[Illustration: THE TWINS, BLUFF CITY, UTAH

The distance from the bottom of the cliff to the top of the erosioncolumns is 275 feet. 

_Frontispiece_]

THE WESTERN

UNITED STATES

_A GEOGRAPHICAL READER_

BY

HAROLD WELLMAN FAIRBANKS, PH. D. 

AUTHOR OF "STORIES OF OUR MOTHER EARTH, " "HOME GEOGRAPHY, " "STORIESOF ROCKS AND MINERALS, " "PHYSIOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA, " ETC. 

BOSTON, U. S. A. 

D. C. HEATH & CO. , PUBLISHERS

1904

PREFACE

In the preparation of this book the author has had in mind theneeds of the upper grammar grades. The subject matter has not beenselected with the object of covering the field of Western geographyin a systematic manner, but instead the attempt has been made topicture as graphically as may be some of its more striking andinteresting physical features, and the influence which these featureshave exerted upon its discovery and settlement. 

Those subjects have been presented which have more than local interestand are illustrative of world-wide principles. Clear conceptionsof the earth and man's relation to it are not gained by generalstatements as readily as by the comprehensive study of concreteexamples. 

Nowhere outside of the Cordilleran region are to be found so remarkableillustrations of the growth and destruction of physical features, orso clear examples of the control which physical features exerciseover the paths of exploration, settlement, and industrial development. 

The fact that the West furnishes a wealth of material for geographyteaching has long been recognized in a general way, although therehas been but little attempt to present this material in a formsuitable for the use of schools. 

The illustrations are, with few exceptions, from the author's ownphotographs, and the descriptions are made up from his personalobservations. Since the illustrations are numerous and have beenselected with much care, it is hoped that they will add greatlyto the value of the text. They should be _used_, and a properunderstanding of the pictures made a part of every lesson. 

CONTENTS

THE WORK OF THE COLORADO RIVER

A TRIP INTO THE GRAND CAÑON OF THE COLORADO

HOW THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU WAS MADE

THE CAÑONS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS

AN OREGON GLACIER

SOMETHING ABOUT EARTHQUAKES AND MOUNTAIN BUILDING

THE LAST VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

THE MUD VOLCANOES OF THE COLORADO DESERT

THE HISTORY OF A COAST LINE

THE DISCOVERY OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER

THE GREAT BASIN AND ITS PECULIAR LAKES

FRÉMONT'S ADVENTURES IN THE GREAT BASIN

THE STORY OF GREAT SALT LAKE

THE SKAGIT RIVER

THE STORY OF LAKE CHELAN

THE NATIVE INHABITANTS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE

THE STORY OF LEWIS AND CLARK

THE RUSSIANS IN CALIFORNIA

DEATH VALLEY

THE CLIFF DWELLERS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS

THE LIFE OF THE DESERT

THE PONY EXPRESS

HOW CLIMATE AND PHYSICAL FEATURES INFLUENCED THE SETTLEMENT OF THEWEST

THE LIFE OF THE PROSPECTOR

GOLD AND GOLD-MINING

COPPER-MINING

COAL AND PETROLEUM

THE CLIMATE OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE

SOMETHING ABOUT IRRIGATION

THE LOCATION OF THE CITIES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE

THE FOREST BELT OF THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS

THE NATIONAL PARKS AND FOREST RESERVES

THE WESTERN UNITED STATES

THE WORK OF THE COLORADO RIVER

The Colorado River is not old, as we estimate the age of rivers. It was born when the Rocky Mountains were first uplifted to thesky, when their lofty peaks, collecting the moisture of the storms, sent streams dashing down to the plains below. Upon the westernslope of the mountains a number of these streams united in onegreat river, which wound here and there, seeking the easiest routeacross the plateau to the Gulf of California. 

At first the banks of the river were low, and its course was easilyturned one way or another. From the base of the mountains to thelevel of the ocean there is a fall of more than a mile, so that theriver ran swiftly and was not long in making for itself a definitechannel. 

Many thousands of years passed. America was discovered. The Spaniardsconquered Mexico and sent expeditions northward in search of the citiesof Cibola, where it was said that gold and silver were abundant. One of these parties is reported to have reached a mighty cañon, into which it was impossible to descend. The cañon was so deepthat rocks standing in the bottom, which were in reality higherthan the Seville cathedral, appeared no taller than a man. 

Another party discovered the mouth of the river and called it, because of their safe arrival, The River of Our Lady of Safe Conduct. They went as far up the river as its shallow waters would permit, but failed to find the seven cities of which they were in search, and turned about and went back to Mexico. For years afterward theriver remained undisturbed, so far as white men were concerned. A great part of the stream was unknown even to the Indians, forthe barren plateaus upon either side offered no inducements toapproach. 

Trappers and explorers in the Rocky Mountains reached the headwaters of the river nearly one hundred years ago, and followedthe converging branches down as far as they dared toward the darkand forbidding cañons. It was believed that no boat could passthrough the cañons, and that once launched upon those turbid waters, the adventurer would never be able to return. 

The Colorado remained a river of mystery for nearly three centuriesafter its discovery. When California and New Mexico had become apart of the Union, about the middle of the last century, the cañonof the Colorado was approached at various points by governmentexploring parties, which brought back more definite reports concerningthe rugged gorge through which the river flows. 

In 1869 Major Powell, at the head of a small party, undertook thedangerous trip through the cañon by boat. After enduring greathardships for a number of weeks, the party succeeded in reachingthe lower end of the cañon. Major Powell's exploit has been repeatedby only one other company, and some members of this party perishedbefore the dangerous feat was accomplished. 

[Illustration: FIG. 1. --THE GRAND CAÑON OF THE COLORADO

The work of a river]

The Colorado is a wonderful stream. It is fed by the perpetual snowsof the Rocky Mountains. For some distance the tributary streamsflow through fertile valleys, many of them now richly and widelycultivated. But soon the branches unite in one mighty river which, seeming to shun life and sunlight, buries itself so deeply in thegreat plateau that the traveller through this region may perishin sight of its waters without being able to descend far enoughto reach them. After passing through one hundred miles of cañon, the river emerges upon a desert region, where the rainfall is soslight that curious and unusual forms of plants and animals havebeen developed, forms which are adapted to withstand the almostperpetual sunshine and scorching heat of summer. 

Below the Grand Cañon the river traverses an open valley, wherethe bottom lands support a few Indians who raise corn, squashes, and other vegetables. At the Needles the river is hidden for ashort time within cañon walls, but beyond Yuma the valley widens, and the stream enters upon vast plains over which it flows to itsmouth in the Gulf of California. 

No portion of the river is well adapted to navigation. Below thecañon the channels are shallow and ever changing. At the mouth, enormous tides sweep with swift currents over the shallows andproduce foam-decked waves known as the "bore. "

Visit the Colorado River whenever you will, at flood time in earlysummer, or in the fall and winter when the waters are lowest, youwill always find it deeply discolored. The name "Colorado" signifiesred, and was given to the river by the Spaniards. Watch the currentand note how it boils and seethes. It seems to be thick with mud. Thebars are almost of the same color as the water and are continuallychanging. Here a low alluvial bank is being washed away, there abroad flat is forming. With the exception of the Rio Grande inNew Mexico, and the Gila, which joins the Colorado at Yuma, noother river is known to be so laden with silt. No other river isso rapidly removing the highlands through which it flows. 

[Illustration: FIG. 2. --LOOKING DOWN THE COLORADO RIVER FROM ABOVETHE NEEDLES]

Over a large portion of the watershed of the Colorado the rainfallis light. This fact might lead one to think that upon its slopesthe work of erosion would go on more slowly than where the rainfallis heavy. This would, however, be a wrong conclusion, for in placeswhere there is a great deal of rain the ground becomes coveredwith a thick growth of vegetation which holds the soil and brokenrock fragments and keeps them from being carried away. 

The surface of the plateaus and lower mountain slopes in the basinof the Colorado are but little protected by vegetation. When the raindoes fall in this arid region, it often comes with great violence. The barren mountain sides are quickly covered with trickling streams, which unite in muddy torrents in the gulches, carrying along mud, sand, and even boulders in their rapid course; the torrents inturn deliver a large part of their loads to the river. As the rainpasses, the gulches become dry and remain so until another stormvisits the region. It is storming somewhere within the basin ofthe Colorado much of the time, for the river drains two hundredand twenty-three thousand square miles. So it comes about thatwhether one visits the river in winter or summer one always findsit loaded with mud. 

But what becomes of all this mud? The river cannot drop it in thenarrow cañons. It is not until the river has carried its load ofmud down to the region about its mouth, where the current becomessluggish, that the heavy brown burden can be discharged. Dip upa glassful of the water near the mouth of the river, and let itsettle, then carefully remove the clear water and allow the sedimentin the bottom to dry. If the water in the glass was six inchesdeep, there will finally remain in the bottom a mass of hardenedmud, which will vary in amount with the time of the year in whichthe experiment is performed, but will average about one-fiftiethof an inch in thickness. Each cubic foot of the water, then, mustcontain nearly six cubic inches of solid sediment or silt. 

It has been estimated that the average flow of the Colorado Riverat Yuma throughout the year is eighteen thousand cubic feet ofwater per second. From this fact we can calculate that there wouldbe deposited at the mouth of the river every year, enough sedimentto lie one foot deep over sixty-six square miles of territory. Nearly one three-hundredth part of the Colorado River water issilt, while in the case of the Mississippi the silt forms only onepart in twenty-nine hundred. 

[Illustration: FIG. 3. --LOOKING TOWARD THE DELTA OF THE COLORADOFROM YUMA]

Now we are prepared to understand the origin of the vast lowlandsabout the head of the Gulf of California. Long ago this gulf extendedone hundred and fifty miles farther north than it does at present, so that it reached nearly to the place where the little town ofIndio now stands in the northern end of the Colorado desert. 

When the Colorado River first began to flow, it emptied its watersinto the gulf not far from the spot where Yuma is situated. Thewater was probably loaded with silt then as it is now. Part ofthis sediment was dropped at the mouth of the stream, while partwas spread by the currents over the bottom of the adjoining portionsof the gulf. The rapidly growing delta crept southward and westwardinto the gulf. As fast as the sediment was built up above the reachof the tide, vegetation appeared, which, retarding the flow ofthe water at times of flood, aided the deposition of silt and thebuilding up of the delta. 

As the centuries went by, these lowland plains became more andmore extensive, until the gulf was actually divided into two partsby the spreading of the delta across to the western shore. Theportion of the gulf thus cut off from the ocean formed a salt lakefully one hundred miles in length. 

We may suppose that for a long time before the barrier was highand strong, the tidal currents occasionally broke over the deltaand supplied the lake with water. As the river meandered here andthere over the flat delta, its channels must have undergone manychanges at every time of flood. A part of the water without doubtflowed into the salt lake, and another portion into the open gulf. In fact, the basin in which the lake lay, now known as the Coloradodesert, continued to receive water from the river, at intervals, until very recently. In 1891 an overflow occurred, through thechannel known as New River, which flooded the lower portion of thebasin and threatened to cover the railroad. 

When the ocean had been permanently shut off from the head of thegulf, and the river itself had been largely diverted toward the south, the lake began to dry up. At last, most of the water disappearedand there remained a vast desert basin, at its greatest depth twohundred and fifty feet below the level of the ocean. In the bottomof the basin a bed of salt appeared, for this substance could notbe carried away, as the water had been, by the thirsty air. 

Remarkably perfect beaches still exist around the shores of thisold lake, and on them are found the pearly shells of multitudesof fresh-water mollusks. The presence of these shells leads us tobelieve that after the salt lake dried up, the river again brokein and formed a new lake of comparatively fresh water which also, after a time, dried up. 

The wonderful fertility of the Colorado delta is just beginningto be appreciated. Canals have been dug to take the water from theriver and distribute it over the land. Year by year the cultivatedlands are being extended. The change which irrigation is makingupon the surface of one of the worst deserts in the country isindeed remarkable. 

The Colorado River is working on quietly and steadily. We may think, and truly, that it has already done a great at work in excavating themighty cañons along its course, but, in reality, the work alreadyaccomplished is small in comparison with that which remains to bedone. 

In time, if the land is not disturbed by the forces which buildmountains, the plateaus through which the river now flows in suchdeep cañons will be carried away in the form of sand and mud. Broadvalleys will replace the cañons, and the Gulf of California willbecome a fertile plain. As the highlands wear away the processwill go on more and more slowly, for there will be less rainfall. The river will become smaller and its basin more arid. All thesechanges will be brought about through the crumbling of the rocks, and the removal of the waste matter by the running water. 

A TRIP INTO THE GRAND CAÑON OF THE COLORADO

We may read of the Colorado plateau, and of the Grand Cañon withits precipitous walls of variously colored rock, but unless weactually visit this wonderland, it is hard to realize the heightand extent of the plateau and the depth of the gashes made in itssurface by running water, gashes so deep that they seem to exposethe very heart of the earth. 

Nature has chosen a remote and half-desert region for the locationof this, the most picturesque cañon in the world, as if she wishedto keep it as long as possible from the eyes of men. Once a travellercould not view the cañon without making a long and weary journeyacross hundreds of miles of desert; now it is quite different, forone can almost look into its depths from the windows of a palacecar. But to appreciate and understand fully the stupendous workthat nature has done throughout this region we must leave the carsat a somewhat distant point, and before reaching the cañon becomeacquainted with the country in which it lies through the old-fashionedways of travelling on horseback or wagon. 

Flagstaff was formerly the starting-point for travellers to thecañon, and we will choose it now, for the old stage road offers aninteresting ride. The road first winds around that lofty snow-cladpeak, the San Francisco Mountain, which can be seen from all northernArizona. Leaving the mountain behind, we strike out directly acrossthe high plateau. The country is nearly level, and the open park-likeforest extends in every direction as far as one can see. 

It is difficult for us to believe that we are seven thousand feetabove the sea, a height greater than that of the highest mountainsin the United States east of the Mississippi Valley. It is thiselevation, however, which brings the summer showers and makes theair cool and pleasant, for the lowlands of this portion of theUnited States are barren deserts, upon which the sun beats withalmost savage heat. 

After the rainy season green grass and an abundance of flowersappear in the open meadows scattered through the forest. But, as arule, the entire absence of water strikes one as being very strange. Where are the springs and running streams which usually aboundin mountainous regions? Throughout the whole distance of seventymiles from Flagstaff to the cañon, there are but one or two spotswhere water is to be found. These places are known as "water-holes";they are simply hollows in the surface of the ground where thewater collects after the showers. 

There is another strange feature about the plateau over which theroad leads; instead of sloping down toward the Colorado River andthe Grand Cañon, the surface slowly rises, so that the little streamswhich are formed after the heavy rains flow away from the river. 

Our journey draws to an end, but there is nothing to indicate thepresence of the cañon until we get glimpses through the trees ofan apparently bottomless gulf. The gulf widens upon a closer view, we reach the edge, and all its wonderful proportions burst uponus. Does the Grand Cañon look as you thought it would? Probablynot, for it is unlike any other in the world. The cañon is verydeep. The river has worn its way for more than a mile down intothe plateau, which once stretched unbroken from the cliffs uponwhich we stand, across to those upon the opposite side, nearlyten miles away. 

The clear air makes objects upon the opposite side and in the bottomof the cañon seem much nearer than they really are. You may thinkthat it is an easy task to go to the bottom of the cañon and climbback again in a day, but in reality it is so difficult an undertakingthat only those who are accustomed to mountain climbing can accomplishit. 

It is not merely the great width and depth of the cañon that impressus, but also the bright, variegated colors which the differentrock layers display as they stretch in horizontal bands along thefaces of the cliffs, or sweep around the towers and pinnacles untiltheir detailed outlines are lost in the distant blue haze. 

Our eyes wander far down, toward the bottom of the cañon, followingthe alternate lines of precipitous cliffs and slopes covered withrock fragments. The cliffs and slopes succeed each other like thesteps in a giant stairway, until at the very bottom the oppositewalls meet in a gorge so narrow that in only a few places doesthe river come into view, glistening like a silver thread. 

A hotel stands among the trees a short distance from the brink ofthe cañon. Living here is expensive, for every article of food hasto be brought upon the cars and wagons for a distance of hundredsof miles. Even the water has to be brought in wagons from a distantspring. 

[Illustration: FIG. 4. --A SCENE ON THE TRAIL]

In visiting the cañon we have the choice of going on horsebackor on foot. While the latter method is much harder, yet one feelssafer upon his own feet while moving along the steep and narrowtrail. Our start is made in the cool air of the early morning. Leaving the top of the plateau, where among the pines the summerair is seldom sultry, and the winters are cold and snowy, we descend, until, by luncheon time, we are far below the heights and in themidst of an almost tropical climate. This difference in climaticfeatures between the top and bottom of the cañon is equal to thechange which the traveller experiences in a trip from the pineforests of the northern United States to the cactus-covered plainsof Arizona. 

As we look down from the top of the trail it does not seem possibleto pass the great cliffs below, and yet there must be a way, sinceothers have gone before us. All that we have to do is simply tofollow the beaten path. Nature has conveniently left narrow shelves, crevices, and less precipitous slopes here and there, which needonly the application of the pick and shovel to be made passableeven for pack animals. Where the trail winds into shady recesses, we find stunted fir and pine trees clinging to the crevices andstretching their roots down into the waste rock collected uponprojecting ledges. 

Down, down we go. The belt of the yellow pine and fir is left behind, and we come to the habitat of the piñon pine and juniper. These twowill flourish where there is less moisture than is needed by thetrees which grow nearer the top. Soon the trees have all disappearedand such plants as the greasewood, cactus, and agave take theirplace. Here, if it were not for the walls of rock rising on everyhand, we might imagine ourselves upon one of the desert plainsof Arizona. 

[Illustration: FIG. 5. --CLIFFS ON THE TRAIL INTO THE GRAND CAÑON]

New views open at every turn in the trail, as it winds along thenarrow shelves of rock with precipitous walls above and below. Now it zigzags back and forth down a gentle slope, but is soonstopped by another precipice. In one place, to escape a rocky point, the trail has been carried around the face of a cliff on a sortof shelf made of logs. It then passes through a crevice formed bythe splitting away of a huge piece of the wall. In many places thegrade is so steep that the trail is made practically a stairway, for the steps are necessary to keep animals from slipping. 

Step by step we descend until the slope becomes more gentle anda sort of terrace is reached, where men are at work developing acopper mine. Everything needed for the mine is carried down packedupon the backs of sure-footed burros. Even the water has to bebrought in kegs from a little spring still deeper in the cañon. 

The trail leaves the mine and winds down past another cliff, until, when more than three thousand feet from the top of the plateau, we find water for the first time. The little springs issue fromthe sandstone, and their limited supply of water is soon drunkup by the thirsty sands. 

As far as the water flows it forms a little oasis upon the barrenslope. Along the course of the streams are little patches of greengrass, flowers, and bushes. Birds flit about, and there are tracksof small animals in the mud. Evidently the water is as great anattraction to them as it is to us. If a well were dug in the plateauabove, we can understand now how deep it would have to be in orderto reach water. A well three-fourths of a mile deep would be adifficult one to pump. 

We are now in the bottom of the main cañon, but deeper still isthe last and inner gorge, through which the Colorado is flowing. For thousands of centuries the river has been sawing its way downinto the earth. The precipitous cliffs which we have passed areformed of hard sandstone or limestone. The more gentle slopes consistof softer shales. Now the river has cut through them all and hasreached the very heart of the earth, the solid granite. 

[Illustration: FIG. 6. --THE INNER GORGE OF THE GRAND CAÑON OF THECOLORADO]

This inner gorge has almost vertical walls twelve hundred to fifteenhundred feet high. We can sit upon the brink under a ledge of rockwhich protects us from the hot sun, and watch the river as we eatour luncheon. Far below, almost directly under us, it rushes along. The roar of the current rises but faintly to our ears. The wateris very muddy and not at all like the clear mountain streams, faraway upon the continental divide, which unite to form the river. It seems as if the water, ashamed of its soiled appearance, wantedto hide from the sight of men. If so, it has succeeded well, forit can be seen only at rare intervals from the top of the cañonwalls, and even at the bottom of the main cañon the river itselfis not visible unless one stands upon the very brink of the granitegorge. 

The work of the river is not yet done. It will go on until thegreat cliffs have crumbled and have been replaced by gentle slopes. It will not stop until, at some far distant time, a broad valleyhas been worn out of the rocky strata. 

The cañon appears much wider when viewed from the bottom than fromthe top, and the great cliffs far back along the trail seem lessprecipitous, but only because they are so far away. A weary climbof several miles awaits us. We must rest and take breath frequentlyor we shall not reach the top. 

As night approaches and the shadows begin to fall, every turretand pinnacle stands out in bold relief. The bands of yellow andred shade into purple, and everything, save the long winding trail, begins to have a weird and mystical look. 

HOW THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU WAS MADE

Years ago people disputed as to the way in which the earth was made. Those who lived where all the rocks had, like lava, the appearanceof having once been melted, believed that fire had done all thework. Those who lived where the rocks appeared to be formed ofhardened mud, sand, and lime, substances such as we find accumulatingunder water, said that water alone had been the means. But in lateryears the earth's surface has been more widely explored, and nowit is known that both opinions were partly right. Water and firehave both been concerned in the making of the earth. 

In the great valleys fire-formed rocks are rare, but they are moreor less abundant in all mountainous regions, for where mountainsare, there the crust of the earth is weakest. There are many reasonsfor believing that the interior of the earth is very hot. We knowthat the surface is settling in some places and rising in others, and that where the strain of the upheaval is too great the rocks arebroken. These convulsions sometimes cause earthquakes and sometimesvolcanic eruptions, when enormous quantities of molten rock arepoured out over the surface. In all the long history of our earthprobably no greater flood of lava than that which made the Columbiaplateau was ever spread over the surface of any region. Travel whereyou will over the plains of southern Idaho, central Washington, or Oregon, and examine the rocks which here and there rise abovethe soil or are exposed in the cañons, and you will find that theyall appear to have been formed by fire. 

[Illustration: FIG. 7. --SNAKE RIVER AT IDAHO FALLS

Just beginning to cut a cañon in the volcanic plateau]

These rocks are dark in color and very hard. They are not arrangedin regular layers like sandstone and shale; many of them show numerouslittle cavities which once contained steam. These cavities giveto the rock a slag-like appearance. In this kind of rock, whichwe shall call lava, there are, of course, no remains of shellsor bones of animals such as are often found in rocks formed fromsand or clay. 

Do not picture to yourself the Columbia plateau as one continuousstretch of level land, for it is broken by many mountain ranges. Some of these are old mountains which were too tall to be buriedby the lava, but most of them have been formed out of the plateauitself. The eruptions which made the plateau extended through avery long time, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years, and theolder lava is deeply decayed and covered with soil. Some of thelater flows show extremely rough and rugged surfaces and are probablyonly a few hundred years old. 

[Illustration: MAP OF THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU]

Long ago, before the eruptions began, the geography of the Northwestwas very different from what it is now. Instead of a vast plateauthere were mountains and valleys. Lowlands occupied most of theregion where the Cascade Range now rises with its lofty volcanicpeaks. Portions of the basin of the present Columbia River wereoccupied by lakes which extended southwest into California. 

Movements of the earth began to affect the region of the presentplateau, and at many points the solid rocks were fissured and broken. Then from that mysterious region far beneath the surface came steamand gases, escaping through the fissures with explosive force. In some places cinder cones were built about the openings by thefragments of lava which were hurled out. In other places, duringperiods of less explosive eruption, molten lava flowed out in vastquantities. The lava was very hot and almost as liquid as water, so that it spread in thin sheets over hundreds of square milesof lowland. 

One important series of fissures through which eruptions took placemarked the line where the Cascade Range was to be built. Othervolcanoes appeared over the surface of southern Idaho, centralWashington, Oregon, and northeastern California. 

The eruptions were not continuous over the whole field; now inthis place, now in that, there came long periods of quiet. Duringsuch periods the earthquakes ceased, the lava became cold, andthe clouds of volcanic ashes cleared from the air. Frequently thelava intercepted streams and blocked the valleys so that largelakes were formed. Whenever the periods of quiet were very long, plants spread over the surface and animals of many kinds made theirhomes about the lakes. 

In eastern Oregon the John Day River and its branches have erodedcañons through the later lava and have exposed the sands, clays, and gravels which collected at the bottom of one of those ancientlakes. In these beds the skeletons of many strange and interestinganimals have been found. Evidently they had once lived about theborders of the lake, and the streams had washed their bones intothe water and mingled them with the sediment. 

[Illustration: FIG. 8. --BLUE LAKES, IDAHO

Formed by springs issuing from underneath the lava of the plateau]

One of these animals appears to have been an ancestor of the presenthorse. It was about the size of a sheep, and had three toes insteadof one. Another, probably a very dangerous animal, was related toour present hog, but stood nearly seven feet high. Others resembledthe rhinoceros, camel, tapir, or peccary. All but the peccary arenow extinct upon this continent. Of the carnivorous animals therewere wolves and cats of large size. 

The eruptions continued, filling the valleys little by little, until in places the lava reached a thickness of nearly four thousandfeet. The lower mountains were hidden from sight. We know of theexistence of these buried mountains because the wearing away ofthe lava in some places has exposed their summits to view. 

The lava flood reached farther and farther. In southern Idaho itformed the Snake River plains, which must have been, when firstformed, hundreds of miles long, seventy-five miles wide, and almostas even as a floor. If we could have looked on while these thingswere taking place it would have appeared as if the whole land wasabout to sink under the fiery mass which flowed out of the earth. The streams and valleys were completely buried. The region of theJohn Day Lake, with all its animal remains, was covered. The lava, like a sea, crept up against the mountains surrounding the plateauregion. Bays of lava extended into the valleys among the mountains, while mountain ridges rose like islands and capes from the surfaceof the flood. 

We never tire of looking at the lofty snow-capped peaks of theCascade Range. A dozen of them rise over ten thousand feet, andtwo, Mounts Shasta and Ranier, are more than fourteen thousandfeet high. All these mountains were formed of material thrown outof the interior of the earth during the building of the Columbiaplateau. The process was very similar for each. About some oneexceptionally active crater immense quantities of scoriæ[1] andlapilli[2] accumulated. Then came streams of fiery lava, some ofwhich, hardening upon the outer slopes of the crater, added stillmore to the growth of the mountain. The process was very slow, however. A time of eruption, marked by tremblings of the earth, explosive noises, and a sky filled with dust and clouds, might lastfor many years. Then came a long period of rest when the fallingrains, gathering in dashing torrents, cut deep gullies down thesides of the mountain. 

[Footnote 1: _scorioe_, cellular, slaggy lava. ]

[Footnote 2: _lapilli_, volcanic ashes, consisting of small, angular, stony fragments. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 9. --PITT RIVER CAÑON, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

The plateau is built of layers of lava]

The volcanoes at last ceased to grow any higher, for the lava, if the eruptions continued, formed new craters at their bases. It is probable that all these great peaks have been extinct forseveral thousand years, although some are much older and more wornaway than others. One of these volcanoes has completely disappeared, and in its place lies that wonderful sheet of water known as CraterLake. It is thought that the interior of this mountain was meltedaway during a period of activity, and that the outer portion fellin, leaving a crater five miles across and nearly a mile deep. 

The streams of lava, as they flowed here and there building upthe plateau, frequently broke up the rivers and turned them intonew channels. As time went on the eruptions were less violent, andthe rivers became established in the channels which they occupyto-day. The Columbia River, winding about over the plateau, soughtthe easiest path to the sea. It soon began to dig a channel, andnow has hidden itself between dark walls of lava. 

But other forces besides the streams were now at work in this volcanicregion. The lava plateau began slowly to bend upward along theline of the great volcanoes, lifting them upward with it. In thismanner the Cascade Range was formed. The Columbia River, insteadof seeking another way to the sea, continued cutting its channeldeeper and deeper into the growing mountain range, and so has givenus that picturesque cañon which forms a most convenient highwayfrom the interior of Washington and Oregon to the coast. 

Take a sheet of writing paper, lay it upon an even surface, thenslowly push the opposite edges toward each other. This simple experimentwill aid one in understanding one of the ways in which mountainranges are made. Besides the upward fold of the plateau which madethe Cascade Range, another was formed between the Blue Mountainsin eastern Oregon and a spur of the Rocky Mountains in northernIdaho. This fold lay across the path of the Snake River, but itsmovement was so slow that the river kept its former channel andin this rising land excavated a cañon which to-day is more thana mile deep. The upper twenty-five hundred feet of the cañon arecut into the lava of the plateau, and the lower three thousandinto the underlying granite. The cañon is not so picturesque asthe Colorado, for it has no rocks with variegated coloring orcastellated walls. Its sides are, however, exceedingly precipitousand it is difficult to enter. 

[Illustration: FIG. 10. --SHOSHONE FALLS, SNAKE RIVER, IDAHO]

Along portions of the lower Columbia and Snake rivers, navigationis obstructed by rapids and waterfalls. The presence of these fallsteaches us that these streams are still at work cutting their channelsdeeper. The Snake River in its upper course has as yet cut only avery shallow channel in the hard lava, and the beautiful ShoshoneFalls marks a point where its work is slow. These falls, whichare the finest in the northwest, owe their existence to the factthat at this particular spot layers of strong resistant lava coverthe softer rocks. 

There are other cañons in the plateau region which are fully asremarkable as those which have been mentioned. That of the DesChutes River in central Oregon is in places a thousand feet deep, with almost vertical walls of lava. 

We have already seen how mountains have been formed upon the Columbiaplateau, by a bending of the earth upward. Other mountains of theplateau are due to fractures in the solid rocks, often many mileslong. Upon one side of these fractures the surface has been depressed, while upon the other it has been raised. The amount of the upliftvaries from a few hundred to thousands of feet. The mountains thusformed have a long, gentle slope upon one side and a very steepincline upon the other. They are known as "block mountains, " andthose upon the Columbia plateau are the most interesting of theirkind in the world. 

With the exception of a few large rivers, the greater portion of theColumbia plateau is remarkable for its lack of surface streams. Thewater which reaches the borders of the plateau from the surroundingmountains often sinks into the gravel between the layers of lava andforms underground rivers. The deep cañons which have been mentionedintercept some of these underground rivers, so that their waterspour out and down over the sides of the cañons in foaming cascades. The greatest of these cascades is that known as the Thousand Springsin the Snake River cañon. The waters of the Blue Lakes in the cañonof the same river below Shoshone Falls also come from underneaththe lava. They are utilized in irrigating the most picturesquefruit ranch in southern Idaho. 

[Illustration: FIG. 11. --CAÑON OF CROOKED RIVER NEAR THE DES CHUTESRIVER

Eroded in the Columbia plateau]

The climate of the plateau is dry, and its eastern portion ispractically a desert. Toward the west, however, the rainfall isgreater, and in central Washington and northern Oregon the plateaubecomes one vast grain-field. It is difficult to irrigate the plateaubecause the streams flow in such deep cañons, but above the pointwhere the cañon of the Snake River begins there is an extensivesystem of canals and cultivated fields. With a sufficient watersupply, the lava makes one of the richest and most productive ofsoils. Along the Snake and Columbia rivers, wherever there is abit of bottom land, orchards have been planted. Little steamersply along these rivers between the rapids, gathering the fruitand delivering it at the nearest railroad point. 

Mining is carried on only in the mountains which rise above thelava flood, for the mineral veins are for the most part older thanthe lava of the plateau. We are certain that many very valuabledeposits of the precious metals lie buried beneath the lava fields. 

It is thought that the volcanic history of the Columbia plateauhas been completed. Now the streams are at work carrying away thematerials of which it is composed and may in time uncover the oldburied land surface. 

THE CAÑONS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS

The western half of our country contains the deepest and mostpicturesque cañons in the world. Those of the Colorado and Snakerivers form trenches in a comparatively level but lofty plateauregion. The cañons of the Sierra Nevada Range, on the contrary, take their rise and extend for much of their length among ruggedsnowcapped peaks which include some of the highest mountains inthe United States. All these cañons are the work of erosion. Therivers did not find depressions formed ready for them to occupy, but had to excavate their channels by the slow process of grindingaway the solid rock. 

The streams of the Sierra Nevada mountains begin their course insteep-walled alcoves under the shadows of the high peaks, wherethey are fed by perpetual snow-banks. Soon they bury themselvesbetween granite walls, which at last tower three thousand feetabove their roaring waters. After many miles the cañons widen, the walls decrease in height, and the streams come out upon thefertile stretches of the Great Valley of California. 

Nature works in many ways. Her tools are of different kinds, butthe most important one is running water. The forms which she producesare dependent upon the kind of rock upon which she works. Wherethe surface of the earth is soft the results of her labor are notvery interesting, but if the crust is hard the forms which sheproduces are often so remarkable that they arouse our wonder andadmiration. 

[Illustration: FIG. 12. --SAN JOAQUIN RIVER EMERGING UPON THE PLAINOF THE GREAT VALLEY]

In shaping the Sierra Nevada mountains Nature had a grand opportunity. Here she produced the Yosemite Valley, which has a setting of cliffsand waterfalls that attract people from all over the world. Hetch-HetchyValley at the north of the Yosemite, and Tehipite and King's Rivercañons at the south, are interesting places, but not so majesticand inspiring as the Yosemite. 

Nature never seems satisfied with her work. After she has createda piece of wonderful scenery she proceeds to destroy it. The greatcliffs of the Yosemite will sometime lose their grandeur and bereplaced by gentle slopes down which the streams will flow quietly. The mountains of the Laurentian highlands in the northeastern portionof the continent undoubtedly were once lofty and picturesque, butthere were no people upon the earth at that time to enjoy thisscenery. Now these mountains have become old and are nearly worndown. 

[Illustration: FIG. 13. --WHERE THE CAÑONS BEGIN UNDER PRECIPITOUSPEAKS

The head of the King's River]

In one portion of the earth after another, Nature raises greatmountain ranges and immediately proceeds to remove them. This continentwas discovered and California was settled at the right time forthe Sierra Nevadas to be seen in all their grandeur. 

When the pioneers came in sight of the Sierra Nevada (snowy range), they little dreamed of the cañons hidden among these mountains. Gold, and not scenery, was the object of their search. The greatcañons were outside of the gold regions, and so inaccessibly situatedthat no one except the Indians looked upon them until 1851. Inthat year a party of soldiers following the trail of some thievingIndians discovered and entered the Yosemite Valley, but it was notexplored until 1855. For many years the valley could be reachedonly by the roughest trails, but as its advantages became morewidely known roads were built, and there are now three differentwagon routes by which it may be entered. 

The history of the Yosemite Valley is like that of all the othercañons of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Long ago there were no highmountains in eastern California. If there had been explorers crossingthe plains in those days, they would have found no rugged wallshutting them off from the Pacific. There came a time, however, when the surface of the western portion of America was broken byviolent earthquake movements, and hundreds of fissures were formed. Some of the earth blocks produced by these fissures were shovedupward, while others were dropped. One enormous block, which wasto form the Sierra Nevada, was raised along its eastern edge untilit stood several thousand feet above the adjoining country. Themovement was like that of a trap-door opened slightly, so thatupon one side--in this case the western one--the slope was longand gentle, while upon the east it was very abrupt. 

[Illustration: FIG. 14. --THE YOSEMITE VALLEY]

Nature, the sculptor, took this mountain block in hand, and withthe aid of running water began to carve its surface into a mostintricate system of cañons and ridges. The streams first flowedover the easiest slopes to the Great Valley of California, butsoon they began to cut their way down into the granite, while alongthe crests of the ridges the more resistant rocks began to standout as jagged peaks. 

Thus Nature worked until the mountains promised before long to bewell worn down. The cañons had widened to valleys and the ruggedslopes had given place to gentle ones. Toward the northern end ofthe range the work was even farther advanced, for the streams, now choked with gravel and sand, flowed over broad flood plains. In this gravel was buried a part of the wealth of California. Therocks over which the streams flowed contained veins of quartz withlittle particles of gold scattered through it, and as the surfacerock crumbled and was worn away, the gold, being much heavier, slowly accumulated in the gravel at the bottom of the streams. This gold amounted in value to hundreds of millions of dollars. 

The forces within the earth became active again. Apparently Naturedid not intend that the gold should be forever buried, or that thecountry should always appear so uninteresting. Internal forcesraised the mountain block for a second time, tilting it still moreto the westward. Volcanoes broke forth along the summit of therange near the line of fracture, and floods of lava and volcanicmud ran down the slopes, completely filling the broad valleys ofthe northern Sierras and burying a great part of the gold-bearinggravel. 

