridge measured — as being 3,664 feet above mean-tide. 2 See Emmons's Report on the Geology of New York (Second Geological District), 1842, pp. 195-212. 2 Previous to this measurement the height of Mount Washington had been estimated at 10,000 feet. The observations of 1804 were taken by Rev. Manasseh Cutler and Professor W. D. Peck. The computations were made by Nathaniel Bowditch. (See Transactions of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Old Series, vol. iii. p. 326.) BAROMETRIC HYPSOMETRY. 449 headed by Dr. Jacob Bigelow, whose observations gave a much more satisfactory result, namely, 6,225 feet, or about sixty-five less than the real height of the mountain. This altitude was the generally adopted one until 1851, when Mount Wash ington was again measured by Guyot, and 6,291 feet obtained — figures which closely correspond with the real altitude, as determined by spirit-level. Two determinations were made by this means in 1852 and 1853, the former giving 6,285, and the latter (made under the direction of the Coast Survey) 6,293 feet. The principal source of information in regard to the eleva tion of the mountains of the Appalachian system is Guyot's paper, published in 1861, to which reference has already been made.^ This most important addition to our knowledge of the geography of the Atlantic aide of the United States con tains a tabular statement of the results of the barometric measurement of several hundred points, distributed along the whole length of the Appalachian system, from New Hamp- ahire to North Carolina. To the barometric reaulta are added various heighta obtained from railroad aurveys. The long experience of Guyot in the use of this instrument for hypso metric purposes, and the care with which the obaervations were taken, make these measurements especially valuable, and they may be safely adopted as pretty close approximations to the truth, where they have not been replaced — as is the case in regard to various points — by results obtained with the spirii>-level. It is here the proper place to introduce some statementa in regard to the nature and amount of the errors to be expected in barometric meaaurementa generally. Experience has shown that hypsometrical reaults obtained by the use of the barome ter are not, as a rule, to be depended upon, except as approxi mations, and that the degree of accuracy attainable depends on various circumstances and conditions. As waves of barometric change are sweeping over the 1 See ante, p. 22. 29 450 APPENDIX. country, the mercury rises or falls in the tube with greater or less rapidity, apart from any changes in the height of the instrument above the sea-level. This matter is quite familiar to all, and it is evident that the two points the difference of whose altitude ia to be determined ahould be aa near to each other aa they conveniently can be, so that both may, ao far as ia possible, be similarly affected by any change of the atmos pheric pressure which may be going on at the time the obser vations are taken, in accordance with the general movement of the isobars across the region. It is also evident that, other things being equal, a long aeriea of observations at the two stations ia likely to give more accurate results than a shorter one, because disturbances of the normal conditions of pressure are of a temporary character. But it is usually the case that the observer can remain on high mountains only a short time, and also that the point whose height is to be measured ia at a considerable distance from the station which is taken as the base, or where the corresponding observation is made. In practice, the routine followed, in order that the condi tions may be made as favorable as circumstances will per mit, ia, as far aa possible, thia : A number of pointa whose elevation is to be fixed are grouped around some centrally aituated point, whose altitude above the sea-level has been determined by the spirit-level, or in connection with an accu rate geodetic survey.^ When the height of the lower central station which is to furnish a common base for all the other determinations ia unknown, it is customary to establish it ¦with as much accuracy as possible, by keeping up as long a series of barometric observations at that point as circum stances will permit, so that the advantage gained in this way will be, in a measure, enjoyed in common by all the other stations which have their altitude fixed by reference to this. ^ Railroad surveys are important sources of information for such pur poses, and in general they furnish pretty close approximations to the eleva tion of points along their lines. This, however, is by no means always the case, as the writer has had occasion to learn by experience. BAROMETRIC HYPSOMETRY. 451 Where there is only one observer he must, of course, return to the central station after each observation or series of observa tions on the circumjacent points ; but it is usually so managed, in any survey of importance, that there shall be at least two observers, one of whom shall always be at the central or base station, where it is his duty to keep up a continuous series of observations, taken at short intervals of time. But, even with all these precautions, and with the best of instruments and most careful observers, there is another source of error, againat which it is impossible to guard, and for which allowance must be made — this allowance, however, not being the same in different regions and climates. The reaults of hypsometric determinations made with the barome ter vary with the season of the year and with the hour of the day, and vary differently in different climates — the amount of error dependent on theae conditions being much larger in some regions than it is in others. In general, the warmer the season of the year and the hour of the day, the greater the error in excess of the true altitude. In the colder season, and at the hours of the day when the temperature is lowest, the opposite takes place — the result is too low. The present writer having, during many years of experience in the use of the barometer as a hypsometric instrument, become convinced that such was the case, determined to put the matter in a practical form, by establishing stations at various points of known height, and continuing synchronous observations at each of them, long enough to furnish a guide to the nature and amount of the error due to those climatic conditions. For this purpose three stations were selected on the line of the Central Pacific Railroad, the elevations of which were assumed to have been accurately determined by the spirit-level