36 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



derable difficulty has been experienced in determining the 

 culminating point, or that of the divortia aquarum. It is 

 south of the Wind River Mountains, about midway between, 

 the Mississippi and the coast line of the Southern Ocean, 

 and is situated at an elevation of 7490 feet, or only 480 feet 

 lower than the pass of the Great Bernard. The emigrants call 

 this culminating point the South Pass.^ It is situated in a 

 pleasant region, embellished by a profusion of artemisia?, 

 especially A. tridentata (Nuttall), and varieties of asters and 

 cactuses, which cover the micaceous slate and gneiss rocks. 

 Astronomical determinations place its latitude in the parallel 

 of 42 24', and its longitude in that of 109 24' W. Adolf 

 Erman has already drawn attention to the fact, that the line 

 of strike of the great east- Asiatic Aldanian mountain- chain, 

 which separates the basin of the Lena from the rivers flowing 

 towards the Great Southern Ocean, if extended in the form 

 of a great circle on the surface of the globe, passes through 

 many of the summits of the Rocky Mountains between 40 

 and 55 north lat. " An American and an Asiatic mountain- 

 chain," he remarks, " appear therefore to be only portions of 

 one and the same fissure erupted by the shortest channels. "f 



The western high mountain coast chain of the Cali- 

 fornian maritime Alps, the Sierra Nevada de California, is 

 wholly distinct from the Rocky Mountains, which sink towards 

 the Mackenzie River (that remains covered with ice for a 

 great portion of the year), and from the high table land on 

 which rise individual snow-covered peaks. However inju- 

 dicious the choice of the appellation of Rocky Mountains may 

 be, when applied to the most northerly prolongation of the 

 Mexican central chain, I do not deem it expedient to sub- 

 stitute for it the denomination of the Oregon Chain, as has 

 frequently been attempted. These mountains do indeed give 

 rise to the sources of three main branches constituting the 

 great Oregon or Columbia river (viz., Lewis', Clarke's, and 

 North Fork); but this mighty stream also intersects the chain 

 of the ever snow-crowned maritime Alps of California. The 

 name of Oregon Territory is also employed, politically and 

 officially, to designate the lesser territory of land west of the 



* Fremont's Report, pp. 3, 60, 70, 100, and 129. 



f Compare Erman's Reise um die Erde, Abth. i. Bd. 3, s. 8, Abth. 

 ii. Bd. 1. s. 386, with his Archiv fur W issenschaftliche Kunde von 

 Russland, Bd. vi. s. 671. 