The eruptions turned the streams from their channels, but on thesteeper slope of the mountains the rivers went energetically towork making new beds. They cut down through the lava and the buriedgravel until they finally reached the solid rock underneath. Intothis rock, which we call "bed-rock, " they have now worn cañonstwo thousand feet deep. The beds of gravel that lay under the oldstreams frequently form the tops of the hills between these deepcañons. Here they are easily accessible to the miners, who by tunnelsor surface workings have taken out many millions of dollars' worthof gold. 

The important cañons of the northern Sierras, where the gold isfound, have been made by the American and Feather rivers. Farthersouth are the deeper and more rugged cañons of the Tuolumne, Merced, King's, and Kern rivers, which open to us inviting pathways intothe mountains. 

It might be supposed that the mantle of snow and ice which at thattime covered most of the surface of the earth would have protectedit from further erosion, but this was not the case. In the basinat the head of each stream the snow accumulated year after yearuntil it was more than a thousand feet deep. Under the influenceof the warm days and cold nights the snow slowly turned to ice, and moved by its own weight, crept down into the cañons. The solidrock walls were ground and polished, and even now, so long a timeafter the glaciers have melted, some of these polished surfacesstill glisten in the sunlight. The glaciers deepened and enlargedthe cañons, but running water was the most important agent in theirmaking. 

Upon the disappearance of the glaciers, the streams went to workagain deepening their cañons. From their starting-points, underthe lofty crags, they first ran through broad upland valleys, thentumbled into the cañons; but until they had reached the lower mountainslopes, to which the glaciers had not extended, they passed througha dreary and desolate region devoid of almost every sign of life. The glaciers had swept away all the loose rock and soil, and it wasmany long years before the surface again crumbled so that foresttrees could spread over it once more. 

The grandeur and attractiveness of the Yosemite is partly due tothe precipitous cliffs enclosing the valley, some of which arenearly four thousand feet in height, partly to the high waterfalls, and partly to the green meadows and forest groves through whichthe Merced River winds. 

Although the glaciers had little to do with the making of the YosemiteValley, yet they added to its attractiveness. The valley is situatedwhere a number of smaller streams join the Merced River. Erosion wasmore rapid here because the granite was soft, while the verticalseams in the rock gave the growing valley precipitous walls. Whenthe glacier came it pushed out the loose rocks and boulders, anddropping a portion of them at the lower end, made a dam acrossthe Merced River. At first a shallow lake filled the valley, butafter a time the silt and gravel which the streams were continuallybringing in filled the lake, and formed marshy flats. Finally, grasses and trees spread over these flats and gave the valley theappearance which it has to-day. 

Besides the meadows, the glaciers gave us two of the waterfalls. Yosemite Creek, which comes down over the walls twenty-seven hundredfeet in three successive falls, was turned into its present channelby a dam which a glacier had left across its old course. A glacieralso turned the Merced River at its entrance to the main valleyso as to form the Nevada Fall. 

[Illustration: FIG. 15. --THE CAÑON OF BUBB'S CREEK, A BRANCH OFTHE KING'S RIVER CAÑON]

After the valley had been made and clothed in vegetation, it wasdiscovered by a small tribe of Indians who came here to make theirhome, secure from all their enemies. There were fish in the streamsand animals in the woods. The oaks supplied acorns, and in earlysummer the meadows were covered with strawberries. Legends wereassociated with many of the cliffs and waterfalls, for the Indians, like ourselves, are impressed by the wonders of Nature. 

Hetch-Hetchy Valley, twenty-five miles north of the Yosemite, hasbeen formed upon much the same plan, but a portion of its flooris marshy and there are few waterfalls. King's River Cañon hasno green meadows and no high waterfalls, while its great granitewalls are not so precipitous as those of the Yosemite. Next tothe Yosemite, in the wildness of its scenery, is Tehipite Cañon. This cañon is situated upon the middle fork of King's River, abouta hundred miles south. For many miles its walls and domes presentever changing views. 

A continual struggle is going on between the forces within theearth and the sculptor working upon its surface. First one, thenthe other, gains the advantage. Where the mountains are steep andhigh, often the forces within have recently been active. Wherethey are low and the slopes are gentle, the sculptor has long heldsway. She begins by making the surface as rough and picturesqueas possible, but after a time she destroys her own handiwork. 

AN OREGON GLACIER

There are records all about us of events which took place upon theearth long before there were any human inhabitants. These recordshave been preserved in the rocks, in the geographic features ofthe land and water, and in the distribution of the animals andplants. On every hand appear evidences of changes in the surfaceof the earth and in the climate. 

Through all the central and northern United States, if we exceptsome of the mountains of the West, the winter snows entirely disappearlong before the coming of summer. But the climate of this regionhas not always been so pleasant and mild. Lands now densely peopledwere once buried under a thick mantle of ice which lasted throughmany thousands of years. 

Scattered over the surface of the northern United States are vastnumbers of boulders and rock fragments which are not at all likethe solid rocks beneath the soil. The history of these materialstakes us back to the Glacial period, which can be best understoodfrom a study of some one of the glaciers now existing upon themountains of the northwestern part of our country. 

Among the lofty mountain ranges of the Cordilleran region thereare many peaks upon which perpetual snow-banks nestle, defyingthe long summer days. Where the winters are long and cold and thestorms are severe, immense drifts of snow collect in the hollowsand cañons of the mountain slopes. Each summer all or a part ofthis snow melts. Upon the northern slopes the melting process isslower, and if there happens to be a large basin upon that side, an extensive field of snow remains until the winter storms comeagain. Each winter new snow is added to the surface, while theolder snow, becoming hard and firm through repeated freezing andthawing, at last turns to ice. 

This mass of snow and ice does not remain stationary, as mightbe expected from its apparent solidity. Under the influence ofits own weight and of alternations of heat and cold, it flows downthe incline like a very thick liquid. During the winter the icemelts but little, and the movement is slow, but in the summer, under the influence of the warm days and cool nights, both themelting and the rate of flow of the ice are increased. A movingbody of snow and ice of this sort is called a "glacier. " It creepsdown the mountain slope and into some cañon, until, in the warmerair of the lower mountains, the rate of advance is exactly balancedby the rate of melting at the lower end of the mass. The glaciersin the United States are at present comparatively small, but oncethese icy masses stretched over the mountains and lowlands of alarge portion of the continent. 

In the southern Sierra Nevada mountains no permanent snow existsbelow an elevation of about eleven thousand feet, but as we gonorth snow-fields are found lower and lower, until in the fiordsof Alaska enormous glaciers reach down to the sea. 

A glacier worthy of our study may be found upon the Three Sisters, a group of lofty and picturesque volcanic mountains rising fromthe summit of the Cascade Range in central Oregon. There is a deepdepression between two of the peaks, which slopes down to the northand is thus particularly well adapted to catch and retain the driftingsnows. Consequently the glacier to which it gives rise is of exceptionalsize, being nearly three miles long and half a mile wide. 

[Illustration: FIG. 16. --THE THREE SISTERS, FROM THE NORTH

Showing snow-fields and glacier. Fields of recent lava appear inthe foreground]

The easiest path to the Three Sisters is by way of the McKenzieRiver from Eugene, Oregon. The McKenzie is a noted stream and oneof the most beautiful in the state. The river courses through denseforests, and its clear, cold water is filled with trout. So tempestuousis the weather about the Cascade range that July is almost the onlymonth in which one can visit the Three Sisters without danger ofbeing caught in severe storms. 

The traveller leaves the river a few miles above McKenzie Bridge, where a small tributary known as Lost Creek joins it. Lost Creekflows under the lava from a lake near the Three Sisters, whileanother stream, coming from the glacier of which we are in search, flows down the same valley upon the surface of the lava and almostdirectly over the hidden stream. 

Upon the summit of the Cascade Range the dense forests of the rivervalley give place to more open woods interspersed with park-likemeadows. A few miles away to the south rise the volcanic peaks ofthe Three Sisters, clear and cold in the mountain air, wrapt aboutwith a mantle of white except where the slopes are too precipitousto hold the snow. 

An indistinct trail leads through the tamarack forest and over afield of rugged lava to the base of the peaks. Here we come upona swiftly flowing stream of a strange milky color. This appearanceis due to the presence of fine mud, the product of the work of theglacier at the head of the stream as it slowly and with mightypower grinds away the surface of the rocks over which it moves. Wherever one meets a stream of this kind, he will probably be safein asserting that it is fed by a glacier upon some distant mountainpeak. 

This little stream, the course of which we must follow to reachthe glacier, is choked with sand and pebbles brought to it by themoving ice. These are not ordinary stream pebbles, for they havestrangely flattened sides which often show scratches, and look asif they had been ground off against a grindstone. They are thetools with which the ice does its work. The ice block takes upthe rock fragments which fall upon its surface or which it tearsfrom beneath, and carries them along, grinding every surface whichit touches. The fragments are dropped at the end of the glacier, and the smaller pebbles are washed away down the stream that flowsfrom the melting ice. 

[Illustration: FIG. 17. --GLACIER ON THE THREE SISTERS]

We follow up the little glacial creek, past icy snow-banks andthrough groves of fir trees where the warm sunshine brings outthe resinous odors. Upon one side of the cañon there lies a fieldof black lava which not many hundreds of years ago forced thisglacial creek from an earlier channel into its present bed. Nowwe come upon what appears at first to be a snow-bank lying acrossthe course of the stream, and from beneath which its waters issue. Deep cracks in the outer mass of snow show the clear, pale-greenice below. This is the lower end of the glacier which we have beenso long a time in reaching. 

A short climb up a steep slope brings us to the top of the glacier. It forms a perfectly even plain, extending back with a gentle slopeto the head of a deep notch between the two northern Sisters, whileabove and beyond rise the steeper snow-fields, from which thisice is continually renewed. 

The glacier does not terminate in the usual manner, with a streamflowing from its centre, for the outlet is at one side, while themiddle abuts against a low mound of rock. This mound we find mostinteresting, for upon reaching its top we look down into a volcaniccrater. From this crater flowed the great stream of lava to whichwe have already referred. The lava ran downward, bending this wayand that among the hollows, until it spread nearly to the McKenzieRiver. 

During the Glacial period, before the eruption took place, thisglacier was much larger. The summit of the Cascade Range was thencovered by glaciers. This fact we know from the presence of groovedand polished rocks wherever the surface has not been worn awayor covered with newer lava. The Glacial period had passed awayand the climate had become much the same as it now is when thevolcanic forces broke out at the spot where the crater is situated. The eruption undoubtedly melted the ice in the vicinity, but afterit had ceased and the rocks had become cold, the glacier never gainedstrength enough to push the loose materials of the volcanic cone outof its path. The ice banked up snugly against the obstruction, andas it melted the water found its way out at the side of the lava. 

Although the surface of the glacier appears at first to offer aneasy route to the higher mountain slopes, yet there are numeroushidden crevices into which one may fall. The safest arrangementis to tie a company of people together with a stout rope, so thatif one falls into a crevice the rope will save him. Toward themiddle of the glacier the ice becomes so badly fissured that it isnecessary to turn toward the right margin. There are two sets ofthese fissures, one parallel to the direction in which the glacieris moving, the other at right angles. They are due to the strainto which the ice is subjected as it moves along at an uneven rateand over a surface composed of hollows and ridges. 

[Illustration: FIG. 18. --MORAINE AT THE END OF THE GLACIER]

Leaving the glacier, we climb upon a long low ridge of gravel andboulders mixed with fragments of ice. The fragments of rock whichhave fallen upon the surface of the ice or been torn from the rockover which it is moving, have been heaped up along its sides somewhatas a ridge of snow is raised along each side of the course of asnow-plough. Such a ridge of débris along the side of a glacieris known as a marginal moraine. A similar ridge, formed by theaccumulation of rock fragments at the lower end of the glacier, is a terminal moraine. These ridges and hollows formed by the iceare found all over the northern portion of the United States. Thehollows once filled with ice are now occupied by the beautifullakes of this portion of our country. 

As we climb along the moraine at the margin of the glacier, manyopenings appear in the clear green ice. There is the sound of gurglingwaters, and occasionally pieces of ice and rock fall into dimlyoutlined caverns which are narrow at the top, but far below widenout to the proportion of chambers. 

After the head of the glacier is attained there is still a hardclimb over the snow-fields, which extend upward so far that theyseem to have no end. When at last the gap between the peaks isgained we are completely tired out. The summit of the middle Sisterrising directly above us is still a thousand feet higher, but thereis not time to-day to reach it. 

A magnificent vista is spread out upon every hand. Extending northand south along the crest of the Cascade Range there is a lineof sharp snowy peaks with summer clouds floating about them. Howthese peaks contrast with the dark blue of the surrounding forests!Opposite us, upon the south, is the third Sister, white with snowfrom top to bottom, while in the basin between this peak and theridge on which we are standing lie the remnants of a once mightyglacier. 

But it is time to return. The cold, foggy clouds are hiding thesummits and will soon envelop the spot where we stand. We go downby a different path, but over almost continuous snow-fields, formore than two miles. The return is much easier than the ascent, although if one lost his footing upon some steep slope, it wouldmean a long slide or tumble. The solid earth is reached withoutaccident. What a relief to have some firm hold for the feet again!Climbing over a field of rough lava is easier than toiling throughsoft snow. 

[Illustration: FIG. 19. --A BOULDER LEFT BY A GLACIER]

The region about the Three Sisters is just as nature left it, forthe home of the nearest settler is many miles away. Although nowit has few visitors, this country will become attractive when itswonderful volcanic and glacial phenomena are better known. 

SOMETHING ABOUT EARTHQUAKES AND MOUNTAIN BUILDING

Our everyday experiences lead us to feel that nothing is more permanentthan the features of the earth upon which we live. Great citiescontaining costly buildings are built by the water's edge with theexpectation that the ocean will remain where it is. The buildingof railroads and canals, and the establishment of industries to makethe earth more fruitful and better adapted to our use, are basedupon the idea that the mountains and valleys with their various, climates will not change. 

The study of history, however, makes plain the fact that at differenttimes in the past certain portions of the earth have been visited bydestructive changes. Cities have been shaken down by earthquakes, andthe ocean has swept in over the land, drowning thousands of people. Even the mountains, which stand upon broad and firm foundations, sometimes bring disaster, by means of avalanches and land-slides, to the people who live at their bases. 

The truth is that the earth's surface is everywhere slowly andquietly changing; but our lives are so short, and the history ofeven the oldest cities is so brief in comparison with the rate atwhich most of the changes take place, that we as a rule are awareof only the uncommon and sudden ones. 

The occurrence of earthquakes establishes the unmistakable factthat there are forces at work from within disturbing the surface, while land-slides, and even little gullies washed out by the rain, show that other forces are working from without. 

The vibration or trembling of the earth which we call an "earthquake"always arouses alarm, and frequently occasions great destructionand loss of life. Only a few of the various causes that may bringabout earthquakes are as yet fully understood. Earthquakes arevery interesting, however, because they are often associated withthe birth and growth of lofty mountain ranges. 

Volcanic eruptions, hot springs, and the high temperature whichexists toward the bottom of deep mines show us that the interiorof the earth is very hot. It is thought that at one time the wholeearth glowed with heat, but as ages passed it became cold uponthe outside and a solid crust was formed. 

Every one has observed that fruit becomes wrinkled as the pulpwithin dries and contracts. The materials of the earth occupy morespace when they are hot than when cold, and as the interior portionis still cooling, the outer layer or crust continues to shrink downupon it, forming folds or wrinkles, as in the case of the skin ofan apple. 

There is probably no portion of the surface that is fixed in itspresent position. The land is either rising or sinking continually. If the area that is pushed upward is large, it becomes a plateau;but if long and narrow like a wrinkle, it forms a mountain range. We should not be aware of these movements in many cases if it werenot for the horizontal shelf cut upon the borders of the land by theocean waves. Along some coasts old wave-cut cliffs stand hundredsof feet above the present ocean level. Other coasts have sunk, so that the water has flooded the adjoining land and made a newshore line. 

When the movements of the land are sudden, they manifest themselvesto us through earthquakes. The crust of the earth is not so flexibleas the skin of an apple, and when the strain upon it becomes toogreat it suddenly breaks. The rock walls usually slide past oneanother along such a fracture. If the rising wall becomes highenough it will form a mountain range. 

The great mountain systems border the oceans, for the lines ofweakness occur where the land dips steeply down beneath the water. It sometimes happens that the fractures in the rocks where mountainsare being made are situated underneath the water, or in some positionwhere water passes down through them in large quantities. 

What do you think would happen if such an underground stream ofwater came in contact with hot or molten rocks far below the surface?Note the effect produced by drops of water falling upon a hot stove. Each one, as it strikes, is partly changed to steam with a slightexplosive sound. The result is similar when water is turned intothe hot and nearly empty boiler of a steam-engine--an explosionis sure to follow. 

When the pressure of steam suddenly formed within the earth istoo great, a volcanic explosion takes place at some point wherethe overlying rocks are weakest, probably on or near one of thelines of fracture about which we have been speaking. The explosionis accompanied by thundering noises, tremblings of the earth, andthe hurling of rock and molten lava into the air. That the rocksof the earth's crust are elastic is shown by the rebounding of apebble thrown against a large boulder. If a file be drawn acrossthe edge of a sheet of tin upon which sand has been sprinkled, thetin vibrates over its whole extent, as is shown by the jumpingof the sand grains. Because of like elasticity in the materialswhich make up the surface of the earth, the vibrations producedby an explosion are carried through the solid earth for hundredsof miles. 

[Illustration: FIG. 20. --EARTHQUAKE FISSURES NEAR MONO LAKE, CALIFORNIA]

The records of earthquakes show that they are much more violent andoccur oftener where the crust of the earth is being disturbed byfolding. We have seen that there are two main causes of earthquakes:the slipping of portions of the earth past each other along a fissure, and the contact of water with very hot rocks far below the surface. It is probable that the earthquakes which occur so often in thewestern portion of the United States are due to the first of thesecauses. The numerous extinct volcanoes show that at one periodthis region was frequently shaken by explosive eruptions. 

[Illustration: FIG. 21. --THE WASATCH RANGE

From Salt Lake City]

Mono Lake (see Fig. 42, page 99), at the eastern base of the SierraNevada Range, has been a centre for explosive eruptions, whichwere extremely violent at one time. The islands which rise in thelake are shattered, while Black Point, upon the northern shore, has been uplifted by an explosion from beneath, which split therocks apart and formed deep fissures. 

It is an interesting fact that in the Cordilleran region the mountainshave been increasing in height in very recent years. We might almostsay that they are growing to-day. In this region, then, we canactually see how mountains are made; we do not have to depend upondescriptions of the manner in which they are supposed to have beenmade thousands of years ago. 

[Illustration: FIG. 22. --BLUFF FORMED BY AN EARTHQUAKE

At the foot of the Wasatch Range, Utah]

Any good map will show that the mountains of the Cordilleran regionhave in general a north and south direction. Their direction wasdetermined by fissures formed long ago in the crust of the earth. Movements have continued to take place along many of these fissuresup to the present time, and probably will continue for some timeto come. 

In order to become better acquainted with these remarkable mountains, let us examine some of them, taking first the Wasatch Range ineastern Utah. The range has an elevation of nearly eleven thousandfeet, rising gradually upon the eastern side, but presenting a boldand picturesque front upon the west, toward the plain of GreatSalt Lake. A short drive from Salt Lake City brings us to the footof the range, at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Cañon. 

A peculiar bluff which extends for a number of miles along thebase of the mountains at once attracts our attention. The steepface of the bluff, which is from fifty to seventy-five feet high, appears to have been formed by a rising of the land upon the sidenext the mountains, or a dropping upon the valley side. There arereasons for believing that the formation of the bluff was due tothe occurrence of an earthquake some time within the last century. The bluff is closely related to the mighty mountains behind it. Itwas formed by the last of a series of movements in the earth whichraised the great block known as the Wasatch Range to an elevationof six thousand feet above the plains at its base. Is it to bewondered at that disturbances of the earth which result in theerection of mountains of such height are frequently so severe asto destroy the strongest buildings?

Now let us go westward across the various parallel ranges of theGreat Basin to Owens Valley at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevadamountains. This is the highest and longest continuous mountain rangein the United States. For a distance of more than one hundred milesits elevation is from twelve thousand to over fourteen thousandfeet. 

[Illustration: FIG. 23. --EASTERN FACE OF THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS

Formed by a great fracture in the earth's crust]

Owens Valley was in 1872 the centre of one of the most severe andextensive earthquakes ever recorded in the United States. The littlevillage of Lone Pine, situated in the valley below Mount Whitney, was utterly demolished, twenty people were killed and many injured. A portion of the valley near the village sank so low that the waterflowed in and formed a lake above it. The land was so shaken upthat the fields of one man were thrust into those of his neighbor. For a distance of several hundred miles to the north along the baseof the mountains the earth was fractured, and bluffs from ten toforty feet high were formed as a result either of the dropping ofthe surface of the valley upon the eastern side, or of the raisingof the mountains upon the west. 

This slipping of the earth which gave rise to the earthquake bluffswas the most recent of a long series of similar events which haveraised the precipitous eastern wall of the Sierra Nevada mountainsto a height of two miles above Owens Valley. If you will go outinto the centre of the valley and look west toward the mountains, you will see three bluffs or scarps. The first, which is twentyfeet high, was made at the time of the last earthquake; the second, known as the Alabama Hills and rising about four hundred feet, wasformed at an earlier time; the third, rising back of the others, is that of the main Sierra. 

Similar cliffs appear at the bases of other ranges of mountainsin the Great Basin. Springs abound along these fractures in theearth, for the surface waters have an opportunity to collect whereverthe rocks are broken. Numerous fertile valleys mark the line ofearthquake movements, for the broken rocks and abundant springsfavor rapid erosion. 

Among the Coast Ranges of California there appears a series offractures in the earth which form a line nearly four hundred mileslong. They extend from a point near San Bernardino in a northwesterlydirection to the neighborhood of San Francisco. Severe earthquakeshave taken place along this line since the country was settled. The pressure and grinding of the earth upon opposite sides of thefissures has formed long low ridges of earth. Small valleys havebeen blocked, and the old stage road from Los Angeles to Bakersfield, which followed the course of the fissures for a number of miles, has been almost obliterated. 

[Illustration: FIG. 24. --ELIZABETH LAKE, CALIFORNIA

Occupying a valley primarily due to earthquake movements]

Hundreds of cliffs and mountain scarps throughout the West havecome into existence as the results of movements such as we have beendescribing. Where the disturbances have been recent the mountainsare bold and picturesque. Those produced in earlier times are in manyinstances so worn away that it is difficult to tell with certaintyhow they were made. 

THE LAST VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

There are more volcanoes in our country than is generally supposed. Some are very small and some rank among the greatest of mountainpeaks, but all together there are many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them. At present they are all silent and apparently dead. Weare accustomed to speak of them as extinct volcanoes, but of thiswe must not be too sure. 

They stand dark and cold, giving no clue to the nature of the forceswhich made them, except perhaps by the presence of an occasional hotspring and the appearance of the rocks of which they are composed. The slag-like character of these rocks we have learned to associatewith intense heat. Some of these volcanoes are very old and havebeen nearly worn away; others are new and almost as perfect aswhen they were first made. 

Where shall we go to find these volcanoes? Are there any upon theAtlantic coast or neighboring highlands? Though you may travelover all that portion of our country, you will find none, althoughyou will discover in places, as for instance in the palisades ofthe Hudson, lavas which came from very ancient volcanoes, worndown so long ago that their very sites are lost to view. 

If we search the Mississippi basin we find there even fewer tracesof volcanic action than upon the eastern highlands. The greaterportion of the vast area embraced by the Mississippi River and itstributaries has had a very uneventful history, although at timesearthquakes may have occurred and the sky may have been darkenedby ashes from eruptions in distant parts of the earth. 

[Illustration: FIG. 25. --FISSURE IN THE LAVA, SHADOW MOUNTAIN

The groovings in the lava show that it was squeezed out in a half-solidcondition]

It is in the country west of the Rockies, the region last to beexplored and settled, that the objects of our search come to light. Here are volcanoes and lava fields so extensive as almost to buryfrom sight the older surface of the earth. Some of them appearas if but yesterday they had been glowing with heat. 

In the Cordilleran region Nature has carried on her work with amaster hand. She has lifted the earth's crust to form a great plateau. Portions of the plateau she has broken, projecting the fragmentsupward to form lofty mountains, while along the fissures thus createdshe has squeezed out fiery molten matter from the interior of theearth. This molten material has spread out in fields of lava orhas piled itself about small openings, forming volcanic cones, which in some cases have overtopped the loftiest mountain rangesof the continent. It is believed that a number of these volcaniceruptions have occurred in the Cordilleran region of the UnitedStates since the discovery of America, and that one took placewithin the lifetime of many persons now living. 

San Francisco Mountain, in northern Arizona, is the loftiest volcanicpeak of a region dotted with volcanoes and lava flows. This greatvolcano, like most of its neighbors, has long been extinct, althougha few miles to the eastward there appears a group of small butvery new cones. 

A ride of fifteen miles from the town of Flagstaff, across theforest-covered plateau, brings us to Shadow Mountain and the fieldsof lava and volcanic sand lying at its base. The mountain, throughoutits height of over one thousand feet, is a conical aggregate ofloose lapilli which give way under the feet and make climbing thepeak very tiresome. 

The lapilli and scoriæ are slag-like fragments of lava which havebeen blown out of the throat of the volcano while in a hot orsemi-molten condition. These fragments, as they fall back to theearth, collect about the opening and in time build up the volcano, or cinder cone, as such a mountain is frequently called. The finerparticles, which have the appearance of dark sand, fall fartheraway and form a layer over the surface for some miles upon everyside. These products of an explosive volcano are sometimes calledcinders and ashes, because of their resemblance to the slag andrefuse of furnaces. 

In the case of the volcano which we are studying, the lapilli areso black that they give the cone the appearance of being darkenedby the shadow of a cloud, and on this account the peak is namedShadow Mountain. As the days are usually bright here, the shadoweffect is very striking. 

[Illustration: FIG. 26. --EDGE OF LAVA FIELD, WITH PUMICE IN THEFOREGROUND

Near Shadow Mountain]

There are several smaller craters, east of the main one, whichalso threw out volcanic sand and lapilli. The surrounding hills areof volcanic origin, although very much older than Shadow Mountain. These hills are covered with pine forests; but trees or plantshave gained only slight hold upon the newer surfaces of the cindercones, which present a picture of almost complete desolation. 

There have been two other eruptions since the making of the cindercones, and these were marked by flows of molten lava. Althoughthe rough and rugged surface of the older flow has not yet begunto crumble and form soil, as it must do in time, yet a few treesare found here and there, reaching their roots down for the scantynourishment to be drawn from the crevices of the rocks. 

The last flow of lava, which was very small, ran into a depressionin the other flow just described. This lava appears so fresh thatwe almost expect to find the rocks still warm. What a contrastbetween the wooded hillside adjoining, with its carpet of softvolcanic sand, and the jagged surface of the lava! Care must betaken in climbing over the lava, for the sharp points and anglesare ever ready to tear one's shoes and hands. It cannot be manyyears since these hard, cold rocks formed a glowing mass of moltenmatter creeping quietly out of some hidden fissure which reachedfar down into the earth. The lava hardened as it became cold, justas does molten iron when led from the furnace to make a casting. 

At one spot in the lava field stand the remains of rude stone housesbuilt into caverns in the lava. About them are scattered piecesof broken pottery. These rude dwellings were probably occupied bysome of the prehistoric people whose homes are also found alongmany of the streams, and in the caves of the plateau region. Wecan see no reason for their coming to this desolate place, so farfrom a water supply, unless it was that the rugged lava offeredsome protection from their enemies. 

Now let us imagine ourselves transported to northern California. Near Lassen Peak, the southernmost of the great volcanoes of theCascade Range, there lies another field of recent volcanic activityof even greater interest than the first. The centre of attraction isCinder Cone, similar to Shadow Mountain in its manner of formationas well as in materials, but more symmetrical in form. Upon one sideis a field of black lava several miles in extent, while volcanicsand has been spread over all the adjacent country. 

[Illustration: FIG. 27. --THE CRATER OF CINDER CONE]

As nearly as can be determined, only a little more than two hundredyears ago the valley now occupied by Cinder Cone and the lava fieldsgave no indication of ever becoming a new centre of volcanic action. It has been thousands of years since the ancient volcanic peaksand cinder cones of this mountainous region became extinct. Theglaciers had come, and torn and ground away the surface of thelava, and afterward dense forests had hidden all the rocky slopes, while lakes had occupied many of the valleys. Far below, however, the fires had not gone out. In many places there were boiling springsfrom which the steam, upon cold mornings, rose in dense white clouds. 

Then, for some reason which we do not understand, the forces beneaththe surface increased their activity. The force of the steam andother gases was too great to be restrained, and at a weak spot inthe overlying rocks they broke through. Molten lava accompaniedthem, and a new volcano came into life in the valley where CinderCone now raises its dark, symmetrical slopes. 

The eruptions were violent. With explosive force the molten lavawas torn into fragments, and sand, lapilli, and bombs were hurled outinto the air. The finer particles were carried by the air currentsfar over the surrounding country. The lapilli, scoriæ, and bombsfell around the throat of the volcano, finally building up thecone to its present proportions. The great bombs, some of them fivefeet in diameter, are among the most remarkable products of thiseruption. They lie scattered about upon the surface of the groundat the foot of the cone, and, although they are often irregularin shape, they might almost be mistaken for huge cannon-balls. The eruption killed and burned the trees in the near-by forests, burying them under six or seven feet of fine sand or ashes. Afterthe cone had been built and the explosive eruptions had nearlystopped, a stream of molten lava burst from the base of the coneand filled a portion of the valley. 

Now followed a long period of quiet. Trees began to grow upon thesand and gradually to encroach upon the barren wastes about CinderCone. It appeared as if there were to be no more eruptions. Butthe volcano was only resting. At about the time, perhaps, whenthe gold seekers began to pour across the continent to California, there was another eruption; but this time it took the form of alava flow and was so quiet as to create no disturbance in thesurrounding country. 

[Illustration: FIG. 28. --CINDER CONE

The trees were killed by the last eruption of volcanic ashes]

A stream of thick, viscous lava flowed slowly out of an openingat the southern base of Cinder Cone. As the lava crept down thegentle slopes of the valley, it crusted over, forming a black, slag-like surface. The surface was from time to time broken upand mixed with the softer portions beneath, so that the movementof the flow was still further retarded. At the lower end of thevalley the lava occupied a portion of a body of water now knownas Lake Bidwell; its rugged front made a dam across the valleyabove, forming Snag Lake. The stumps of the trees which were killedby the water when the lake was first formed are still standing. 

[Illustration: FIG. 29. --THE LAST LAVA FLOW IN THE UNITED STATES

At Cinder Cone, California. It formed a dam across a valley, thuscreating Snag Lake]

One's feet sink deep into volcanic sands, and walking is tiresome. The lava field resulting from the last eruption is free from sand, but its rough surface, formed of broken blocks, is difficult tocross. 

A few charred stumps rise out of the sand, pathetic remnants of theforest trees that were growing at the time of the first eruption. Most of the trees have completely disappeared, leaving shallowpits where they once stood. 

It is exceedingly difficult to climb the cone, which rises oversix hundred feet, for the slopes, composed of loose lapilli, areso steep that one slips back at every step nearly as far as headvances. From the summit a remarkable sight meets the eye. Withinthe rim of the main crater is a second crater with a rim nearly ashigh as the first, while the cavity within has a depth of abouttwo hundred and fifty feet. 

Because of the loose character of the material of which it is built, no streamlets have yet worn channels down the slopes of CinderCone, and except for the presence of two small bushes which clingto its side, it is just as bare and perfect in form as when firstcompleted. 

Little by little the forests are encroaching upon the sand-coveredslopes about the cone, and in time these slopes, the black fieldsof lava, and the cone itself, will be covered with forests likethe older lava fields and cinder cones which appear upon everyhand. 

THE MUD VOLCANOES OF THE COLORADO DESERT

The Colorado Desert is a strange, weird region. Here is a vastbasin at the head of the Gulf of California which was once a part ofthe gulf, but is now separated from it by the delta of the ColoradoRiver. With the drying up of the water, the centre of the basin wasleft a salt marsh more than two hundred and fifty feet below thelevel of the ocean. In summer the air quivers under the blazingsun, and it seems as if no form of life could withstand the scorchingheat, but in winter the atmosphere is cool and full of life-givingenergy. 

Around this desert rise the mountains, some old and nearly worndown, their tops barely rising out of the long slopes of sand andgravel; others rugged and steep, lifting their crests far abovethe burning desert into the cold, clear sky. 

Curious forms of plants and animals find their homes upon the slopesabout the basin, where they adapt themselves to the heat and dryness. But toward the centre the soil is bare clay, for when the water driedup so much alkali and salt were left that nothing could grow. 

However we do not now intend to study the plants or the animals, interesting though they are, but rather a group of mud volcanoes, which forms almost the only relief in the monotony of the bareplain. These volcanoes are in no way related to real volcanoesexcept in shape, for water and mud, instead of fire and lava, havebeen concerned in their building. 

[Illustration: FIG. 30. --MUD VOLCANOES, COLORADO DESERT]

Once it required a long journey in wagons or upon horseback to reachthe mud volcanoes, but now the railroad takes us within three milesof the spot. We alight from the train before a section house whichstands in the midst of the great desert. Far, far away stretches thebarren clay floor of the ancient lake. Here and there are scatteredstunted shrubs, the only specimens of plant life which have beenable to withstand the alkali in the clay. 

Seen from the station, the volcanoes appear like dark specks almostupon the horizon, but in reality they are not far away, and anhour's brisk walk will bring us to them. The mud springs, whichare scattered over an area of several hundred acres, present manystrange and interesting features. There are holes in the earth withbubbling mud at the bottom, cones from the tops of which streamsof muddy water issue, and ponds of mud, in some cases as thickas molasses, in others thin and watery. There are little jets ofsteam, strange odors, and a vista of many mingled colors. Takenaltogether, it is a place quite different from any other that wehave ever seen. 

The ground is soft and marshy, and in some places undermined bythe water, so that we have to take great care in walking about. Some of the smaller springs occupy round depressions, sometimesthree or four feet across, which look as if they had been madeby pressing a large pan down into the clay. The bubbling mud inthe bottom of the pan, as well as the hot water in many of thesprings, makes it easy to imagine that we are standing upon thetop of a great cooking stove in which a hot fire is burning. Asthe gas with which the water is impregnated comes up through themud, it forms huge bubbles which finally break and settle down, only to rise again. In this way concentric mud rings, perfect inform, are made to cover the entire surface of the pool. 

Where there is little water, the surface of the mud hardens andleaves a small opening, through which the bubbling gas throws smallcolumns of mud at regular intervals. From the large pools, someof which are forty to fifty feet in diameter, there comes a lowmurmuring sound like the boiling of many kettles. The water issputtering and bubbling, and in some places it is hot enough to giveoff thin clouds of steam. Occasionally we get whiffs of sulphur, while about the borders of some of the ponds pretty crystals ofthis mineral can be found. 

More commonly the pools are crusted about with a white depositof salt, for they all contain more or less of this substance insolution. Around a few of the pools the mud is stained with thered tinge of iron, and red lines mark the paths of the streamsas they run off from the pools toward the still lower portions ofthe desert. 

[Illustration: FIG. 31. --POT-HOLES]

The built-up cones or volcanoes appear in every stage, from thelittle ones a few inches high to the patriarchs, which in somecases have reached a height of twelve feet. These cones are formedby the hardening and piling up of mud about the openings; but whenthey have reached the height mentioned, the passages up throughtheir centres, corresponding in each case to the throat of a realvolcano, become clogged and new holes are formed in the mud atthe base. 

[Illustration: FIG. 32. --AN EXTINCT MUD VOLCANO

With small active one at its side]

Many of these mud volcanoes closely resemble true volcanoes in formand structure. The mud which pours out at the top forms streamsdown the slopes very like those of molten lava. New cones are builtupon the sides or at the bases of the old ones in much the sameway as are those in the volcanic regions. 

There are no signs of volcanic action in the vicinity of these mudsprings, and it is likely that the water is forced to the surfaceby large quantities of gas produced by chemical changes takingplace deep within the clay beds of the old lake. Similar springsoccur farther south, nearer the mouth of the Colorado River, inthe Yellowstone Park, and near Lassen Peak, but nowhere in Americaexcept in the Colorado desert have they formed such large andinteresting mounds. 