surveys made under the direction of the Chief Engineer of that road. These stations were Sacramento, Colfax, and Summit, respectively, 31, 2,425, and 7,017 feet above the sea-level, the distance from Sacramento to Summit, in a straight line, being seventy-seven miles. A third station, the 452 APPENDIX. height of which had been accurately established, and at a considerably greater altitude than that of Summit, would have been desirable, but this enlargement of the plan was found to be impossible. Observations were made for three years at each of the stations mentioned, three times a day, namely, at 7 A. M. and 2 and 9 p. m. On carefully computing all the observations and investiga ting the results, it was found that, without exception, the barometric determinations of the difference of level between any two of the stations were always lower at morning and at night than at midday ; that the results were lower in winter ' than in summer ; and that, as a general rule, the lower the temperature of the locality, the lower the barometric result, and vice-versa. It was also ascertained that altitudes deter mined from daili/ means approximated most closely to the truth in February, September, and October, between Sacra mento and Colfax ; while between Sacramento and Summit the best results from daily means were obtained in the summer months from June to August ; and between Colfax and Sum mit the best daily means were to be expected in March, April, and September. It was farther ascertained that the mean of the day, for points in the foothills, was much too high during the summer, though not far from the truth in winter. Still farther, it appeared that midday observations gave results much too high all the year round in the valley and foothills, while the 7 a. m. and 9 p. m. observations, which agreed in the main with each other, gave results almost without exception too low all the year round, both between Sacramento and Summit, and Colfax and Summit. It was farther ascertained that the mean of the year was a little too high between Sacra mento and Colfax, too low between Sacramento and Summit, and very near the truth between Colfax and Summit. As furnishing a guide to the amount of the errors here in dicated, it may be stated that the computation showed that the mean of three years' observations at 2 p. M. for determin ing the difference of altitude between Sacramento and Colfax BAROMETRIC HYPSOMETRY. 453 (this being by railroad survey 2,399 feet) gave a result fifty- seven feet too high ; between Sacramento and Summit (6,989 feet), eighty-one feet; and between Colfax and Summit (4,590 feet), eighty feet. In January, on the other hand, these sta tions, in the order enumerated above, were found, from the mean of the day's observations, to be, respectively, eight, one hundred, and thirty-eight feet too low ; while in July the mean of the day gave results thirty-seven feet too high between Sacramento and Colfax ; seven feet too low between Sacra mento and Summit ; and twenty-six feet too high between Colfax and Summit. The 7 a.m. observations in January gave a result 165 feet too low between Sacramento and Sum mit ; while for the 2 p. m. observations in July between these stations the figures were 132 feet too high. Combining all the information obtained from this series of three years' observations, tables of corrections were computed, to be applied for each thousand feet difference of level indi cated by the uncorrected result, from the sea-level to twenty- four hundred feet, and from the sea-level to seven thousand feet. A careful examination of the barometrical work of the Survey, in various parts of the State, ahowed, as a probable result, that the errors of the barometrical determinations would, on the average, be reduced fully one half by the uae of these tables. Unfortunately these investigations were not completed, ao that the results became available, until after the stoppage of the Survey, and the tables thus prepared could only be used in the computation of elevations measured in the gravel-mining region. The table of heighta contained in the volume entitled the " Auriferoua Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California " were thus corrected ; ^ but these figures are, in general, not of special interest, except in connection with the more detailed study of a portion of the mining district of the State. All the other elevations published in the various reports of the State Geological Survey are, therefore, more or less in error ; and 1 See that work, pp. 527-552. 454 APPENDIX. as most of the measurements of high peaks are necessarily made in summer and near midday, the results are to be taken as being, in general, too high. The source of error pointed out above had not escaped the notice of barometrical observers in Europe, although at the time the present writer began his inveatigations this fact was unknown to him. Little practical use had been made of the knowledge which had been gained, and chiefly becauae baro metric hypsometry is of so much leaa importance in Europe than it ia with ua, moat of their elevationa having been deter mined with accuracy in the course of the various geodetic surveys there carried on.^ The necessity of a seasonal correction of barometric results Seems not to have escaped the notice of Guyot, since he re marks as followa in regard to this point : " When it was not possible to eliminate the errors due to the temperature of the air, by combining observations taken both by day and by night to produce a compensation, I have resorted to the aid of tables formed from a great number of experiments to be mentioned hereafter." ^ It does not appear, however, that any such men tion was made, or that the obaervations on which these tables were based have ever been published. All that can be done, therefore, to ascertain how correct Guyot's results were, is to compare them, so far as data are available for doing this, with determinations made with the spirit-level, or with those fur nished by the work of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Among the elevations given by Guyot there are some in which the error is so large as to lead to the inference that some mistake was made in the computation or in the copy ing of the work for the printer. This is notably the case with 1 See Contributions to Barometric Hypsometry : with Tables for Use in California, 1874, one of the publications of the Geological Survey of that State, pp. 51-72. See also pp. 25-50 of the same work for a detailed ac count of the investigations in California. ^ See the paper on the Appalachian Mountain System, to which refer ence has been previously made. American Journal of Science and Art (2), vol. xxxi. p. 162. BAROMETRIC HYPSOMETRY. 