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XL The Shinumos— A Pre-Historic People of the 

 Rocky Mountain Region 



BY F. S. DELLEXBAUGH. 



It may be well to explain, in the beginning, that I designate all 

 that elevated and distorted portion of tlie United States embraced 

 between the Rocky Mountain range proper, and the Sierra Nevada, 

 as the " Eocky Mountain Region;" and, in order that I may be 

 more clearly understood, I quote a paragraph from the " Report on 

 the Geology of the Uinta Mountains," by J. W. Powell: 



"That portion of the United States west of the 100th meridian 

 lies at a great altitude above the sea. The exceptions to this, as 

 immediately along the Pacific coast and the narrow valleys of some 

 of the principal streams, are but trivial. The rivers descend so 

 rapidly from the upper regions that few of them are of value as 

 highways of commerce; the valleys proper are narrow; treeless 

 jtlains, cold, arid table-lands, and desolate mountains, are the prin- 

 cipal topographic features. The more conspicuous of these are the 

 mountains; lone mountains, single ranges, and great groups of 

 ranges, or systems of mountains, prevail. Owing to great and 

 >fidely-spread aridity, the mountains are scantily clothed with veg- 

 etation, and the indurated lithologic formations are rarely masked 

 with soils ; and the rocks, as they are popularly called, are everywhere 

 exposed ; hence, all these mountains are popularly known as the 

 Rocky Mountains. But there is more than one system of mountains ; 

 and later writers, wishing to be more definite, speak of the Cascade 

 Mountains, the Coast Ranges, the Sierra Nevada, the Wasatch 

 Mountains, etc. But in an important sense the region is a unit; it 

 is the generally-elevated region of the United States ; it is the 

 principal region of the precious metals ; it is the region without 

 important navigable streams; it is the arid land of our country, 

 where irrigation is necessarv to successful agriculture. But, above 



