\28 ■ SIXTH REPORT 183C. 



from the comparatively low peninsula of California until they 

 attain an elevation of 9000 feet opposite Cape Mendocino in 

 the 40th degree of latitude. Near the 45th parallel, Mount Hood* 

 rises 16,000 feet, and in the 46th stands Mount St. Helens, 

 which is 14,000 feet high ; the Columbia flows between these 

 lofty peaks. Mount Fairweather in latitude 59° has an altitude 

 of 14,000 feet, and Mount St. Elias in the 60th parallel at- 

 tains to 17,000. These peaks are volcanic, and in the Aleutian 

 Islands there is another vulcanic mountain 7000 feet high. The 

 Californian Alps are divided into ridges by long narrow valleys, 

 and between them and the Rocky Mountains lies an extensive 

 prairie tract, 700 miles long, from 100 to 200 wide, destitute 

 of water, and very similar in character to those which lie on 

 the eastern side of the ridge just named f. Between the forks 

 of the Columbia there are also wide prairie lands covered with 

 arfemisice, and nourishing several interesting and large species 

 of tetrao. 



The mountain system of Russian America is unknown. The 

 peninsula of Alaska and the Aleutian Isles, extending toAvards 

 Asia, separate from the Pacific the sea of Kamtschatka, which 

 nourishes several fish of very peculiar forms and some singular 

 cetaceous animals. 



Climate. 



Many precise and long- continued meteorological observations 

 are recjuired to be made in various districts of North America 

 before a general view of the climate having any pretensions to 

 accuracy can be offered. Abstracts of temperatures already 

 recorded are expressed in the subjoined table, which is con- 

 structed after a model furnished by Humboldt. It is preceded 

 by a few remarks, which are either simply explanatorj^, or whicli 

 detail facts not readily expressible in a tabular form, yet of im- 

 portance to the naturalist who investigates the distribution of 

 animals in North America. 



• Dr. Gairclner, an excellent naturalist now employed in a medical capacity 

 on the banks of the Columbia b)' the Hudson's Bay Company, has executed a 

 map, from which I have extracted the following positions of the most remarka- 

 ble peaks of the Californian Alps that have received names. Mount Pit, 

 41° ;5C' N.; Mount Shasty, 43° 16' N.; Mount Vancouver, 44° 18' N.; Mount 

 Hood, 45° IG' N.; Mount St. Helens, 4G° 05' N.; Mount Rainier, 46° 57' N.; 

 and Mount Baker, 48° 27' N. 



t Dr. Coulter states that the Califoniian Alps form an union with the Rocky 

 Mountains north of the 42nd parallel, about the summit level dividing the head- 

 waters of the (^/olumbia from those which fall into the Bay of St. PVancisco. 

 {Geogr. Tr.,v. CS.)The " counterfort" here alluded to, hems in the Snake River 

 or south branch of Columbia and limits the range of the bison westwards. The 

 difficulty of traversing this connecting ridge'is well described by Washington 

 Irving in his recent work of Astoria. 



I 