455 Monadnock — a summit in regard to the identity of which there certainly can have been no mistake. This mountain is given by Guyot (the figures are twice repeated) as being 3,718 feet high ; which is certainly much above the truth. If the spirit- level determination be correct, the altitude of Monadnock is 3,169 feet.i All the other results obtained by Guyot show, when they come to be compared with spirit-level or Coast Survey meas urements, too high an elevation for the point measured, with two exceptions : Killington Peak, which agrees exactly with the truth ; and Henderaon Lake, which falls nine feet below it. The average error of the remaining results (that is, of such as could be tested by comparison with spirit-level determinations) is twenty-six and a half feet — the maximum forty-six, and the minimum seven feet. From this it becomes evident that if a seasonal correction was applied by Guyot to hia results, it was not sufiiciently large. It can be assumed, however, that the figures given by this able and conscientious observer are never very far out of the way, except in a few cases where there has been some typographic error, or other inexplicable mistake. The obaervations of Professor Benedict, to which reference has been made,^ although few in number, are in general extremely near the truth — the discrepancy in the caae of Mount Marcy, for instance, being only three feet. Thia is the more remarkable, since his observations were made in July, and were certainly not corrected for the seasonal error.3 The various railroad lines traversing the country give the elevation of a great number of points, chiefly, however, of the I ^ This agrees very closely with various measurements made by the pres ent writer with aneroid barometers, the object of which was, however, not a determination of the elevation of the mountain, but a test of the working of the instruments used. 2 See anie, p. 448. " This is clearly a case of accidental compensation of errors. Guyot gives what seemed to him to be a satisfactory reason why Professor Bene dict's results should not be accepted in preference to his own. 456 APPENDIX. stations, which are towns, or settlements, in the valleys or on the divides, and, of course, not on the summits of mountains. The points thus determined, however, furnish excellent bases for the measurements of elevations in their vicinity, and have been already extenaively utilized for that purpose.^ The altitudea determined by the Hayden Survey, and espe cially those in Colorado, seem, from the methods adopted, which combined geodetic with barometric work, to be the most trustworthy of any which have been obtained in the Cordilleras.2 Important assistance was furnished to this Sur vey by the fact that the altitude of two prominent and cen trally situated mountains had been previously fixed by the spirit-level. The points thus determined were Pike's Peak, this having been done at the expense of the War Department ; and Mount Lincoln, measured by the engineer of the Denver and Southern Pacific Railroad, for the Hayden Survey. The height of Pike's Peak, thus determined, ia 14,146.68 feet, and that of Mount Lincoln 14,296.66 feet, above the mean surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The barometric measurements of the Fortieth Parallel Survey do not appear to have been corrected for the seasonal error ; at least no statement to that effect can be found in 1 See an elaborate investigation by James T. Gardner, published in 1875 as one of the documents of the Hayden Survey, and entitled " The Eleva tion of Certain Datum-Points on the Great Lakes and Rivers, and in the Rocky Mountains." In this pamphlet the attempt has been made to re concile, as far as possible, the conflicting statements of various railroad and other surveys, and to draw from them the most probable results. An exami nation of this investigation will show what discrepancies are often found in the profiles furnished by different engineers, and what uncertainty exists in regard to the elevation of important points. Thus, Mr. Gardner considered himself authorized in making a change of no less than 23.3 feet in the pre-t viously generally accepted altitude of the city of St. Louis. The present writer found himself in error to the extent of about a hundred feet in all the barometric points measured by him in Colorado, during the summer of 1869, in consequence of accepting the figures given him for the height of Denver by the engineers of two railroad companies for which surveys had been made with reference to entering that town. * See ante, p. 225. BAROMETRIC HYPSOMETRY. " 457 the publications of that Survey. As the error dependent on the time of the year and the hour of the day at which the observations were made becomes larger in going west from the Rocky Mountains, it is probable that the resulta obtained in the Great Baain are above the truth ; aince the field-work waa necessarily done during the summer season, and there were no spirit-level determinations by which the barometric results could be checked. The hypsometric work of the Wheeler Survey, ao far as the same can be checked by comparison with results obtained by the spirit-level, or by the Hayden Survey, seems to be decid edly less trustworthy than that of the other surveys of the Cordilleran region. Some of the very serious discrepancies seem to have resulted from careleaaness in copying or com puting, since the errors indicated are far too large to have been due to lack of a seasonal correction. In general, the hypsometric work of the Wheeler Survey can be regarded as only roughly approximating to the truth : no uae has been made of it in this volume.