THE HISTORY OF A COAST LINE

The story of our Pacific coast reads more like a tale from the"Arabian Nights" than like a plain statement of events which haveactually happened. 

The meeting place of the land and ocean is not really so permanenta line as it appears. The shore has been continually moving backand forth throughout the long history of the earth. That which wasdry land at one time was at another time deeply buried beneath theocean. The Pacific border seems never to have been at rest. It hasrisen and sunk again repeatedly. It has been squeezed, folded, andbroken, shaken by earthquakes, and disturbed by volcanic eruptions. 

One might be led to think from this statement that it would notbe safe to live on the Pacific coast, and that both animals andmen would shun the region. The fact is, however, that these changesusually come to pass so very slowly that we are not aware of them. Severe earthquakes and volcanic disturbances take place so rarelyin comparison with the length of a man's life, that we may pass ourwhole lives without experiencing any of these violent disturbances. The Pacific coast region, with its forest-covered mountains, fertilevalleys, and beautiful homes, presents so quiet and peaceful anappearance that it is difficult to believe that parts of its historyhave been so tumultuous. 

Perhaps you will ask how we can know so much about the past. It istrue that no one was here to witness the events which are supposedto have taken place. But Nature has left a record of her doingswhich we have only to see and understand in order to learn withcertainty many things which happened in the far distant past. 

Too many of us go through life seeing and understanding almostas little of the world about us as if we were blind. Our earlyancestors were obliged to understand many things about Nature andto cultivate clear and close observation for the sake ofself-preservation. The very life of the savage depends upon thetraining of his eyes. He must be able to tell the meaning of adistant object or an indistinct trail, for his enemies may havepassed that way recently. If we could bring the sharp eyes of thesavage to our aid, the world would mean much more to us. 

In order to learn something of the history of the Pacific shoreline, we must see what the waves are doing at the present time. The projecting points of land are being worn away (Fig. 33). Thewaves form the cliffs against which they beat, and sometimes, asthey eat their way slowly into the land, they cut off portionsand leave them standing alone as islands. 

The pebbles and boulders (Fig. 34) were once angular fragmentstorn from the cliff. They have been washed about and hurled againstthe solid rock until they have been worn smooth; and the cliffin turn has had a cave ground out at its base. Above the lowercave there is a remnant of a second one, with pebbles upon itsfloor. This was made when the land stood ten feet lower than atpresent. 

As the waves wear away the loose earth and the solid rock belowit, moving the cliffs inland, they leave a comparatively smoothsurface which is partly exposed at low tide. The fact that thissurface is not marked by stream channels, as is the land, helpsus to realize the great difference between the irregular surfaceof the latter and the plain-like character of the ocean floor. 

[Illustration: FIG. 33. --POINT BUCHON, CALIFORNIA

The waves are eating their way into the land]

Along the whole coast of California there are many old sea beachesand cliffs which the waves abandoned long ago. The highest of thesebeaches lies so far up the slopes of the mountains bordering theocean that it makes us wonder what the geography of Californiacould have been like when the region was so deeply submerged. 

The lowest and newest terrace is the one shown in Fig. 35, tenfeet above the ocean. Each succeeding terrace is less distinct, and the highest, fourteen hundred feet in elevation, can now bedistinguished in only a few places. Where the old sea cliffs arebest preserved they form a series of broad, flat steps, rising oneabove the other. Each bench, or terrace as it is commonly called, is a part of an old plain cut out of the land by the waves when theocean stood at that level. The steeper slope rising at the back isthe remnant of the cliff against which the waves used to beat. Ifwe are fortunate, we shall find at its base some water-worn pebblesand possibly a few fragments of sea-shells. The crumbling of therocks and the erosive action of the rills are fast destroying theold cliffs, so that in many places they have entirely disappeared. 

[Illustration: FIG. 34. --OCEAN CAVE AT LOW TIDE

Pebbles of a former beach are seen above]

Upon the seaward face of San Pedro Hill, in southern California, there are eleven terraces, rising to a height of twelve hundredfeet. What an interesting record this shows! Long ago the landstood twelve hundred feet lower than at present, and the waves beatabout San Pedro Hill, nearly submerging it. Then the land beganto rise, but stopped after a time, and the waves cut a terrace. Theupward movement was continued, with repeated intervals of rest, until the land stood higher than it does now. 

[Illustration: FIG. 35. --WAVE-CUT TERRACES

Point San Pedro, California]

North of San Francisco there stands a terrace fourteen hundred feetabove the ocean. Numerous terraces appear along the Oregon coast, but those in Washington are not as high as those in California. It isprobable that the land in this region was not so deeply submerged. 

The ancient shore lines of British Columbia and Alaska are nowdeeply buried beneath the ocean, as those of California once were. The fiords, so common in these countries, are old river valleyswhich have been drowned by the sinking of the land. The islandswere once portions of the coast mountains, but have been cut offby the same process. 

Let us picture in our minds the changes in the geography of thePacific coast of the United States which must have been made by asinking of the land to a depth of only six hundred feet. We willbegin upon the north, at the Strait of Fuca. 

Puget Sound once opened to the south as well as to the north, sothat the Olympic Mountains formed an island. The broad and fertileWillamette Valley was but an arm of the sea, somewhat like PugetSound to-day. The body of water which once filled this valley hasbeen called Willamette Sound. The ocean overspread the low Oregoncoast, and reached far up the valleys of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers. But the boundaries of the Klamath Mountains were not greatly changed, for in many places they rise quite abruptly from the present shoreline. 

All the large valleys of California were flooded, including theSan Joaquin-Sacramento valley, which was then a great sound, opento the ocean in the region of the present Strait of Carquinez. The Coast range was broken up into islands and peninsulas. Theislands off the coast of southern California are high and thereforewere not entirely submerged. The Gulf of California spread over theColorado Desert, while from the west the water penetrated inlandover the plain of Los Angeles to a point beyond San Bernardino, sothat at the San Gorgonio pass only a narrow neck of land connectedthe San Jacinto Mountains and the Peninsula Range with the mainland. 

If California had been inhabited at this time, the state wouldnot have been noted for orchards and grain-fields, but rather forits mineral wealth. There would have been comparatively littlelow land fit for cultivation, but the mountains, where almost allthe precious metals are found, would have appeared nearly as theydo to-day. 

The surface of the earth may be divided into the ocean basins andthe continental masses which rise above them, but we must not makethe mistake of thinking that the shore line always correspondswith the border of the continental masses. We have learned thatthe land is almost always moving slowly up or down, so that theshore is continually changing back and forth. At one time the shoreline may be far within the borders of the continent, as we haveseen was once the case upon our Pacific coast; at another time, if the land should rise, the shore line might coincide with thereal border of the continent. By the real border of the continentwe mean the line along which the earth slopes down steeply to theabysmal depths of the ocean. 

It is an interesting fact that outside the present shore line ofCalifornia there is a submerged strip of the continent varyingfrom ten to one hundred and fifty miles in width. This strip ofland is like a bench upon the side of the continent, and is known asthe continental plateau. The water over the plateau is comparativelyshallow. Upon one side the land rises, while upon the other there isa rapid descent into the deep Pacific. The surface of the plateauis in general fairly smooth, but in places mountains lift theirsummits above the water and form islands. 

There was a time, thousands of years earlier than the period whenCalifornia was so nearly covered by the waters of the Pacific, whenthis land stood far higher than it does now. The coast line wasthen much farther west, near the border of the submarine plateau. The Santa Barbara Islands at that time formed a mountain range uponthe edge of the continental land. This fact was established bythe discovery upon one of the islands of a large number of bonesof an extinct American elephant. These animals could have reachedthe submerged mountains only at a time when there was dry landbetween them and the present shore line. We should like to know howit came about that these bones were left where they are. Perhapsthe land sank so suddenly that the water cut the elephants off fromthe mainland and compelled them to spend the remainder of theirlives upon these islands. 

While the land stood so high, some of the larger streams wore deepchannels across what is now the submarine plateau. These channelshave been discovered by soundings made from the ships of the UnitedStates Coast Survey. The largest of the submerged valleys extendsthrough the Bay of Monterey, and runs so close to the shore thatit has offered a favorable location for a wharf. 

Before the buried valleys upon the northern coast of Californiawere all known, the presence of one of them led to the wreck ofa ship. The shore was obscured by fog, but the soundings made bythe sailors showed deep water and led them to believe they werea long distance from land, when suddenly the ship drifted in uponthe rocks. 

The last significant movement of the land of the Pacific borderwas a downward one. It flooded the mouths of the streams and formedall the large harbors which are of so great commercial importance. 

San Francisco Bay occupies a great stretch of lowland at the meetingof several valleys of the Coast Ranges and forms the outlet forthe most important drainage system of California. If this regionhad been settled before the subsidence of the land which let in theocean through the Golden Gate, how the farmers would have lamentedthe flooding of their fertile lands! But we can understand howsmall the loss would have been, compared with the advantages tobe gained from the magnificent harbor which now exists here. Ifthe land had not sunk the history of the Pacific coast would havebeen far different. 

[Illustration: FIG. 36. --ISLAND ROUNDED BY A GLACIER

Near Anacortes, Puget Sound]

Puget Sound, another very important arm of the ocean, is also asubmerged valley, but it has had an entirely different historyfrom that of San Francisco Bay. The valley was at one time occupiedby a great glacier which came down from the Cascade Range and movednorthwest through the sound and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, scouring and polishing the rocks over which it passed. A littleisland near Anacortes (Fig. 36) has been rounded by the actionof the ice into a form like a whale's back. 

[Illustration: FIG. 37. --AN ABANDONED OCEAN CLIFF

Southern California]

The sinking of the land flooded the lower Columbia River and themouth of the Willamette, so that ocean ships may now go up as faras Portland. The currents and waves soon threw up bars across themouths of the smaller streams, and formed lagoons behind them. Ships frequently have difficulty in entering many of the harborsbecause of the sand bars which have been built up part way to thesurface of the water. 

It is thought that along some portions of the coast there has recentlybeen a slight upward movement of the land. Figure 37 shows a bitof California coast, near San Juan, where the Santa Fé railroadhas laid its tracks for several miles along a strip of abandonedbeach, at the base of a cliff against which the waves once beat. 

[Illustration: FIG. 38. --LIMESTONE CLIFF, QUATSINO SOUND, VANCOUVERISLAND]

At the northern end of Vancouver island there is a deep arm ofthe ocean called Quatsino Sound. A limestone cliff upon the shoreof this sound (Fig. 38) has been undermined by the dissolving ofthe limestone, but now the water lacks three feet of rising tothe notch which it recently formed. 

THE DISCOVERY OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER

The influence exerted by the various features of the land and waterupon the settlement of a new region are not always fully appreciated. If the entrance to San Francisco Bay had been broader and moreeasily discerned by the early navigators who sailed past it, and ifthe mouth of the Columbia River had not been obscured by lowlandsand a line of breakers upon the bar, the history of western Americawould probably have been very different. 

In the seventeenth century the prospect seemed to be that Spainwould control the Pacific Ocean. She claimed, by right of discovery, all the lands bordering upon this ocean and the exclusive rightto navigate its waters. Every vessel found there without licensefrom the court of Spain was, by royal decree, to be confiscated. 

It is interesting, after all these years and with our present knowledge, to look back and see how unreasonable were the claims of Spain. In the fifteenth century the extent of the Pacific ocean was notknown. In fact, men's ideas as to the distribution of land and waterover the earth were so indefinite that it was at first supposedthat the islands which Columbus discovered belonged to the EastIndies. 

The claims of Spain to the Pacific Ocean were based upon its discoveryby Balboa, but she never made any serious efforts to enforce them, for the attempt would have involved her in war with all the maritimenations of Europe. Spain lacked the ability to take advantage ofthe great discoveries which her navigators and explorers had made, and for that reason she merely looked on, though with jealous eyes, when in the eighteenth century the ships of England, France, Holland, and Russia entered the Pacific Ocean with a view to explorationand conquest. 

Determined at last to support their claim to the Pacific coastof North America, the Spaniards began to realize the necessityof exploring it more fully and of founding settlements. It wastheir plan to take possession of the whole region between Mexicoupon the south and the Russian trading posts along the shores ofAlaska. As exploration by land was impossible because of mountainranges and deserts, the Spanish adventurers were forced to relyupon the ocean, with all its uncertainties of storm and contrarywinds. 

Between 1774 and 1779 voyages were made as far north as QueenCharlotte's Island, in latitude 54°. A station was establishedand held for many years at Nootka Sound, upon the west coast ofVancouver Island. The first expedition passed the Strait of Juande Fuca apparently without seeing it, although there was a rumor tothe effect that a broad opening into the land had been discoveredby a certain Juan de Fuca in 1592, while he was exploring in theemploy of Spain. The latitude of this opening, as he gave it, nearlycorresponds to that of the strait which now bears his name. 

For many years the attempt to discover a passage around the northernpart of America engaged the early navigators upon both the Atlanticand Pacific oceans. Their desire to find an easy route to Indiaspurred them to constant effort. For a time it was believed thatsuch an opening actually existed, and mariners went so far as to giveit a name, calling it the Straits of Anian. The reputed discoveriesof Juan de Fuca materially strengthened the general belief in apassage to the northward of America. 

Vizcaino, in his voyage of 1603, reached latitude 43° north andthought that he had discovered a great river flowing into the PacificOcean. This opening, although south of the point supposed to havebeen reached by Juan de Fuca, was believed for a time to be theentrance to the long-sought Straits of Anian. During the latterpart of the seventeenth century California was represented uponthe Spanish maps as an island having Cape Blanco, which Vizcainodiscovered and named, as its northern point, and separated fromthe mainland by an extension of the Gulf of California northward. 

To return now to the Spanish explorations, in the latter part ofthe seventeenth century we find that Heceta, following the firstexpedition, succeeded in getting as far as Vancouver Island, where, having been parted from an accompanying ship by a storm, he turnedsouthward, passing the Strait of Juan de Fuca and keeping close bythe shore. In latitude 46° 17' he found an opening in the coast fromwhich a strong current issued. He felt sure that he had discoveredthe mouth of some large river. Upon the later Spanish maps thiswas called Heceta's Inlet, or River of San Roque. A glance at themap will show how closely the latitude given corresponds to themouth of the river which was discovered later by Captain Gray andnamed, after his ship, the Columbia. 

A short time before Heceta's discovery, Captain Jonathan Carver ofConnecticut set out on an exploring tour, partly for the purposeof determining the width of the continent and the nature of theIndian inhabitants. He mentions four great rivers rising withina few leagues of one another, "The river Bourbon (Red River ofthe North) which empties itself into Hudson's Bay, the waters ofthe St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, and the river Oregon, or Riverof the West, that falls into the Pacific Ocean at the Straits ofAnian. " Carver's descriptions are fanciful, and it is not likely thathe ever saw the river which is now known as the Columbia, althoughthere is a possibility that he heard stories from the Indians ofa great river upon the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, andinvented for it the name Oregon. 

In 1787 Meares, an English trader, visited the coast, and sailingsouthward from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, attempted to find theriver San Roque as it was laid down upon the Spanish charts. Reachingthe proper latitude, Meares rounded a promontory and found behindit a bay which he was unable to enter because of a continuous lineof breakers extending across it. He became satisfied that therewas no such river as the San Roque, and named the promontory CapeDisappointment and the bay Deception Bay. If Meares had enteredthe bay through the breakers, the English would undoubtedly havemade good their claim to the discovery of the Columbia River. 

After the Revolution, American trading ships began to extend theiroperations into the North Pacific. In 1787 two such vessels leftBoston, one of them under command of a Captain Gray. After reachingthe Pacific, the ships were parted during a storm, and Captain Grayfinally touched the American coast near the forty-sixth degree ofnorth latitude. For nine days he tried to enter an opening whichwas in all probability the one attempted by Meares. After nearlylosing his ship and suffering an Indian attack, he sailed northto Nootka Sound. 

Captain Gray returned to Boston, but in 1790 started upon anothertrading expedition in command of the ship _Columbia_. Arrivingsafely in the North Pacific, he spent the winter of 1791-1792 uponVancouver Island. 

Vancouver, whose name has been given to the largest island uponthe western coast of North America, and who did so much to makeknown the intricate coast line of the Puget Sound region, arrivedupon the scene in 1792. He was authorized to carry on explorations, and to treat with Spain concerning the abandonment of the Spanishclaim to Nootka Sound. 

Vancouver sailed up the coast, keeping a close lookout for theriver San Roque. No opening in the land appeared, although at onespot he sailed through a muddy-colored sea which he judged wasaffected by the water of some river. Upon reaching the Strait ofFuca, Vancouver expressed the opinion that there was no river betweenthe fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, "onlybrooks insufficient for our vessels to navigate. "

Shortly after this time, Vancouver met Captain Gray with his ship_Columbia_. The disheartened explorer placed no confidence in CaptainGray's report that, upon his former voyage, he had discovered alarge river to the south. Vancouver in his narrative says, "I wasthoroughly convinced that we could not possibly have passed anysafe navigable opening, harbor, or place of security for shippingon this coast from Cape Mendocino to the promontory of Closset"(Cape Flattery). 

Captain Gray, however, determined to make further investigations. He sailed southward and entered a port now known as Gray's Harbor, where he spent several days trading with the Indians. From thisharbor he ran on south for a few miles past Cape Disappointment, and then sailed through an opening in the breakers into a bay whichhe supposed formed the mouth of the river of which he was in search. He finally anchored, as he says, "in a large river of fresh water. "

[Illustration: FIG. 39. --A SCENE ON GRAY'S HARBOR, WASHINGTON

Showing sawmills and log booms]

Later Captain Gray took the vessel twelve or fifteen miles up theriver, and would have gone farther if he had not wandered into thewrong channel. When he left the river he named it the Columbiain honor of his vessel. Thus by the right of actual discovery theUnited States was at last able to make good its claim to the river. 

The English claimed that Gray did not enter the river itself, asthe tide sets up many miles farther than the point which his shipreached. They insisted that what he saw was simply a bay. But thetruth is that Gray was actually in the mouth of the river. The merefact that the tide enters the lower portion of the river makesno difference. The actual mouth of the Columbia is marked by thenorth and south coast line. The entrance of the tide water, andthe backing of the current for many miles up stream, is the resultof a recent sinking of the land. The same features are presentedby the Hudson River. 

If the English had discovered and entered the river first it isprobable that this stream would have become the boundary line betweenthe United States and British Columbia, in which case the wholenorthern portion of the Oregon territory would have been lost tous. As it was, the English laid insistent claim to the northernbank of the river and established trading posts at various points. The lowest of these posts stood upon the site of Fort Vancouver, a little above the mouth of the Willamette River. 

The famous exploring expedition under Captains Lewis and Clarkwintered at the mouth of the Columbia in 1804-1805, in a groupof rude log cabins known as Fort Clatsop. The first settlementin the vicinity was made in 1811, when a fur company organized byJohn Jacob Astor attempted to establish a trading post upon theColumbia. Two parties were sent out from New York. One travelledby water around Cape Horn, while the other, with great difficulty, crossed the continent by the way of the Missouri, Snake, and Columbiarivers. The undertaking proved unsuccessful, for after the War of1812 began supplies could no longer be sent safely to the post. 

The Astor company finally surrendered its establishment to an Englishcompany, and in this way the control of the river was transferredto England. With the return of peace the post was restored to theUnited States, and its location is marked now by the city of Astoria. 

[Illustration: FIG. 40. --TILLAMOOK ROCK

Near the mouth of the Columbia River]

What small things sometimes determine the trend of great events!A little more care and energy on the part of Vancouver or Meareswould have placed the Columbia River in the hands of the English. The existence of an open river mouth without any breaking bar wouldhave brought about the same result. 

The Spaniards came first to the Pacific slope, claiming the wholecoast as far north as the Russian possessions. Later the UnitedStates, by treaty with Spain and Russia, acquired a right to allthat portion of the Pacific coast of North America which lies betweenCalifornia and the Russian possessions. But because of the greaterenergy of the English, and the failure upon the part of the UnitedStates to realize the value of this vast region, a considerablesection was again lost by the terms of the treaty which made theforty-ninth parallel the boundary line. The intelligence and energyof Captain Gray alone preserved to us the rich lands of Washington. 

[Illustration: FIG. 41. --ASTORIA, OREGON

At the mouth of the Columbia River]

THE GREAT BASIN AND ITS PECULIAR LAKES

As our country was slowly being explored and settled, one regionwas brought to light which Nature seemed to have left unfinishedand in a desolate condition. This barren stretch of country was oncemarked upon the maps as the Great American Desert, and included alarge part of the extensive region lying between the Rocky Mountainsupon the east and the Sierra Nevada Mountains upon the west. To thesouth lay the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, while upon the norththe boundary was formed by the cañons of the Snake and Columbiarivers. 

After a time it was found that this region, covering about twohundred and twenty-five thousand square miles, not only was extremelydry, but had no outlet to the ocean. A rim of higher land all aboutmade of it so perfect a basin that it became known as the GreatBasin. None of the water that falls upon the surface of this basinever reaches the ocean through surface streams. Some of it soaksinto the rocks, but the greater part is evaporated into the dryair. 

We have already learned something about the way in which the ridgesand hollows of the earth's surface are made. We have learned ofthe wrinkling of the crust, of the formation of fissures, and ofthe erosive work of running water. The interesting features ofthe Great Basin are mainly the result of two causes: the sinkingof a portion of the earth's surface, and the lack of rainfall. 

Long ago the Wasatch Range of eastern Utah and the Sierra Nevadasof California formed parts of a vast elevated plateau. Then therecame a time when the forces holding up the plateau were relaxed, and as the weight of the plateau pressed it down, the solid rocksbroke into huge fragments. Some of the blocks thus made sank andformed valleys; others were tilted or pushed up and formed mountains. Thus the north and south mountain ranges and valleys of the GreatBasin were born. 

We must understand, then, that the Great Basin is not a simpledepression with higher land all about. The breaking up of the surfaceproduced many basins, large and small. Some of these basins are sixthousand feet above the level of the sea, others are much lower, and one has been dropped below the level of the sea, so that if itwere not for barriers the water would flow in. Some of the basinsare rimmed all about by steep mountains, others are so broad andflat that it is difficult to tell that they really are basins. Many of the valleys are so connected with one another that if aheavy rainfall should ever occur drainage systems would be quicklyestablished. 

The Great Basin now appears like the skeleton of a dried-up world; butif the climate should change and become like that of the MississippiValley, the surface of the desert would undergo a wondroustransformation. The hundreds of basins, if fed by streams fromthe surrounding mountains, would then become lakes. The highest, overflowing, would empty into a lower, and this in turn into astill lower basin, until the water had accumulated in vast inlandseas. These seas, overflowing the rim of the Great Basin at itslowest points, would send rivers hastening away to the ocean. 

[Illustration: Map of the Great Basin showing the location and extentof the ancient lake beds. ]

What a region of lakes this would be for a time! Then they wouldbegin to disappear, for lakes are short-lived as compared withmountains. Some would be filled with clay and gravel brought bythe streams. Others would be drained by a cutting down of theiroutlets. 

Great Salt Lake, which is the only body of water in the Basin thathas ever sent a stream to the ocean, was lowered four hundred feetby the washing away of the rock and earth at its outlet. 

We know that the rainfall never has been heavy in this region sincethe Great Basin was formed, although at one time it was sufficientlygreat to form two inland seas, one in northwestern Nevada, theother in Utah. 

The chief reason for the dryness of the Great Basin is the presenceof that lofty barrier, the Sierra Nevada mountain range, betweenthe Basin and the Pacific Ocean. The storms, which usually comefrom the ocean, are intercepted by this range, and the greaterportion of their moisture is taken away. The little moisture thatremains falls upon the highlands of the Great Basin, and so relievesits surface from utter barrenness. The adjacent slopes of the SierraNevada and Wasatch ranges furnish numerous perennial streams whichfeed the lakes about the borders of the Basin, such as Great SaltLake, Pyramid, Walker, Mono, Honey, and Owens lakes. The wet weatherstreams, flowing down the desert mountains for a short time eachyear, frequently form broad, shallow lakes which disappear withthe coming of the summer sun. 

The climate of the Great Basin has changed from time to time. Duringone period it was much drier than it is now, and the lakes werenearly or quite dried up. It must have been a desolate region then, shunned by animals and forbidden to man. 

During the Glacial period, a few thousand years ago, the climatewas moister and cooler than it is now. The mountains were coveredwith deep snows, and glaciers crept down the slopes of the higherpeaks. Great Salt Lake covered all northwestern Utah; to this formerbody of water the name Bonneville has been given, in honor of a notedtrapper. Pyramid, Winnemucca, Carson, Walker, and Honey lakes, nowseparated from one another by sagebrush deserts, were then unitedin one great lake, to which the name Lahontan has been given, inhonor of an early French explorer. 

[Illustration: FIG. 42. --MONO LAKE, CALIFORNIA]

Lake Lahontan covered a large portion of northwestern Nevada andpenetrated into California. It was broken into long winding armsand bays by various mountain ranges. The deepest portion of thisancient lake is now occupied by Pyramid Lake, which is, perhaps, the most picturesque of all the Basin lakes. Fish can live in thewaters of this lake, although nearly all the others are so saltyor so alkaline that they support none of the ordinary forms oflife. 

[Illustration: FIG. 43. --ROUND HOLE, A SPRING IN THE SMOKE CREEKDESERT

Bed of old Lake Lahontan]

Upon the Black Rock Desert, in northern Nevada, there are largesprings once covered by Lake Lahontan, in which fish are found. It is thought that the ancestors of these fish must have been leftthere at the time of the drying up of the water. 

After the Glacial period the present arid climate began to prevailin the land. Hundreds of the shallow lakes which had been scatteredover this extensive region disappeared. Others contained water foronly a portion of each year. A body of water which is not permanent, but comes and goes with the seasons, we call a playa lake. Many ofthese playa lakes present in summer a hard, yellow-clay floor ofmany miles in extent and entirely free from vegetation. The bedsof others are covered with a whitish crust, formed of the varioussalts which were in solution in the lake water. 

[Illustration: FIG. 44. --ROGERS LAKE, MOHAVE DESERT

A playa lake]

An important feature of the lakes of the Great Basin is the presenceof large quantities of such substances as common salt, soda, borax, and nitre. The ocean is salt because it has no outlet, while therivers of the globe are continually bringing into it various minerals, dissolved from the rocks over which they flow. Lakes with outletsare not salty, because with a continuous change of the water thereis no opportunity for the minerals to accumulate, although theyare always present in small quantities. Any lake which does notreceive enough running water to cause it to overflow the bordersof its basin, will in course of time become rich in various kindsof salt. 

No two of the lakes of the Great Basin are alike in the compositionof their waters. This fact may be due to a difference in the rocksabout the lake basin, to the presence of varying mineral springs, or to the drying up of one or more of the lakes at some time sothat their former salts were buried under sands and clays whenthe water again filled the basin. 

Great Salt Lake contains little besides common salt. In Mono Lake, soda and salt are equally important constituents, while Owens Lakecontains an excess of soda. In other basins borax was present insuch quantities that when the waters dried up it formed importantdeposits. The value of these deposits is now fully understood, andmany enterprising companies are at work separating and purifyingthe borax. 

Owens Lake was once fresh, although now it is so strong with sodathat it would destroy the skin if a bather should remain in it verylong. The former outlet of this lake was toward the south, througha pass separating the Sierra Nevada from the Coso Mountains. For adistance of thirty miles the old river-bed has been transformedinto a wagon road, and it is interesting to ride all day along thebed of this dead river, past bold cliffs against which the watersonce surged and foamed. The river emptied far to the south, into abroad, shallow lake whose former bed is now white with soda andborax. The old beach lines stand out distinctly upon the slopes ofthe enclosing mountains. 

The lake bed is now the seat of an important industry--the gatheringof the borax and its refining. There are extensive buildings atone spot upon its border, and men come and go across the blindingwhite surface. A twenty-mule team dragging three huge wagons creepsslowly along the base of the distant mountains, but all that canbe distinguished is a cloud of dust. 

[Illustration: FIG. 45. --FREIGHTING BORAX ACROSS THE DESERT]

The slow crumbling of the rocks, and the setting free of thoseconstituents which are soluble, the work of the streams in gatheringthe rock waste into the lakes, the dry air and the heat of the longsummer days, have all conspired together to give us these valuabledeposits in the dried-up lakes of the Great Basin. 

No portion of the earth seems to be without value to man. The greatbodies of water are convenient highways. The rich valleys and timberedmountains offer useful products. Even the deserts, where livingthings of every description find the struggle for existence veryhard, become indispensable. If the climate in the Great Basin hadbeen moist, the salts would not have been preserved, but wouldhave been carried away to the ocean, from which only common saltcould have been recovered in commercial quantities. 

[Illustration: FIG. 46. --MUSHROOM ROCK, PYRAMID LAKE

Formed of calcareous tufa]

The crossing of the Great Basin was dreaded by the early emigrantson their way to the Pacific coast. In many cases the locations ofthe few springs and water-courses were unknown, and the journeyover the vast barren stretches was fraught with danger. 

Stand upon a mountain in the desert some clear day in summer andyou will see range after range, with intervening sandy wastes, stretching away to the horizon. The air below is tremulous withheat, and every living thing that can move has sought the shadeof some rock or cliff. The plants seem almost dead, for the littlesprings, hidden at rare intervals in the deep cañons, are of nouse to them. 

What transformations would be wrought upon these desert slopes ifit were possible for the soil to receive and retain large quantitiesof water! Forest-covered mountains, green hillsides, rippling streams, lakes, farms, orchards, and towns would appear as if by magic. 

FRÉMONT'S ADVENTURES IN THE GREAT BASIN

Frémont, "the Pathfinder, " did greater service than any other manin making known the geographic features of the Cordilleran region. In the fifth decade of the last century, while California stillbelonged to Mexico and the pioneers were turning their attention tothe Oregon country, Frémont organized and conducted three exploringexpeditions under the direction of the government. When in Californiaupon the third expedition he took part in the skirmishes whichresulted in the transference of this section to the United States. 

A fourth expedition, undertaken by Frémont on his own account, resulted disastrously. The explorers foolishly tried to cross theRocky Mountains in the middle of winter, but had to give up theattempt after many of the party had died from cold and starvation. 

It is hard for us to realize, now, that only sixty years ago theterritory lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coastwas practically unknown. Try to imagine the feelings of emigrants, bound for the gold-fields of California, who have pushed into theGreat Basin without knowing where to look for grass or water. Theyare camped by a spring of alkaline water scarcely fit to drink;their weary animals nibble at the scanty grass about the spring;far ahead stretches the pathless desert which they must cross;upon their choice of a route their very lives will depend. 

Now it is all changed. The whole region is crossed and recrossed bywagon roads and railways. Many mining towns are scattered throughthe mountains which dot the seemingly boundless expanse of desert, while in every place where water can be found there are gardens, green fields of alfalfa, and herds of cattle. 

Before the year 1840 some knowledge had been acquired of the bordersof the Great Basin. Trappers and explorers had crossed the RockyMountains and had gone down the Columbia River. There were Spanishsettlements in New Mexico, Arizona, and along the coast of California. 

Frémont's first expedition had taken him to the summit of the RockyMountains in northwestern Wyoming. In 1843 he started upon thesecond expedition. He was at that time commissioned to cross theRockies, descend the Columbia to Fort Vancouver, and return bya route farther to the south, across the unknown region betweenthe Columbia and the Colorado rivers. 

Let us follow the little band of explorers led by Captain Frémontas day after day they made their way across what was then a tracklesswaste, and see what troubles they encountered because of the inaccuracyof the maps of that period. 

Leaving Fort Vancouver, upon the lower Columbia, for the returntrip, the party ascended the river to The Dalles and then turnedsouthward along the eastern side of the Cascade Range. They soonentered upon a region never before traversed by white men. At thetime when autumn was giving place to winter, without reliable guidesor maps, they were to cross the deserts lying between them andthe Rocky Mountains. 

[Illustration: FIG. 47. --MAP OF A PORTION OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA, MADE IN 1826

Showing the Buenaventura River]

They met with no great difficulties until they had gone as farsouth as Klamath Lake. "From this point, " Frémont says, "our coursewas intended to be about southeast to a reported lake called Mary's, at some days' journey in the Great Basin, and thence, still onsoutheast to the reputed Buenaventura (good chance) River, whichhas had a place on so many maps, and countenanced the belief inthe existence of a great river flowing from the Rocky Mountainsto the Bay of San Francisco. "

Figure 47 shows one of the maps to which Frémont refers. How interestingit is! Compare it with a good map in your geography and you willreadily see that it is very misleading. The Sierra Nevada, one ofthe greatest mountain ranges in the United States, hardly appears, while traced directly across the map is the great BuenaventuraRiver which Frémont expected to find and follow eastward towardits source near the Rocky Mountains. 

If this river had really been where it was mapped, it is likelythat Frémont would have had no trouble, for if hard pressed hecould have followed the stream down to the ocean. But a wall ofsnow-covered mountains lying in the way made matters very different. 

Winter was coming on when the party entered what is now northwesternNevada, looking for the Buenaventura River. For several weeks theytoiled on, often through the snow. Concerning this part of thejourney Frémont says: "We had reached and run over the positionwhere, according to the best maps in my possession, we should havefound Mary's lake or river. We were evidently on the verge of thedesert, and the country was so forbidding that we were afraid toenter it. "

The party then turned south, still hoping that the river might bediscovered. After a time they came upon a large lake and travelledfor many miles along its eastern shore. One camp was made oppositea tall, pyramid-shaped island, the white surface of which made itconspicuous for a long distance. Frémont was much impressed bythe resemblance of the island to the pyramids of Egypt and so namedthe body of water Pyramid Lake. At the southern end of the lake thetravellers found a large stream flowing into it (now known as theTruckee River), and followed along its banks for some distance;but as the river turned toward the west, they left it and struckout across the country. 

Frémont says again, "With every stream I now expected to see thegreat Buenaventura, and Carson (Kit Carson, the famous scout) hurriedeagerly to search on every one we reached for beaver cuttings, which he always maintained we should find only on waters which ranto the Pacific. "

[Illustration: FIG. 48. --PYRAMID ISLAND, PYRAMID LAKE, NEVADA]

But all the streams flowed in the wrong direction, until at last theexplorers grew weary of hunting for the river which had no existence. Although it was the middle of the winter, Frémont determined tocross the lofty Sierras which rose like a white wall to the west. Once over the mountains, he hoped to gain the American settlementsin the Sacramento Valley, where already Sutter's Fort had beenestablished. 

The party ascended Walker River, dragging, with great difficulty, a howitzer which they had brought with them. The snows grew deeperas storm succeeded storm. Feeling that they were really lost, thedisheartened men at length abandoned the gun, at a spot which hassince been named Lost Cañon. 

[Illustration: FIG. 49. --LOST CAÑON, EASTERN SLOPE OF THE SIERRANEVADA MOUNTAINS]

When their own provisions were nearly gone, the party obtainedsome pine nuts and also several rabbits from the Indians. A dogwhich had been brought along made one good meal for the wayfarers. An Indian who had been persuaded to act as guide pointed out the spotwhere two white men, one of whom was Walker, a noted frontiersman, had once crossed the mountains; but the guide made them understandthat it was impossible to cross at that time of the year, saying, in his own language, "Rock upon rock, snow upon snow. "

Although they could advance only by breaking paths through thesnow, and were reduced to eating mule and horse flesh, yet theFrémont party pushed on. Finally they reached the summit of themountains and turned down by the head of a stream flowing westward, which proved to be the American River. After three weeks more ofterrible suffering they came out of the mountains at Sutter's Fort, where they obtained supplies and had an opportunity to rest andrecruit. 

[Illustration: FIG. 50. --FRÉMONT PEAK, MOHAVE DESERT]

Frémont now recognized the incorrectness of the maps which hadso nearly caused the destruction of the party. As he says in hisnotes: "No river from the interior does, or can, cross the SierraNevada, itself more lofty than the Rocky Mountains. . . There is noopening from the Bay of San Francisco into the interior of thecontinent. "

When the return journey was begun the party did not recross thehigh Sierras, but turned southward through the San Joaquin Valleyand gained the Mohave Desert by the way of Tehachapai pass. Theroute now led eastward across the deserts and low mountain rangesof California and southern Nevada, until at last Great Salt Lakewas reached. 

[Illustration: FIG. 51. --SAGE-BRUSH IN THE GREAT BASIN]

Among the many geographical discoveries of the expedition was thedemonstration of the existence of the Great Basin. In his report, Frémont, while speaking of its vast sterile valleys and of theIndians which inhabit them, says: "That it is peopled we know, but miserably and sparsely . . . Dispersed in single families . . . Eating seeds and insects, digging roots (hence their name) [DiggerIndians], such is the condition of the greater part. Others area degree higher and live in communities upon some lake or riverfrom which they repulse the miserable Diggers. 

