ILLUSTRATIONS (5). GEOGNOSTIC PROFILES. 33 



says Captain Fremont in his official report,* "we saw on the one 

 side numerous lakes and streams, the sources of the Rio Colo- 

 rado, which carries its waters through the Calif ornian Gulf 

 to the South Sea ; on the other, the deep valley of the Wind 

 River, where lie the sources of the Yellowstone River, one of 

 the main branches of the Missouri which unites with the 

 Mississippi at St. Louis. Far to the north-west we could 

 just discover the snowy heads of the Trois Tetons, which 

 give rise to the true sources of the Missouri not far from 

 the primitive stream of the Oregon or Columbia river, which 

 Is known under the name of Snake River, or Lewis Fork." 



To the surprise of the adventurous travellers, the summit 

 of Fremont's Peak was found to be visited by bees. It is 

 probable that these insects, like the butterflies which I found 

 at far higher elevations in the chain of the Andes, and also 

 within the limits of" perpetual snow, had been involuntarily 

 drawn thither by ascending currents of air. I have even seen 

 large winged lepidoptera, which had been carried far out to 

 ea by land-winds, drop on the ship deck at a consider- 

 able distance from land in the South Sea. 



Fremont's map and geographical researches embrace the 

 immense tract of land extending from the confluence of 

 Ivanzas River with the Missouri, to the cataracts of the 

 Columbia and the Missions of Santa Barbara and Pueblo de 

 los Angeles in New California, presenting a space amount- 

 ing to 28 degrees of longitude (about 1360 miles) between 

 the 34th and 45th parallels of north latitude. Four hundred 

 points have been hypsometrically determined by barometrical 

 measurements, and for the most part, astronomically: so that 

 it has been rendered possible to delineate the profile above 

 the sea's level of a tract of land measuring 3,600 miles 

 with all its inflections, extending from the north of Kanzas 

 River to Fort Vancouver and to the coasts of the South Sea 

 (almost 720 miles more than the distance from Madrid to 

 Tobolsk). As I believe I was the first who attempted to 

 represent, in geognostic profile, the configuration of entire 

 countries, as the Spanish Peninsula, the highland of Mexico, 

 and the Cordilleras of South America (for the half-perspec- 



* Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 

 the year 1842, and to Oregon and North California, in the years 

 1843-1844 ; p. 78. 



D 