^ 1 See " A Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States," compiled by Henry Gannett, Chief Geographer of the United States Geological Survey, Washington, 1884. In this volume there is a list of altitudes obtained by railroad and other surveys, and by the use of the barometer, throughout the whole country. INDEX. INDEX. Abies, 192. Acacia, 186, 187. Acer, 178, 179. Adams, Mount, 112. Adirondacks, description of, 36, 37 ; forests of, 174 ; geology of, 36 ; scen ery of, 223. Agriculture, 369-388. Alabama, coal in, 271, 272 ; growth of cotton in, 380, 382 ; distribution of population in, 238, 239, 247 ; prairies of, 211. Alarcon, 413. Alaska, area of, 4 ; first trading stations established in, 418 ; purchase of, 255. Algarobia, 206. Alleghany District, Penn., petroleum of, 284. Alleghany Mts., use of name, 19-22 ; description of, 65, 66. Anahuac, Andes of, 30. Andes, the name, how used by Hum boldt, 29, 30. Anian, Straits of, 414, 415, 430. Appalachian System, 31-68 ; coal-fields of, 270-272 ; forests of, 174-177 ; geology of, 31, 41, 42, 48, 49, 52, 54, 57, 62, 65 ; nomenclature of, 17, 18 ; scenery of, 221-224. Arbor Vitse, 193. Arbutus, 201., Arctic current, influence of, on the cli mate of the Pacific Coast, 145. Area, of Alaska, 4 ; of British Posses sions, 4 ; of coast-waters, 3 ; of lakes and ponds, 3 ; of Mexico, 7 ; of the United States, 3, 255. Arizona, climate of, 144, 146, 149 ; population of, 289, 247. Arkansas, climate of, 149, 156 ; coal of, 271 ; forests of, 188, 190, 211 ; popu lation of, 239. Artemisia, 204. Ascutney, Mount, 38. Ash, 180, 181. Ash, Mountain, 187. AsHEDKNER, C. A., on natural gas, 293, 294; on petroleum, 283-286; on supply of anthracite coal, 278, 279. Asiatic current, the influence ot^ on Californian climate, 145. Aspen, 203. AsTOR, John Jacob, his settlement at Astoria, 431, 432. Astoria, rain-fall at, 158. Atlantic Belt, description of, 49-53. Atlantic Coast, precipitation of, 157; winds of, 149. Atlantic Coast Ranges, 54, 55. Atlantic Ocean, temperature of east and west sides of, compared, 139. Atlantic Slope, description of, 48-54 ; elevation of, 49. Au Sable Chasm, 222. Atala, expeditions commanded by, 420, 421. Azoic System, distribution of rocks of, 125, 126. Bay, Sweet, 186. Bays, 6-9. Bear Lodge, or Devil's Tower, 82. Bear River, course of, 76. Bear River Range, 76. Beaver, destruction of trees by, 176. Beaver District, Penn., petroleum of, 286. Beech, 184, 185. Behring, explorations and discoveries of, 417, 418. Benedict, F. N., barometrical measure ments by, 448. Betula, range and uses of, 182. 462 INDEX. Big Horn Mts., 80. Big Trees, 198, 199. Birch, 181, 182. Bitter Root Range, 79. Bituminous shales in California, 118. Black Dome, 56. Black Hills, Dakota, 80, 81. Black-jack, 180. Blanca Peak, elevation of, 225. Blue Mts., 79, 90. Blue Ridge, description of, 43, 55-57 ; geology of, 57. Bodega Bay, Cal., settlement at by the Russians, 429. Bodega y Qdadea, expeditions accom panied by, 420, 421. Bonaparte, cession of Louisiana by, 253. Bonneville, explorations of, 27, 83, 84, 434, 435. Bonpland, Mount, elevation of, 87. Boimdaries of the United States, 2, 251. Bowie, A. J., on hydrauUc mining, 315, 316. Bowlders, distribution of, 127. Bradford District, Penn., petroleum of, 284. Braintree, Mass., fossils found at, 42. Brea, in California, 118. Bridge, Natural, Va., 121. Bridger Basin, 75. British America, area of, 4 ; forests of, 173. Buckwheat, production of, 370. Burkesville, Ky., petroleum obtained near, in 1829, 282. Butler District, Penn., petroleum of, 285. Butte, Red, 101. Butternut, 182, 183. Cabrillo, expedition of, to the Califor nian coast, 414. Cactus, range of, 205, 206. Calaveras County, big trees of, 199. California, coal of, 271 ; foreign popu lation of, 265 ; gold in, 310-318, 338 ; gold discovery in, 265 ; precipitation in, 169 ; quicksilver in, 339-342 ; temperature of, 147 ; winds of, 150. Calumet and Hecla mine, 846. Camel's Hump, 38. Canada, boundaries of, 3; forests of, 173. Canoes, construction of, by the abori gines, 182. Canons of the Colorado, 96-102. Cardenas, explorations by, 413. CaroUna, cotton of, 381, 382 ; discover ies of gold in, 263 ; iron ores of, 206 ; mountains of, 228 ; plateau of, 66 ; population of, 238, 239, 246 ; precipi tation in, 156 ; swamps of, 191. Cartier, Jacques, first to see the Ap palachians, 17. Cartography, progress of American, 438-446. Carver, Jonathan, explorations of, 25. Carya, 182. Cascade Range, 103-116; geology of, 113, 114; name used by Humboldt, in Cosmos, 30. Castanea, 181. Castle Peak, in Colorado, 72. Castle Range, in CaUfornia, 230. Catskill Mts., 46-48 ; barometrical measurements in, 447 ; scenery of, 223. Cedar, 193, 194. Census of the United States, when first taken, 235. Central Valley, geology of, 122 ; winds of, 149. Centre of population, movement of, 237. Cercis, 188. Cereus, 205, 206. Chamaecyparis, 194, 200. Chestnut, 181. Cheyenne, fluctuations of temperature at, 164. Chinese, exclusion of, 248, 249. Chippeway Indians, cession of lands by, 264. Chippewayan, one of the early names applied to Rocky Mountains, 26. Clarke, William, 427 ; his map, 428. Climate, 137-172 ; of America, com pared with that of Europe, 139 ; changes in, in later geological times, 102, 313 ; influence of topography on, 137 ; simpUcity of characteristic features of, in the Eastern States, 138; the three great climatic divi sions of the United States, 138. INDEX. 463 Coal, age of, in the various coal re gions, 269, 270, 275 ; of the Appala chian field, 65, 273 ; of the Central field, 274; of the Coast Ranges of California, 115 ; of the Cordilleran fields, 275 ; extent of the various coal-fields, 270 ; first coal-mining, 263, 264 ; Ohio fields, 65 ; Pennsyl vania, 62, 63, 65 ; statistics of, 266, 271 ; use of, for fuel, 214 ; varieties of, 269, 275 ; western field of, 274. Coast lines, 6. Coast" Ranges, connection of, with the Sierra Nevada, 104, 118; description of, 116-121 ; epoch of upheaval of, 116 ; geology of, 117, 118 ; scenery of, 121. Coast waters, 3. CcEur d' Alene Range, 79. Cold wave, in 1886, severity of, 162, 163. Coloma, Cal., gold discovered at, in 1848, 265. Colorado, coal of, 371 ; geology of, 72, 74 ; occurrence of the precious met als in, 331-334; hog-backs of, 234; population of, 239, 247. Colorado Plateau, description of, 94- 103 ; exploration of, 98 ; geology of, 99, 102, 103 ; scenery of, 96, 97. Colorado River, 69, 70 ; canons of, 96- 99. Columbia River, 111 ; bar at mouth of, 6 , course of, 90, 91, 420 ; discovery of, 420, 425, 426 ; source of, 69. Columbian, name applied to Rocky Mountains, 26. Columbian Plateau, 89-94; tempera ture of, 143. Commerce, 397-407. Coniferous trees, abundance of, on western 'coast, 177 ; in Eastern States, 188-194 ; distribution of, in Rocky Mountains, 194-198; northern species of, 191, 192. Connecticut, geology of, 41 ; population of, 247. Connecticut VaUey, mesozoic rocks of, 66. Cook, James, discoveries of, 420-422. Copper, in Arizona, 850, 351 ; Calumet and Hecla mine of, 346 ; on Copper Mine River, 430 ; early mining of, 260, 261 ; on Lake Superior, 844^ 347 ; in Montana, 347-350 ; statistics of, 267, 352, 353, 368. Cordilleras, 68-121 ; climate of, 142- 145 ; discovery of, 411 ; early knowl edge of, 23, 26 ; explorations of, 426- 428, 432-437 ; forests of, 174-177, 194-206 ; geology of, 92-94 ; iso therms of, 137-142 ; maps of, 443-446 ; nomenclature of, 