"The rabbit is the largest animal known in this desert, its fleshaffords a little meat. . . . The wild sage is their only wood, andhere it is of extraordinary size--sometimes a foot in diameter andsix or eight feet high. It serves for fuel, for building material, for shelter for the rabbits, and for some sort of covering for thefeet and legs in cold weather. But I flatter myself that what isdiscovered, though not enough to satisfy curiosity, is sufficientto excite it, and that subsequent explorations will complete whathas been commenced. "

THE STORY OF GREAT SALT LAKE

The most interesting geographical feature of Utah is the GreatSalt Lake. Few tourists now cross the continent without visitingthe lake and taking a bath in its briny waters. This strange bodyof water has, however, been slowly growing smaller for some years, and probably will in time disappear. A study of the history of thelake may throw some light upon the important question of its possibledisappearance, and it will certainly bring out many interestingfacts. 

We do not know with certainty who was the first white man to lookupon this inland sea, although it is supposed to have been JamesBridger, a noted trapper, who in 1825 followed Bear River down toits mouth. He tasted the water and found it salt, a fact whichencouraged him in the belief that he had found an arm of the PacificOcean. 

More than two hundred years ago there were vague ideas about asalt lake situated somewhere beyond the Rocky Mountains. In 1689Baron Lahontan published an account of his travels from Mackinacto the Mississippi River and the region beyond. He states that heascended a westerly branch of the river for six weeks, until theseason became too late for farther progress. He reports meetingsavages who said that one hundred and fifty leagues beyond therewas a salt lake, "three hundred leagues in circumference--its mouthstretching a great way to the southward. "

This imaginative story aroused interest in the West. In a bookpublished in 1772, devoted to a description of the province LaLouisiane, the possibility of water communication with the SouthSea is discussed as follows: "It will be of great convenience tothis country, if ever it becomes settled, that there is an easycommunication therewith, and the South Sea, which lies betweenAmerica and China, and that two ways: by the north branch of thegreat Yellow River, by the natives called the river of the 'Massorites'(Missouri), which hath a course of five hundred miles, navigableto its head, or springs, and which proceeds from a ridge of hillssomewhat north of New Mexico, passable by horse, foot, or wagon, in less than half a day. On the other side are rivers which runinto a great lake that empties itself by another navigable riverinto the South Sea. The same may be said of the Meschaouay, upwhich our people have been, but not so far as the Baron Lahontan, who passed on it above three hundred miles almost due west, anddeclares it comes from the same ridge of hills above mentioned, and that divers rivers from the other side soon make a large river, which enters into a vast lake, on which inhabit two or three greatnations, much more populous and civilized than other Indians; andout of that lake a great river disembogues into the South Sea. "

In 1776 Father Escalante travelled from Santa Fé far to the northand west. He met Indians who told him of a lake the waters of whichproduced a burning sensation when placed upon the skin. This wasprobably Great Salt Lake, but it is not thought that he himselfever saw it. The Escalante Desert, in southern Utah, once coveredby the waters of the lake, is named after this explorer. 

Nothing more seems to have been learned of the lake after its discoveryby Bridger until in 1833 Bonneville, a daring leader among thetrappers, organized a party for its exploration. Washington Irving, in his history of Captain Bonneville, says of the party, "A desertsurrounded them and stretched to the southwest as far as the eyecould reach, rivalling the deserts of Asia and Africa in sterility. There was neither tree, nor herbage, nor spring, nor pool, norrunning stream, nothing but parched wastes of sand, where horseand rider were in danger of perishing. "

[Illustration: FIG. 52. --SCENE ON GREAT SALT LAKE]

Although decreasing in area so rapidly, Great Salt Lake is stillthe largest body of water in the western part of the United States, and the largest salt lake within its boundaries. It has a lengthof seventy miles and a maximum width of nearly fifty miles. 

Desolate, indeed, must have appeared the surroundings of the lake, with its salt-incrusted borders, as the Mormon emigrants gained thesummit of the Wasatch Range and looked out over the vast expanseto the west. But as the slopes at the foot of the mountains seemedcapable of producing food for their support, they stopped and madetheir homes there. Now in this same region, after half a century, onecan ride for many miles through as beautiful and highly cultivateda country as the sun ever looked down upon. In the early days thebarren plains were broken only by mountains almost as barren, whichrose from them like the islands from the surface of the Great SaltLake. The only pleasing prospect was toward the east, where stoodthe steep and rugged Wasatch Range, with its snow-capped peaks. From its deep cañons issued large streams of pure, cold water, which flowed undisturbed across the brush-covered slopes, thenunbroken by irrigating ditches, and at last were lost in the saltlake. 

One might think that streams of water apparently so pure wouldat last freshen the lake, but in reality they are carrying alonginvisible particles of mineral matter which add to its saltnessday by day. The dry air steals away the water from the lake asfast as it runs in, but cannot take the minerals which it holdsin solution. 

Great Salt Lake is still considered very large, but at one timeit was ten times its present size, while still longer ago therewas no lake at all. Without a basin there can be no lake, and atthat far-away time, as we have already learned, the Great Basindid not exist, and the streams, if there were any, ran away tothe ocean without hindrance. 

When the Great Basin was formed by a breaking and bending of thecrust of the earth, many a stream lost its connection with theocean and went to work filling up the smaller basins, thus givingrise to the lakes which have already been described. The largest ofthese bodies of water, and in some respects the most interesting, is Great Salt Lake. 

[Illustration: FIG. 53. --OLD SHORE LINE OF LAKE BONNEVILLE

Foot of the Wasatch Range]

This lake, lying close to the lofty Wasatch Range, received somuch water from numerous streams during the Glacial period thatit slowly spread over thousands of square miles, overrunning thedesert valleys and making islands of the scattered mountain ranges. It extended from north to south across Utah, into southern Idahoand almost to the Arizona line, until this body of water, whicharose from so small beginnings, had become a veritable inland sea, three hundred miles long, one hundred miles wide, and one thousandfeet deep. 

By the time the lake had covered an area of twenty thousand squaremiles the lowest point in the rim of the basin was reached and theoverflow began. No map will tell you where the outlet was, forno river exists there now. If you could explore the shore linesof this ancient lake, which has been called Bonneville after thenoted trapper, you would find two low spots in the mountains whichhem the waters in, one upon the south, facing the Colorado River, the other on the north toward the Snake River. The one on the northhappened to be a little lower, so that the break occurred there. First as a little, trickling stream, then as a mighty, surgingriver, the water poured northward down the valley of a small stream, widening and deepening it until, passing the spot where now thetown of Pocatello stands, it joined the Snake River. 

This old outlet is now known as Red Rock Pass, and it forms aneasy route for the Oregon Short Line from Salt Lake City to theplains of southern Idaho. The old river-bed is marked by marshesand fertile farms. 

With an outlet established, Lake Bonneville could rise no higher, and its waves began the formation of a well-defined terrace orbeach, just as waves are sure to do along every shore. The levelof the water could not remain permanently at the same height, forthe rocks at the outlet were being worn away by the large volumeof water which flowed over them. In the course of years the levelof the lake was lowered four hundred feet. The sinking was notuniform, but took place by stages, while at each period of restthe waves made a new beach line. The lake during all this timemust have been a beautiful sheet of fresh water filled with fish. Its shores, also, must have been much richer in vegetation thanthey are now. 

[Illustration: FIG. 54. --RED ROCK PASS, SOUTHERN IDAHO

Outlet of Lake Bonneville]

The water remained for a long time at the level of four hundredfeet below its highest stage. This fact is evident from the widthof the wave-cut terrace, which is the most prominent of all thosethat mark the old levels along the sides of the mountains. Finally, for some reason the climate began to change, the streams suppliedless water to the lake, and the evaporation from its surface becamegreater because the air was drier. As a result the lake was loweredto such an extent that it lost its outlet. The mighty river flowingdown through Red Rock Cañon grew smaller and at last dried upaltogether. 

In this manner the lake was again cut off from the ocean, as ithad been during its earlier history. The waters still continuedto recede, but not at a uniform rate. During periods of greaterrain its level remained stationary, so that the waves added newterraces to those already formed. 

As the lake had no outlet and was decreasing in volume, the waterbecame salty, for the minerals brought by the streams could nolonger be carried away. The fish either died or passed up into thepurer waters of the inflowing streams. 

The water of the present lake is so salt that in every four quartsthere is one quart of salt, and the preparation of this commodity bya process of evaporating the water in ponds has become an importantindustry. The water is the strongest kind of brine and it is impossiblefor a bather to sink in it. One floats about upon it almost as lightlyas wood does upon ordinary water. After bathing it is necessary towash in fresh water to remove the salt from the body. 

The dry bed of the former Lake Bonneville stretches far to thesouth and west of the present lake, and forms one of the most barrenand arid regions in the United States. It is sometimes called theGreat American Desert. 

Why is the lake receding now? Some people think that the climate isgrowing still more arid, and that the lake will eventually disappear. Others think that its shrinkage is the result of irrigation, for alarge part of the water from the streams which supply it is nowtaken out and turned upon the land. There is still another reasonwhich may account for the low water. The lake is known to riseand fall during a series of wet and dry years. When first mapped, in the middle of the last century, it was about as low as it isnow. Then it gradually rose for a number of years and lately hasagain been falling. 

The story of Great Salt Lake has been much more complicated thanthe statement given above, but this is sufficient for our purpose. 

Irrigation has made a garden spot of a large part of the old bedof Lake Bonneville, but much of the beauty and attractiveness ofthis region would be lost if the present lake should give placeto a bed of glistening salt. Let us hope that it will remain asit is. 

THE SKAGIT RIVER

The Skagit is not one of the great rivers of the world, for verylittle of its course lies outside the boundaries of a single state. It is, however, none the less interesting. Few rivers with a lengthof only one hundred and fifty miles present so great a variety ofinstructive features. We shall certainly learn more from a studyof the Skagit than from many a better known and more pretentiousriver. 

Innumerable torrents, fed by the glaciers of the Cascade Range, pour down the rocky slopes and lose themselves in the wooded cañonsbelow. The cañon streams, of much greater size, flow less impetuouslyover gentler slopes, and are frequently blocked by boulders andlogs. These streams unite in one broad, deep river, which moveson quietly to its resting-place in Puget Sound. Its name, Skagit, is of Indian origin and means _wild cat_. 

By following the Skagit River and a tributary stream, one can gofrom the bare and snowy summit of the Cascade Range down throughdense forests, and come out at last upon a magnificent delta, wherea fertile plain is slowly but steadily encroaching upon the watersof the sound. What contrasting scenes are presented along the fewshort miles of the course of the river! A trip from its sourceto its mouth will be worth all the trouble it involves, althoughthe trail is often disagreeably wet and sometimes dangerous. 

There is no grander scenery in the United States than that of theCascade Range; nor are there more dense forests than those foundupon its western slope. The range is hidden in almost perpetualclouds and storms, and they are fortunate who can reach its summitupon a pleasant day. 

[Illustration: FIG. 55. --SUMMIT OF THE CASCADE RANGE, NEAR THE HEADOF THE SKAGIT RIVER]

The forests of fir and hemlock have gained a foothold nearly to thesummit of the range. Upon the little benches and in the protectednooks the trees grow thriftily, and dense groves are found up to anelevation of nearly five thousand feet; but upon the more exposedand rocky slopes stunted trunks show the effect of a constant strugglewith the rocks and winds. Upon other slopes, too high for the treesto grow, there are low shrubs and arctic mosses; but above all riseprecipitous crags and peaks, utterly bare except for the glaciersnestling among them. 

Under the shade of the upland forests the moss is damp and thewood wet, so that it is difficult to make a comfortable camp or tobuild a fire. But these discomforts are not worthy of considerationin view of the inspiration which one gains by the outlook from somecommanding point upon the summit of the mountain range. 

All about are jagged, splintered peaks. Upon every gentle slopethere rests, within some alcove, a glistening mass of snow andice. A score of these glaciers are in sight. They are suppliedin winter by the drifting snows, and yield in summer, from theirlower extremities, streams of ice-cold water. A multitude of streamsraise a gentle murmur, broken occasionally by a dull roar as someglacier, in its slow descent, breaks upon the edge of a precipiceand its fragments fall into the cañon below. 

From a position upon the summit above the point where the Skagittrail crosses the mountains may be seen a little lake, on the surfaceof which remains some of last winter's ice not yet melted by theAugust sun. If the climate were a little colder, the basin wouldbe occupied by a glacier instead of a lake. All about the lakethere are steep, rocky slopes, more or less completely coveredwith low arctic plants and stunted, storm-beaten hemlocks. Fromamong the trees at the foot of the lake rises the roof of a miner'slog cabin, and a few hundred feet beyond a small, dark opening inthe face of a cliff shows where the miner is running a tunnel inhis search for gold. 

Far below, and heading close under the sharp crest of the range, are densely wooded cañons. The fair weather is passing, and itis necessary to find the trail and descend. Clouds are sweepingacross the ridges and peaks, and soon the whole summit will becovered by them. 

From a point a little east of the summit the clouds present a grandsight at the gathering of a storm. Higher and higher they pileupon the ocean face of the mountains. At the bottom they are darkand threatening, but the thunder-heads above can be seen bathed inthe bright sunlight. For a time the clouds hang upon the summitas if stopped by some invisible barrier; perhaps they are loathto pass into the drier air of the eastern slope. But finally theymove on, and rain or snow soon envelops the whole landscape. 

The trail descends rapidly for four thousand feet to Cascade River, a tributary of the Skagit. It is a steep and slippery way, andin many places it is not safe to ride the horses. The sub-arcticclimate of the summit is left behind, and one is soon surroundedby dense and luxuriant vegetation. Such a change as this, in ashort distance, shows how greatly elevation affects climate andplant growth. 

Upon every hand there is the sound of rushing water. From the cliffsribbon-like cascades are falling. The rivulets unite in one stream, which roars and tumbles down the cañon over logs and boulders. Thetrail crosses and recrosses the torrent until the water becomestoo deep for fording, and then it leads one to a rude bridge madeof two logs with split planks laid across them. 

As the cañon widens, the trail leads farther from the river andthrough dense forests. The woods are so silent that they becomeoppressive, and the air is damp, for the sunlight is almost excluded. The tall trees, fir, hemlock, and spruce, with now and then a cedar, stand close together. Shrubs of many kinds are crowded among them, while mosses and ferns cover the ground. The fallen trunks arewrapped in moss, and young trees are growing upon them, drawingtheir nourishment from the decaying tissues. In the more open spotsgrow the salal bushes with their purple berries, the yellow salmonberries, and the blue-black huckleberries. 

It is difficult to get an idea of the density of a Washington forest, or of the character of the streams, unless one has actually takena trip through the region. If one wishes to escape the forest byfollowing the streams, he will find the path blocked by fallen trees. It is necessary continually to climb over or under obstructions, and the traveller is fortunate if he does not fall into the coldwater. Upon the banks it is even worse; one must struggle throughdense prickly bushes and ferns, and be tripped every few rods. Though the forest may appear at first to offer an easier way, itwill soon be found that creeping and crawling through the undergrowthof bushes and young trees is exceedingly tiresome, and one willgladly return to the muddy trail, thankful for its guidance. 

The mountains become less precipitous and the cañon widens to avalley, until at last the trail comes out at a clearing where theCascade River joins the Skagit. At this point, known as MarbleMountain, there is a ferry, also a store and several other buildings. The cleared fields seem a relief after many miles of dense forest, but such openings are infrequent, for few settlers have yet pushedfar into the forests of the Skagit valley. To make a clearing ofany size, tear out the stumps, and prepare the land for cultivation, requires many years of hard labor. 

How silently and yet with what momentum the river sweeps on! Thewater is clear in summer, but in winter it must be very muddy, for the Skagit is building one of the largest deltas upon PugetSound. 

[Illustration: FIG. 56. --SKAGIT RIVER IN ITS MIDDLE COURSE]

At Marble Mountain the traveller may, if he wishes, leave his horses, hire an Indian canoe, and float down the river to the nearest railroadstation. The ride in the cedar canoe, with an Indian at the sterncarefully guiding it past snags and boulders, is one of the pleasantestportions of the trip. The winding river is followed for nearly fiftymiles. There is mile after mile of silent forest, the solitudebroken only here and there by camps of Indians who are spendingthe summer by the river, fishing and picking huckleberries. Nowand then a call comes from one of these camps, and in spite of thedanger of being swamped by the swift current, the canoe is turnedtoward the shore, but the stop is only for a moment. 

At last a new railroad grade comes in sight, with gangs of men atwork. The valley of the Skagit contains one of the finest bodiesof timber in Washington, and the railroad is being built for thepurpose of reaching this timber. There is little other inducementfor the building of a railroad; for beside a few summer visitors, the only inhabitants are the scattered prospectors and miners. 

We enter the train at a little town in the woods and are soon speedingdown the valley toward the mouth of the river. Clearings appear inthe forest, and at last the view opens out over extensive meadowswhich stretch away, almost as level as a floor, to the waters ofthe sound. Here and there the meadows are broken by forest treesor irregular groups of farm buildings. Rich lands form the deltaof the Skagit River. The value of these natural meadows was quicklyrecognized by the early settlers, for not only was the land exceedinglyfertile, but it did not have to be cleared in order to be transformedinto productive grain-fields. 

For centuries, ever since the melting of the great glaciers whichonce descended the Cascade Range and crept down the sound, theriver has been building this delta. It grew rapidly, for immenseaccumulations of gravels and clays were left by the retreatingglaciers. The delta has already spread westward into the sound, until it has enveloped some of the smaller islands. The forestsgrowing upon these islands, which rise from the surface of thedelta plain, are in picturesque contrast to the fields dotted withstacks of grain. 

The delta is now practically joined to the eastern side of theSan Juan Islands. The railroad reaches the islands by means of atrestle across the intervening tidal flats, delivering its loadof logs at the mills and leaving the passengers at the town ofAnacortes, where they may take one of the many steamers passingup and down the sound. 

[Illustration: FIG. 57. --THE DELTA OF THE SKAGIT RIVER

Enveloping former islands in Puget Sound]

Of all the deltas now forming about Puget Sound that of the Skagitis the largest and most interesting. One might think that the forestswould so protect the slopes that erosion would not be rapid, butthe valleys of all the tributary streams appear deeply filled withrock fragments, which have, for the most part, accumulated from thehigher portions of the range, where frost and ice are slowly tearingdown the cliffs. At each period of flood some of this material ispassed on to the river, which in turn drops it upon the bordersof its delta. 

The Skagit River, from its source to its mouth, takes the travellerthrough varying climates and life zones, from the barren crestwhere the miner is the only inhabitant, down through forests wherethe lumberman is busy, until it leaves him upon the rich meadowsof its delta. 

THE STORY OF LAKE CHELAN

Chelan is the largest and most beautiful of our mountain lakes. The lake itself is most attractive, and the basin in which it lieshas had an interesting history, so that it is well worth study. 

Notwithstanding the beauties of this lake, it is not widely known, for it is situated far away from the main lines of travel, in aremote cañon of the Cascade Range. Fortunately the lake and therugged mountains about it have been included in a forest reserve, so that they will be kept in all their wild natural beauty. 

The Columbia River, in its crooked course across the state ofWashington, follows for some distance the junction of the vasttreeless plateau of the central portion and the rugged, forest-cladslopes of the Cascade Range. We have already learned how the plateaugrew to its present extent through the outpouring of successivefloods of lava which swept around the higher mountains like anocean. 

Many cañons furrow the eastern slope of the Cascade Range, andterminate in the greater cañon of the Columbia at the edge of thelava. One of these cañons, deeper and longer than the rest, has beenblocked by a dam at its lower end. Beautiful Lake Chelan lies inthe basin thus formed. It begins only three miles from the ColumbiaRiver, but winds for sixty miles among the rugged and steep-walledmountains, terminating almost in the heart of the range. 

The lake can be reached either by crossing the mountains from PugetSound, over a wet and difficult trail, or by ascending the ColumbiaRiver from Wenache, the nearest railroad station. The trip can bemade from the latter point either upon the stage or river steamer. The wagon road is very picturesque, winding now under lofty cliffswith the river surging below, now along the occasional patches ofbottom land where in July the orchards are loaded with fruit. 

The first sight of Lake Chelan is disappointing, for at the lowerend, where the wagon road stops, there is little to suggest theremarkable scenery farther back in the mountains. Rolling hills, covered with grass and scattered pine trees, slope down to thelake, while here and there farmhouses appear. 

One cannot help asking at the first view what there is about LakeChelan which has made it, next to Crater Lake, the most noted bodyof water upon the Pacific slope of the continent. But wait a little. Either hire a rowboat and prepare with blankets and provisionsfor a camping trip about the shores; or if the time is too shortfor carrying out that plan, take the little steamer which makestri-weekly trips to the hotel at the head of the lake. Long beforeyou reach the upper end you will begin to appreciate the grandeurof the lake scenery in its setting of steep-walled mountains. 

Little of Lake Chelan can be seen at one time, for its course amongthe mountains to the west is a very crooked one. The noisy steamerleaves the town at the foot of the lake and in the course of tenmiles steeper slopes begin to close in upon us. Many little homesare scattered along this portion of the lake, wherever there isa bit of land level enough to raise fruit and vegetables. 

Now the mountains become more rugged and rise more steeply fromthe water's edge. The steamer is very slow; it takes all day tomake the sixty miles, but no one is sorry. Occasionally the whistleis sounded and the boat heads in toward the land, where some campingparty is on the lookout for mail or a supply of provisions. 

[Illustration: FIG. 58. --LOOKING DOWN ON LAKE CHELAN]

The lake averages less than two miles in width, and seems all thenarrower for being shut in between gigantic mountains. For somemiles we pass under the precipitous cliffs of Goat Mountain, whereformerly numerous herds of mountain goats found pasturage. 

At every bend in the lake the views become more grand and inspiring. Here is a dashing stream, roaring in a mad tumble over the bouldersinto the quiet lake--a stream which has its source perhaps a mileabove, in some snow-bank hidden from sight by the steep, rockywalls. Next a waterfall comes into view, pouring over a verticalcliff into the lake. Occasionally snow-clad peaks appear, but onlyto disappear again behind the near mountains. What pleasant spotswe notice for camping by the ice-cold streams! They are full ofbrook trout, while larger fish are to be found in the lake. 

At the head of this body of water there is a little hotel for theaccommodation of visitors, and the Stehekin River, which is steadilyat work filling up the lake, hurries past its doors. Since themelting of the glacier which once filled the cañon, the river hasbuilt a delta fully half a mile out into the water. 

The lake has the appearance of filling an old river valley or cañon. Perhaps the latter is the better name because the bed is so narrowand deep. This cañon winds among the mountains just like othercañons in which rivers are flowing, but it has no outlet at thepresent time. In some way a dam has been formed, and the cañon, filling with water to the top of the dam, has become a lake. 

Soundings have shown that the water is fourteen hundred feet deep;that is, a little more than a quarter of a mile. With the exceptionof Crater Lake, in Oregon, this is the deepest body of water inthe United States. It is also interesting to note that the bottomof the lake is fully three hundred feet below the level of theocean. 

How could a river cut a channel for itself so far below the oceanlevel? Rivers cannot do work of this kind unless they have a swiftcurrent; moreover, as they empty into the ocean, their beds must beabove sea level. Some people think that the great glacier, whichcertainly at some time occupied the depression in which the lakelies, dug out the cañon. This glacier was over three thousand feetin thickness, for the rocks are grooved and polished to a heightof nearly two thousand feet above the surface of the water. Itis, nevertheless, improbable that the glacier did anything morethan deepen and widen the cañon somewhat. It was certainly made, as we at first supposed, by a river which flowed through it atsome remote period. At that time the land of our Pacific coast musthave stood many hundred feet higher than it does now. 

[Illustration: FIG. 59. --GOAT MOUNTAIN, NORTH SHORE OF LAKE CHELAN]

The surface of Lake Chelan is a little more than three hundredfeet above the bed of the Columbia River, which flows through adeep cañon only three miles distant. If we could remove the damof glacial boulders and gravel at the lower end of the lake, thewater would be lowered only three hundred feet. The lake wouldnot be drained, for it is very much deeper. Now here is anotherpuzzle for us: the bottom of the lake is more than one thousandfeet below the level of the Columbia. We shall have to go stillfarther back into the past to get a satisfactory explanation thistime. 

Hundreds of thousands of years ago there was no plateau fillingcentral Washington, and no Columbia River crossing it. The CascadeRange stood where we see it to-day, and the region of the plateauwas a broad valley, toward which flowed the streams that had alreadycut cañons upon the eastern side of the range. These streams probablyunited in a river emptying westward into the Pacific by a coursenow unknown. The shores of the ocean were farther west than atpresent, for the land stood higher. 

The cañon of Lake Chelan was made by a river of this period, whichthrough many long years gradually deepened and enlarged its channel. The river worked just as we see rivers working at the present time, for throughout all the history of the earth rivers have not changedtheir habits. Then came the long period of volcanic eruptions. OurNorthwest was flooded by fiery lava, which built up the Columbiaplateau and buried under thousands of feet of rock the old rivervalley into which the cañon of Chelan emptied. 

Then streams of water began to flow over the plateau from the highermountains above the reach of the lava. These streams formed theColumbia River, which sought the easiest way to the sea, and finallyexcavated a cañon for hundreds of miles. In a portion of its coursethe river came close to the edge of the Cascade Range. The ancientcañon of Lake Chelan had been dammed up by the lava, and a lakeoccupied a portion of the former bed of the river. The Columbiacould not cut its channel deep enough to drain the lake, and thereit remained. 

[Illustration: FIG. 60. --LOOKING DOWN LAKE CHELAN FROM THE UPPEREND]

Then another change came: the climate grew cold and heavy snowsgathered upon the Cascade Range. The snow did not all melt duringthe summers, but went on increasing from year to year. The massesof snow moved gradually down the mountain slopes, growing moreand more icy until they became true glaciers. 

In this manner it came about that a river of ice occupied the cañonin which the old lake lay, and, displacing its waters, scrapedand ground out the bottom and sides. The moving ice deposited thewaste material at the lower end of the cañon, where it joined theColumbia River, the cañon of which was also occupied by a glaciercoming from farther north. When the glacier began to retreat up theChelan cañon, it left a great mass of rock débris, forming a dambetween its basin and the Columbia. After the ice had disappeared, water collected in the cañon above the dam, and the narrow, deeplake was formed, enclosed within granite walls. 

As the snows melted, forests spread over the mountains, the bear, deer, and mountain goats came back again, while the streams, bringingdown earth and rocks, began their work of filling up the lake. Thistask they will succeed in accomplishing some day unless somethingunforeseen happens to prevent. A valley, composed partly of meadowand partly of boulder-covered slopes, will then have taken theplace of the lake. 

THE NATIVE INHABITANTS OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE

The explorers and early settlers found a native race occupying nearlyevery portion of our continent. These people had many characteristicsin common and were all called Indians. It is believed that they cameoriginally from Asia, but their migration and scattering occurredso long ago that they have become divided into many groups, eachhaving its own language and customs. 

In the western portion of the country, where the surface is brokenby numerous barriers, such as mountains and deserts, almost everyvalley was found to be occupied by a distinct group of Indianscalled a "tribe. " The language of each tribe differed so much fromthe languages of adjoining tribes that they could with difficultyunderstand one another. These tribes were almost continually atwar. 

The Indians upon the Pacific slope were generally found to be inferiorin most respects to those living in the central and eastern portionsof the continent. One might suppose that the tribes possessing thefair and fertile valleys of California would be the most advancedin civilization, but such was not the case. Many of them were amongthe most degraded upon the continent. They seemed unable to adaptthemselves to the white man and his ways, and in the older settleddistricts they have now nearly disappeared. In the newer portionsof the Northwest and along the coast toward Alaska the Indianshave not yet come into so direct contact with the white men, andremain more nearly in their primitive condition. 

When the Indians of central California were first seen, they worebut little clothing, and knew how to construct only the simplestdwellings for protection from the weather. They did not cultivatethe soil, nor did they hunt a great deal, although the countryabounded with game. Along the larger streams fish was an importantarticle of food, but in other places, acorns, pine nuts, and rootsconstituted the main supplies. The acorns were ground in stonemortars and made into soup or into a kind of bread. These Indianshave often been called Diggers because they depended so largelyfor their living upon the roots which they dug. 

It would seem natural that about San Francisco Bay the nativesshould have used canoes, but, according to early travellers, theyhad none. When they wished to go out upon the water they builtrafts of bundles of rushes or tules tied together. 

At favorable points along the shore the Indians collected for theirfeasts, and these spots are now indicated by heaps of shells, insome places forming mounds of considerable size. Many interestingimplements have been dug from these mounds, or kitchen middensas they are sometimes called. In the mountains the sites of thevillages are marked by chips of obsidian (a volcanic glass used inmaking arrow-tips) and by holes in the flat surfaces of graniticrocks near some spring or stream. These holes were made for thepurpose of grinding acorns or nuts. 

Many of the Indian tribes developed great skill in the weaving ofbaskets, which they used for many different purposes. The basketsare still made in some places, and are much sought after becauseof their beauty. 

The Indians of northern California in building their homes duground, shallow holes, over which poles were bent in the form ofa half-circle, and then tied together at the top. Bark was laidupon the outside, and earth was thrown over the whole structure. 

[Illustration: FIG. 61. --HOLES IN ROCK, MADE FOR GRINDING FOOD]

"Sweat houses" were built in much the same manner, and were usedchiefly during the winter. When an Indian wished to take a sweat, hot stones were placed in one of these houses, and after he hadentered and all openings were closed, he poured water upon thestones until the room was filled with steam. After enduring thisprocess as long as he desired, the Indian came out and plungedinto the cold water of a near-by stream. As may be imagined, sucha bath often resulted disastrously to the weak or sick. 

The fact that the California Indians could support themselves withoutany great exertion undoubtedly had the effect of making them indolent, while in the desert regions of the Great Basin the struggle forsomething to eat was so severe that it kept the natives in a degradedcondition. 

[Illustration: FIG. 62. --CALIFORNIA INDIAN BASKET]

The Indians of the Columbia basin built better houses than thosefarther south. Where wood was abundant their homes were similarin some respects to those of the coast Indians north of the mouthof the Columbia. Fish was their main article of diet. At certainseasons of the year, when salmon were plentiful, each tribe orgroup of Indians established its camp near one of the many rapidsand waterfalls along the Columbia River. Large numbers of the salmonwere caught by the use of traps. After being partly dried theywere packed in bales for winter use. The fish thus prepared wereconsidered very valuable and formed an article of trade with thetribes living farther from the river. 

The Indians inhabiting the coast northward from the mouth of theColumbia were different in many respects from those farther southor inland. They built better homes, took more pains with theirclothing, were skilled in the making of canoes, and showed markedability in navigating the stormy waters of the channels and sounds. 

[Illustration: FIG. 63. --HESQUIAT INDIAN VILLAGE

Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island]

The Vancouver Island Indians are called Nootkas, from the name ofan important tribe upon the west coast. Those of Queen CharlotteIslands, still farther north, are known as Haidas. These two groupsare very similar. They live upon the shores of densely wooded, mountainous lands and travel little except by water. Some of thecanoes which these tribes construct are over fifty feet long andwill easily carry from fifty to one hundred persons. Such a canoeis hewn out of a single cedar log, and presents a very gracefulappearance with its upward-curving bow. In these boats the Indianstake trips of hundreds of miles. 

[Illustration: FIG. 64. --FLATHEAD INDIAN WOMAN, VANCOUVER ISLAND]

A ride in one of the large canoes is an interesting experience. When a party starts out to visit the neighboring villages, carryinginvitations to a festival, the men are gayly dressed, and shout andsing in unison as they ply their paddles. The great canoe jumpsup and onward like a living thing at every stroke of the paddles, which are dipped into the water all at once as the rowers keeptime to their songs. But this enthusiasm quickly disappears ifa head wind comes up, and the party goes ashore to wait for thebreeze to turn in a more favorable direction. 

These Indians, as might be supposed, live largely upon fish. Berriesare abundant during the summer and are also much used for food. The clothing of the Indians was originally a sort of blanket madeof the woven fibres of cedar bark, or more rarely, of the skins ofanimals, although among the northern tribes skins were used almostexclusively. Matting made of the cedar bark is still in common usein their houses. 

[Illustration: FIG. 65. --INDIAN HOUSES, FORT RUPERT, VANCOUVER ISLAND]

Among the Vancouver Island Indians, a few have peculiarly flattenedforeheads (Fig. 64). This deformity is produced by binding a pieceof board upon the forehead in babyhood and leaving it there whilethe head is growing. 

The villages are located in some protected spot where the canoescan lie in safety. The buildings are strung along the shore closeunder the edge of the thick forest and just above the reach ofthe waves at high tide. They are very solidly constructed, forthese Indians do not move about as much as those farther southwhere the forests are less dense. Figure 65 shows the framework ofa partially built house, while another stands at one side completed. Large posts are set in the ground at the corners and ends of thebuilding; cross logs are then placed upon the middle posts, andupon these a huge log is placed for a ridge-pole. This is sometimestwo feet in diameter and from sixty to eighty feet long. It mustrequire the united strength of many men to roll such a log intoposition. Upon the framework thus constructed split cedar boardsare fastened, and the building is practically finished. Such a houseis usually occupied by a number of families. Upon Queen CharlotteIslands there is a dwelling of this kind large enough to hold sevenhundred Indians. 

The fronts of the houses are ornamented with figures hewn out ofwood. These represent men, birds and animals and have a religioussignificance. Sometimes these figures are mounted upon the topsof tall poles. 

The "totem pole" is a most interesting affair. Figure 66 representsthe pole at Alert Bay, east of Vancouver Island. It is one of thefinest upon the north coast. The figures of animals and birds carvedupon it represent the mythological ancestors of the family or clanin front of whose abode the pole stands. The Indians often huntsimilar animals to-day, but believe that their ancestors hadsupernatural power which raised them above the ordinary creatures. 

The Chinook Indians live upon the lower Columbia. The name "chinook"has been given to a warm, dry wind which blows down the easternslope of the Rocky Mountains and out upon the Great Plains. Thiswind is so named because it blows from the direction of the ChinookIndians' country. The "Chinook" jargon is a strange sort of mixedlanguage with which nearly all the tribes of the Northwest arefamiliar. It is formed of words from the Chinook language, togetherwith others from different Indian languages, French-Canadian, andEnglish. Through the influence of the trappers and traders the"Chinook" has come into wide use, so that by means of it conversationcan be carried on with tribes speaking different languages. 

[Illustration: FIG. 66. --TOTEM POLE

Alert Bay, British Columbia]

Although there are so many different tribes, with great diversitiesof language, throughout the West, they were probably all derivedfrom the same source. As we go north the similarity between thecoast Indians and the inhabitants of eastern Asia becomes morenoticeable. It seems almost certain that these American Indiansoriginally came across the narrow strip of water separating Asiafrom America. 

We do not know how long the Indians have occupied our country, but it has probably been several thousand years. Some of the maingroups have undoubtedly been here longer than others. 

Unless we protect the Indians and permit them so far as possibleto lead their own natural lives, most of them will soon disappear. 

THE STORY OF LEWIS AND CLARK

In the seventeenth century it appeared likely that France wouldbefore long control the northern and interior portion of NorthAmerica. La Salle discovered the Ohio River, traversed the GreatLakes, and descended the Mississippi River to its mouth. In 1742other French explorers pushed west from the Great Lakes and sightedthe Rocky Mountains. But when the English triumphed at Quebec, Francegave up to them all of her possessions east of the MississippiRiver, and ceded the province of Louisiana to the Spanish. Thisprovince was very much larger than the state which now bears thename. Bounded by the Mississippi River upon the east, and the Spanishpossessions upon the southwest, it stretched north and west withvery indefinite boundaries, although in the latter direction itwas supposed to be limited by the Rocky Mountains. 

At one time Napoleon dreamed of founding a great colony in America, and induced Spain to cede Louisiana back to the French; but beingunable to carry out his plans, he made a proposition to the UnitedStates to take this territory. His offer was accepted, and in 1803, during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, the vast province wastaken into the Union. 

It was immediately evident that more definite knowledge shouldbe acquired concerning the great region beyond the Mississippi, particularly the portion about the head of the Missouri River. The unknown region lying between the source of this river and thePacific should also be explored, for Captain Gray's discovery ofthe Columbia River gave to the United States a claim upon thispart of the continent which must be maintained. If something werenot done soon, the territory would be occupied by the English furcompanies. 

