No. 3.] ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 135 



NOTES ON NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA.* 



By Alexander Caulfield Anderson, J. P. (Formerly of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company.) 



Watersheds. — The main continental watershed is of course 

 the general line of the Rocky Mountains, which continue 

 through Alaska to the extreme point, near Cape Lisburne. 

 There is, however, an exception to this general rule near the heads 

 of Peace River, where the main chain is disrupted, and the waters 

 originate in the Peak Range of Arrowsmith's Map, which range 

 here forms an extraordinary loop with the main line. Both 

 afterwards unite with the N.W. Coast Range, and continue as one. 

 nearly as far as the 60th parrallel, where a divergence again 

 takes place, and the Southern Coast Range of Alaska originates. 



The Sierra Nevada, the chief range of California, sepa- 

 rates near the frontier of Oregon ; the eastern branch, known 

 as the Blue Mountains, dividing the waters of the main Colum- 

 bia River from those of its great tributary, the ' Snake ; the 

 western, under the name of the Cascade Range, continuing 

 north-westward into British Columbia, as far as the junction of 

 the Thompson with the Fraser in 50° 13', where it terminates. 

 The Cascade Range is disrupted at a point between Mounts 

 Hood and St. Helens ; the Columbia River then breaking 

 through and forming a strong rapid known as the " Cascades," 

 whence the name given to the range. This name, however, 

 originates not from any peculiarity in the rapid itself, but from 

 several lofty waterfalls, formed by streamlets pouring down the 

 perpendicular face of the disrupted mountain in the immediate 

 vicinity. The height of the passes in this range varies from 

 3,000 to 5,000 feet ; the peaks sometimes rising to an altitude 

 of 15,000. Mount Rainier, the most lofty of the northern por- 

 tion, has an elevation of 12,360 feet. Most if not all of these 

 summits are volcanoes, either extinct or in partial eruption at 

 distant intervals. It may here be mentioned that the term 



* Descriptive matter intended to accompany a " Skeleton Map of 

 North-West America," prepared by Mr. Anderson to send to the Phila- 

 delphia International Exhibition of 1876. 



Vol. VIII h No. 3. 