23-31 ; plateaux of, 89-94, 232 ; precipitation in, 159 ; scenery of, 224-230 ; temperature of, 141-144 ; topographical divisions of, 68 ; volcanic formations of, 91-98. Corn, production of, 370. Cornel, 188. Cornus, 188. Coronado, 412, 413. Cortez, discoveries of, on western coast, 23, 411. Cotton, exports of, 399, 406 ; manufac ture of, 392, 393 ; production of, 378- 383. Cottonwood, 203. Coves, use of this term in Virginia, 55. Crazy Mountains, 79, 80. Creosote-bush, 206. Cumberland Plateau, 63, 64. Cupressus, 194, 200. Currents, ocean, their effect on the temperature of the Pacific Coast Belt, 145. Curtis, J. S., monograph of Eureka, Nev., mines, 328. Cypress, 190, 191, 200. Dairy Products, 376, 377. Dakota, coal in, 271 ; forests of, 206 ; population of, 239, 247 ; temperature of, 142, 146 ; tin of, 343. Dalles, of the Columbia River, 112. Death Valley, 86. De Laet, names Apalatcy and Apa lache on maps accompanying his geographical work, 17. De Soto, explorations of, 17. Detrital formations, 126. Devil's Tower, or Bear Lodge, 82. Diaz, 412. Dismals, 191. Dogwood, 188. Domenech, theory of, regarding the origin of the name "Shining Mts.," 25. 464 INDEX. Dove, his theory of storms, 167. Drainage of the United States, 10, 11. Drake, Feanoib, visits the Californian coast, 414. Drift, Northern, 128. Dutton, C. E., description of the Colo rado Plateau Region by, 98, 100, 101. Earthquakes, in the Sierra Nevada, 108. East Humboldt Range, 87. East River, improveraent of, 8. Echinocactus, 205. Elevations, general, 10-13 ; of the Adi rondacks, 36, 223 ; of the Blue Ridge^ 54^56 ; of the Coast Ranges of CaU fornia, 119 ; of the Cascade Mts 111-113, 225; in the Great Basin 85-87 ; methods of determining, 447- 457; in New England, 38-40, 223 in New York, 46, 47, 223 ; in the Rocky Mts., 70-72, 74, 225; in the Sierra Nevada, 109-111, 226; of the Uintah Mts., 75, 76. Elk Mts., description of, 72. Elm, 184. Ely District, Nov., yield of, 327. Emma raine, Utah, 330. Emmons, S. P., report of, on the min ing interests of Colorado, 331, 333. Emory, W H , head of Mexican Boun dary Survey, 440. Endless Mts., a name adopted or sug gested by Lewis Evans, 19. England, claims to the Western terri tory, 255 ; immigration from, 245, 246 ; treaty with, 251. Equinox, Mount, elevation of, 38. Erie, Lake, 10. Erosion, type of scenery resulting from, 2.34. Esmeralda District, Nevada, 326. EspEJo, explorations of, 416. Espy, J. P., meteorological investiga tions of, 166. Eureka, Nev., mines of, 328. Evans, Lewis, map by, 18, 19 ; on the storms of the Atlantic States, 166. Evans, Mount, elevation of, 225. Explorations, history of, on Western Coast, and in the Cordilleran Region, 411-437. Exports, 406, 407. Fagus, 184, 185. FaUing Creek, Va., iron first smelted at, in the United States, 269. Falls, 230-232; Niagara, 231; St. Ma ry's, 10 ; Shoshone, 231 ; Tuolumne, 231; Yosemite, 23L Farming Lands, 386. Finley, S. P., -on tornadoes, 169. Fir, 192, 195. Florida, cession of, by Spain, 254 ; pop ulation of, 239, 247 ; precipitation in, 156; temperature of, 141, 146. Flume, use of the term, in the White Mts., 222. Fluming, iu California, 310. Forests, 173-217 ; absence of, on fine soil, 211, 212; character of, in the Eastern States, 177, 178 ; in the Cor dilleran Region, 194-206 ; density of, in the Eastern States, 175-177; in the Cordilleran Region, 194r-206 ; eco nomical importance of, 213-217 ; scarcity of, in British Ameriea, 174 ; on the higher slopes of the CordUleras, 174 ; on the Plains, 207, 208 ; on the Prairies, 209, 213 ; use of, as fuel, 214. Forster, George, first to explain cer tain features of the climate of Amer ica, 139. Fortieth ParaUel Survey, 84, 456. Fossils, on the Atlantic Coast, 67 ; at , Braintree, Mass., 42; at Littleton, N. H., 42 ; in New Jersey, 60 ; in the Rocky Mts., 82. Franconia Notch, profile in, 221. Eraser, Simon, explorations of, 430. Fraxinus, 180, 181. Freihold, E., map of CordiUeras, drawn by, 443. Fremont, J. C, explorations of, 27, 435-437. French, the explorations of, to the northwest of the Great Lakes, 418, 419. Front Range, Colorado, 70. Fuel, coal used for, 214"; wood used for, 182, 183, 186, 213. Gadsden Purchase, 254. Gannett, H., subdivisions of the United States, 131, 132. Gap, use of this term in the Appalachi ans, 66, 222. INDEX. 465 Garden of the Gods, 264. Gardner, J. T., investigation of eleva tions by, 466. Gas, natural (see Natural Gas). Geology, of the Adirondacks, 37 ; of the Appalachians, 37, 40-42, 48, 62, 57, 66-68 ; of the Atlantic Slope, 49-62, 66-68 ; of the Blue Ridge, 67 ; of the Catskills, 48 ; of the Coast Ranges, 116-118 ; of the Cordilleras, 80-82, 87-89, 102, 10.3, 107, 108, 116-118 ; of the Great Basin, 87-89 ; of the Great Central Valley, 122-128 ; of New Eng land, 41, 42 ; of the Rocky Mts., 80- 82 ; of the Sierra Nevada, 107, 108. Georgia, coal of, 271, 272 ; cotton of, 379, 382; population of, 238, 247; temperature of, 146. Geysers, 233. Gilbert's Peak, elevation of, 76. Glaciers, absence of, 143, 226 ; work of, 128. Gleditschia, 186. Gold, 309-339; in the Appalachians, 263, 268, 309; in California, 265, 310-318, 338; of the Comstock Lode, 320 ; discovery of, in Austra Ua, 266; in CaUfornia, 266; in Ne vada, 318 ; given to Laudonniere by the natives, 17; hydraulic mining for, 312-317 ; in Idaho, 94 ; meth ods of washing for, 117 ; in quartz veins, 314; in the Southern States, 263, 307 ; value of, as compared with silver, 368; in Virginia, 64; nuggets of, 268 ; statistics of, 266, 268, 313-315, 368. Golden Gate, 105, 150. Grains, production of, 369-375. Granite, dome-structure of, 230 ; pinna cles of,. 229, 230; of Santa Monica Range, 120. Grasses, on the Plains, 208. Gray, Robert, discoveries of, 423, 424, 426. Gray's Peak, 70, 225. Great Basin, 82-89. Great Britain (see England). Great Lakes, 10. Great North Mts., 58. Great Salt Lake, 85: Great Valley of Virginia, 58, 59. Green Mts., the culminating points of, 38, 223. Greylock, Mass., elevation of, 38, 223, Grouping of States and Territories, 130-134. Guadalupe-Hidalgo, treaty of, 264. Gulf States, temperature of, 146, 147. Gulfs, 6-9. Gum, black, 191. Guyot, A., on the Appalachian Sys tem, 23, 32 ; heights determined by, 454, 455. Hackmatack, 193. Hamilton, Mount, Cal., 120. Hann, J., on climate, 139, 161. Harbors, 6, 7 ; of New York, 8 ; im provement of, 8. Harney, Mount, height of, 80. Hart, A. B., on the disposition made of the public lands, 268. Harvard, Mount, 71, 225. Hassler, F. R., 438. Hay, production of, 375. Hayden Survey, heights determined by, 226, 456 ; maps of, 444 ; on the Yellowstone Geyser Region, 234. Hearne, Samuel, explorations of, 430, 431. Heceta, sees entrance to Columbia River, 420. Heights (see Elevations). Helderberg Mountains, N. Y., 46. Helena, Mount, 119. Hell Gate, improvement of, 8. Hemlock, 193. Hennepin, his description of the prai ries, 209. Hickory, 182, 183. Hog-backs, 234. Hole, use of this word as a topographi cal designation in the Rocky Mts., 210. Holy Cross, Mountain of the, 71, 226. Hood, Mount, description of, 228 ; ele vation of, 112 ; alleged eruptions of, 116. Horn Silver Mine, Utah, 329. Hot springs, on Lassen's Peak, 109; on Mount Shasta, 110; on Mount Rainier, 116. Hot waves, occurrence of, 166, 166. Hotchkiss, J., his description of the Great Valley of Virginia, 63 ; his di visions of Virginia, 53. 