Two young men, Captains Lewis and Clark, were chosen to lead anexpedition into the Northwest, which proved to be one of the mostremarkable in the history of our country. They were the first whitemen to cross the Rocky Mountains and to traverse the continentfrom the Atlantic to the Pacific within the present boundaries ofthe United States. 

How interesting it must have been to push into the Rocky Mountains, beyond the farthest point previously reached by white men; to seeNature in her wild state, to note the new plants and animals, andto study the Indians before their contact with Europeans had changedtheir customs!

Lewis and Clark were particularly instructed to investigate thesources of the Missouri, to learn how the continental divide couldbe crossed, and to ascertain the nature of the streams which flowedwestward to the Pacific. They were also to study the resourcesof the country, and to examine into the character and customs ofall the Indian tribes that they should meet. 

The start was made from St. Louis in May, 1804, with two largerowboats and one sail-boat. The latter was to return with news ofthe party when the farthest outpost upon the Missouri was reached. 

Through the summer months and late into the fall the boats toiledup the river against the swift current, finally reaching a villageof the Mandan Indians in the present state of North Dakota, wherethe explorers spent the winter. Thus far they were in a regionfrequently visited by the traders and trappers from St. Louis. 

[Illustration: FIG. 67. --THE GREAT FALLS OF THE MISSOURI]

In the spring they pushed on again in canoes, at length enteringan unknown region. The Missouri forked so frequently that it wasoften difficult to determine which was the main stream. To thesurprise of the travellers, the country appeared to be uninhabited, so that they could get no assistance from the Indians. Only a smallstock of provisions remained, and as the party numbered about thirty, it was necessary to keep hunters out in advance all the time. 

As we are carried swiftly through this region to-day in the cars, no signs of wild creatures are to be seen, and it is difficult forus to believe that game was once abundant. The narrative of theexpedition abounds with descriptions of various large animals whichthe explorers met in herds, such as deer, antelope, buffalo, bears, and wolves. The bears, both white and brown, were very numerousand bold. The white bears in particular were so ferocious that thehunters had many serious encounters with them. They would sometimesenter the camp at night, and at one time a herd of buffalo stampededthrough it. 

When undecided at one point which branch of the river to follow, Captain Lewis went some distance in advance and discovered theGreat Falls of the Missouri. He was greatly impressed and awedby the magnitude and height of the successive falls, which weretwenty-four, forty-seven, and eighty feet high respectively, andwere connected by a series of cascades. 

Many days were spent there in a long and laborious portage, foreverything had to be carried a distance of twelve miles beforethe quiet water above the falls was reached. 

How the coming of the white man has changed the region about thefalls! The game has disappeared; an important city, supported bythe enormous water-power, is growing up; while the smoke risingfrom extensive plants for reducing the gold, silver, and copperores mined in the Rocky Mountains floats out over the country. 

Proceeding up the river, the party reached the Gate of the Mountains--apicturesque spot where the stream leaves the mountains througha narrow defile between high and jagged cliffs and enters uponits long course across the Great Plains (Fig. 68). Gradually theriver became smaller, and at last the travellers came to the pointwhere it divided into three branches, to which they gave the namesof Gallatin, Madison, and Jefferson forks. The party made theirway up the latter fork, which flowed from a westerly direction. 

[Footnote: FIG. 68. --THE GATE OF THE MOUNTAINS

The Missouri River at the entrance to the Rocky Mountains]

Now they began to look anxiously for the Indians, from whom itwould be necessary to get horses to transport their baggage whenthe river should become too small for the canoes. This region wasinhabited by the Shoshones. It may well be asked how it happened thatthese Indians had horses, since no white people had ever visited thembefore. Their purchase of horses came about through the processesof trade with the tribes to the south, who in turn came in contactwith the Spanish of New Mexico. 

One or the other of the leaders kept in advance, on the lookout forthe Indians. At last Captain Lewis, while crossing the divide atthe head of the stream which they had been following, came suddenlyupon several Indians. After overcoming their fear by presents, heaccompanied them to their camp and induced them to return withhorses to assist the party. 

Upon reaching the Pacific side of the continental divide the explorerswere in doubt as to which way to proceed. No man had been before them, and the Indians told stories of fearful deserts to the southwest(probably the Snake River plains), and said that the mountains weretoo steep for the horses, and the rivers too rapid for canoes. 

If you will examine a map of the country about the head of theJefferson fork of the Missouri, you will not wonder that CaptainsLewis and Clark were in doubt as to which way they should go inorder to reach the Columbia. They first attempted to go down theSalmon River, but soon gave up this project. They turned aboutand crossed the mountains to the Bitter Root River, which flowsnorth and empties into Lake Pend d'Oreille through Clark's Forkof the Columbia. 

After going down the Bitter Root for a short distance they turnedwest again across the Bitter Root Mountains and came out upon thehead waters of the Kooskooskie River. Unable to follow its cañons, they wandered to the north among the mountains. At this time theirsufferings were intense. Food became so scarce that they were obligedto eat their horses. After many weary days they again reached thestream, but this time at a point where it was navigable. They floateddown to its junction with the Lewis or Snake River, where the growingcity of Lewiston now stands. At this point they met the Nez PercésIndians, who assisted them in every possible way. 

[Illustration: FIG. 69. --CELILO FALLS, COLUMBIA RIVER]

The party continued down the Snake River in canoes until they finallyreached the Columbia. The difficulties of navigation were great, for at intervals of every few miles the river was broken by rapidsthrough which it was dangerous to take the canoes. By treatingthe Indians kindly, the party succeeded in trading with them forsuch articles of food as horses and dogs. They also obtained somesalmon. The presence of this fish in the streams gave them thefirst assurance that the Pacific slope had been reached. Alongthe Columbia River salmon was one of the chief articles of foodfor the Indians. 

At Celilo Falls, a short distance above the present city of TheDalles, the travellers found great difficulty in proceeding, asthe canoes and loads had to be carried, or "portaged, " around thefalls. Lewis and Clark called these the Great Falls of the Columbia(Fig. 69). 

As the canoes floated down through the magnificent cañon by whichthe Columbia passes the Cascade Range, they encountered anotherrapid, now known as the Cascades of the Columbia. This rapid isdue to a great landslide which has formed a dam across the river. Captain Lewis speaks of the broken trunks of trees rising fromthe water above the dam, a fact which would lead one to supposethat it had not been very long since the slide occurred. 

Below the Cascades the party soon began to notice the influenceof the tides in the rise and fall of the river, and knew then thatthe Pacific could not be very far away. Early in November theycame in sight of the ocean, and in a few days had the pleasureof standing upon its shores. The long and dangerous trip of fourthousand miles had been completed without any serious accident. 

Continual rains poured upon them, and before winter quarters couldbe prepared they were in a very uncomfortable position. A permanentcamp was selected upon the Oregon side of the Columbia, and logbuildings were erected. The camp was called Fort Clatsop. Whilein their winter quarters the party cultivated friendly relationswith the Indians, and made extensive notes upon their habits andcharacteristics. 

[Illustration: FIG. 70. --THE CASCADES OF THE COLUMBIA

A steamer going up to the locks]

In the spring, since no ship had appeared which would carry themback by water, Lewis and Clark determined to return overland. First, however, they left some records with the Indians, with directionsthat these should be given to the captain of any ship which mighthappen to visit the mouth of the Columbia. The leaders wished tomake sure that if anything happened to the party the knowledgegained by their explorations should not be lost. 

One can imagine with what pleasure the men turned homeward. Althoughthey had started with flour, rice, corn, and other articles of food, these had given out long before they reached the lower Columbia, andfor some months their only diet had been fish and the animals thatthe hunters had killed. Their stock for trading with the Indianswas also nearly gone; all the articles that were left could be putinto two pocket handkerchiefs. 

After ascending the Columbia River to a point above The Dalles, theparty left the stream, as they found that it would be impossible tomake much headway with the canoes. Obtaining horses from the Indians, they followed the outward route back as far as the Kooskooskie River. Then they turned north and crossed the mountains to the MissoulaRiver. Near the present city of Missoula the party divided, CaptainLewis going up Hell Gate River and crossing the continental divideto examine the country lying north of the Missouri. 

Captain Clark, with another portion of the company, went up theBitter Root River and over the mountains to the Jefferson Fork, which the whole party had ascended the year before. He followedthis river down to its junction with the Gallatin, and travelledfor a distance up the latter stream, then crossed by land to theYellowstone River. 

Canoes were constructed upon the Yellowstone, and the party floateddown to the junction of this river with the Missouri. There the twobands were fortunately reunited, and together they passed rapidlydown the Missouri until they reached the "village" of St. Louis, where the whole population came out to welcome them. As the partyhad been gone more than two years, it was feared that they wouldnever be heard from again. 

There can be no doubt that the expedition of Lewis and Clark addedgreatly to the public interest in the vast region which they traversed, and helped to bring about the final retention of the Oregon country. The Hudson Bay Fur Company soon after established trading posts atvarious points along the Columbia, and kept up their contentionthat all the country lying north of the river rightfully belongedto England. 

It was very remarkable that the Lewis and Clark expedition hadmade the long journey to the Pacific and back without meeting withserious accident. There were perils to be met on account of theruggedness of the country, the rapids in the streams, the lack offood, and the danger of attack from the Indians. The successfulaccomplishment of the plan was without a doubt largely due to theability of the two brave leaders. 

THE RUSSIANS IN CALIFORNIA

How many of us know that the Russians once established a post uponthe coast of California and held it for nearly a third of a century?If the geographic conditions about this post had been different, itis possible that the Russian colonists would hold their positionnow. 

The discoveries made upon the North American coast by the Russiannavigator, Bering, in 1741, led to fur trading with the Indians; andin 1798 the Russian American company was organized and establishedits headquarters at Sitka. 

The Spaniards still claimed the whole Pacific coast of North Americaas far north as the Strait of Fuca, though they had given up theirstation at Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island. They had, however, madeno settlements north of the port of San Francisco. 

It was nearly one hundred years ago that Rezanof, a leading Russianofficial, arrived at Sitka and began to investigate the conditionof the settlements of the Russian American Fur Company. He foundthem in a sorry state; the people were nearly starved and mostof them were sick with the scurvy. No grain or vegetables weregrown along that northern coast, nor could they be supplied fromAsia. Rezanof conceived the idea of establishing trade relationswith the people of California. By this means furs might be exchangedfor the fresh provisions which were so sorely needed in the north. 

Rezanof sailed south in 1806 and tried to enter the Columbia River, where the company had planned to establish a settlement, for uponthe Russian maps of this time all of the coast as far south as theColumbia was included under Russian jurisdiction. Rezanof was, however, unable to enter the river, probably for the same reason thatMeares, the English navigator, had failed to enter. He then proceededdown the coast and finally ran into the port of San Francisco, wherehe was treated in a fairly polite manner by the Spanish. 

After the return of the expedition to the north, definite planswere made for the establishment of an agricultural and tradingstation on the California coast, as a permanent supply depot forthe northern settlements. Rezanof hoped in time to secure a portionof this fair southern land from Spain. 

Several hunting expeditions, chiefly made up of Aleut Indians withRussian officers, were sent south and told to keep a sharp lookoutfor a suitable place to begin operations. In 1809 one expeditionentered Bodega Bay, an inlet of some size about sixty miles northwestof San Francisco. This bay, which had been previously discovered andnamed by the Spaniards, was thoroughly explored two years later. 

No good spot for a settlement was found upon this inlet, but in1812 a location was determined upon, ten miles north of the mouthof the stream we now know as Russian River. There was no good harborhere, simply a little cove, but back of this cove a broad grassytract formed a gently sloping terrace at the foot of a line ofhills. The soil was good and timber was near at hand. 

The Russians first made friends with the Indians, who ceded tothem the territory in the neighborhood for three blankets, threepair of breeches, three hoes, two axes, and some trinkets. 

In order to protect themselves from possible Indian attacks aswell as to be able to hold their position against the Spanish, the Russians constructed a strong stockade. It was made of uprightposts set in the ground and pierced with loopholes. At the corners, and a little distance within, were erected two hexagonal blockhouseswith openings for cannon. As it happened, however, no occasionever arose for the use of the ten cannon with which the fort wassupplied. The post was given the name Ross, a word which formsthe root of the word Russia. 

The Spanish, of course, claimed the territory by right of discovery, and watched the work of the Russians with jealous eyes. They werenot strong enough to drive the Russians away by force, althoughthey protested more than once against the unlawful occupation ofthe land. Some trading was carried on between the Russians andthe Spanish, and occasionally loads of grain and cattle were sentnorth. 

The number of people at Fort Ross varied from one hundred and fiftyto five hundred. The population consisted of Russians, Aleuts, and other Indians. The Aleuts were the hunters and sealers. Theyspent their time upon the ocean, sometimes entering San FranciscoBay, but usually hunting in the region of the Farralone Islands, which were originally inhabited by great herds of fur seal. Therewere also otters, sea-lions, and an infinite number of seabirds. Astation was maintained upon the Farralones, where a few men stayedto gather birds' eggs and kill seagulls. Many thousands of gullswere taken each year, and every part of their bodies was utilizedfor some purpose. 

[Illustration: FIG. 71. --FORT ROSS FROM THE SEA

Schooner loading wood]

Kotzebue, a Russian navigator, whose name has been given to a soundupon northern Alaska, visited Fort Ross and also San Francisco Bay. He considered it a great pity that the Russians had not gainedpossession of this territory before the Spaniards, for the magnificentbay of San Francisco, in the midst of a fertile country, would havebeen a prize worth working for. 

Year after year the Russian Fur Company sent expeditions to Californiato trade and bring back provisions. They tried to extend the areaunder their jurisdiction, but the geographical conditions of thecountry were unfavorable. The narrow strip of land next the coastwas cut off from the interior valleys by mountain ridges and cañons. If the Sonoma Valley had opened westward instead of toward SanFrancisco Bay, it would have been easy to extend their territorygradually. As it was, the Spanish, who were in control of the bay, had easy access to all of the fertile valleys of central California. 

As the sealing industry decreased in importance, and as the maintenanceof Fort Ross was expensive, the Russians in 1839 began to considerthe question of giving up their post. They finally sold everythingat Ross and Bodega, except the land, to Sutter, an American whohad acquired a large ranch and established a post or fort at themouth of the American River. In 1841 the Russians sailed away, never to return. The Spaniards were greatly relieved when thishappened, for they had not known how to get rid of their unwelcomeneighbors peaceably, and were reluctant to stir up trouble withRussia. 

The stockade at Fort Ross has entirely disappeared, but two blockhouses, the little chapel, and the officers' quarters remain as the Russiansleft them. 

Fort Ross is now-a pleasant, quiet hamlet. A store and a farm-househave been added to the old buildings. Behind the sloping meadowsrise the partly wooded hills, while in front lies the little baywhere once the boats of the Russian and Aleut seal hunters movedto and fro. Occasionally a small schooner visits the cove for thepurpose of loading wood or tan-bark for the San Francisco market. 

[Illustration: FIG. 72. --RUSSIAN BLOCKHOUSE, FORT ROSS]

Fort Ross was never marked by serious strife and seems destined togo on in its quiet way. The blockhouses are rotting and beginningto lean with age, and in time all evidences of the once formidableRussian post will have disappeared. 

DEATH VALLEY

To most of us Death Valley is thought of only as a mysterious regionsomewhere in the Southwest, a place which we are accustomed topicture to ourselves as being the embodiment of everything thatis desolate and lifeless, --a region where there is no water, wherethere are no living things, simply bare rocks and sand upon whichthe sun beats pitilessly and over which the scorching winds blowin clouds of dust. The reality is hardly so bad as this, for thereare living things in the valley, and water may occasionally befound. Nevertheless it is a fearful spot in summer, and has becomethe final resting place of many wanderers in these desert regions, who having drunk all their water failed to find more. 

We have already learned something about the Great Basin: we knowthat it is made up of vast desert plains or valleys, separated bya few partly isolated mountain ranges. The valleys are peculiarin that they are basins without outlets, and for this reason areknown as sinks. Many of the lakes once occupying the valleys arenow quite or nearly dry, and the lower portions of their beds areeither whitened with deposits of borax and soda, or have beentransformed into barren expanses of hardened yellow clay. 

The long, gentle slopes about the sinks, which have been built upby the waste rock from the mountains, as a result of the occasionalcloudbursts are dotted with sage-brush, greasewood, or other lowplants, and furnish a home for numerous animals. 

Back of the gravel slopes rise the mountains, browned under thefierce rays of the summer sun. In some of their deeper cañons littlesprings and streams are found, but the water usually dries up beforeleaving the protecting shadows of the cliffs. Toward the mountaintops the desert juniper appears; and if the peaks rise high enoughto get more of the moisture of the cooler air, they support grovesof the piñon and possibly yellow pine. 

The valleys are all much alike. In summer the days are unbearablyhot, while in winter the air is cool and invigorating. The skiesare overcast for only a few days in the year, but in the autumnand spring fierce winds, laden with dust and sand, sweep acrossthe valleys and through the mountain passes. 

Strange rock forms, of many contrasting colors, worn out by windand water, mark the desert mountains. The granite wears a brown, sunburned coat, while the masses of black lava show here and therepatches of pink, yellow, and red. The air is often so wondrouslyclear that distant mountains seem much nearer than they reallyare. During the hot summer days the mirage forms apparent lakes andshady groves, illusions which have lured many a thirsty travellerto his death. 

Death Valley is the lowest and hottest of the desert basins. Itssurface, over four hundred feet below the level of the sea, isthe lowest dry land in the United States. The valley is long andnarrow and enclosed by mountains. Those upon the east are knownas the Funeral Mountains, while upon the west the peaks of thePanamint Range rise to a height of about ten thousand feet. 

If the rainfall were greater, Death Valley would be occupied by asalt or alkaline lake, but in this dry region lakes cannot exist, and the bottom of the sink, sometimes marshy after exceptionalwinter rains, is in many places almost snowy white from depositsof salt, soda, or borax. 

Death Valley, then, differs from scores of other valleys in theGreat Basin by being a little lower, a little hotter, and a littlemore arid. Strange as it may seem, old prospectors say that DeathValley is the best watered of all the desert valleys. Since it isthe lowest spot in all the surrounding country, the scanty watersupply all flows toward it. But the water runs under the gravelsof the old river beds instead of on the top, where it might beutilized. Occasionally, however, the water comes to the surface inthe form of springs, which are marked by a few willows or mesquitetrees and little patches of salt grass. 

Long ago, when the rainfall was greater, Death Valley was a salinelake and received a number of streams, two of which were large enoughto be called rivers. The Amargoza River, starting from Nevada andpursuing a roundabout way, entered the southern end of the valley. The Mohave River, which rises in the San Bernardino Range, alsoemptied into the valley at one time, but now its waters, absorbedby the thirsty air and by the sands, disappear in the sink of theMohave fifty miles to the south. 

The summer is the dreaded season in Death Valley. A temperatureof one hundred and thirty-seven degrees has been reported by thePacific Coast Borax Company at the mouth of Furnace Creek. Thistemperature was recorded in the shade, and is the hottest everexperienced in the United States. In the sun it is of course muchhotter. Many a person has lost his life in trying to cross theheated valley in the middle of a summer day instead of making thejourney at night. 

[Illustration: FIG. 73. --ENTERING DEATH VALLEY]

Dangerous as this region is, even now when we know so much aboutit, it was of course much more dangerous for the first white menwho entered it. Only those who have had some experience upon thedesert can realize the difficulties and dangers which beset thefirst emigrants who attempted to cross the deserts lying betweenSalt Lake City and the Sierra Nevada mountains. The story of thesufferings and final escape of that party which, by taking thewrong course, was lost in the great sink, is extremely interestingalthough sad. The valley received its name from the experiencesof the members of this party. 

In the latter part of 1849 many emigrants, who had reached SaltLake City too late in the season to take the usual route throughnorthern Nevada and over the Sierra Nevada mountains, decided thatrather than remain in the town all winter, they would follow thesouth trail across southern Nevada to San Bernardino and Los Angeles. 

A party of people finally collected with one hundred and sevenwagons and about five hundred horses and cattle. The course ledin a southwesterly direction past Sevier Lake and Mountain Meadowsin southwestern Utah. In the latter locality the party divided, the larger number leaving the old trail and taking a more westerlydirection. They thought in this way to shorten the distance, andhoped, by skirting the southern end of the Sierra Nevada mountains, to-gain the San Joaquin Valley in California. 

Now trouble began. No one had ever been over the new route, andthe location of the springs and the passes through which the wagonscould be taken had to be sought out in advance. Soon many of theparty turned back to the known trail, but the others continued, though with no knowledge of the nature of the country which theymust cross. 

Day after day and week after week the slow ox-teams crawled acrossthe broad deserts and over the low mountain ranges. From the topof each successive mountain ridge the men looked with longing eyestoward the west, hoping to get a sight of the snowy Sierras. Finallywant of water and food began to weaken the cattle and the wagonswere lightened as much as possible. 

As the party approached the eastern boundary of California themountains grew higher and the deserts more arid. In the clear airthe snow-covered peaks of the Panamint Range began to be visible, although one hundred miles away. The weary emigrants believed thatthese peaks belonged to the Sierra Nevadas, and that beyond themlay the green valleys of California. How great was their mistake!The Panamint Range looks down upon Death Valley with a bold andalmost impassable front, while still other broad deserts lie betweenthis range and the real Sierras. 

Upon reaching the head of the Amargosa River the party began toseparate, for by this time many thought only of saving their livesat any cost. Some followed Furnace Creek to its sink in Death Valley;others went over the Funeral range and came down upon the lowerportion of the Amargosa River. In many cases the wagons were abandonedand the oxen were killed for food. 

When they came into the sink we now know as Death Valley, the membersof the different parties began to feel that they were really lost. From the records that have come down to us we can see that they hadnot the slightest idea of the direction which they should take orof their distance from the settlements in California. Fortunately itwas the winter season and the heat did not trouble them; moreover, the rains and snows furnished some water. 

None of the wagons were taken beyond the camp at the western edgeof the valley, under the towering peaks of the Panamint Range. This place is now known as Bennett's Wells. Here the wagons werebroken up and burned, and the loads, which were now very light, were either taken by the men themselves or placed upon the backsof the few remaining oxen. It was thought that the fair fieldsof California would be seen from the top of the Panamint Range;but when the travellers reached the summit other desert valleysappeared in the west, and beyond these, in the dim distance, anothersnowy range was visible. 

The emigrants now divided into parties. One party reached OwensLake, and turning south, finally passed over the Sierras by theway of Walkers Pass and went down the valley of the Kern River. Another, the Bennett party, including some women and children, remained at the springs in Death Valley, while two of the men startedout alone, in the hope of reaching the settlements and returningwith food. These men crossed the Panamint Range and struggled onfor days in a southwesterly direction, over desert valleys andmountains. They were frequently on the point of giving up in despairfor want of food and water. 

At last, far to the south, the snowy crest of the San Gabriel Rangecame into sight. Continuing in a southwesterly direction throughthe Mohave Desert, the men reached a low pass in the mountains andfollowed a stream until they came upon a Mexican ranch, where thesight of green meadows, upon which horses and cattle were feeding, delighted their weary eyes. 

Several animals were secured and loaded with food. Then the menturned back into the desert. They at last reached the desolatevalley again, after an absence of about a month, and found most ofthe party alive, although nearly driven to despair. With the aidof a mule and several oxen, the party came safely to the fertilevalleys near the coast. 

Another party, known as the Jayhawkers, struggled on behind thetwo men who went for relief, and the most of its members also camesafely out of the desert, though not without extreme suffering. In all, fourteen people of this expedition perished. 

[Illustration: FIG. 74. --SOUTHERN END OF DEATH VALLEY

Showing the white deposits of soda]

If you ever have an opportunity to travel over this region, youwill wonder that any of the people escaped. The seemingly endlesssuccession of deserts and mountains, the lack of food, and thescanty supply of water, often unfit to drink, would lead one tothink that strangers to these wilds would be far more likely toperish than to find their way out. 

THE CLIFF DWELLERS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS

The region of the high plateaus of the southwestern United Statespresents many strange and interesting aspects. Equipped with packanimals for the trails, and conducted by a guide who knows theposition of the springs, one might wander for months over thisrugged and semi-arid region without becoming weary of the wonderfulsights which Nature has prepared. 

In travelling over the plateau one has to consider that often forlong distances the precipitous walls of the cañons cannot be scaled, and that the springs are few and inaccessible. To one not acquaintedwith the plateau it appears incapable of supporting human life. There is little wild game and scarcely any water to irrigate thedry soil. 

However, if the country is examined closely, the discovery will bemade that it was once inhabited, though by a people very differentfrom the savage Indians who wandered over it when the white menfirst came. These early people had permanent homes and were muchmore civilized than the Indians. They lived chiefly by agriculture, cultivating little patches of land wherever water could be obtained. 

Go in whatever way you will from the meeting point of the fourstates and territories, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, and you will find the ruins of houses and forts. Upon the tops ofprecipitous cliffs, in the caves with which the cañon walls abound, by the streams and springs, there are crumbling stone buildings, manyof them of great extent, and once capable of sheltering hundredsof people. Scattered over the surface of the ground and buried inthe soil about the ruins are fragments of pottery, stone implements, corn-cobs, and in protected spots the remains of corn and squashstems. 

The people who once inhabited these ruins have been called CliffDwellers, because their homes are so frequently found clinging tothe cliffs, like the nests of birds, in the caverns and recessesof the precipitous cañon walls. The Cliff Dwellers have left nowritten records, but from a study of their buildings and of thematerials found in them, and from the traces of irrigating ditches, we are sure that they were a peaceful, agricultural people. 

The oldest ruins are probably those in the open and less protectedvalleys. It is evident that after these dwellings had been occupiedfor an indefinite time the more fierce and warlike Indians beganto overrun the plateau region and make attacks upon the primitiveinhabitants. These people, peacefully inclined and probably notstrong in numbers, could find no protection in the valleys wherethey irrigated little patches of land and raised corn and squashes;so, retreating to the more inaccessible cañons, they became cliffdwellers. Seeking out the caverns so abundant in these cañons, they went to work with tireless energy to build for themselvesimpregnable homes and fortresses to which they could retreat whenthe savage Indians appeared. 

The cañon of Beaver Creek in central Arizona contains one of themost interesting of these fortresses, known as Montezuma's Castle. Many small buildings nestle along the sides of the cañon upon theledges and under over-hanging rocks, but Montezuma's Castle isthe most magnificent of them all, and must have given protectionto a number of families. 

Halfway up the face of a cliff two hundred feet in height, there isa large cavern with an upward sloping floor and jagged overhangingtop. Here with infinite toil the Cliff Dwellers constructed a fortress, the front of which rose forty feet from the foundation and containedfive stories. This front was not made straight, but concave, tocorrespond to the curve of the cliff. 

What an effort it must have been for these people, who had nothingbut their hands to work with, to quarry the stone. To carry theirmaterials from the bottom of the cañon, by means of rude ladders, up the steep and rugged wall to the foot of the cavern, and thento lay the foundation securely upon the sloping floor, must havebeen a still harder task. 

The stones were laid in mud, and in most cases were also plasteredwith it. Here and there little holes were left to let in light, but the rooms, with their low ceilings, would have seemed verydismal and dark to us. Beams were set in the walls to support thedifferent floors. Smaller sticks were laid upon the beams, andthen a layer of earth was placed over the top. 

To pass through the openings between the different rooms the inhabitantshad to crawl upon their hands and knees. The places where they builttheir fires are indicated by the dark stains which the smoke hasleft upon the walls. Broken pottery and corn-cobs are scatteredprofusely about the building. How safe these ancient people musthave felt in this retreat, where they were protected, both fromthe storms and from their enemies!

[Illustration: FIG. 75. --MONTEZUMA'S CASTLE, BEAVER CREEK CAÑON, ARIZONA]

Near some of the ruined dwellings in this region there are remainsof buildings which are supposed to have been watch-towers. We canpicture to ourselves the sentinels' alarm given to the workers inthe fields at the approach of the savage Apaches, and the hastyflight of the Cliff Dwellers to the castle far up the cañon wall, --thepulling up of the ladders and the retreat to the upper rooms fromwhich they could look down in perfect safety. They must have keptwater and food stored in the cave houses. As long as these suppliesheld out no injury need be feared from the attacking party. 

But apparently there came a time when the Cliff Dwellers eitherabandoned their gardens and fortresses or were killed. It is possiblethat the climate of the plateau region became more arid and thatmany of the springs dried up, for there is no water now withinlong distances of some of the ruins. It is, perhaps, more probablethat the attacks of the savages became so frequent that the CliffDwellers were driven from their little farms and were no longerable to procure food. 

Those who were not killed by enemies or by starvation retreatedsouthward and gathered in a few large villages, or pueblos, wherethey were still resisting the attacks of their enemies at the timeof the coming of the early Spanish explorers. 

[Illustration: FIG. 76. --PUEBLO OF TAOS, NEW MEXICO]

A careful study of the early inhabitants of America reveals thefact that the Pueblo Indians are the descendants of the race ofCliff Dwellers. Their houses, their pottery, and their religiousceremonies are, so far as can be determined, very similar to thoseof the Cliff Dwellers. If you travel through northwestern New Mexicoand northeastern Arizona, you will find the villages situated uponcommanding rocks which are often surrounded by almost inaccessiblecliffs. To these elevated villages all the food and water has tobe carried from the valleys below. The houses are solidly builtof stone, and rise, terrace-fashion, several stories in height, each succeeding story standing a little back of the one below. These houses can be entered only by a ladder from the outside. Intime of danger the ladders are drawn up so that the walls cannot beeasily scaled. There are a number of groups of the Pueblo Indians, but the Zuni and Moki are perhaps as interesting as any of them. 

[Illustration: FIG. 77. --GRINDING GRAIN, LAGUNA, NEW MEXICO]

Wonderful indeed are some of the pueblo villages which were stilloccupied at the time of the coming of the Spanish, more than threecenturies and a half ago. As in the pueblos now occupied, therewere no separate family houses. The people of an entire pueblolived in one great building of many rooms. Some of the puebloswere semi-circular, with a vertical wall upon the outside, whileupon the inside the successive stories formed a series of hugesteps similar to the tiers of seats in an ancient amphitheatre. 

[Illustration: FIG. 78. --THE ENCHANTED MESA

The summit was once the site of an Indian pueblo]

In the pueblo of Pecos were the largest buildings of this kind everdiscovered. One had three hundred and seventeen rooms, and anotherfive hundred and eighty-five. Taos is another of the large pueblos, and is especially interesting because it is still inhabited. Thisgreat building has from three to six stories with several hundredrooms. In the foreground of the photograph (Fig. 76) appears one ofthe ovens in which the baking is done. In some of these pueblosthe women still grind their corn by hand in stone _matates_, justas their ancestors did for many hundreds and perhaps thousandsof years. 

[Illustration: FIG. 79. --POTTERY OF THE ACOMA INDIANS, NEW MEXICO]

In northwestern New Mexico there is a remarkable flat-topped rockknown as the Enchanted Mesa, which rises with precipitous walls toa height of four hundred feet above the valley in which it stands. It was long believed that human beings had never been upon this rock, although there were traditions to the effect that a village onceexisted upon its summit. According to the tradition, the breakingaway of a great mass of rock left the summit inaccessible everafterward. The cliffs were scaled recently by the aid of ropes, and evidences were found in the shape of pottery fragments, toshow that the Indians had once inhabited the mesa. Two or threemiles away, across the valley, is the large village of Acoma, wherea great deal of pottery is made for sale. 

The pottery of the Pueblo Indians is very attractive, and theirreligious festivals and peculiar dances draw many visitors. TheseIndians no longer fear attacks from the savage Apache or Navajo, but they have become so used to their rock fortresses that it isnot likely they will soon. Leave them. The Navajos now live inpeace and raise large herds of sheep and goats; while the moresavage Apaches have been gathered upon reservations, never moreto go upon the war-path. Most of the Apaches still live in theirrude brush habitations. 

[Illustration: FIG. 80. --NAVAJO WOMAN WEAVING A BLANKET]

While the Pueblo Indians make attractive pottery, the Navajos arenoted for their blankets. The wool, which is taken from their herds, is dyed different colors, and woven upon their simple looms intothe most beautiful and costly blankets. 

We usually think of the native inhabitants of America as leading awild and rude life, moving from place to place in search of food, and constantly engaged in warfare with one another. The PuebloIndians alone are different. Possibly if the white man had nevercome to America these Indians might in time have become highlycivilized. But it is more than likely that in their struggle withNature in this wild and rugged country, where they were constantlysubjected to attacks from their more savage neighbors, they wouldhave sunk lower instead of rising, and would finally have disappeared. 

The Apaches were dreaded alike by the agricultural Indians and theearly Spanish. Issuing from their mountain fastnesses the Apacheswould raid the unprotected villages and missions, and then retreat asquickly as they came. For many years after the American occupationprospectors had to be constantly on their guard, and many are thetragedies that have marked this remote corner of our country. 

THE LIFE OF THE DESERT

During the blinding glare of summer the deserts of southwesternArizona and the adjoining portions of California are forbiddingin the extreme. Day after day the pitiless sun pours its heat uponthe vast stretches of barren mountain and plain, until the rocksare baked brown and it seems as if every particle of life musthave left the seared and motionless plants. 

Month after month passes without rain. Now and then light cloudsfloat into sight, and occasionally rain can be seen falling fromthem, but they are so high that the drops all disappear in the dryand thirsty air long before they can reach the ground. Cloud-burstsmay take place about the peaks of some of the higher mountains, butthey have very little effect upon the life out on the plains. 

Animals and plants brought to this region from a moister climatemust drink continually to make up for the rapid evaporation ofmoisture from their bodies; a day without water may result in death. And yet the living things that have homes in the desert can resistthe dry air for many months without a renewal of their moisture. There are areas where the average rainfall is less than three inches, and sometimes two years may pass without a drop of rain. It willcertainly be worth our while to find out something about thesedesert plants and the way in which Nature enables them to get alongwith so little water. 

Go where we will, from the moist heat of the tropics or the dryheat of the deserts to the icy north, we find that everywhere theplants and animals are suited to the climate of the particularplace in which they live. Therefore we might conclude that theythrive better in those places than they would anywhere else, butthat is not always true. 

A struggle is going on continually among plants for a footing inthe soil and for a share of the sunshine. The weaker plants aregenerally killed, while those hardy enough to survive have to adaptthemselves to new conditions of life, becoming stunted and deformedupon barren slopes; but they have plenty of room there becausefewer plants are striving for the same place. 

It is not likely that the deserts of the southwest have always beenas dry as they are now. As the amount of rainfall slowly lessenedthrough thousands of years, the animals could migrate when it becametoo dry; but the plants, fixed in one place, had either to give upand die, or change their characters and habits to suit the demandsof the changing climate. The fact that these extremely dry desertsare filled with plant life to-day is without doubt due to thisability to change. 

In a moist, warm climate plants are luxuriant; they take up a largeamount of water through their roots and evaporate it through theleaves. If placed in a desert, such plants would immediately witherand die. To avoid too rapid evaporation the bodies of the desertplants have become smaller, and their leaves have either shrunkgreatly or wholly disappeared. Strong-smelling, resinous juicesexude from the remaining leaves and stems, and form a surface varnishthrough which water passes with difficulty. 

Some forms of plant life, such as the prickly-pear, are providedwith fleshy stems which hold a supply of moisture to be drawn uponduring the long dry season. Men and animals are sometimes saved fromdeath by chewing the pulp of the prickly-pear or other cactuses. After a period of exceptional drought, the stems of the prickly-pearlose their bright green color and become shrunken. 

[Illustration: FIG. 81. --PRICKLY-PEAR, BALL CACTUS, AND SPANISHBAYONET]

The development of the underground part of the plant is frequentlyout of all proportion to the part above the surface. The manzanita, which grows in the semi-arid climate of southern California, isa low shrub with branches that are rarely large enough for fuel. The roots, however, are large and massive, and are extensivelyused for firewood. 

The desert plants are armed, not only against the dry air, butagainst the wandering animals which would bite them and suck theirjuices. The smell of the sagebrush is such that very few animalswill touch it. Other plants are protected by thorns. In fact, thedrier the region, the more thorny are its plants. A little shrubcalled the crucifixion thorn has no leaves at all, nothing butlong, sharp spines. Besides the straight thorns there are curvedand also barbed ones, for every conceivable form is representedamong the plants of these dry lands. 

