

CHAPTER V 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 



FROM Alaska we retrace our steps to Canada, by that magni- 

 ficient mountain range popularly known as the " Rockies." 

 I have already mentioned that the Rocky Mountains prac- 

 tically end near the shores of the Arctic Ocean. They begin 

 in northern Mexico. Although we can approximately fix 

 the beginning and end of this vast range of mountains and 

 even its eastern border, the western boundaries are more 

 vague and indefinite. In British Columbia, which is so famed 

 for its grand and impressive scenery, its rugged mountains 

 and great forests, the northern spurs of the Cascade Moun- 

 tains appear to merge into the Rockies, so that it becomes a 

 matter of some difficulty to discriminate clearly between the 

 two. Further south the Rocky Mountains cross the high 

 plateau of Wyoming, sometimes spoken of as the " Laramie 

 region." We also meet here the complex mountain groups to 

 which the name of " Stony Mountains " has been applied. 

 South of the plateau the mountains again grow more irregular 

 and lofty than to the north of it. Another great plateau covers 

 part of southern Utah, western Colorado, New Mexico and 

 northern Arizona. With a height of over 6,000 feet above 

 sea -level, this region has suffered great erosion, and is deeply 

 trenched by fantastic gorges which intersect it in every direc- 

 tion. The most famous of them, the Colorado Canon, is a 

 clean-cut chasm, which, in the course of ages, has been slowly 

 carved by the river to the stupendous depth of 6,000 feet 

 in the horizontal strata. 



It is not only the lover of scenery, but particularly the 

 naturalist and palaeontologist who appreciate the unrivalled 

 attractions of the Rocky Mountains. These mountains, more 

 over, have been the direct means of exposing what are probably 



