GEOGRAPHICAL KXIM.o RATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1867. 



1 in he much arable 1,-nnl, ;ui<l tlm more 

 hard. MI In- grown up to latitude 65. 



1'lu- ca-tcrn and central 



pro\ inccs nt' Hritish Auu-rica, except the Hud- 



ierritory and l.ritish Columbia, \\en- 



on the 1-tofJuly, 1SU7, organi/ed us a separate 



iiiiu-iit, with the title (if "The Dominion 

 ;d a common Parliament and 



rnor-General. Some of the smaller prov- 



<li-sati.-iied with this confederation, 



and its endurance is somewhat doubtful. It 



embraces, as at present constituted, mi area of 



! l!. ! in s.piare miles, and a population in 1867 



7''>,- U; nearly H million more than that 

 nf the I'nited States when they became inde- 

 pendent. The country has unrivalled water 

 communication, and extensive lines of railways* 

 and canals, a healthful though somewhat severe 

 climate, a productive soil for the most part, and 

 great mineral wealth. The northern and west- 

 ern provinces have inanife-ted a desire for a 

 coalition with the Dominion. Captain Palliser, 

 who, two or three years since, explored the Hud- 

 son's Bay Territory very thoroughly, has com- 

 municated during the past year to the American 

 Join-rial of Arts and Sciences the position and 

 height of the principal summits in that Terri- 



ind Hritish Columbia. We give a few of 

 the highest elevations: Mount Forbes, north 

 latitude, 51 45', longitude west from Green- 

 wich, 117 :)<)', height 13,400 feet; Mount Mur- 

 chison, latitude 51 47', longitude 117, height 

 13,500 feet ; Sullivan's Peak, latitude 50 52', 

 longitude 117 50', height 7, 808 feet; Pipe- 

 stone Eiver Pass, latitude 51 40', longitude 

 116 30', height 7,200 feet; Bow River Pa-s, 

 latitude 51 40', longitude 117, height 6,347 

 feet; Mount Brown, latitude 52 28', longitude 

 118 25' ; Mount Hooker, latitude 52 17', longi- 



118 12'. The height of these two is not 

 given. Douglas, whose measurements of the 



Mountains and the Sierra Nevada were 

 all much too high, stated the height of Mount 

 r.rown to be 16,000 feet, and that of Mount 

 Hooker 15,700 feet. 



In this connection the recent discussions in 

 regard to the height of Mount Hood, in Ore- 

 tho highest mountain-summit in the 

 .Tinted States, before the purchase of Aliaska, 

 have considerable interest. The discrepancies 

 in the statements of different travellers are 

 very remarkable. Some years since, Mr. At- 

 kinson, of Portland, Oregon, ascended the 

 mountain, and deducing his computations from 

 the boiling-point of water at the summit of 

 Mount Hood, stated its height as 17,640 feet. 

 1'rof. Wood adopted this height, but other 



rapher.s doubted it, and from their own 

 calculations insisted that its height did not ex- 

 ceed 12,000 feet. On the 24th of July, 1866, 

 Key. 11. 1C. Hines, an English geographer, with 

 three gentlemen from Portland, Oregon, as- 

 cended the mountain, and, ascertaining that 



r boiled on the summit at 180 F., con- 



* IN railways in 1S67 wore 2,495 milea In length and cost 

 27,974,614-1185,897,182 In gold. 



firmed Mr. A tkinson'a calculation of 17,640 feet 



as the, height, of the volcanic mountain. 



'. in the summer of ]sr,7, I.ieiitenair 

 nel Williamson, I'nited > 



ported to the, California A cad .tural 



Sciences the I'eMlltsof his observation- ali'i 

 putations, made for tin- purpose of ascertaining 



the height of the mountain, and gave, a- ! 



ures, 1 1,225 feet, or, u-ing<;uyot'> table- \< 

 of his own, 11,185 feet. A difference of 6,415 

 feet, or nearly one and a quarter mil' - i.s cer- 

 tainly discreditable to geographical science. 

 Sir Edward Belcher, who had taken observa- 

 tions of most of these coast mountains, ex- 

 pressed his belief when Rev. Mr. Uines's paper 

 was read, that his estimate was erroneous, and 

 that the height of Mount Hood did not really 

 exceed 12,000 feet, if it attained to that. 



United States. There has been, during the 

 past year, no great geographical movemebt, un- 

 less the outfit of a scientific expedition for Ali- 

 aska may bo called such, but there have been 

 many local enterprises having a geographical 

 bearing. Among these have been the contin- 

 ued prosecution of the survey of California, by 

 Prof. Whitney and his coadjutors, which has 

 developed more interesting geographical facts 

 than any State survey yet made ; the publica- 

 tion of the geological survey of Illinois, which 

 has made known the possession of vast mineral 

 wealth in that State ; and the survey of the min- 

 eral region in Idaho, under the direction of the 

 Land-Office at Washington,' which has thrown 

 much light on the agricultural character of the 

 lands of that Territory, much of which is equal 

 to that of any of the States of the West. A 

 less extensive survey in Northern Minnesota 

 has demonstrated the practicability of turning, 

 at a very moderate cost, the waters of the 

 small lakes, which flow find an outlet in the 

 affluents of the Red River of the North, into 

 the tributaries of the Minnesota River, and 

 thus rendering that river navigable to a much 

 higher point. Another expedition has ascend- 

 ed the Rio Colorado of the West, the princi- 

 pal river of Arizona, for six hundred miles from 

 its mouth in the California Gulf, and demon- 

 strated its navigability to Colville or Callville, 

 in Southern Nevada, with 'a possibility, by a 

 short portage, of extending the navigation two 

 or three hundred miles farther into Southern 

 Utah. The mountains through which this 

 great river breaks, and the caflons it forms, 

 constitute some of the most remarkable scenery 

 on the earth's surface. In a commercial point 

 of view, this discovery can hardly be o\> 

 mated. It will furnish a safe and easy outlet 

 for the products, either mineral or agricultu- 

 ral. '!' the whole region of Southern Utah 

 and Nevada, which have hitherto cost almost 

 their entire value for their transit by teams to 

 Salt Lake City. Another expedition, possess- 

 ing considerable geographical interest, though 

 undertaken for other purposes, was that of 

 Captain J. F. Meline, United Stat^ Army, in 

 1866, through Western Kansas, New Mexico, 