As the desert plants are armed against the animals, so the animalsare armed against each other. Many of the insects and reptilesare extremely poisonous; the greater the heat of their habitat, the more dangerous are their bites. The horned toad, while notpoisonous, is protected by having horny spines upon its head andback. The little rattlesnake known as the "side-winder" is perhapsthe most dangerous of all, although the tarantula, centipede, andscorpion are formidable foes. The Gila monster, long believed tobe so dangerous, is now considered non-poisonous under ordinaryconditions. 

[Illustration: FIG. 82. --CRUCIFIXION THORN]

The desert tortoise is perhaps the most remarkable of all the animalsof the desert. It is rare, and little is known of its habits exceptthat it lives in the most arid valleys of southeastern California, far removed from any water. This tortoise has a diameter acrossits shell of at least eighteen inches. Its flesh is much prizedby the Indians and prospectors. A specimen which had been withoutwater for an indefinite period was dissected, and the discoverywas made that upon each side there was a membranous sac, containingclear water, perhaps a pint in all. The desert tortoise, then, carries his store of water with him, and is thus enabled to go manymonths without a new supply. 

[Illustration: FIG. 83. --THE GILA MONSTER]

A trip across the deserts of the lower Colorado in spring, beforethe bracing air of winter has entirely gone, is one never to beforgotten. The poisonous insects and reptiles are not at this timewarmed up to full activity, while many peculiar plants are justcoming into bloom. 

Let us study some of the strange forms growing thickly over therocky slopes and sandy plains. There are miles of forest, but notsuch a forest as we are accustomed to see. Tall, fluted columnsof the giant cactus (saguaro), with rows of sharp spines, reachupward to a height of from twenty to fifty feet. At one or morenodes, bud-like branches spring from the main trunk and, curvingupward, form columns about the parent stem. 

[Illustration: FIG. 84. --THE PALO VERDE TREE AND SAGUARO]

The giant cactus bears near the top a purple flower and a large, edible fruit. This fruit, which has a red pulp, is a favorite foodwith the Indians, and also with many insects and birds. It is gatheredby means of long forked sticks, for if it should drop to the groundit would be broken. The pulp of the stalk yields a little juiceor sap which is used by the Indians when hard pressed for water. 

[Illustration: FIG. 85. --A FOREST ON THE PLAINS OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA

Showing cholla and saguaro]

Scattered among the huge club-shaped columns of the saguaro is thecholla, the next largest of the cactuses. This species, which istree-like in its branching and in rare cases grows to a height oftwelve feet, bears bright red or yellow flowers. One must approachwith care, for its jointed stems are so easily broken that at theslightest touch of the hand or clothing, pieces break off and adherefirmly by means of their sharp curved and barbed spines. Anotherspecies of the cholla is small, reaching but a foot or two abovethe ground, but this and other low forms so cover the ground inplaces that one has to be constantly on guard to keep from runningthe spines into his feet. 

These are not all the plants of this wonderful forest. The ocatillais a cactus-like form having a group of long slender stems bunchedtogether at the root. In the spring each is tipped with a spike ofred flowers, and as the snake-like stalks wave in the breeze theypresent an appearance scarcely less attractive than the saguaro. 

[Illustration: FIG. 86. --OCATILLA]

Scattered among the vegetation just mentioned is the palo verde(green tree), so named from the yellowish green of its bark. It isremarkable for the small size of the leaves, which afford scarcelyany shade for the traveller upon a hot summer day. (Fig. 84. )

Along the dry water courses we find the mesquite, a tree which doesnot grow upon the gravelly plains and rocky slopes, for it needsmore moisture than most of the desert vegetation. In the springit puts out delicate green leaves which form a pleasing contrastwith the other plants. 

Riding through one of these forests in the deepening twilight, one is impressed with a feeling of awe and mystery by the strange, weird shapes outlined against the sky. In the cooler air of eveningthe animals come from their retreats. The insects and the snakes arethen abroad, and if one is on foot the sudden buzz of a rattlesnakeis not a pleasant sound to hear. 

[Illustration: FIG. 87. --MESQUITE TREE, SANTA CRUZ VALLEY, SOUTHERNARIZONA]

The prickly-pear prefers slopes not quite so dry and hot as thoseof the forest just described. Its broad, spade-like, jointed stemsare very interesting. The red fruit clustered upon their extremitiesis not disagreeable to the taste, but is covered with a soft, pricklydown. 

Associated with the prickly-pear is a species of agave, but thisdoes not grow so large in Arizona as it does farther south in Mexico. The plant is familiar to us as the common century plant of ourgardens. The long fleshy leaves with spines at the ends are clusteredat the surface of the ground, and from their centre, at bloomingtime, rises a tall flower stalk. The agave requires many years tomature. When the flower stalk has once started it grows rapidly, but after blossoming the plant dies. 

The mezcal, or pulque, the national drink of the Mexicans, is madefrom the sap of the agave. The fibre of the agave, known as sisalhemp, is used in the manufacture of rope, twine, mats, brushes, etc. Other parts of the plant have various uses. 

[Illustration: FIG. 88. --THE AGAVE]

[Illustration: FIG. 89. --SPANISH BAYONET IN BLOOM]

There are many kinds of yucca in the more elevated portions ofthe desert. They range in size from those only two or three feethigh, of which the Spanish bayonet is a type, to the giant yucca ofthe Mohave Desert, which attains the proportions of a tree and formsthick forests over an area of many miles. The Spanish bayonet, withits long stalk of white, waxy blossoms, presents a very beautifulappearance, as do also the young specimens of the tree yucca. 

At rare intervals, once perhaps in many years, there is an unusualamount of rainfall in the spring, and in a few weeks the desertbecomes transformed as if by magic. Seeds germinate, the presenceof which one would never have suspected in the drier weather. Inan incredibly short time the long gravelly or sandy slopes aboutthe bases of the mountains are covered with a veritable carpet ofgreen, yellow, and red. The sand verbena, the evening primrose, baby blue-eyes, and different kinds of lilies grow so thickly inplaces that every footstep crushes them. 

[Illustration: FIG. 90. --YOUNG YUCCAS IN BLOOM]

But in a few short days the beauty has disappeared. The seeds maturespeedily and drop into the sand. A hot wind withers the stems andleaves and blows them away; drifting sands take the place of therich carpet. How readily these plants have adapted themselves tothe brief period in which life is possible!

Thus it is that this vast region about the lower Colorado, although sodry and hot, and at first sight apparently so unfitted for sustaininglife, nevertheless supports its share. Many of the plant forms haveassumed strange and monstrous shapes in their efforts to withstandthe hard conditions in the struggle for existence, while others simplylie in waiting, sleeping during the long dry year, but ready tospring into life when the favorable showers come, as they sometimesdo. 

THE PONY EXPRESS

Although it is only a little more than fifty years since the discoveryof gold was made and the rapid settlement of the West began, what achange has come over this great region! It was at first supposed tobe impossible to connect the growing settlements upon the Pacificwith the East by anything more than a wagon road, and those whoadvocated the building of a railroad were ridiculed. Now the journeyacross the continent is made upon smooth steel tracks in comfortablecoaches, for the skill of the engineer has overcome the difficultiesof the desert, the mountain wall, and the cañon. 

The pioneers who pushed westward from the Mississippi River withtheir slow ox-teams took all summer to reach the fertile valleysof California and Oregon, and considered themselves fortunate ifthey arrived at their destination before the coming of the winterstorms. 

The first overland stage line was established by way of New Mexicoand Arizona, terminating at Los Angeles. Twenty-two days were requiredfor this part of the tiresome and dangerous trip. The route waslonger and more desert-like than that farther north across Nevada, but the winter storms were avoided. 

The stage-coach proved too slow for the needs of the growing settlementsupon the Pacific slope. A telegraph line was planned, but it couldnot be completed for some time, and even then it was probable thatthe Indians would destroy the poles and wires. 

Then came the idea of a relay of fast messengers upon horseback, and the pony express was organized. It is difficult to believethat by this means the journey of two thousand miles between St. Joseph, a point upon the Missouri a little above Kansas City, andSacramento, California, was once made in about eight days. Thisis only a little more than twice the time required by the fasttrains at present. 

For two years the trip was regularly made in about nine days, averagingtwo hundred and twenty miles a day. It can be readily understoodthat this wonderful feat required many relays of men and horsesscattered along the route. The express rider had no well-gradedroads to follow, but only the rough trail of the emigrants. Thisled across broad deserts and over rugged mountains, and throughoutmost of the journey exposed the rider to the attacks of Indians. 

Let us take a map and trace the route of the express. It followedclosely the main overland trail which the gold-seekers had opened. Now towns and cities are scattered along the old trail, and therailroad crosses and recrosses it. But let us try to picture thecountry as it appeared in its wild state. 

Mountains, valleys and plains made up the landscape. Vast herdsof buffalo darkened the Great Plains east of the Rocky Mountains, while farther west were numerous bands of antelope. The streamswere filled with beaver and other fur-bearing animals. Here andthere along the rivers were Indian villages with their curiouslyshaped tepees. Even the deserts of Nevada were not uninhabited, for the Indians lived there also, gathered in little family groupsabout the desolate springs. 

When we speak of the overland trail we do not mean a narrow pathfor animals, but the wagon road, rude though it was, which the earlyemigrants had made. They were determined to cross the continent, nomatter what the difficulties and dangers. Wagons could be drawnby the oxen over the plains and deserts with little difficulty, although there were some dangerous rivers to be crossed. Mountainsand cañons offered the most serious obstructions. In many placesthe wagons had to be let down over precipices with ropes, or betaken apart and carried piece by piece around the obstructions. 

It was not the mountains alone which made the trip "across theplains" one long to be remembered. It was often difficult to obtainwater and fodder for the animals, and at many points savage Indians, bent upon plunder, were in hiding, waiting for a chance to stampedethe cattle or kill the emigrants. The way was marked by abandonedwagons, household goods, bones of cattle, and the graves of humanbeings. 

The trail led from the Missouri across the state of Kansas to thePlatte River, then followed this long stream to its head at SouthPass on the continental divide. From the South Pass the trail ledsouthwest past Fort Bridger, in southwestern Wyoming, through EchoCañon and over Emigrant pass of the Wasatch Range down to Salt LakeCity, which had been founded but a short time before the discoveryof gold. West of Salt Lake City the trail skirted the northernshore of the Great Salt Lake, and after passing a low mountaindivide in what is now northwestern Utah, reached the head watersof the Humboldt River. Thence the path ran along by this river downto the place where it disappeared in a vast sandy desert known asthe sink of the Carson. The Carson River, after the dreary desertwas passed, led the emigrants still westward toward a wall of mightymountains known as the Sierra Nevada. Here Nature seemed to havedone her utmost to shut off California, with its fertile valleysand rich gold-fields, from the longing eyes of the emigrants. Thereare, however, several low places in the range, and through one ofthese openings, at the head of the Carson River, the travellersgained the western slope of the mountains. Then in good time theyreached the mining town of Placerville, and at length Sacramento, the capital of California. 

[Illustration: FIG. 91. --CHIMNEY ROCK

On the old overland trail near the Platte River, western Nebraska]

In order that the pony express might make the time required overthe two thousand miles, five hundred horses and several hundredmen were needed. The stations were placed about ten miles apartand were strongly built so that they might withstand the attacksof the Indians. These stations, nearly two hundred in number, allhad to be supplied by means of freight teams, which often hauledhay, grain, and food for the messengers for hundreds of miles. 

The horses selected for the messengers to ride were the small, sure-footed ponies called mustangs. Through a stretch of ten milesthe pony was pushed to its utmost speed, then it was carefullygroomed, fed, and rested until the time came to make the returntrip. 

In selecting the riders three things were of great importance:they must be light in weight, must be possessed of great powers ofendurance, and also must be brave and resolute. At each station, as the time approached for the express to arrive, the relay horsewas saddled and in waiting. As the rider dashed in he jumped fromhis horse, and with but a moment's rest, threw the saddle-bagscontaining the letters upon the fresh horse and was off again, riding like the wind. Upon smooth stretches the horses often madetwenty miles an hour, but it was quite impossible to maintain thisspeed over the rocky and rugged portions of the route. Storms andIndian ambuscades often delayed the riders. Sometimes the messengerkept up a running fight with the Indians for miles. 

The riders were frequently killed, but the mail-bags were rarelylost. If a rider did not come in on time, it was known that somethingserious had happened, and search was immediately made. The riderswere not allowed to stop for any purpose whatsoever; neither stormsof the greatest severity nor even the presence of hostile Indiansnear the trail kept them from their duty. One of the few riderswho are still living says that he was never afraid except on dark, cloudy nights. At such times he made no attempt to guide his horse, but trusting to the intelligence of the well-trained animal, gaveit rein, and at the same time spurred it to its utmost speed. Thinkof riding at such speed into the dark night, not knowing what isahead of you! The rider's only safety lay in the carefulness andsagacity of the horse. Such a ride called for more courage thandid a conflict with Indians!

[Illustration: FIG. 92. --PALISADES OF THE HUMBOLDT RIVER, NEVADA

Near the overland trail]

The pony express carried no passengers. It carried no freight, not even the usual express package. The messenger was intrustedwith nothing but two bundles of letters carefully stowed away ina pair of saddle-bags. 

The letters were not like our ordinary letters, for the paper usedwas the thinnest and lightest possible. Hundreds of the lettersweighed only a few pounds. It was very important that there shouldbe no great weight, for if the horses were heavily loaded, theycould not make the required time. Only those whose business wasof great importance could afford to send letters by this express, for the charge was five dollars upon each letter. 

In spite of the high charge the pony express is said never to havebeen profitable, for the expenses were very heavy. It was discontinuedin 1860, as by that time a telegraph line had been constructedacross the continent. 

HOW CLIMATE AND PHYSICAL FEATURES INFLUENCED THE SETTLEMENT OF THEWEST

The story of the exploration and settlement of the Pacific coast, and of the great region lying between the Pacific slope and theMississippi Valley, offers a most interesting opportunity to studythe control which physical features of the earth exert upon thetrend of men's activities. The position of the mountains, the coursesof the rivers, and the character of the sea-coast have all helpedto shape the history of the West. The presence of gold in the rocksof the Sierra Nevada mountains was the chief incentive which ledto the breaking down of the barriers placed by Nature between thePacific and the Mississippi basin. 

When an unknown land is accessible by water, the shore line offersthe easiest means for the first explorations and settlements. Soit came about that nearly all the eastern coast of North Americawas known before men ventured far into the interior. Then the largerivers, like the St. Lawrence, the Hudson, and the Mississippi, seemed to offer inviting routes into the recesses of the continent, but exploration through the pathless woods and rough mountainswas slow. 

It was soon discovered that the Hudson was a short river and didnot lead across the continent as was at first hoped. Because of theabsence of other large rivers upon that portion of the coast whichthe English occupied, their settlements did not spread westward asrapidly as they otherwise would have done. The country was coveredwith dense forests, and savage Indians disputed the right to occupyit. In time, however, passes were found leading over the AppalachianMountains to the Ohio River and through the Mohawk Valley to theregion of the Great Lakes. 

The advantages for travel offered by the St. Lawrence River andthe chain of lakes above it were utilized at an early day. Theroute of the French missionary explorers and fur traders was fromMontreal up the Ottawa River, then by a short portage and a seriesof small lakes to Lake Huron. From this point the most remote shoresof Lakes Superior and Michigan could be easily reached. By theaid of several small bodies of water west of Lake Superior, LakeWinnipeg and Great Slave Lake were finally discovered; but fromthis point the waterways into the West were small and could befollowed no farther, so that it was a long time before the RockyMountains were crossed. 

By floating down the Illinois River the French arrived at theMississippi, explored much of its course, and took possession ofthe country in advance of the English. This fact was directly dueto the difficulties which the English explorers experienced inforcing their way over the Appalachian highlands. 

The Spanish explored the southern shores of the continent, andcrossing the Isthmus, were the first to behold the Pacific. Thefact that the Pacific coast of North America was so easily reachedat this point gave the Spanish a great advantage, and explains whythey gained such a hold upon the lands bordering that ocean. Itwas a comparatively simple matter for them to fit out ships, andsailing north and south, to take possession wherever they desired. However, when they had gone as far as California, their progresswas for a long time almost completely blocked by storms and headwinds, for the prevailing direction of the wind is down the coast. The Spanish finally reached Vancouver Island, but never succeededin making settlements north of San Francisco. Even the interior ofCalifornia was little known to them, for the mountains and desertsdiscouraged their progress in that direction. 

From an examination of a map we might suppose that the ColoradoRiver would offer as good a means for penetrating the continent asdid the Mississippi River, but as a matter of fact it is navigablefor a comparatively short distance. The Spanish made one attemptto ascend this river, but finding themselves surrounded on everyhand by a most desolate, barren country, they turned back beforereaching the Grand Cañon. In the eager search for gold the Spaniardspushed north from Mexico and planted settlements in Arizona andNew Mexico, but upon the northwest their progress was stopped bycañons and deserts. 

Now we are prepared to understand why it was that the western portionof North America remained for so long a time a mysterious and unknownregion. There were no waterways by which it could be explored, while snow-clad mountains and deserts made access to it doublydifficult. 

By the beginning of the last century the Americans had overcome thenatural obstacles in their westward progress, and their settlementsreached as far into the wilderness as the Mississippi River. Huntersand traders were soon pushing far beyond, spreading over the GreatPlains and up to the very base of the Rocky, or Stony Mountains, asthey were then called. The Missouri River became the great highwayinto the Northwest, for the adventurers took advantage of the streamswherever possible. Many other rivers were discovered flowing fromthe western mountains, but with the exception of the Platte andArkansas they were generally too shallow for navigation even witha light canoe. 

Starting in the early spring from the mouth of the Missouri, thehardy trappers sailed and paddled up the river, taking severalmonths to reach the head of navigation at the Great Falls. In theautumn, when the boats were loaded with furs, it was a comparativelyeasy matter to drop down the river with the current. It would havebeen almost impossible to transport the loads of goods on pack-horsesacross the thousand miles of prairie, where the traders would besubject to attack from hostile Indians. 

Adventurous men pushed farther and farther west through the passesin the mountains and began trapping upon the waters which flow intothe Pacific. It had long been supposed that the Rocky Mountainsformed a barrier beyond which our country could not be extended, and that the Pacific slope was made up of mountains and desertsnot worth securing. 

The explorers showed that the Rocky Mountains were not continuous, but consisted of partly detached ranges, and that while their easternfronts were indeed almost impassable for long distances, therewere places so low that it was difficult to locate the exact spotwhere the waters parted to seek the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf ofMexico. In southwestern Wyoming the continental divide, known asthe Great Divide mesa, though more than a mile above the sea, isbut a continuation of the long, gentle slope of the Great Plains. 

The Rocky Mountains decrease in height toward the south, near theline between New Mexico and Colorado. Here is situated Raton Pass, an ancient Indian highway from the valley of the Arkansas to theRio Grande. In the early half of the last century this trail wasmuch used by the caravans of traders and came to be known as theSanta Fé trail. 

[Illustration: FIG. 93. --ON THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE IN SOUTHWESTERNWYOMING]

In the early days of the American occupation of California, theSanta Fé trail became an important route to the Pacific. From theMexican town of Santa Fé it led down the valley of the Rio Grande, following the old road to Mexico, and then turned west across thebroad plateau of the continental divide, not far from the presentcourse of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Passing Tucson, the roadkept near the course of the Gila River to Fort Yuma, and then ledover the Colorado Desert to Los Angeles. This path avoided allthe high mountains, but much of it lay across deserts, where theheat and scarcity of water made it an impracticable route for theemigrants. 

One not acquainted with the physical geography of the West mightwonder why the gold-seekers on their way to California did not makeuse of the Missouri River, which, except for the Great Falls, wasnavigable for small boats to the very base of the Rocky Mountains. A partial explanation is found in the report of the hardships enduredby the Lewis and Clark exploring expedition, and later by the Astorparty, which went out to found a fur trading post at the mouth ofthe Columbia. It had been supposed that after once crossing thecontinental divide it would be an easy matter to embark upon somestream and float down to the Pacific Ocean. The parties referred tobecame lost in the defiles of the mountains, and when they finallyreached the Snake River it was only to find that rapids and waterfallscontinually obstructed navigation. Although there was in most placesplenty of water upon this northern route, yet the mountains wereimpassable for wagons. 

Because of these conditions the emigrants started out boldly acrossthe plains, following the general course of the Platte River, andcrossing the Rocky Mountain divide at the South Pass in westernWyoming, a place famous in its day. At this point those who weregoing to Oregon turned northwestward to Fort Hall, a trading postof the Hudson Bay Company. From here they crossed southern Idaho, keeping near the course of the Snake River until they reached thepoint where it enters the grand cañon; there they left the river, and climbing over the Blue Mountains, entered the fertile valleysabout the present city of Walla Walla. From this place the emigrantsfollowed the Columbia River to The Dalles, whence they proceededeither by boat or raft until Fort Vancouver and the mouth of theWillamette were finally gained. Wagons were taken through on thisroute, and it was not dangerous, although accidents sometimes happenedat the Cascades, where locks were built at a later day. 

[Illustration: FIG. 94. --THE OLD SANTA FÉ TRAIL

Over this thousands of freight and emigrant wagons have passed]

The emigrants for California, who were the most numerous, turnedsouthwest at South Pass, and after crossing the Wasatch Range throughEmigration Cañon, came out upon the plain of Great Salt Lake. Then, traversing desert plains, they reached the Humboldt River, whichthey followed until it sank into the sands. 

Several routes had been opened across the Sierra Nevada mountainsinto California, but those through the Carson and Donner passeswere most used. Several high ranges of mountains lay between theWillamette Valley of Oregon and the Great Valley of California, so that in the early days there was very little travel betweenthese two territories. The overland trip required so long a time, and involved such dangers and hardships, that many preferred thewater route, in spite of the fact that its ships were crowded, and the voyagers must cross the fever-infected Isthmus. 

It is very interesting to note how widely different the riversare upon the opposite sides of the Rocky Mountains. Those uponthe east, with the exception of the Missouri at the Great Falls, are not marked by waterfalls after leaving the mountains. There arefew cañons of importance. The streams generally flow in channelsonly slightly sunken below the general level of the Great Plains. The streams upon the west, on the contrary, are broken by rapidsand waterfalls, and are generally buried in cañons so deep andprecipitous that in places a man might die of thirst in sight ofwater. 

No other great migration of people over the surface of the earthever encountered such difficulties as that which pressed westwardafter the discovery of gold. It was at first thought that railroadscould not be constructed through the mountains and deserts, anduntil the mineral wealth of the West became known, many men believedthat the greater portion of the country was not worth taking. 

It would be interesting to consider each of the main lines of railroadwhich connect the Mississippi Valley with the Pacific, and study thefeatures of the country through which it runs, determining as faras possible the surveyor's reasons for selecting that particularcourse. Some of the railroads follow for long distances the routesof the emigrants. The emigrants, in their turn, often made useof the ancient Indian trails. 

[Illustration: FIG. 95. --THE CARSON PASS, SUMMIT OF SIERRA NEVADAMOUNTAINS

One of the main emigrant routes to the Pacific Coast]

While Nature seems to have striven to raise impassable barriersto shut off the Pacific slope from the rest of the continent, yetshe failed at some points, and through the unguarded passes the wildanimals and Indians first found their way. Then came the trappers, prospectors, farmers, and at last the railroad, until the wildernesswas over-run. 

Because of its temperate climate, abundant rainfall, and rich soil, the Mississippi Valley was rapidly settled after the pioneers hadonce reached it. The plains rising slowly westward toward the baseof the Rocky Mountains were found to be more arid the farther theywere explored. Consequently there exists a broad strip of plainwhich is even to-day sparsely settled. The emigrants went on tothe fertile valleys nearer the Pacific, where the rainfall is moreabundant. The American settlers did not then understand irrigation, although it was practised by the Mexicans to the south. Becausethe discovery of precious metals was first made in California, the pioneers crossed the intervening mountains without giving athought to the mineral riches which might be concealed in theirdepths. Later, mines were opened in the mountains all through thearid regions. The necessity of providing food for the miners broughtabout the discovery that the desert lands were very productivewherever the waters of the streams could be brought to them. 

THE LIFE OF THE PROSPECTOR

Perhaps some of us who have comfortable homes, sleep upon softbeds, wear neat clothes, and can obtain every variety of food thatwe wish, think with pity of the men who lead a rough and lonely lifeamong the mountains far from all comforts. Let us learn somethingmore about the life and work of the prospectors, for we may findmuch that is desirable in their experiences. 

Not many thousands of years ago our ancestors led what we wouldnow call a wild and savage life. They had no permanent homes, butwandered here and there in search of food, and lived in caves orconstructed the rudest kind of shelter from the storms. Perhapswe are right in feeling thankful that we were not born in thoseprimitive times, but are there not really many things to regretabout the way in which we have to live at the present day?

The utterly free outdoor life is not open to many. We have littleor no opportunity to become acquainted with Nature, the guardianof our ancestors. The woods, the rocks, the mountains, and thedashing streams are almost complete strangers to many of us. 

Many men are now obliged to go every day to their work in officeor shop, and spend the hours shut in from the fresh air and brightsunshine. At night they sleep in rooms into which they admit littlefresh air for fear of taking cold. To-day each man has to learnto do one thing well to the exclusion of nearly everything else, in order to make a living. For this very reason we are in dangerof becoming human machines and of losing the use of some of thepowers with which Nature has endowed us. Many things about ourpresent mode of life are not natural to us, but through successivegenerations we have become somewhat adapted to them. The Indians, if taken from a life in the open air and made to live as we do, often sicken and die. 

The farmer enjoys much more freedom and more of the sweet freshair than do the artisans and office workers; but of all the men incivilized countries the trappers and prospectors live most out ofdoors. To be sure, they have to endure many hardships and dangers, and their beds are not always the softest nor their food the best, but you will seldom find one who is willing to exchange his freelife for work in the town or city. 

The trappers have nearly disappeared. Their occupation will be gonewith the passing of the wild animals which were once so abundant. The prospectors are, however, becoming more numerous year by yearthroughout the mountains of western America. To them we owe a greatdebt, for had not their searching eyes brought to light the hiddenmineral deposits this portion of our country would be far morethinly populated than it is to-day. 

The discovery of gold in California was accidental. A man namedMarshall was building a mill for Sutter in the foot-hills of theSierra Nevada mountains at the time (1848) when California hadjust come into the possession of the United States. While at workhe noticed some shining grains in the sand of the mill-race. Alittle testing of the grains led him to the conclusion that theywere gold. 

The news spread rapidly over the world, and since that time a constantlyincreasing tide of gold-seekers has been pushing out into the unexploredportions of the earth. Comparatively few of these men have becomewealthy, but their discoveries have led to the settlement of newregions and to the growth of important industries. In truth, ifit were not for the deposits of valuable metals, large areas ofthe desert and mountainous West would be of small value. 

[Illustration: FIG. 96. --A PROSPECTOR IN THE DESERT]

The prospector needs little capital except health and strength, buthe must be willing to lead a rough life. He will be more likely tosucceed if he knows something about the different kinds of mineralsand rocks, and is able to distinguish the valuable ones from thosewhich are of little or no worth. 

The prospector may have a pack-horse and a second horse to ride, orhe may go afoot with merely two burros to carry blankets, provisions, and tools. A burro costs little and will live upon almost anything. The variety of food that can be carried is not large; such thingsas bacon, flour, sugar, beans, and coffee are the most important. With the rifle one may frequently add to the supply. This, you maythink, is pretty hard fare, but life in the open air will makeone hungry enough to relish almost any sort of food. 

The prospector does not need a road or even a trail. He seeks theleast-known portion of some mountain district where he has an ideathat gold may be found. Through the cañons he goes, and over themountains, either on horseback or driving the burros before him. Water and grass are usually abundant, and the little cavalcadestops where night overtakes it. In the desert prospecting is moredifficult and often dangerous, because of the scarcity of water. It is necessary to know the location of the few scattered springs, and to make one of the burros useful in carrying water kegs. Aspring must be the starting-point in the morning, and a sufficientamount of water must be taken to last until the traveller can getback to the same spring or until he can reach another. 

A pick, a shovel, and a hammer are among the most important partsof the prospector's outfit. Gold is a heavy substance, and as itwashes down the mountain sides and into the gulches from some quartzvein, its weight finally takes it to the bed-rock beneath the sandand gravel. With his pick and shovel the prospector can reach thebed-rock. He takes some of the gravel from its hiding-place closeto the rock, places it in a pan filled with water, and then, witha peculiar rotary movement, washes away the lighter materials, leaving the heavier substances and the gold, if there is any, atthe bottom of the pan. If there is no trace of gold, the prospectorgoes on to another creek; but if some of the yellow metal is washedout, he tests the place thoroughly for more. 

In searching for ledges the prospector spends his time in the smallergulches and upon the mountain sides. Every piece of detached quartzthat meets his eye is examined, and if any specks of gold appear, the search is directed toward the vein or ledge from which thespecimen came. With the hammer, pieces of quartz are broken fromthe veins which here and there rise above the surface of looseand crumbling rock. When the worker finds a piece that is stainedwith iron and has the appearance of carrying gold, he places it inhis bag and keeps it for further examination. At camp, the piecesof quartz are pounded to a powder in a mortar and then washed in ahorn spoon. A string of fine grains of gold tells of the discoveryof a rich vein. 

[Illustration: FIG. 97. --A PROSPECTOR'S CABIN IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS]

It is not usually an easy matter to find home of a piece of strayquartz upon the mountain side. Days and weeks may pass while searchis made up the slope, for the fragment must have come from somepoint above. But the ledge, once discovered, is traced along thesurface for the purpose of determining its direction and extent. 

When a promising bed of gravel or a vein of gold-bearing quartzis found, the prospector posts the proper notices of his rightto the claim and has them recorded at the nearest land office. Then he makes a permanent camp by cutting down trees and buildinga cabin. The interior of the cabin is very simple. Its table andchairs are made of split lumber. One end of the single room isoccupied by the bunk, and the other by a large fireplace. Theremay be no windows, and the roof may be made of earth piled uponlogs, or of long split shingles commonly known as shakes. 

Sometimes, after discovering a very rich quartz ledge, the prospectorgoes back to a settlement to attempt to interest some one in buyingor developing it. Sometimes it happens that he loses the location ofthe vein and cannot go back to the place where it was discovered. Inthis way his discovery becomes a "lost mine, " and grows in importancein people's minds as the story of its riches spreads from one toanother. Although men may spend years looking for such mines, theyare not often found again. 

Frequently two men go prospecting together so that their work willbe less dangerous and lonely. If they are not at once successful, they manage in some way to get supplies for a trip each year intothe mountains. Often they are "grub-staked, " that is, some manwho has money furnishes their supplies in return for a share intheir findings. 

If they have enough to eat, the prospectors, in their snug cabin, are comfortable and happy. The cabin is built as near as possibleto the mine, so that the men need not be cut off from their workduring the stormy weather. The temperature underground is about thesame in both winter and summer, so that winter storms and summerheat form no hindrance to the work. 

[Illustration: FIG. 98. --MOUTH OF A TUNNEL]

Years spent in life of this kind lead men to love the mountains. They feel a sympathy with Nature and a companionship in her presence. When they have to visit the town for supplies, they long to get backto their little cabins. They feel lost in the whirl and confusionof the city. 

Summer is a delightful time at the many little miners' cabins scatteredthrough the mountains. The air is invigorating, the water pure andcold. There is everything in the surroundings to make one happy. In the winter the miner sits by his great fireplace, with the flamesroaring up the chimney. He has no stove to make the air close andoppressive. About the fireplace his dishes are arranged--the kettlefor beans, the coffee-pot, and the Dutch oven in which the bread isbaked. If there are some old paper-covered story-books at hand, itdoes not matter how fiercely the storms rage without. Ask any oldprospector who has spent years in this manner if he would exchangehis cabin for a house in the city, and he will most decidedly answer"no. "

This lonely life in the mountains seems to engender hospitality. The old-time prospector will make you welcome to his cabin andwill share his last crust with you. When he asks you in to havesome coffee and beans, he does not do it merely for the sake ofbeing polite, and he will feel hurt if you do not accept hishospitality. His dishes may not be as white as those to which youare accustomed, but I will venture to say that you have never tastedbetter beans than those with which he will fill your plate fromhis soot-begrimed kettle. 

We ought all to see more of this wildlife. Even if we do not careto, make our permanent homes among the mountains, it would do usgood to go there every summer at least, and so not only becomestronger, but cultivate that familiarity with and love for outdoorlife which our ancestors enjoyed. 

GOLD AND GOLD-MINING

Gold derives its value partly from its purchasing power, partlyfrom those properties which make it serviceable in the arts, andpartly from its beauty. The high esteem in which gold money isheld is as much the result of its comparative rarity as of itsphysical properties. Among nearly all the nations of the worldit has been agreed upon as a standard of exchange. Gold has onedisadvantage as a medium of exchange; it is rather too soft to wearwell. But this difficulty is overcome by alloying the gold withanother mineral of nearly the same color, --copper, for instance. 

In order that we may understand better the position which goldoccupies in the arts and trades of the world, let us compare itwith other metals, and first with platinum. This mineral is farless abundant and has many properties which make it valuable inthe arts. Like gold, platinum is malleable and ductile and does nottarnish in the air, but it differs from gold in not being easilyfusible, so that it is used in the laboratory for crucibles. Thesteel-gray color of platinum is, however, so much less attractivethan the yellow of gold, that it is not used for ornamental purposes. 

An effort was made at one time by Russia, where a comparativelylarge amount of platinum is found, to coin this metal into money, but its continued use was not found practicable because of itschanging price in the markets of the world. If the leading nationswould agree upon a fixed value for platinum, it might be used likegold as a medium of exchange. 

Silver is brighter and more attractive than platinum, but is oflittle use in the laboratory. It has been found in recent yearsto be so much more abundant than gold that its value has decreasedgreatly as a commercial article. In our country when coined ithas, like paper money, been given a value equal to gold. 

The diamond has a value far exceeding that of gold, but this valueis dependent almost wholly upon its ornamental properties, althoughthe brilliant stone is also useful as an abrasive and cutting agent. 

From these facts it is evident that gold, because of its rarity, its physical properties, and its beauty, combines a larger numberof desirable characteristics than any other mineral. 

Gold can be found in very small quantities nearly everywhere. Itis present in all the rocks and also in sea-water. The gold thatis distributed in this manner is of no value to us, for it wouldcost many times as much to obtain it as it is worth. Nature has, however, concentrated it for us in some places. In portions ofthe world where the crust has been folded and broken there areveins of quartz extending in long, narrow, and irregular sheetsthrough the rocks. This quartz is the home of the gold, and itis usually found in hilly or mountainous regions. 

Do not mistake the yellow iron pyrites for gold. Pyrites is brittle, while gold is malleable. You can hammer a little grain of goldinto a thin sheet. Do not make the mistake, either, of thinkingthat the shining yellow scales of mica which you see in the sandin the bottom of a clear stream are gold. These yellow mineralsthat look like gold have been called "fools' gold" because peoplehave sometimes been utterly deceived by them. 

[Illustration: FIG. 99. --A GOLD-SILVER MINE

Summit of San Juan Range, Colorado]

Upon the Pacific slope minerals are now being deposited in some ofthe openings of the rocks from which hot springs issue. A study ofthese springs has led to the opinion that the gold-bearing quartzveins were formed in a similar manner, but at a very remote timein the past. 

The milky or glassy quartz, which is so hard that you cannot scratchit with the point of your knife, the little grains of pale yellowiron pyrites, and the grains and threads of gold scattered throughthe quartz, were at one time in solution in water. This water camefrom some region far down in the earth, farther than we can everreach with the deepest shafts, and there, where it is very hot andthe pressure is great, the water dissolved the little particlesof gold and other minerals from the rocks; and then, gatheringthem up, bore them along toward the surface, depositing them assolid particles again in the form of veins in the fissures throughwhich the stream was passing. 

[Illustration: FIG. 100. --HYDRAULIC MINING ON THE KLAMATH RIVER, CALIFORNIA]

As the rocks upon the surface decay and the crumbling material iscarried away by running water, the gold, being very heavy, washesdown the hillsides and is at last gathered in the gulches. Thisfact explains why we find gold both in veins and in the gravel ofthe streams. Getting gold from the veins is called quartz-mining. Washing it from the gravel is called placer-mining; and if thegravel is deep and a powerful stream of water is required, the workis called hydraulic mining. 