80 466 INDEX. Hudson River, 7, 35. Humboldt, map by, 26, 432 ; table of temperatures by, 139 ; his use of the names Andes and Cordillera, 29, 30. Humboldt Range, 86, 87. Humboldt River, 83, 85 ; sink of, 85. Huntley, D. B., on Utah mines, 329. Huron, Lake, 10; precipitation on, 155. HydrauUc mining, 312-317. Hypsometry, barometric, methods and results of, 447-457. Idaho, coal in, 271 ; mountains of, 78 ; parks of, 79 ; population of, 239 ; silver in, 335, 336. IlUnois, coal in, 271 ; iron in, 298 ; lead in, 364 ; natural gas in, 296 ; prairies of, 209, 210; temperature of, 141, 147 ; tornadoes in, 170 ; vegetation of, 209 ; zinc in, 363, 854. Immigration, 244-250 ; Acts of Con gress concerning, 248-260; effect of Civil war on, 235; tables of, 245, 246. Improvement of New York harbor, 8. Indentations of the Coast, 6-9. Indian Territory, coal in, 271 ; precipi tation in, 164; vegetation of, 188. Indiana, coal in, 271 ; iron in, 298 ; natural gas in, 293, 295, 296 ; popu lation of, 239; temperature of, 141, 142, 147. Inventions, mechanical, 394. Iowa, coal in, 271 ; foreign population of, 247 ; lead in, 364 ; tornadoes in, 170. Iron, 296-309; carbonate of, 307; de velopment of mines of, 296, 297 ; dis tricts producing, 305-309 ; geological occurrence of, 303 ; importation of ores of, 308 ; Lake Superior, occur rence of ores near, 304; Missouri, ores of, 304; ores of, their general distribution, 303-307 ; ores, statistics of production of, 309 ; and steel, sta tistics of, 297, 298, 300-302. Iron Mountain, Mo., 303, 304. Irving, Washington, Bonneville's journal edited by, 434. Islands, 7, 8. Isle Royale, ancient copper mining on, 260. Isohyetal curves, 154, 155. Isothermals, 141-147 ; in Eastern States, 37, 140; the summer, 146; from the Atlantic to the base of the Rocky Mountains, 137 ; the winter, 147. Ives, Butler, surveys by, 84. Jack-oak, 180. James, Edwin, explorations of, 433. jEi'FBRaoN, cession of Louisiana brought about by, 253. Jefferson, Mount, 111. Jenney, W. P., report of, on the Black HiUs, 82. Judith Mountains, 80. .Tuglans, 182, 183. Juniata River, 62. Juniper, 305. Junipero Seera, 419, 420. Jurassic, in the Wind River Range, 81. Kaibab Plateau, 100. Kaiparowits Plateau, 100. Kalmia, 188. Kanab Plateau, 99. Kansas, coal in, 271 ; lead in, 355 ; natural gas in, 296; population of, 238, 239, 247 ; precipitation in, 154 ; temperature of, 146, 147 ; tornadoes in, 170 ; vegetation of, 207 ; zinc in, 353, 354. Kansas River, slope of, 14. Katahdin, Mount, 40. Kentucky, coal in, 271, 272 ; honey- locust trees in, 187 ; iron of, 298 ; petroleum in, 282 ; population of, 239. KiUington Peak, 38. King, Clarence, explorations directed by, 84 ; maps by, 444, 446. Kirchhoff, C, Jr., statistics of lead, 359; of zinc, 353. Kittatinny Valley and Mountains, 44, 68, 59. Knight, James, expedition commanded by, 430. Krusenstern, A. J. von, 429. Ktaadn, Mount, 40. Kuro-Siwo, influence of, on the climate of the Pacific Coast, 146. INDEX. 467 Lafayette, Mount, N. H., 223, 339. Lake, Great Salt, 85. Lake Superior (see Superior, Lake). Lakes and Ponds, areas of, 3. Lakes, Great, 10. Lakes of the Adirondacks, 36. Lands, PubUc, 251-258; additions to, 253-256; area of, 256; disposal of, 256, 257 ; origin of claims of the United States to, 252. Larch, 193. Lapwai Range, 79. Larix, 193. Larrea, 206. Lassen's Peak, description of, 109 ; snow on, 227 ; solfataric action on, 109. LAUDONNii;RE, cxploratious of, 7. Laurel, 186, 188, 201. Lead, 354-359 ; early mining of, 261, 262 ; mines of the Mississippi Valley, the development of, 263, 264, 267, 268 ; statistics of, 359, 368. Leadville, Colorado, mines at, 3.32-334. Lesley, J. P., description of the Appa lachian Region of Pennsylvania, 61 ; his estimate of the available quantity of coal at Pittsburg, 280. Le Sueuk, his explorations for miner als in the Mississippi Valley, 261. Lewis and Clarke, cartographic re sults of their expedition, 427, 428. Libocedrus, 200. Lick telescope, 120. Lignite, of the Cordilleran region, 275, 276. Lime, importance of, 360. Lime-tree, 186. Linden, 185. Liriodendron, 185. Lisiansky, voyage of, to Californian Coast, 429. Little Mountains, N. Y., 45. Littleton, N. H., fossils found at, 42. Locust, 186, 187. Lone Pine, effects of earthquake at, 108. Long, S. H., his explorations in the Rocky Mountains, 438. Long's Peak, 70. Loomis, E., meteorological investiga tions of, 164, 167, 168. Lord, Eliot, production of the Com stock Lode, 321, 322 ; temperature of the Comstock Lode, 324. Louisiana, cession of, by France, 252, 253 ; cotton in, 382 ; population of, 238, 239, 246 ; rain-fall of, 211 ; vege tation of, 190, 211. Lumber, (see wood and forests). Maclure, W., geological map by, 20. Madrono, 201. Magellan, 411. Magnolia, 185, 186. Maine, fiord-coast of, 6 ; geology of, 42 ; pine forests of, 189 ; population of, 238 ; temperature of, 142, 146. Mamillaria, 206. Mansfield, Mount, 38, 223. Manufactures, 389-395. Maple, 178, 179, 191. Marcy, Mount, 36, 223, 448, 455. Mariposa, grove of big trees in the county of that name, 199. Maryland, coal in, 271, 272; geology of, 62 ; iron in, 298 ; population of, 238, 239. Massachusetts, geology of, 41, 42 ; iron in, 298 ; map of, 441 ; population of, 238, 247 ; temperature of, 142. Massanutton Range, 58. May, precipitation in, 157. Meadow Valley Mine, Nev., 327. Meares, John, explorations of, 423, 424. Mendoza, 412. Mercury, (see quicksilver). Mesas, 72. Mesozoic rocks, of the Atlantic slope, 66-68; of the Sierra Nevada, 107. Mexico, area of, 4; Gulf of, 9, 140, 156 ; results of the war with, 254. Mezquite, 206. Michigan, coal in, 271 ; iron of, 298 ; pine forests of, 189; population of, 238, 247 ; precipitation in, 156 ; salt in, 363-365 ; temperature of, 142 ; winds of, 149. Middle Park, 69, 73. Middle States, winds of, 149. Mineral resources, 259-368. Mining, history of, 259-268 ; for gold, methods of, 310-317. Minnesota, copper in, 345; forests of, 207 ; iron in, 304 ; population of, 238, 247 ; precipitation in, 154, 155 ; tem perature of, 142 ; winds of, 149, 150. 468 INDEX. Mississippi, cotton in, 379, 381 ; forests of, 176, 211 ; population of, 239, 247 ; precipitation in, 211. Mississippi Valley, drainage of, 11 ; lead in, 364^359 ; mining in, 261. Missouri, coal in, 271 ; iron of, 298, 304; lead in, 366, 357, 358; popula tion of, 2.39 ; temperature of, 141 ; tornadoes in, 170 ; winds of, 149 ; zinc of, 353, 354, 357. Missouri River, raining near, 261, 262 ; sources of, 69. Monadnock, Mount, 39, 223, 455. Montana, copper in, 348, 349 ; moun tains in, 78, 79 ; population of, 239 ; precipitation in, 159 ; silver in, 335. Monte Diablo, 119. MoosUauke, 39, 223. MoRAN, Thomas, views of the Geyser Region by, 234. Natural Bridge, Va., 121. Natural gas, 292-296. Nebraska, population of, 238, 247 ; pre cipitation in, 154 ; scarcity of trees in, 207 ; temperature of, 142. Nevada, gold and silver in, 318, 320- 329 ; population of, 130, 239, 247 ; precipitation in, 159 ; temperature of, 144 ; vegetation of, 204. New Almaden, quicksilver mine at, 267, 340-342. New England, 37-42; geology of, 41, 42; temperature of, 142; winds of, 149. New Hampshire, geology of, 42 ; moun tains of, 39 ; population of, 238 ; tem perature of, 142. New Jersey, clays, marls, and sands of, 50 ; copper in, 261 ; geology of, 49, 50 ; iron in, 298, 305, 306 ; map of, 33, 441 ; mountains of, 44 ; popula tion of, 238, 239 ; temperature of, 147 ; zinc ores in, 267. New Mexico, coal in, 271 ; population of, 238 ; purchase of, 254 ; winds of, 149. Nbwton, Henet, report of, on the Black Hills, 82. Newton, John, paper by, on the im provement of East River and Hell Gate, 8. New York, iron in, 298, 305 ; mountains of, 46-48 ; natural gas in, 292, 296 ; petroleum in, 282 ; population of, 238, 247; precipitation in, 165; salt in, 363, 364 ; temperature of, 142, 147 ; triangulation of, 442. New York City, harbor of, 7. Niagara Falls, 220, 231. Nicollet, J. N., his explorations, 435. Niza, explorations of, 412. North Carolina (see Carolina). North Park, 73. North West Company, 432. Northern Drift, 128. Notch, use of term in the White Moun tains, 222. Nut trees, 181-183. Nut-pine, 206. Nyssa, 191. Oak, 179, 180, 201, 203, 204. Ohio, coal in, 271, 272 ; iron in, 298 ; natural gas in, 294-296 ; petroleum in, 282 ; population of, 239 ; salt of, 363, 365; temperature of, 142,147; vegetation of, 187. Oil Creek, borings near, 282. Ontario Mine, Utah, 330. Opuntia, 205. Oregon, coal in, 271; exploration of, by Lewis and Clarke, 427, 428 ; for ests of, 195 ; meaning of name, 427. Oregon River, 426, 427. Otter Peaks, Va., 65. Owyhee Mts., gold and silver in, 94. Pacific Coast, exploration of, 411-427 ; forests of, 194^206 ; temperature of, 140, 145 ; winds of, 150, 152. Pah-Ute Mts., 87. Palassi, early form of name Appa lachian, 17. Palisades, N. Y., 67. Panfilo de Narvaez, nugget of gold given him by the natives, 18. Parks, of the Rocky Mts., 69, 73, 79, 210. Partridge, Alden, barometric meas urements by, 447. Passes, different names for, 65, 222. Pecan, 182, 183. Pelouse River, falls of, 92. Pend' Oreilles, meaning of, 427. INDEX. 469 Pennsylvania, coal of, 62, 63, 65, 271- 273 ; iron of, 298, 305, 308 ; moun tains of, 43, 58, 60; natural gas in, 292-296 ; petroleum in, 283, 288 ; population of, 238, 239; scenery of, 222 ; surveys of, 33, 60, 61, 442 ;, veg etation of, 188 ; zinc in, 267. Perez, Juan, expedition under com mand of, 420. Petees, E. D , Jr., on mines of Mon tana, 347-349. Petroleum, 281-292 ; first excitement in regard to, in Pennsylvania, 282 ; in California, 118 ; exportation of, 400, 401, 406. Picea, 192. Pico, Mount, 38. Piedmont Division of Virginia, 53, 54. Pike, Z. M., explorations by, 432. Pike's Peak, 70, 160, 456. Pine, 188-190, 196, 197. Pinon, 206. Pinus, 188-190, 196, 197. Pitt, Mount, 111. Pittsburg, Penn., coal resources of, 280 ; iron manufactures at, 296, 298 ; use of natural gas at, 293. Placer mining, 310-317. Plains, paucity of forests on, 206. Plateau Region, 89-103; climate of, 137, 142, 146. Poplar, 185, 191, 203. Population, 235-250; centre of, 237; density of, 236, 237 ; distribution of, 135, 240-243; increase of, 248; dis tribution by races, 239; by sexes, 238. Populus, 203. Powell, J. W., survey directed by, 445. Prairies, description of, 209-213 ; name, by whom first given, 209. Precipitation, 153-160 ; araount desira ble, 163 ; maximum and minimum of, 157, 158; iu the prairie region, 210 ; regions where equally distrib uted, 153 ; regions of abundant, 156, 158, 210 ; of smaU, 163, 207. Prickly pear, 205. Profile, in Colorado, 222 ; in the White Mts., 222. Pseudotsuga, 195. Puget Sound, forests near, 195 ; tem perature of, 144. Pyrus, 187. Quercus, 179, 180, 201-204. Quicksilver, 339-342; discovery of, in California, 267 ; geological position of its ores, 117; statistics of, 340- 342, 368. Rainier, Mount, description of, 112, 113 ; elevation of, 225 ; grandeur of, 228 ; no eruptions from, 116. Randol, J. B., on quicksilver, 341, 342. Red Beds, of the Rocky Mts., 81. Redfield, W. C, meteorological theo ries of, 166, 167. Redwood, 198, 199. Reyee, E., ou mines of Utah, 330, 331. Rhode Island, coal in, 270; map of, 442; population of, 238, 267. Rhus, 187. Rice, production of, 385. Robinia, 186, 187. Rocky Mts., 68-82; divisions of, 69; exploration of, 437 ; forests of, 195, 202-204 ; geology of, 80-82 ; nomen clature of, 24-26 ; ranges and peaks of, 70-80 ; temperature of, 143, 147. Rogers, H. D., limitation of name Appalachian desired by, 21 ; topo graphical character of Appalachian belt proper, described by, 60, 61. EoLKEE, C. M., on mines of LeadviUe, Colorado, 333. Ruiz, Augustin, explorations by, 416. Russians, settlements of, on Pacific Coast, 429. Rye, production of, 373. Sacramento River, 105. Sacramento Valley, temperature of, 146; winds of, 150. Saddle Mountain, Mass., 38. Sage-brush, 204. Salmon River Range, 90. Salt, 360-366. Salt Lake, Great, 85. Salvatieera, 417. San Bernadino Mountain, 121. Sandwich Islands, discovered by the Spaniards, 421, 422. San Francisco, climate of, 144 ; precip itation at, 158, 169 ; winds of, 160, 151. San Francisco Mts., 101. Sangre de Cristo Range, 74. 