[Illustration: FIG. 101. --MAY ROCK, A VEIN OF QUARTZ ON THE MOTHERLODE]

Everyone has heard of the Mother Lode of California. Every minerwishes that his mine were upon this famous lode, which is madeup of a large number of quartz veins extending along the westernslope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and is marked by hundredsof important mines. A line of towns marks the course of the MotherLode for over a hundred miles. They are almost entirely supportedby the gold which the lode supplies. 

The gold first discovered in California was placer gold. Afterthe miners had worked over the stream gravels and had secured allthat they could in that way, they began to search for the home ofthe gold. It could not always have been in the creek beds, andthe miners were correct in thinking that it must have been washedfrom some other place. Gold was so frequently found in pieces ofloose or float quartz that this fact finally turned their attentionto the quartz veins which were numerous upon the mountain slopes. Then came the discovery of the series of great quartz veins nowknown as the Mother Lode. 

[Illustration: FIG. 102. --AN ARASTRA]

When the miners first found the quartz flecked with gold, theyused the simplest means for separating the two substances. If thequartz was very rich in gold, it was pounded and ground fine ina hand mortar. Then the lighter quartz was washed away and thegold left. 

The miners also made use of the Mexican arastra. This is a verycrude apparatus, and is employed even now by miners who cannotafford to procure a stamp-mill. To build an arastra, a circulardepression ten or twelve feet wide and a foot or more deep is madein the ground. This depression is lined with stone, which formsa hard bottom or floor. Four bars extend outward from an uprightpost placed in the middle of the floor, and a large flat stone isfastened to the end of each bar by means of a rope. A horse ishitched to one of the bars, which is purposely left longer than theothers. The ore is thrown into the arastra, and water is admitted, a little at a time. As the horse is driven around the stones aredragged over the circular depression, crushing the ore and settingfree the gold. 

[Illustration: FIG. 103. --THE STAMPS IN A QUARTZ-MILL]

This way of separating the gold was too slow, and in a short timethe stamp-mill was invented. It has grown from a very simple affairinto the great mill which crushes hundreds of tons of ore in aday. The iron stamps each weigh nearly half a ton. They are raisedby powerful machinery and allowed to drop in succession upon theore, which is gradually fed under them. The stamps crush the oreto a fine sand more easily and rapidly than could be done by anyother method. Water is kept running over the ore, and as fast asit is crushed sufficiently fine for the particles to pass througha wire screen, the water with which they are mixed is allowed toflow over large plates of copper which have been coated withquicksilver. The latter mineral has an attraction for gold, andso catches and holds most of the particles, no matter how smallthey are. 

The compound of gold and quicksilver is a soft white substanceknown as amalgam, utterly unlike either metal. When the amalgamis subjected to heat, the quicksilver is driven off in the formof a vapor, and the gold is left pure. The quicksilver vapor iscondensed in a cool chamber and is used again. 

The iron pyrites in the ore contains gold which cannot be separatedby the crushing process and a machine called a concentrator hasbeen invented to save this also. After passing over the copperplates the crushed rock and pyrites are washed upon a broad, flatsurface, which is moving in such a way that the lighter rock wasteis carried away by the water. The pyrites now appears as a dark, heavy sand. This sand is placed in a roasting furnace, where thesulphur is driven off, and the gold and iron are left together. Now the gold is dissolved by means of chlorine gas, with which itunites in a compound called gold chloride. From this compound themetallic gold is easily separated. All this may seem a complicatedprocess, but it is carried through so cheaply that the ore whichcontains only two or three dollars to the ton can be profitablyworked. 

[Illustration: FIG. 104. --MINING THE GRAVEL OF AN OLD RIVER-BED]

Not all quartz veins carry gold. There are many in which not a singlespeck of the precious metal can be found. Gold usually prefers thesociety of quartz to that of other substances, for minerals, likepeople, seem to have their likes and dislikes. Along the Mother Lode, however, gold is sometimes found in little bunches and "stringers"scattered through slate. In such cases the slate is mined and sentto the mill. 

Some miners devote themselves to pocket mining. They trace thelittle seams in the rock, and where two seams cross they sometimesfind what they call a "pocket. " This is a mass of nearly pure goldof irregular shape, varying from a few dollars to thousands ofdollars in value. This kind of mining is very uncertain in itsresults, for a man may make hundreds of dollars in one day, andthen not find anything more for months. 

The western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains was once coveredwith the camps of thousands of placer miners. Piles of boulders andgravel are scattered along the creeks where the eager workers tookout millions of dollars' worth of gold-dust and nuggets. Now many ofthe streams and gulches are entirely deserted. But in other places, where the quartz veins outcrop, there are scores of stamp-mills atwork, night and day, pounding out the gold. Some of the mines havebeen sunk more than a half mile into the earth, and the gold isstill as abundant as ever. 

In some portions of the mountains hydraulic mining is more commonthan quartz-mining. Years ago many of the rivers occupied differentchannels from their present ones. The gravels of these old channelsin the Sierra Nevada mountains, and in other parts of the Westwhere gold-bearing veins occur, are rich in gold. In these channelsthe gold is so deeply buried that it cannot usually be obtained bymeans of pick and shovel. In order that the overlying gravel maybe removed as cheaply as possible, water is supplied by means ofditches, often many miles long. From some near-by hill the streamis conducted down to the mine in strong iron pipes. It thus acquiresa great force, and when directed against a gravel bank rapidlywashes it away. Torrents of water bearing boulders, gravel, andsand, together with the particles of gold, are turned into sluiceboxes lined at the bottom with quick-silver. This metal catchesthe gold and forms an amalgam as it does in the quartz-mills. 

COPPER-MINING

There is a city hidden away in a narrow cañon in the extreme southernportion of Arizona which is supported solely by a copper-mine. The cañon lies upon the southern slope of a range of mountains, and from its mouth one can look far off to the south across thedesert plains and mountains of Mexico. The city has an elevationof more than a mile above the sea, and the cañon in which it issituated is so narrow and steep-walled that you can almost jumpdown from one street upon the roofs of the houses along the streetbelow. Stairways, instead of walks, lead up the hillsides fromthe main street in the bottom of the cañon. 

You might well wonder at the position of the city, and think thatout of all the waste land in this region a better place might havebeen selected for its location. But cities grow where people gather, and people do not come to live in the desert unless there is importantwork to be done there. 

A party of prospectors who were searching carefully over the mountainsfound several mineral veins with green copper stains crossing thiscañon and outcropping in the adjacent hills. Claims were staked outand recorded at the nearest land office. Then shafts and tunnelswere opened, and the miners became confident from the rich characterof the ore that an important copper-mine might be developed. 

Supplies were brought across the desert with teams, and cabinswere built in the lonely cañon. Then an enterprising man starteda store. As the mine was opened farther, its importance was betterunderstood. There was a call for more miners and the town grewlarger. The houses clustered about the mine, the centre of allthe activities. At last a railroad was built, and the town becamea city, with narrow, winding streets occupying the winding cañon, while tier upon tier of houses crept up the sides of the cañon, which formerly had been covered only by growths of cactus and otherplants of the desert. 

If the mine should close, there would be no inducement to keeppeople in the locality, and the city would become merely a groupof deserted buildings. Water is so scarce that only a small amountis allowed to each family, and it is delivered in barrels insteadof by pipes. Provisions of all kinds are very expensive, for theyhave to be brought a long distance. 

The great mine supports the thousands of inhabitants. The variedindustries represented there are dependent upon it alone. As longas it pays to mine the copper, the people are as contented as ifthey were not tucked away in a cañon in a remote corner of theworld. 

The most interesting things to be seen about the city are the mineand the smelter. In the former the ore is obtained; in the latterthe ore goes through various processes until it comes out in theform of shining, metallic copper. The copper ore, we must understand, is not metallic or "native copper, " as it is called when found pure, but a combination of copper with other substances which changeits appearance entirely. 

[Illustration: FIG. 105. --COPPER SMELTER AND CITY OF BISBEE, ARIZONA

The pipe leading up the hill carries away sulphur fumes from thesmelter]

The mine is opened by a shaft, that is, a square hole sunk in theground. The shaft of this mine is a thousand feet deep, and isbeing continually extended downward. If we wish to go down intothe mine, we must put on some old clothes and get the foreman toact as guide. The cage in which we are to descend stands at themouth of the shaft, suspended by a steel rope. It looks much likethe elevators found in city buildings. At different levels horizontalpassages, called drifts, extend to the right and left upon thevein of copper ore. We step out of the car at one of these levelsand with lighted candles start to walk through a portion of themine. There are so many miles of tunnels that it would take usdays to go through them all. 

Overhead, under our feet, and upon the sides of the drift, lies thevein of copper are, presenting a different appearance at differentplaces. The various ores sparkle in the light and we gather specimensof each. The common are is chalcopyrite, a copper sulphide; thatis, it is composed of copper and sulphur. It has a brass-yellowcolor, but is often stained with beautiful iridescent tints. Inplaces the chalcopyrite has been changed to the delicate greencarbonate of copper called malachite. In other places it has givenplace to the oxide of copper. The little crimson crystals of thismineral give bright metallic reflections. 

The deposit of copper ore is apparently inexhaustible, for in placesthe vein widens so that chambers one hundred feet wide and severalhundred feet long and high have been made in taking it out. 

In going through the mine we have to be very careful not to stepinto openings in the floor of the passages, or drop rock fragmentsinto them, for far below miners may be working. The places where themen are taking out the ore are called "stopes, " and to reach themwe have to crawl and creep through all sorts of winding passages, now through a "manhole, " and now down a long ladder which descendsinto black depths. 

From the stopes the ore, as it is blasted out, is shovelled intochutes running down to some drift where there are men with cars. Each car holds about a ton of ore, and after being filled it ispushed along the drift and upon a cage which raises it to the surface. 

[Illustration: FIG. 106. --HOMES OF MINERS, BISBEE, ARIZONA]

The mine is not wet, for there is so little rain in this regionthat there are few underground streams. In places, however, it iswarm, for when the oxygen of the air reaches the fresh sulphideit begins to oxidize the ore; that is, it begins to burn it, andchange it into a different compound, just as fire changes woodor coal. Wherever oxidation is going on, heat is produced. 

Fresh air is constantly needed in these workings far underground. A supply is forced down in pipes, and then allowed to flow backto the surface. In this way a thorough circulation is kept up. 

Underground one loses all thought of the changes between night andday, for it is always dark there. Consequently we are surprisedon coming up from the mine to find that night has settled overthe town. Lights are twinkling everywhere, and miners with theirpails of luncheon are coming for the night shift. 

Another interesting experience now awaits us in the form of a visitto the smelter. Here the bright copper is extracted from therough-looking ores. How different the two substances appear! Theylook as if they had scarcely anything in common. 

The interior of the smelter seems like a bit of the infernal regionsset upon the earth. While watching what goes on, we might imaginethat we were far down in the earth, where Vulcan, the fire god, wasat work. At night the scene is particularly weird and impressive, for the shadows and general indistinctness make everything appearstrange. The glowing furnaces, the showers of sparks, the roarof the blast furnaces, the suffocating fumes of sulphur, and thehalf-naked figures of the Mexican workmen, passing to and fro withcloths over their mouths, form all together a bewildering scene. 

The ore is first pulverized, and then placed in large revolvingcylinders, where it is roasted. A fire is started in the cylinderat first, but after the ore becomes so much heated that the sulphurin it begins to burn, no further artificial aid is necessary. Littleby little the ore is added in quantities sufficient to keep thefire going. The object of the roasting is to drive off as muchsulphur as possible. 

After being raked from the roasting furnace, the ore is wheeledin barrows to the huge upright furnaces and is thrown in. Heresuch materials as limestone and iron are also added to aid in theformation of a perfectly fused or molten mass. These substancesare known as fluxes. With the melting of the ore the copper beginsto separate from the impurities. 

The melted ore, in the form of a glowing liquid, gathers at thebottom of the furnace and runs out into a large kettle-like receptacle. When ore of these vessels is full it is tipped up and the moltencopper which has collected at the bottom, because it is heavier thanthe slag, is allowed to run into another large kettle, supportedby chains from a rolling truck above. 

[Illustration: FIG. 107. --SHIPPING COPPER MATTE]

The slag is dumped into a car and is carried outside, while the hugedish containing the copper and some slag is swung to the oppositeside of the building, where its contents are cast into anotherfurnace. A very strong blast of air is forced up through the moltenmass in this furnace, and the remaining portion of slag is blownout at the top in a shower of glowing particles. 

From the bottom of the furnace the liquid copper is drawn out andallowed to run into moulds where it finally cools. It is then knownas copper matte. The copper still contains some impurities, andretains in addition whatever gold and silver may have been presentin the ore. Most copper ores carry a small amount of these preciousmetals. 

The heavy bars of copper matte are now ready for shipment to somemanufacturing point, where they are refined still further and madeinto the various copper utensils, copper wire, etc. Copper is valuablefor many purposes, as it does not rust easily, is highly malleableand ductile, and is a good conductor of electricity. 

In the great copper-mines upon Lake Superior, copper is found in thenative state mixed with the rock, and does not have to be smelted;but in most mines the ore must go through a process very like theone described before metallic copper can be obtained. 

It does not matter how remote a region may be, how intense theheat or cold, or how desert-like the surrounding country, men willgo to it if minerals of value are discovered; and there they willperhaps spend the whole of their lives, mining these substanceswhich are of such importance to the industries of the world. 

COAL AND PETROLEUM

People are beginning to ask where fuel will be obtained when thecoal-beds are exhausted and the petroleum is all pumped out of theearth. The cold winters will not cease to come regularly, and weshall continue to need fires for many purposes. This is a questionwhich need not trouble us. So long as the sun lasts in the skyand the oceans cover so much of the earth, and so long as thereare mountains upon the land, there must be streams with rapidsand waterfalls. The power of these streams, which has for agesgone to waste, is now being turned into electricity for purposesof light and heat. We may be sure that long before the mines ceaseto produce coal and the wells to supply petroleum, there will besomething better ready to take their places. 

But coal and petroleum are still such important commodities thateveryone should know something about the way in which they weremade. This earth of ours has had a very long history, much of whichhas been recorded in the rocks beneath our feet, and the recordis more accurate than are many human histories which have beenpreserved in the printed books. 

The story of the earth has been divided into different periods, each marked by the predominance of certain kinds of living things. The Carboniferous period has been so named because at that timethe climate and features of the earth in many places favored thegrowth of dense and heavy vegetation. This vegetation accumulatedthrough the long years, so that it formed thick deposits whichgradually changed to beds of coal. It would be wrong, however, tothink that all the beds of coal were formed at about the same time. Ever since there have been forests and marshes upon the earth therehave been opportunities for the forming of coal-beds. Materialsare accumulating even now which will in time be transformed tobeds of coal. 

We must be equally careful to gain correct ideas of the makingof petroleum, for many wrong notions are current. While coal hascome from the accumulation of plant remains, petroleum has beenderived from sea organisms, chiefly animals. If coal and petroleumare found near each other, the occurrence is accidental and doesnot mean that the two substances are in any way related. 

Our earth is very old, and its surface has gone through manytransformations; mountains, plains, and portions of the sea floorhave changed places with one another. Wherever there have beenmarshy lowlands, since plants first began to grow luxuriantly uponthe earth, it has been possible for beds of coal to be formed. We all know how rankly plants grow where there is plenty of heatand moisture. Many of us have been in swampy forests and have seenthe masses of rotting tree trunks, limbs, and leaves. Now, if weshould form a picture in our minds of such a swamp slowly sinkinguntil the water of some lake or ocean had flowed over it and killedthe plants, and then washed sand and clay upon the buried forestuntil it was covered deeply in the earth, we should understandhow the coal-beds began. Veins of coal that have been opened bythe miners frequently show trunks and stumps of trees, as wellas impressions of leaves and ferns. Underneath the coal there isusually a bed of clay, while above sand or sandstone is commonlyfound. 

The oldest coal has been changed the most. It is hard and ratherdifficult to ignite, but when once on fire it gives more heat andburns longer than other coals. This coal, known as anthracite, isnot found extensively in the United States outside of Pennsylvania. Coal which is younger and has been less changed by the heat andpressure brought to bear upon it when it was buried deep in theearth, is known as bituminous. This is the kind of coal which isfound in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, in the Rocky Mountains, and upon the Pacific slope. A still younger coal, which is softand has a brownish color, is called lignite, and is found mostlyin the South and West. 

Still another sort of fuel, known as peat, is found in swamps whereconsiderable vegetation is now accumulating, or has accumulatedin recent times. Peat is a mass of plant stems, roots, and moss, partly decayed and pressed together. In countries where wood isscarce peat is cut out, dried, and used for fuel. 

The larger part of the coal in the eastern United States was formedduring the Carboniferous period. That part of our country was thenlow and swampy; but the West, which is now an elevated area ofmountains and plateaus, was at that time largely beneath the ocean. 

Then, as the surface of the earth continued to change, the oceanretreated from the Rocky Mountain region, and extensive marshylowlands with lakes of fresh or brackish water came into existence. There were such marshes in the areas that are now covered by NewMexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Dakota, and Montana. Westward for somedistance the land was higher, but in the states of Washington, Oregon, and California there were other marshy lowlands coveredwith heavy vegetation. 

We know from what we have seen of the manner in which wood decays, that in the dry, open air it does not accumulate, but is in greatpart carried away by the wind. It is only in swamps and shallowbodies of water that the decaying wood can gather in beds. Fromthese facts we have a right to draw conclusions as to the formernature of the surface where there are no coal-beds. There are extensivebeds of limestone in the western United States which are of thesame age as the coal-beds in the east. As such beds of limestonecould have formed only in the ocean, their presence throws a gooddeal of light upon the geography of those distant times. 

Upon the Pacific slope the marshes were not so extensive, nor didthey last for so long a period, as those in the East. Nature seemsto have confined her strongest efforts at coal-making to the countryeast of the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps she thought that the peopleof the West would not need coal if she gave them plenty of goldand silver. 

In the Appalachian mountains Nature folded the strata and leftthem in such a position that the coal could be mined easily. Inthe Mississippi Valley the beds were left flat, almost in theiroriginal position, so that shafts had to be sunk to reach the coal. Upon the Pacific slope Nature seems to have had a large amountof trouble in arranging things satisfactorily. She has made andremade the mountains so many times, and folded and broken the crustof the earth so severely where the swamps stood, that now largeportions of the coal beds which once existed have crumbled andbeen washed away by the streams. The scanty supply of coal whichnow remains is in most places hard to find and difficult to mine. 

[Illustration: FIG. 108. --SEAMS OF COAL ENCLOSED IN SANDSTONE, CALIFORNIA]

The best coal mined near the Pacific comes from Vancouver Island. Large beds of a younger and poorer coal are found southeast ofPuget Sound. There are other beds in the Coast ranges of westernOregon, and a few small ones in the Coast ranges of California. The great interior region between the Rocky Mountains and the Coastranges has very little coal. The people of California have to importlarge quantities of coal. Some is brought by the railroads from theRocky Mountain region, but the most comes by ships from variousparts of the world, from England, Australia, or British Columbia. The ships bring the coal at low rates and take away grain and lumber. 

Coal is almost the only important mineral which Nature has bestowedsparingly upon the Pacific slope. In California, however, she has madeamends by storing up large quantities of petroleum. In Pennsylvaniaand Ohio there is petroleum as well as coal. Oil has also beendiscovered in the Rocky Mountain region and in Texas. 

[Illustration: FIG. 109. --A SPRING OF WATER AND PETROLEUM

The black streak is petroleum]

Petroleum is found flowing from the rocks in the form of springs, either by itself or associated with gases and strong-smelling mineralwater. The oil is usually obtained by boring wells, but in southernCalifornia there is one mountain range which furnishes large quantitiesthrough tunnels which have been run into its side. Petroleum iscommonly found in porous sandstones or shales, from one or twohundred to three thousand feet below the surface. It was not madein these rocks, but has soaked into them just as water soaks intoa brick. The rocks which produced the oil or petroleum are dark, strong-smelling shales or limestone. Heat a piece of such rock, and you will drive out a little oil. 

[Illustration: FIG. 110. --OIL WELLS IN THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Pool of oil in foreground]

Examine a piece of the shale from one of the oil districts ofCalifornia, and you will discover that it is a very peculiar rock, for it is made up almost wholly of minute organisms which onceinhabited the ocean. Among the forms which you will find are thesilicious skeletons of diatoms, the calcareous skeletons offoraminifera, scales of fish, and, rarely, the whole skeleton ofa fish. 

Where now there are mountains and valleys dotted with oil derricks, there was once the water of the open ocean. This water was filled, asthe water of the ocean is to-day, with an infinite number of livingthings. As these creatures died, their bodies sank to the bottom, andwhile the soft parts dissolved, the hard parts or skeletons remained. Through perhaps hundreds of thousands of years, the skeletons continuedto accumulate until beds were formed hundreds or even thousandsof feet in thickness. The materials of the beds, at first a softmass like the ooze which the dredger brings up from the bottomof the present ocean, became packed together in a solid mass. 

Then disturbances affected this old sea bottom. It was raised, andgravel, clay, and sand from some new shore were washed over thebed of animal remains, burying it deeply. Continued movements ofthe earth finally folded these rocks, which, as they were, squeezedand broken, became warm. The heat and pressure started chemicalaction in the decayed animal bodies, and particles of organic matterwere driven off in the form of oil and gas. These substances wereforced here and there through the fissures in the rocks. Part ofthe products found a way to the surface and formed springs, whileother portions collected to form vast reservoirs in such porousrocks as sandstone. The sulphur and mineral springs which occurin oil regions tell us that this work of oil-making is still goingon. 

The oil as it comes from the ground is usually brownish or greenishin color, and much thicker than the refined product which we usein our lamps. Some of the crude petroleum is thick and tar-likein appearance, and when long exposed to the air turns to a solidblack mass called "asphaltum. " This, when softened by heat andmixed with sand, makes a valuable material for street pavement. 

THE CLIMATE OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE

The western portion of the United States exhibits very interestingclimatic features. In California, for example, there may be foundevery degree of temperature between tropic heat and arctic cold. In the deserts of the southeastern portion of the state the airis extremely dry, while in the northwest it rains nearly everymonth in the year. 

Upon the borders of Puget Sound the thermometer seldom falls belowthe freezing-point, while southern Newfoundland, in the same latitude, is marked by cold and snowy weather for at least six months ofevery year. Southern California has the same latitude as centralGeorgia, but its average temperature near the coast is but littlehigher than that of Puget Sound, while it is warmer in winter andcooler in summer than Georgia. The deserts of southern Californiaand Arizona are so hot that for four months of the year work in thesun is almost impossible; yet the higher portions of the Sierra Nevadamountains, but a short distance away, have an arctic climate. Thewhole Pacific coast region has, with the exception of the mountains, a much milder climate than one would expect from a mere knowledgeof its latitude. It will be instructive to search out the reasonsfor the remarkable contrasts in climate presented by differentportions of the slope. 

The imaginary lines passing through points of equal temperatureupon the earth are called "isotherms. " These lines rarely accordin direction with the parallels of latitude, but curve far to thenorth or south. The irregular course of the isotherms is due tomany causes. Among these are the distribution of the land and water, the direction of the prevailing wind, the position of the mountainranges, and the elevation above sea-level. 

[Illustration: WEATHER MAPS

Fair weather over central portion of Pacific slope. Storm comingin upon coast of Washington

Stormy weather over the western half of the United States]

In winter the isotherms curve far to the north over the North Pacificand North Atlantic oceans; but over the intervening land they curveas much to the south. In summer the isotherms are almost reversedin position, at least as far as the land is concerned, for theybend to the north in the heart of the continent. There are importantreasons for the slight variation of the isothermal lines upon thewestern borders of North America and Europe, and their great changeof position in the interior from winter to summer, but these reasonsare not at all difficult to understand. 

The temperature of large bodies of water changes but little throughoutthe year, for water warms and cools slowly. The surface of theland, on the contrary, heats rapidly, and then as quickly losesits heat with the changing season. The air over the ocean is coolerin summer and warmer in winter because of the influence of thewater, but over the land, in districts far from a large body ofwater, the changes in temperature between day and night, summerand winter, are very great. 

It was formerly thought that the warm Japan current, which flowsagainst the western shore of North America, was responsible forthe exceptionally mild climate there, and that the Gulf Streamproduced a similar climate upon the coast of western Europe. Morecareful study, however, has shown that not the warm ocean currents, but rather the winds blowing from the water, are the cause of the mildclimate in those lands across which they blow. In temperate latitudesthere is a slow movement of the air in an easterly direction, andin consequence the climate of the western coast of North Americais not marked by such extremes in winter and summer as are theinterior and the eastern sections. It is also surprising to findhow nearly alike the average winter and summer temperature is at SanFrancisco. It is also surprising to note that the average temperatureof Seattle differs so little from that of San Diego, although thesetwo places are separated by sixteen degrees of latitude. 

In some places the climatic conditions which we should naturallyexpect seem to be reversed. Oranges are grown in the Great Valleyof California as far north as Red Bluff, and actually ripen a monthsooner than they do near Los Angeles, five hundred miles farthersouth. The early ripening of fruits in the Great Valley may beexplained by the presence of the inclosing mountain ranges: theSierra Nevada mountains upon the northeast shut off the cold windsof winter, while the Coast ranges upon the west break the coolsummer winds which come from off the Pacific. 

Another interesting fact connected with the climate of the West isthe influence exerted by the direction of the mountain ranges. Asthese ranges usually lie across the path of the prevailing winds, their tempering influence is lost much more quickly than it otherwisewould be. West of the Coast ranges the summers are cool and thewinters are warm. Upon the eastern side of these mountains thewinters are somewhat cooler and the summers very much warmer. Inthe dry, clear air of the desert valleys, far from the ocean, thedaily range in temperature is sometimes as great as fifty degrees, while the winters are cool and the summers unbearably hot. 

We all know how much cooler a hill-top is than a valley upon asummer day. Where the mountains rise abruptly to a great height, as, for example, does the San Bernardino Range of southern California, one can stand among stunted plants of an arctic climate and lookdown upon orange orchards where frost rarely forms. Mount Tamalpais, a peak of the Coast Range north of San Francisco, has an elevationof nearly three thousand feet. The summer temperature upon thismountain forms an exception to the general rule, for while thelowlands are buried in chilling fog, the air upon the summit iswarm and pleasant. 

[Illustration: FIG. 111. --ORANGE ORCHARDS CLOSE UNDER SNOW-CAPPEDPEAKS

Highlands, California]

The north and south mountain ranges not only make the interiorhotter than it would otherwise be, but rob it of much of the moisturewhich it should receive. The winter storms coming in from the oceanfind the cool mountains lying across their path and quickly partwith a large proportion of their moisture. Where the coast mountainsare low, as is the case with a great part of California and ofOregon, more of the moisture passes on to the next line of mountains, the Sierra Nevada-Cascade Range, the western slope of which iswell watered. In the region of the Columbia the Cascade Range isalso low, and the storms, which often follow one another in quicksuccession, sweep across the Columbia plateau and over the RockyMountains. Farther south, not only are the storms fewer in number, but the mountains are very much higher, so that the desert basinsof the lower Colorado and Death Valley region are extremely dry. One can in imagination stand upon the summit of the Sierra Nevadamountains, and upon the one hand look down upon barren valleys ofvast extent, broken by mountains almost as barren, where nothingcan be grown except by means of irrigation; and upon the otherside, toward the coast, see a country plentifully visited by rain, and either covered with forests or given over to farming andfruit-raising. 

The Rocky Mountains form the eastern barrier which the storms encounter. Their summits are very high and are covered with deep snow duringthe winter. East of these mountains lie the Great Plains, where theprecipitation is light until we go far enough toward the MississippiValley to reach the influence of the moist air currents from theGulf of Mexico. Many storms originate over the region of the Gulfof California, particularly in the late summer, and supplement tosome extent the light winter storms of Arizona and New Mexico. 

The storms of which we have been speaking are known as cyclones. This term does not refer to the local storms which occur in theMississippi Valley and are frequently so destructive, but to greatdisturbances of the air. Sometimes the column of whirling air ismore than a thousand miles in diameter. The air in a cyclone iscircling and at the same time rising, so that the motion is spiral. If you will study an eddy in a stream of water, you will get anidea of the nature of the motion, except that in the case of thewater eddy the movement is downward. The motion of the particlesin the dust-whirls which all have seen moving across the fieldsnear noon on warm summer days illustrate the movement of the airin one of these great storms. The direction of the air in a cycloneis opposite to that of the hands of a clock. 

When the wind comes up from a southerly point, when high, thinclouds, gradually growing thicken, spread over the sky, and thebarometer begins to fall, then it is known that a storm is corning. If one will learn to watch the clouds and the winds carefully hemay become able to predict a storm with almost as much certaintyas if he had a barometer. This instrument registers the pressure ofthe air, which is always less within the area of a storm, becausethen the air is rising. So when the barometer falls we may alwaysknow that a storm is approaching. 

The greater number of the storms which occur in the central andnorthern United States come in from the Pacific Ocean in the latitudeof Washington. Continuing east or southeast they reach the MississippiValley, and then turn northeastward toward the St. Lawrence Valley. In the summer months there are few storms, and they very rarelyreach as far south as California. As winter approaches the stormsbecome more frequent and severe, and move farther and farther southuntil the whole land as far as Mexico receives a wetting. 

Upon the Pacific coast there is often very little warning of thecoming of a storm, but in the Middle and Eastern States they mayfrequently be predicted several days in advance. With the passingof one of these storms the temperature falls rapidly, and thislowering of temperature, together with the fierce wind, gives riseupon the Great Plains to "blizzards" or "northers. " These stormsendanger the lives of both men and animals. 

At different times in the year, particularly in winter, spring, and early summer, warm, dry winds occur. Those winds which sweepdown from the heights of the Rocky Mountains and quickly melt thesnows are known as "chinooks. " The hot north and east winds ofCalifornia often do great damage to growing crops. 

Now let us sum up briefly the factors which have together producedthe climatic features of the Pacific slope. 

(1) Ordinarily the factor of the greatest importance is latitude. We should expect that Seattle would have a much colder climate thanSan Diego because it receives the sun's rays more slantingly. 

(2) The influence of latitude is greatly modified by the temperatewinds blowing from the Pacific, so that places far separated inlatitude differ but little in average temperature, their summersbeing cooler and their winters warmer than we should expect themto be. 

(3) The storms pass over the land with the general easterly movementof the air. The largest number pass east across the northern portionof the United States. The farther south we go the fewer are thestorms and the less the rainfall. Along the coast of Washingtonthe annual rainfall is nearly one hundred inches. At San Diegoit is only about ten inches. 

(4) The position of the mountain ranges causes the influence ofthe ocean on the air to be lost within a short distance towardthe interior of the continent, so that the extremes of temperaturerapidly become greater. The position of the mountains also affectsthe rainfall of the interior. Since a large proportion of the moistureis condensed upon their ocean slopes, the climate of each succeedingrange toward the interior becomes more dry and desert-like. Whilein some of the lowlands thus cut off from the ocean the climate isextremely arid, yet the country is relieved from utter barrennessthrough the presence of mountain peaks and ranges, which oftencondense considerable moisture. 

[Illustration: FIG. 112. --SCENE IN FORESTS OF WASHINGTON

Showing spruce and cedar]

(5) The higher a region is above the sea, the colder the climate. The summit of a high mountain and the valley at its base may bein the same latitude, and yet one may possess an arctic climatewhile the other has a sub-tropical one. 

The heavy rainfall in western Washington, Oregon, and northernCalifornia results in dense forests. To the south, the rainfallupon the lowlands is not sufficient to produce forests, but asit is greater upon the mountains, trees thrive upon their sides. The elevation at which trees will grow becomes higher and higheras we go into the more desert regions, until in northern Arizonait is found to be above six thousand feet. The high plateaus aregenerally treeless, but are covered with such shrubs as greasewoodand sage-brush. 

We see now that our climate is the product of many factors. Itfrequently varies greatly in places only a few miles distant fromeach other. Consequently there may be a great variety of productionsand industries in one small area, while in other regions the climateand productions are almost unchanged for hundreds of miles. 

SOMETHING ABOUT IRRIGATION

Travellers from the Eastern States who visit New Mexico for thefirst time are attracted by many unusual sights. There are theinteresting little donkeys, the low adobe houses of the nativeMexicans, and the water ditches winding through the gardens andfields, which are divided into squares by low ridges of earth. 

If the fields are seen in the winter time, when dry and barren, the meaning of their checkered appearance is not at first clear, but in the spring and summer one is not long in finding out allabout them. When the time comes to sow the seed, water is turnedinto these squares from the ditches which traverse the valleys, and one square at a time is filled until the ground in each isthoroughly soaked. Afterward, when the ground has dried enoughto be easily worked, the crop is put in. The seeds soon sproutunder the influence of the warm sun, and the land becomes greenwith growing plants. The same method of moistening the ground isused for the orchards and vineyards. 

What is the use of all this work? Why not wait for the rains tocome and wet the earth, as the farmer does in the eastern UnitedStates? The Mexicans, who have tilled these valleys for more thantwo hundred years, ought certainly to have learned in all thattime how to get the best returns. You may be sure that they wouldnot water the ground in this way if it were not necessary. The factis that over a large portion of the western half of the UnitedStates it does not rain enough to enable the farmer to grow hiscrops. The climate is generally very different from that of theMiddle and Eastern States. 

When the Mexicans moved northward into the valley of the Rio GrandeRiver, into Arizona and California, they found a climate similar inmany respects to that at home, and soon learned that it was necessaryto water the land artificially in order to make it productive. Thoughin many places sufficient rain fell, yet the heaviest rainfallcame in the late summer or winter, when the plants needed it less, while the spring and summer were long and dry. The Mexicans werenot the first to practise watering the land, if we may judge fromthe ruins of ancient ditches constructed by the primitive Indianinhabitants. It is evident that they too made use of water in thismanner for the growing of their corn and squashes. 

This turning of water upon the land to make it productive is termed"irrigation. " The work is performed in different ways, as we shallsee later. Irrigation is now carried on through all portions ofthe United States where the rainfall is light and streams of waterare available. 

To one who has lived in a country where there is plenty of rain, it seems to involve a great deal of work to prepare the land andto conduct water to it. One may feel pity for the farmer who hasto support himself in this manner in so barren a country. I amsure, however, that if any such person will stop to think, he willremember times when in his own fertile home the expected rain didnot come, and the vegetation wilted and dried up. He may have becomediscouraged because of a number of "dry years, " but probably neverthought that he had the means at hand to make up, at least in part, for the shortcomings of Nature, in sending too much rain one year, and another year too little. 

[Illustration: FIG. 113. --WATER-WHEEL FOR LIFTING WATER FOR IRRIGATION, VIRGIN RIVER, SOUTHERN UTAH]

It would doubtless have paid such a farmer many fold to have beenprepared at the coming of a dry year to turn the water from aneighboring stream over his lands. This process would have involveda good deal of labor; but how the plants would have rejoiced, andhow abundantly they would have repaid him for the extra trouble!

The showers come without regard to the time when growing thingsneed them most, but with irrigation the crops are independent ofthe weather. The farmer may be sure that, if he prepares the groundproperly and sows the seed, the returns will be all that he canwish. In many localities several crops may be raised in a yearby this method where otherwise only one would grow. 

Now let us see how the water is taken from the streams and whatare the different methods employed to distribute it over the land. Almost every valley is traversed by a stream, great or small. Itmay be a river, with a large volume of water, or a creek whichcompletely dries up during the long, rainless summers of the West. 

[Illustration: FIG. 114. --GARDEN IRRIGATION, LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO]

In rare cases the stream may flow upon a built-up channel whichis as high as the valley, but usually it is sunken below the levelof the floor of the valley, and enclosed by banks of greater orless height. How is the water to be sent over the land? Where thecurrent is swift you may sometimes see a slowly turning water-wheel, having at the ends of the spokes little cups, which dip up thewater as the wheel revolves and pour it into a flume that runsback over the land. At some places engines are used to pump thewater from the stream and lift it to the desired height. 

[Illustration: FIG. 115. --IRRIGATING AN ALFALFA FIELD, ARIZONA]

Generally, however, another method is employed: the water is takenout of the stream in an artificial channel dug in the earth. Butin order to get the water at a sufficient height to make it flowover the fields, it is necessary to start a ditch or canal at afavorable point some distance up the stream, perhaps miles fromthe garden. 

The ditch is made with a slope just sufficient for the water toflow. The slope must be less than that of the river from which thewater is taken, so as to carry the stream, at last, high enoughto cover the lands to be irrigated. 