470 INDEX. San Jacinto Mountain, 121. San Joaquin Valley, 145, 150. San Luis Park, 73. Santa F^ founding of, 416. Santa Inez Range, 120. Santa Monica Range, 120. Sawatch Range, 71. Scenery, 219-234 ; comparison of Amer ican with European, 219, 220, 226 ; of Appalachian Region, 221-224 ; of Cordilleras, 224-230 ; variety of, in the United States, 219. Schmidt, A., on the lead and zinc mines of Missouri, 358. Schott, C. A., statistics of rain-fall by, 154, 158, 159 ; of temperature, 143. Seasonal correction of barometric re sults, necessity of, 461-464. Sequoia, 198, 199. Serpentine, in the Coast Ranges, 117. Shasta, Mount, description of, 110 ; elevation of, 110, 113, 225 ; snow on, 227 ; solfataric action on, 110. Sheafer, P. W., estimate by, of the amount of anthracite remaining, 278, 280. Sheavwitz Plateau, 99. Shenandoah Valley, 58. Shining Mts., original name of the Rocky Mts., 24, 25. Shoshone Falls, 92, 231. Shrubs, 187. Sierra Nevada, 103-116 ; canons of the, 107 ; early knowledge of the, 27 ; forests of the, 174, 195; geology of the, 107, 108, 116 ; gold in, 117, 310- 317 ; height and slope of, 106, 107 ; hot springs in, 109 ; precipitation in the, 158, 159; volcanic rocks of the, 107, 108, 113 ; volcanoes of, 109-116. Silver (and gold), 319-339; amount produced, 368 ; of the Comstock Lode, 320-326 ; depreciation of its value, 338 ; its occurrence in Ari zona, 336 ; in Colorado, 331-334 ; in Idaho, 336; Montana, 334-336; in Nevada, 320-329 ; in Utah, 329-331 ; statistics of, 338, 368. Silver Reef District, Utah, 330, 331. Slide, Mt., N. Y., 47, 48. Snow, importance of, in the Great Basin, 159, 160; quantity seen in Cordilleras, 141-143; scenic effect of, 226, 228. Soil, fineness of, with relation to char acter of the vegetation, 127, 211- 213. South Mts., Penn., 19, 43. Spain, cession of Florida by, 254. Spanish, geographical discoveries by, 411^17. Springs, hot, of the Yellowstone Gey ser Region, 233, 234. Spruce, 192. Star Peak, Nevada, 87. States, grouping of the, 130-134; num ber of, 129. Steel and iron, 296-309. Stone, building, importance of, 360. Storms, 166-172; storm of March, 1888, 172. St. Helen's, Mount, appearance and ele vation of, 112 ; eruption of, 114. St. Mary's Falls, canal around, 10. Stony Mts., the early name of Rocky Mts., 24, 25. Sugar, production of, 385. Sumach, 187. Summer, isothermals of, 146. Superior, Lake, 10 ; climate of, 150, 155 ; copper-mining on, 126, 260, 264, 344-347 ; geology of, 126 ; iron ores of, 304. Susquehanna River, 62, 65. Swamps, of Virginia and North Caro Una, 191 ; of Michigan, 193, 194. Swank, J. M., on iron, 299, 305, 309. Switzerland, Alps of, compared with Cordilleras, 224. Syracuse, N. Y., salt of, 363. Tacoma, said to be the aboriginal name of Mount Rainier, 228. Tahawas (Mount Marcy), 36, 223. Tamarack, 193. Tardieu, map compiled by, 25. Temperature, 139-166 ; comparison be tween Eastern and Western States, 144 ; of America and Europe, 139 ; fluctuations of, 160, 164, 165; highest recorded, 166 ; lowest recorded, 162 ; mean annual, 141-145 ; of mines on Comstock Lode, 324 ; sudden changes in, 162 ; table of range of, by Hann, 161 ; uniformity of, on the Pacific Coast, 144, 145; variation of, with change of latitude, 140. INDEX. 471 Tennessee, coal in, 271, 272; iron in, 298 ; plateau of, 64; population of, 238, 239; precipitation in, 156; temperature of, 148 ; vegetation of, 187. Territories, 129, 130. Texas, annexation of, 254 ; coal in, 271; cotton of, 380; forests of, 183, 188, 190, 208; geology of, 122; pop ulation of, 239, 246, 247 ; precipita tion in, 164 ; temperature of, 141, 146, 147 ; winds of, 149. Thuya, 195, 200. Tilia, 186. Timpanogos, Lake, 433. Tin, 342-344. Titusville, first borings for petroleum at, 282. Tobacco, production of, 384, 385. Tom, Mount, Mass., 67. Topography, 31-128. Tornadoes, 166-172. Toyabe Range, Nov., mines of, 327. Trias, Alpine, in Nevada, 88. Triassic rocks,of the Atlantic Slope, 66, 67 ; of the Rocky Mts., 81 ; of Texas and New Mexico, 123. Tschornozem, 212. Tsuga, 193. Tulip tree, 185. Tuolumne Canon, 231, 232. Uinkaret Plateau, 99. Uintah Range, 75, 76. Vlmus, 184. Umbellularia, 201. Uncompahgre Peak, 72. Upper Mississippi lead mines, 354- 356. Upton, W., on the storm of March, 1888, 172. Utah, coal in, 271 ; foreign population of, 247 ; gold and silver of, 329-331 ; temperature of, 144 ; vegetation of, 204 ; winds of, 149. Vaca, Cabeca de, remarkable journey of, 412. Valley, Great Central, 1'22-128. Valley, Great, of Virginia, 57-60. Vancouver, George, explorations of, 425, 426. Vegetation, 173-217. Venango District, Penn., petroleum of, 285. Verraont, geology of, 41, 42 ; tempera ture of, 142. Victoe, Mrs., statement of, in regard to eruptions of Mount Hood, 116. Virginia, 53-62 ; coal in, 271, 272 ; ge ology of, 57 ; gold in, 263 ; Natural Bridge of, 221 ; population of, 238, 239, 246 ; swamps of, 191 ; vegetation of, 191. Virginia, West, iron in, 298; natural gas in, 293, 296 ; petroleum in, 281 ; salt of, 363, 365. Volcanic rocks, of the Cascade Range, 111-116; of the Great Basin, 88 ; of the Northern Plateau, 91-94; of the Sierra Nevada, 107-110. Wahsatch Range, 76. Warren, G. K., in regard to Pike's ex pedition, 432 ; Bonneville's expedi tion, 435. Washington, coal in, 271 ; forests of, 196; precipitation in, 159; winds of, 150. Washington, Mount, measurements of, 448, 449. Waterfalls, 230-232 ; Niagara, 220, 231 ; Pelouse River, 92 ; Shoshone, 92, 231 ; Tuolumne Canon, 231, 232 ; Yosemite, 231. Water-shed, 11, 71, 72. Webster-Ashburton treaty, 253. Weeks, J. W., production of natural gas, table by, 295, 296. Wendt, A. F., on the mines of Ari zona, 350, 351. Wheat, product of, 373-375. Wheeler, G. M., surveys directed by, 445, 457. White Mountains, N. H., 38. Whiteface Mountain, N. Y. 36, 223. White-wood, 185. Whitney, Mount, 106, 174, 225, 230. Williams, Jonathan, first in this country to use the barometer for hypsometrical purposes, 447. Wilson, A. D., explorations of, 80, 91. Wind Eiver Mts., 69; pinnacles of, 230. 472 INDEX. Winds, the distribution of, 148-152 ; on the Atlantic Coast, 148, 149 ; in the Central States, 149 ; on the Paci fic Coast, 150 ; the return trades, 148 ; summary of facts connected with, 151, 152. Winthrop, Governor, examines min eral localities in Connecticut, 261. Wisconsin, foreign population of, 247 ; forests of, 189 ; iron of, 298 ; lead in, 354 ; precipitation in, 155 ; winds of, 149, 150. Wolff, J. E., exploration of Crazy Mountains by, 80. Wood, kinds and uses of, 178-195. Wyoming, coal in, 271 ; population of, 239 ; precipitation in, 169 ; winds of, 149. Yellowstone Park, or Geyser Region, 233. YeUowstone River, 233. Yosemite Falls, 231, 232. Yosemite Valley, 174, 230. Yucca, 206. Zinc, 353, 354 ; mines of, when first worked, 267 ; statistics of, 368. University Press : John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. ^J^u^^ ^v.^.' ''h I — ¦'^M^'m-:'''-'!:k-' r. ¦.:^':^'^ •f j» ••"•, . •>. . , ^%4& ..'.J^^m^M