Visit almost any valley in the West where agriculture or fruit-growingis being carried on, and you will at once notice the lines of theditches, apparently level, as they wind around the hillsides. Atconvenient distances there are gates to let out the water for theorchards and fields. 

The ground may be moistened in different ways. The first method isthat employed by the Mexicans, who, if we except the Cliff Dwellers, were the first to introduce irrigation into our country. This consistsin dividing the land into squares by embankments and allowing thewater to flood each in succession. The method is known as irrigationby checks, and can be used conveniently only upon nearly levelland. 

In many orchards a series of shallow furrows is ploughed betweenthe rows of trees, and the water is allowed to flow down theseuntil the soil is thoroughly soaked. In alfalfa fields the wateris often turned upon the upper end and permitted to work its wayacross until it reaches the lower edge, soaking the ground as itgoes. The slopes must in every case be so gentle that the currentwill not be strong enough to carry away the soil. 

Once in every two to four weeks throughout the spring and summer, the exact period depending upon the rapidity with which the grounddries, the wetting is repeated. If the soil is light the watermust be turned on more often and a larger supply is required. 

It frequently happens that the stream from which the water is takenso nearly dries up in the summer, when the water is most needed, that the cultivated lands suffer severely. During the winter littleif any irrigation is necessary, but at that time the streams areso full that they frequently run over their banks and do greatdamage. 

How to preserve the water thus going to waste and have it at handfor summer use has been an important problem in regions where everyparticle of water is valuable. Study of the question has led tothe examination of the streams with reference to the building ofreservoirs to hold back the flood waters. A reservoir may be formedof a natural lake in the mountains in which the stream rises, byplacing a dam across its outlet and so making it hold more water. If this cannot be done, a narrow place in the cañon of the streamis selected, above which there is a broad valley. At such a placethe dam which is built across the cañon is held firmly in placeby the walls of rock upon each side, and an artificial lake orreservoir is made. Ditches lead away from this reservoir, and bymeans of gates the water is supplied when and where it is needed. 

[Illustration: FIG. 116. --SWEETWATER RESERVOIR, NEAR SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA]

The streams which furnish the water for irrigation in the aridregion rise in mountains with steep rocky slopes, and until thewater issues from these mountains it is confined to cañons withbottoms of solid rock, so that no water is lost except by evaporation. 

After the streams emerge from the cañons upon the long, gentleslopes of gravel and soil which lie all about the bases of themountains, they begin immediately to sink into the porous material. They frequently disappear entirely before they have flowed manymiles. Some of this water can be brought to the surface again bydigging wells and constructing pumping plants, but the greaterpart is lost to the thirsty land. 

To prevent the water from sinking into the gravel, ditches linedwith cement are often made to carry it from the cañons to the pointswhere it is needed. Sometimes iron pipes or wooden flumes are usedin place of the ditches. 

What a transformation irrigation makes in the dry and desert-likevalleys of the West! Land which under Nature's treatment supportsonly a scanty growth of sagebrush or greasewood, and over whicha few half-starved cattle have roamed, becomes, when irrigated, covered with green fields and neat homes, while sleek, well-fedherds graze upon the rich alfalfa. Ten acres of irrigated landwill in many places support a family, where without irrigation asquare mile would not have sufficed. 

One might suppose that the soil of these naturally barren valleyswas poor, but such is not the case. The ground did not lack plantfood, but merely the water to make this food available. With plentyof water the most luxuriant vegetation is produced. The soil is, indeed, frequently richer than in well-watered regions, for a lavishsupply of water carries away a portion of the plant food. 

In some places, where the land is almost level and the soil isfilled with large quantities of soluble materials, such as sodaand salt, keeping the ground moist through irrigation brings thesesubstances to the surface in such quantities as to injure and sometimeskill the vegetation. In order that such lands may be successfullycultivated, the salts have to be either neutralized or washed away. 

[Illustration: FIG. 117. --IRRIGATING DITCH, NEAR PHOENIX, ARIZONA]

Many of the rivers of the West carry large quantities of silt insuspension, which fills the ditches and causes a great deal oftrouble; but when the silt is deposited over the surface it addscontinually to the richness of the land. 

The full development of irrigation will mean a great increase inthe population and wealth of all the Western States. 

THE LOCATION OF THE CITIES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE

This old earth has to be consulted upon every occasion. It is asilent partner in all our undertakings. We sometimes think thatwe come and go as we please, but a little thought convinces usthat we are not really so free. 

The traveller must take account of the slopes of the land. It ismuch easier for him to follow a valley and cross a mountain rangethrough a low spot, although his course be very crooked, than it isto make a "bee line" for his destination. The farmer, in choosinghis home and the kind of produce which he will raise, has to consultthe soil and climate. He cannot expect to grow grain where thesoil is poor and dry, or grow apples where the late spring frostskill the buds. The miner knows that he cannot expect to find goldveins in the valleys, where the rocks are deeply covered by thesoil, and so he turns his steps toward the mountains, where Naturehas made his work easy by lifting up the rocks and exposing themto his view. 

Routes of commerce and trade are governed by geographic, and to acertain extent by climatic, conditions. Shallow streams with rapidsand waterfalls obstruct navigation. The absence of harbors along agiven coast makes it difficult for ships to take and dischargecargoes. Railroads cannot be constructed unless long and expensivesurveys have first been made to determine the route which Naturehas made the easiest between two given points. 

The character of the climate and geographic features of a givencountry determine whether it shall become noted for agriculturalproductions, mining industries, manufactures, or commerce. Thelocations of the cities and towns and the roads connecting themdepend upon geographic conditions. There is not an occupation ofany importance in which people engage at any particular place thatis not dependent in large degree for its success upon the conditionswhich Nature has imposed upon that place. 

A city will not grow up at a given point unless the geographicconditions are favorable. There must be some natural reason toinduce people to gather in large numbers in one place. At one spotthere are facilities for manufacturing, such as water-power and coal, and easy means of communication with other parts of the world. Atanother, the only reason for the growth of a city is the existenceof rich mines. A third place may be conveniently located in themidst of a rich agricultural region, where it is easy to bringin supplies and ship out the products of the soil. 

A study of the founding and growth of some of the cities of theWest, and particularly of the Pacific slope, will bring out manyinteresting facts. 

San Francisco is the metropolis of the Pacific; its populationwill soon reach half a million. If we look back seventy-five yearswe find San Francisco an unimportant Mexican military post andthe seat of one of the smaller missions. Monterey, the capitalof the province of California and one of the two leading towns(Los Angeles being the other), apparently had all the advantagesin the race for supremacy. 

In date of discovery (1603) Monterey Bay has the advantage of morethan one hundred and fifty years over San Francisco Bay. It isdifficult to understand why the different navigators who sailednorth along the coast failed to discover California's most magnificentbay. Sir Francis Drake went by it, evidently not seeing the narrowopening between the headlands now known as the Golden Gate. Vizcaino, after discovering Monterey Bay, also passed by and anchored whereDrake had stopped, in a little bay now called Drake's Bay, a fewmiles north of San Francisco Bay. 

After the founding of San Diego, in 1769, a party started overlandfor Monterey, but by reason of the peculiar position of the baythey passed it unknowingly, and by accident came upon the body ofwater which has since been of so great importance to the commerciallife of California. Monterey Bay in time lost its importance, partlybecause it was not thoroughly protected from the storms, and partlyfrom the lack of easy communication with the rest of the state. 

Immediately after the acquisition of California and the discoveryof gold, the advantages of San Francisco Bay began to be appreciated, and the little Mexican town grew rapidly. The narrow entrance to thebay, which had for so long a time delayed its discovery, completelyprotected it from the storms, while its long arms opened acrossthe coast mountains directly into the important valleys of theinterior. Ocean vessels could go up the bay and through the Straitof Carquinez, while river boats could be used for many miles farther. After the discovery of gold, ships from all parts of the worldfound ample room and shelter in San Francisco Bay; and the incomingminers, going by the water routes to Marysville, Sacramento, andStockton, easily reached the gold-bearing gravels of the SierraNevada streams. 

With the exception of southern California and a portion of thenorthern coast, almost all the agricultural and mineral resourcesof California are directly tributary to San Francisco. This placeis naturally the centre of home trade, of foreign commerce, andof population. 

[Illustration: FIG. 118. --SAN FRANCISCO BAY

Formed by the sinking of the land and flooding of a river valley]

Nature failed to supply San Francisco with one essential advantage, namely, cheap power for manufacturing. There is no water-powernear and but little coal in the state. Since the coal has to beshipped in from distant points, its high price has impededmanufacturing. But now it appears that San Francisco is not sobadly off after all, for important deposits of petroleum have beendiscovered in the central and southern portions of California;and besides, processes have been invented for transforming theunlimited water-power of the mountain streams into electric energy, and transmitting this power to all the cities about the bay. 

The early Spaniards founded the pueblo of Los Angeles in its presentlocation, because at this point the Los Angeles River carried anabundance of pure water which could be led out in ditches to irrigatethe fertile bottom lands in the vicinity. Partly because it becamea railroad centre, and partly because it is surrounded by richvalleys, Los Angeles has grown with great rapidity and now standsnext to San Francisco in size among California cities. 

San Diego, which has a harbor next in importance to that of SanFrancisco, has grown more slowly, because of the greater difficultyin developing water systems for irrigation, and because accessis not so easy on account of the enclosing mountains. However, it must in time become the second commercial city of the state. 

Mountain barriers make travel from one portion of California toanother somewhat difficult. Mountains separate San Francisco and theGreat Valley of California from all other portions of the continent. Nature seems to have planned here a little empire all by itself. Butengineering skill in the construction of railroads has overcome thebarrier upon the north which separates California from Oregon. TheSierra Nevada range upon the east has been crossed at Donner Pass, and upon the south an outlet has been found through the TehachapiPass. 

In the state of Oregon, the city of Portland ranks first in importance. Why did not Astoria or Fort Vancouver develop into the metropolisof the Columbia basin?

Astoria, which was founded in the early part of the last century, hasa spacious and well-protected harbor, but it has no large tributaryagricultural valleys. Moreover, the greater number of deep-waterships pass it by, and go as far up the Columbia as possible totake on their loads of grain. 

Fort Vancouver, on the site of the old Hudson Bay trading post, ispractically at the head of deep-water navigation upon the Columbia, but there seems to be no particular reason why trade should centrehere, and this town also has been left behind in the march of progress. 

The earliest settlements in western Oregon were made upon the WillametteRiver, which drains a large and extremely fertile valley. Near thepoint at which this river joins the Columbia, the city of Portlandsprang up. This town occupies an ideal position. It is accessiblefor deep sea vessels, and has communication by river boats withthe Willamette Valley and the upper Columbia River. 

In the eighteenth century, when sailors were looking for a passageacross the northern portion of the continent, an opening was foundextending into the land between Vancouver Island and Cape Flattery. It was at first thought that this was the desired waterway, butvarious navigators, among them Vancouver, explored the body ofwater into which the Strait of Fuca opened, only to find that everybranch and inlet terminated in the land. Puget Sound is nearlyenclosed by water and is so large as really to form an inland sea. Its long arms reach out in three directions among the most heavilytimbered valleys and mountain slopes of the United States. 

The cities of Puget Sound had a later start than most of the othercities of the Pacific coast, for this portion of the old Oregonterritory was for a long time claimed by the English, and duringthat period was peopled only by Indians and trappers. In 1846 thepresent boundary was established, and Puget Sound passed into thepossession of the United States. 

Because of the dense forests, agriculture could not play an importantpart in the development of the sound region for some time. Lumberingwas naturally the leading occupation. This industry could be carriedon all the more advantageously because of the innumerable inletspenetrating the land. 

The advantages of Puget Sound for foreign commerce began to beevident, but the Cascade Range stood in the way of railroads fromthe eastward. Although it was a comparatively easy task to builda railroad north from Portland, yet the sound region did not beginto grow rapidly until, after careful surveys, two railroads finallyfound passes through the Cascade Range so as to reach tide-water. As in other places, when the necessity for overcoming them arose, the obstacles which Nature had interposed were found not to beso troublesome as was at first supposed. Now the once formidablerange has been tunnelled and will no longer form a serious barrierbetween the interior portion of Washington and the coast. 

Tacoma, Seattle, and Everett have grown up on the sound as importantcommercial and manufacturing cities, and will, on account of theirfavorable situation, receive their share of the commerce of thePacific. The cities of the sound are particularly well situatedfor intercourse and commerce with Alaska and northeastern Asia. 

These cities are also well situated for manufacturing, becausecoal and wood are plentiful and consequently cheap, but they havenot in their immediate vicinity so extensive agricultural valleysas the Willamette and the Great Valley of California. The lumbermanmust be supplanted by the farmer and fruit-grower before the slopesabout Puget Sound can be fully developed. 

The natural outlet for the great wheat-fields of central Washingtonis by way of the Columbia River to the ocean, but the tunnellingof the Cascades partly diverts their products to the sound region. 

[Illustration: FIG. 119. --FALLS OF SPOKANE RIVER

Location of the city of Spokane]

The city of Spokane, in eastern Washington, clearly illustratesthe control which physical features exert upon the settlementsand industries of men. The Spokane River, soon after issuing fromCoeur d'Alene Lake, flows out over the volcanic plains of Washington. In the course of a few miles it descends into a shallow cañon bya series of cascades and waterfalls. The water-power furnished bythese falls has determined the position and growth of Spokane. The falls brought sawmills and manufacturing plants, and these inturn brought people and railroads. The city has become a greatcommercial centre for all the region round about. The extensive andrich mineral district upon the north, extending even into BritishColumbia, finds its most convenient source of supplies at Spokane. East of the city is the Coeur d'Alene mining region, while southand west are large areas devoted to the cultivation of fruit andgrain. 

[Illustration: FIG. 120. --VIRGINIA CITY, NEVADA

Supported entirely by mining]

The city of Great Falls, Montana, in the Missouri River basin, is destined to become a great industrial centre, because of thepresence of unlimited water-power afforded by the Great Falls ofthe Missouri River. No other reason would lead to the growth ofa settlement at this particular spot, for boundless plains extendabout it in every direction. 

[Illustration: FIG. 121. --BUTTE, MONTANA

A city of smelters]

The mining cities of the West, such as Butte, Virginia City, andLeadville, illustrate the growth of important centres of populationin the vicinity of large deposits of minerals. In the case of thesecities, as well as many others, there are no agricultural resourcesin the surrounding country to support the people gathered togetherhere. Nearly all their food has to be shipped hundreds of miles. Cities supported by mining are less likely to be permanent thanthose supported by an agricultural community, by commerce, or bymanufacturing. 

THE FOREST BELT OF THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS

No other coniferous forests in the world can compare with thosecovering the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. They are remarkable both for the number of species and for thesize of the trees. The moderate temperature and the moist windsfrom the Pacific seem to offer the conditions which are best suitedto the growth of cone-bearing trees. 

As we go northward along the coast, or ascend the mountain slopes, we find the climate growing cooler and cooler. With this changingclimate the species of conifers change, for each has become accustomedto certain conditions of temperature and moisture, which it musthave in order to thrive. 

The Sierra Nevada is the most continuous lofty range of mountainsin North America. From the great valley at its western base to thecrest of the range the distance is about sixty miles. Because ofthe great height of the mountains, there is found within these fewmiles every variety of climate between the sub-tropical atmosphereof the valley, where oranges ripen to perfection, and the arcticcold of the summits, where little or no vegetation can live. 

Thus, by climbing a single mountain range, we may experience allkinds of climate, and have an opportunity to observe the differentforms of plant life such as we could not otherwise obtain withouta journey of several thousand miles. 

[Illustration: FIG. 122. --FOREST BELT OF THE FOOT-HILLS, SIERRANEVADA MOUNTAINS]

Passing through the groves of valley oak, and beyond the orangeorchards at the foot of the mountains, we reach the foot-hillsand begin to ascend. Several species of oak are found upon thehillsides and in the valleys, while mingled with them in many placesappear such shrubs as the California lilac, chamiso, and manzanita. Where the soil is too poor or the slopes too steep for the trees, these shrubs, commonly called "chaparral, " are massed togetherin almost impenetrable thickets. 

The first of the coniferous trees which we meet is an odd-lookingone known as the digger pine. Instead of having a single straighttrunk it divides a short distance above the ground into many branches. The large cones are armed with long hooked spines, so that theymust be handled rather carefully, but when opened they are foundto be filled with nutritious nuts. These nuts were an importantsource of food for the Indians who once inhabited the foot-hills. Now the Indians are gone, but the nuts are not wasted, if one mayjudge by the fragments of the cones with which the squirrels strewthe ground. 

[Illustration: FIG. 123. --THE DIGGER PINE]

The road climbs the foot-hills by many turns and windings throughcañons and up and down ridges. At an elevation of about two thousandfeet specimens of the yellow pine appear. The trees increase insize and grow more closely together as we ascend. We soon findourselves in the edge of the forest belt which extends unbrokennorthward to the arctic zone, and upward to the line of almostperpetual snow. 

The yellow pine, so named from the color of the bark, sometimesattains a diameter of six feet, but does not form so dense forestsas we shall find higher on the mountains. The rays of the warmsun, reaching down between the trees to the carpet of needles and"bear clover, " draw out their spicy fragrance. The yellow pine, although it does not afford as good a quality of lumber as someof the other pines, is one of our most important trees because ofits wide distribution through nearly all mountains of the West. It has a much wider range in elevation than most trees, one varietyreaching upward nearly to the timber line. 

[Illustration: FIG. 124. --A YELLOW PINE FOREST]

After getting well into the yellow pine forest, we soon come uponother trees that contend with the pines for a footing upon theslopes and for a bit of the sunshine. Among these the black oaksdeserve special mention, for in places they form dense groves uponthe ridges. The cedars, with their rich brown bark and flat, droopingbranches, are easily recognized. As these trees grow old they becomegnarled and knotty and very picturesque. 

[Illustration: FIG. 125. --SUGAR PINE]

We first meet that "king of pines, " the sugar pine, upon the moreshaded mountain slopes. Although higher up, on barren, rocky ridges, this tree grows to noble size, yet it cannot withstand heat anddryness. Our attention may be first called to the sugar pine by theslender cones, ten to fifteen inches in length, which are scatteredover the ground. Then, as we look up to see whence the cones come, oureyes light upon the smooth trunks, often over six feet in diameterand reaching up one hundred and fifty feet before the branchesappear. From the ends of the long, drooping branches hang slendergreen cones. The name of this pine is derived from the fact thata white sugar gathers in little bunches at the spots where thetrunk has been injured. This sugar is pleasant to the taste andsomewhat medicinal. 

[Illustration: FIG. 126. --ZONE OF THE FIR FOREST, SIERRA NEVADAMOUNTAINS]

The wood of the sugar pine, which is white and fine-grained, isof greater value commercially than that of any of the other pines. This fact leads the shake-maker and lumberman to seek out the nobletree and mark it for destruction. The sugar pine, when once destroyedin a given locality, rarely replaces itself, as it is crowded outby the more vigorous conifers. 

Scattered through the forests of yellow pine, cedar, and sugarpine is the Douglas spruce, commonly known in the market as theOregon pine. This is the most important forest tree in Oregon andWashington. It often grows to a height of three hundred feet, andforms dense forests for hundreds of miles along the base and westernslope of the Cascade Range. In Washington it is found growing downto the sea-level, but in the Sierra Nevada the requisite moisturefor its growth is not found much below an elevation of four thousandfeet. 

As we go upward the pines become fewer and the firs and "Big Trees"take their places. The Big Trees are found in scattered groves, at an elevation of five thousand to eight thousand feet, for adistance of two hundred and fifty miles along the slopes of theSierra Nevada mountains. The Sequoia, as the genus is called, whichalso includes the redwood of the Coast ranges, is in many respectsthe most remarkable of all our coniferous trees. 

[Illustration: FIG. 127. --THE BIG TREE FOREST IN THE SIERRA NEVADAMOUNTAINS]

After travelling through forests made up of other trees of greatsize it is difficult at first to appreciate the magnitude of theBig Trees. Rising from a swelling base, which is sometimes thirtyfeet in diameter, the symmetrical trunk reaches up and up, finallyterminating in a top three hundred to three hundred and fifty feetabove the ground. Their size, their reddish-brown bark, and theirsmall cones, clearly distinguish these trees. Great holes havebeen burned in many of them, and in the hollows thus formed menhave made for themselves comfortable living rooms. In one of thesouthern groves a fallen hollow tree has been used as a cabin. 

The Big Trees and redwoods are the last surviving species of agenus which was once widely distributed over the earth. The ancestryof the Sequoia can be traced farther back than that of any of theother living conifers. Impressions of cones and small stems withneedles attached belonging to the Sequoia have been found in theoldest rocks of the Coast ranges of California. These cones andstems were washed into some muddy estuary and there buried, millionsof years ago. The mud inclosing them was compressed and hardened, and finally changed to slate. This was at last exposed upon thesurface through the uplifting of a mountain range and the workof erosion. 

Some of the groves of the Big Trees have been included in governmentparks and reservations, but others are being cut as rapidly aspossible by the lumbermen. The redwood of the Coast ranges is noteasily killed, for it sprouts from the stump, and will in the courseof time form forests again; but the Big Trees rarely replace themselveswhen a grove has been cut down. These trees are so few in numberand of such remarkable interest that they should be spared thefate of the common forest tree. 

It would make you feel sad to visit one of the groves and see, as I did, a fallen giant, fully thirty feet in diameter, lyingsplit open upon the ground. This tree was so large that, in orderthat it might be handled at all, powder had to be used to blast itin pieces. The tree was knotty, and according to the lumbermen, of little value, and might as well have been left. What excuse isthere for the wanton destruction of a noble tree like this one?It must have stood from five thousand to six thousand years. Itwas a mighty tree at the beginning of the Christian era, and wasgrowing, a strong tree, when our ancestors were the rudest savagesin the wilds of Europe. 

But we must not remain among the Big Trees, for the forests extendmuch farther up the mountains. The most important tree of the upperforest belt is the fir, which is found growing from five thousandto nearly nine thousand feet above sea-level. It is one of the mostgraceful of the conifers. Sometimes these trees reach a heightof two hundred and fifty feet and form dense forests with littleundergrowth. The branches make the soft, fragrant beds which sorest and delight the tired mountain climber. Here and there aboutthe springs and at the heads of the streamlets the firs appear tostand back, making room for green meadows brightened with a profusionof flowers. 

[Illustration: FIG. 128. --ALPINE HEMLOCKS]

The tamarack, or lodge-pole pine, is sometimes found at about thesame elevation as the firs, but seems to prefer the moist landsabout the meadows and the bottoms of the narrow valleys. This tree iswidely distributed at high altitudes all over our Western mountains. 

Continuing our climb toward the alpine regions, we reach an elevationwhere the trees begin to show the effects of the winter storms. Thefact that life is not so easy as it is farther down the slopes isapparent from the gnarled and stunted trunks. Here are the alpinehemlocks, dwarf pines, and junipers. 

The juniper somewhat resembles the cedar, but has a short, thicktrunk. Near the timber line this tree grows but a few feet highand becomes exceedingly gnarled. It seems to like the most exposedand rocky places, but in truth, like many another form of plantlife, it has become accustomed to such locations because it cannotsuccessfully compete with other trees in happier ones. 

Most weird and picturesque of all are the dwarf white pines, growingupon the extensive mountain shoulders and ridges at a height of tenthousand to eleven thousand five hundred feet above the sea. Sincean arctic climate surrounds them for nine months in the year, theirgrowth is very slow. Their short, gnarled trunks and branches aretwisted into all sorts of fantastic shapes. When, after strugglingwith the cold and the storms, the trees at last die, they do notquickly decay and fall, but continue to stand for many years. 

These trees become smaller and smaller in size until at the extremetimber line they are almost prostrate upon the ground. In manycases they rise only three or four feet, and have the appearanceof shrubs rather than trees. Still above them, however, there arerocky slopes and snow-banks reaching to an elevation of over fourteenthousand feet. If we examine these upper slopes carefully we shallfind that they are not utterly devoid of life, but that certainplants have been able to obtain a foothold upon them. In shelterednooks there are little shrubs and lichens. In some places among therocks, beneath overhanging snow-banks, beautiful flowers springup at the coming of the late summer, blossom, mature their seeds, and die with the return of the winter cold. 

[Illustration: FIG. 129. --THE UPPER LIMIT OF THE TIMBER

Sierra Nevada Mountains]

The magnificent forests through which we have passed in our longclimb, if destroyed by the lumberman, cannot be replaced for hundredsof years. They contribute much to the glory of the mountains. Theyhold back the water so that it does not run off rapidly, and thusaid in giving rise to innumerable clear, cold springs. The springshelp feed the streams during the long, dry summers, when the wateris so sorely needed in the hot valleys below. 

THE NATIONAL PARKS AND FOREST RESERVES

The people who first pushed into the unknown country west of theMississippi, in the earlier half of the last century, were chieflyhunters and trappers. They did not intend to make permanent homesin the wilds, but rather to stay only so long as they could securean abundance of fur-bearing animals. 

Then came the discovery of the precious metals, and thousands ofgold-seekers crossed the plains, and spread out over the mountainsof the Cordilleran region. They, too, expected to get rich by makinguse of the resources of the country, and return to their homes inthe East. 

At the present time the destruction of our forests and serious injuryto the water supply has been threatened through the organization oflarge lumber companies. Those interested in lumbering usually livefar removed from the scenes of their operations, and consequentlycare little about the condition in which the deforested lands areleft. 

The farmers were the first permanent occupants of the West. Unlikethe wandering trappers and miners, they established homes and madethe land richer instead of poorer. As long as the population wasscanty there was not much danger of exterminating the wild animals, and the demands for timber were small. 

Our forefathers who settled the Eastern states had to contend withthe forests. Nearly every acre of ground had to be laboriouslycleared before anything could be planted. It was only natural thatthey should come to regard the forests as a hindrance rather thana blessing. 

As the settlers spread westward to the prairies and plains theycame upon a region almost destitute of forests; but still farther, in the mountains of the continental divide and the Pacific slope, they again found extensive forests. To them it seemed impossiblethat these forests could ever be exhausted, and therefore littlecare was taken for their preservation. 

As the population increased, more and more lumber was needed forbuilding purposes. Before the sawmill came split lumber was used, and the shake-maker did not hesitate to cut down the largest andmost valuable pines on the mere possibility that fifteen or twentyfeet of the butt would split well enough to make shakes. It madeno difference to him that the whole trunk rotted upon the ground. 

When the sawmills were built and there came a demand from abroadfor lumber, the forests were attacked upon a much larger scale. The need of the moment was all that concerned the lumbermen, andthey took no care for the preservation of the young trees, whichin time would have renewed the supply. The litter of the trunksand branches which they left upon the ground furnished fuel forthe fires which frequently swept over these areas and killed theremaining growth. 

As a result of these fires, the few animals that have escaped thehunters have been killed or driven from their homes, and the forestcover, which would retain much of the moisture and preserve itfor the supply of the streams in summer, has been destroyed. Theremoval of the forest cover leads also to the washing away of thesoil, the shoaling of the streams, floods in spring, and low waterin summer. In fact, all the people and industries of the regionare affected by its loss. It may take hundreds of years for thecountry to recover; indeed, if the rainfall is light, the forestsmay never grow again, without artificial aid. 

[Illustration: FIG. 130. --A BURNED FOREST, CASCADE RANGE, OREGON]

The careless stockman, seeking to enlarge his pastures by burningthe underbrush, sets fires which often destroy hundreds of squaremiles of forest. The summer camper and the prospector also frequentlygo on their way without extinguishing the camp fire, though a greatforest fire may be the result. 

Ours is a fertile and productive earth, capable of supporting amultitude of living things. For ages the lower animals, as wellas savage man, lived under the protection of Nature, making thebest use of her products of which they were capable; but they neverbrought about the unnecessary, and often wanton, destruction ofwhich we are guilty, --we, who call ourselves civilized. In killingthe wild animals we cannot make the plea of necessity, as can savageswho have no other means of support. Likewise, there is no necessityfor killing the beautiful singing birds, merely for their plumage. 

[Illustration: FIG. 131. --EROSION UPON AN UNPROTECTED SLOPE]

The forests are cut away without any thought of the retributionwhich Nature is sure to bring upon us. They are of vast importanceto the well-being of the country and are the natural possessionof all its people. We ought not to permit them to be destroyedindiscriminately for the benefit of a few. We need lumber for manypurposes; but a careful treatment of the forests with an eye totheir continuance, the plan of cutting large trees, and preservingthe small ones, is a very different thing from our present wastefulmethods. 

Every summer the air is filled with the smoke of burning forests, and the lumbermen are at work harder than ever felling virgin forestsupon more and more remote mountain slopes. 

Books of travel written fifty years ago tell of animal life insuch abundance in many portions of the West that we can hardlybelieve their stories. A description of California written in 1848mentions elk, antelope, and deer as abundant in the Great Valley. How many of us living at the present time have ever seen one ofthese animals in its native haunts?

There is hope now that this wasteful use of Nature's gifts willsoon be stopped. Large areas of the mountainous portions of thepublic domain are being set aside as parks and forest reserves. The parks contain some of the finest scenery and most wonderfulnatural curiosities to be found upon the face of the whole earth. This wild scenery, together with the forests and plants of everykind, as well as the animals and birds that inhabit these areas, are to remain just as they were when the first white man lookedupon them. 

The parks form asylums for the wild creatures which have been hardpressed for so many years. In the Yellowstone National Park, wherethey have been protected the longest, the animals have almost losttheir fear of man and act as if they knew that they are safe withinits limits. In the Yellowstone you may see great herds of elk feedingin the rich meadows; deer stand by the roadside and watch you pass, while the bears have become so tame about the hotels that theymake themselves a nuisance. Sixteen bears at a time have been seenfeeding at the garbage pile near the Grand Cañon hotel. 

The forest reserves differ from the parks in that they are establishedfor utility rather than for pleasure. The forests now existingare to be cared for by the government and to be wisely used whenlumber is needed. Fires are to be avoided so far as possible, andburned areas are to be replanted with trees. Another object to beaccomplished is the retention of the forests about the heads ofthe streams so as to preserve the summer water supply. The waterruns off more slowly from a slope covered with vegetation thanfrom a barren one, and therefore has more time to soak into theground. This is a very important matter in all mountainous districts, particularly where the rainfall is light. 

The Yellowstone National Park is situated upon the continentaldivide in northwestern Wyoming. It is largely a plateau, with anelevation of seven thousand to eight thousand feet above the levelof the sea. The surface of the plateau is covered with forests, meadows, and lakes; but the region is particularly remarkable forthe geysers and hot springs, and the Grand Cañon and falls of theYellowstone River. 

Springs dot the surface of many parts of the park. The hot wateris continually bringing mineral substances, the chief of which issilica, from the depths of the earth and depositing them about theorifices of the springs. In this manner wonderful basins, terraces, and cones have been built up, while the rocks have been eitherreddened or bleached out and softened into a form of clay. 

The park region must have been for a long period the seat of volcanicaction, for nearly all the rocks are cooled lavas. While the heathas disappeared from the surface, it must still be very great below, if we may judge by the quantities of hot water continually issuingfrom the springs. 

In many a subterranean cavern steam accumulates until its pressurebecomes too great for the column of water occupying the channelthat leads to the surface; then the water is suddenly and forciblyexpelled, giving rise to a geyser eruption. When the pressure ofthe steam has become exhausted, the water sinks back into the earth, leaving the basin of the geyser nearly or quite empty until the steamhas again collected. Each geyser has its own period of eruptionand is generally very regular. One little geyser, known as theEconomic, because it throws out but little water, spouts regularlyabout every five minutes. Other geysers are active at intervals ofseveral hours, while some take several years to get ready for anew eruption and then spout whole rivers of boiling water. In theUpper Geyser Basin the effect is very impressive, particularly upona cool morning. The clouds of steam and the throbbing or roaringgeysers lend to the region a weird and unearthly aspect. 

The Yellowstone Lake is a large body of water situated almost uponthe continental divide. Before the cañon, or Great Falls, or eventhe Yellowstone River itself existed, the lake stood about onehundred and fifty feet higher than at present, and its water emptiedinto the Pacific Ocean instead of the Gulf of Mexico. The drainagewas changed by the work of a small stream having its source inthe volcanic plateau north of the lake. It deepened its channeland extended its head waters back until they tapped the lake ata point where the rim of the basin was lowest, and so drew awayits waters in the opposite direction. The Yellowstone River, withits deep, wondrously colored cañon and grand waterfalls, is theresult of this change. 

[Illustration: FIG. 132. --ECONOMIC GEYSER, YELLOWSTONE PARK]

To the south of Yellowstone Park, but included in one of the forestreserves, are Jackson Lake and the Teton range. The Three Tetons, one of which reaches a height of over thirteen thousand feet, wereevidently noted landmarks for the hunters and trappers in the earlydays, for you will find them mentioned in many of the narratives ofthose times. The precipitous range, with its crown of jagged peaksand the beautiful lake nestling at its base, presents a picturenever to be forgotten. 

Very different from the region which we have been studying is thatembracing the Crater Lake, National Park, which is situated uponthe summit of the Cascade Range in southern Oregon. Here occurred, not many thousand years ago, one of the strangest catastropheswhich, so far as we know, has ever overtaken any portion of ourearth. 

Towering over the present basin of Crater Lake was a great volcano, reaching, probably, nearly three miles toward the sky. During theglacial period it stood there, its slopes white with snow, apparentlyas strong and firm as Shasta or Hood or Ranier. But for some reasonthe volcanic forces within this mountain, which has been calledMazama, awoke to renewed action. The interior of the mountain wasmelted, and the whole mass, unable to stand longer, fell in andwas engulfed in the fiery, seething lava. This lava, instead ofwelling up and filling the crater and perhaps flowing out, wasdrawn down through the throat of the volcano into the earth, andleft an enormous pit or crater where once the mountain stood. 

After the floor of the crater cooled and hardened, small eruptionsoccurred within it and a new volcano grew up, but, though nearly threethousand feet high, it does not reach to the top of the encirclingwalls of the old crater, which are, on an average, nearly fourthousand feet high. 

Then the rains and melting snows formed a body of water in thecrater, and the wonderful lake came into existence. No such sightis to be found elsewhere upon the earth. Within a circling rim ofcliffs, from eight hundred to two thousand feet high and nearlyvertical, lies the lake, rivalling the sky in the depth of its bluecoloring. The height of its encircling cliffs and its five-mileexpanse of blue water help to make the lake a spectacle grand beyonddescription. At the present time the volcanic fires appear to beentirely extinct. 

[Illustration: FIG. 133. --CRATER LAKE

From the top of the cliffs two thousand feet above. Upon the rightis Wizard Island, a volcanic cone]

Forests of fir and tamarack have spread over the once barren slopesof lava and pumice which extend back from the cliffs. In the hollows, after the lingering winter snows have melted, there are grassymeadows dotted with flowers. It is many miles from the lake toany human habitation, and all the region about remains just asNature left it. It was a happy thought to make another nationalpark here. 

[Illustration: FIG. 134. --THE PUNCH BOWL, YELLOWSTONE PARK]

We have already learned something of the grandeur of the YosemiteValley and have seen how it came into existence. The valley isowned and cared for as a public park by the state of California, but, with Hetch-Hetchy Valley, it is included in a larger parkunder the control of the general government. Within the boundariesof this national park, as in the case of the others described, thenatural features of the landscape, the forests, and the animals, are to be left forever undisturbed. The Yosemite Valley, althoughsituated in the heart of the rugged Sierras, is reached by severalgood wagon roads and many more people visit it than go to CraterLake, although the latter is fully as interesting. 

[Illustration: FIG. 135. --THE FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE, YELLOWSTONECAÑON]

About a hundred miles south of the Yosemite is the General GrantNational Park. This park is of comparatively small size, but containsa group of some of the largest and finest Big Trees in the country. Still farther south there is a reserve called the Sequoia Park, which contains the largest remaining groves of the Big Trees. 

There are also many state parks scattered over different parts ofthe Union. The establishment of these parks is intended to preserveeither the forests or natural scenery. 

The retention by the state or general government of large tracts ofmountain and timber land, and of those areas which are particularlyinteresting on account of their natural scenery, is of the greatestimportance. The timber and water are preserved for the general goodinstead of being squandered for the enrichment of individuals. 

The preservation of scenic features in their original wild stateis just and right, because such things add to the pleasure ofout-of-door life, elevate men's feelings, and cultivate a love forthe beautiful. The protection afforded the plant and animal lifeby these reserves gives a better opportunity for studying them, and tends to foster a general interest in the welfare of livingthings. 

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