40 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



of the 17th degree of latitude and the celebrated isthmus 

 of Tehuantepec, the mountains, quitting the coast of the 

 Pacific, and following a more direct northerly course, be- 

 come an inland Cordillera. In North Mexico, the " Crane 

 Mountains" (Sierra de las Grullas) form part of the Rocky 

 Mountain chain. Here rise, to the west, the Columbia and 

 the Rio Colorado of California ; and, to the east, the Rio Roxo 

 de Natchitoches, the Candian, the Arkansas, and the Platte 

 or shallow river, a name which has latterly been ignorantly 

 transformed into that of a silver-promising river Plate. 

 Between the sources of these rivers (from N. lat. 37 20' to 

 40 13') rise three lofty summits (formed of a granite con- 

 taining much hornblende and little mica), called Spanish 

 Peak, James's or Pike's Peak, and Big Horn or Long's 

 Peak. (See my Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne, 

 2me edit. t. i. pp. 82 and 109.) The elevation of these 

 peaks exceeds that of any of the summits of the Andes of 

 North Mexico, which, indeed, from the 18th and 19th 

 parallels of latitude, or from the group of Orizaba and Popo- 

 catepetl (respectively 2717 toises or 17374 English feet, 

 and 2771 toises or 17720 English feet,) to Santa Fe and 

 Taos, never reach the limits of perpetual snow. James 

 Peak, in lat. 38 40', is supposed to be 1798 toises, or 

 11497 English feet ; but of this elevation only 1335 toises 

 (8537 English feet) has been measured trigonometrically, 

 the remaining 463 toises, or 2960 English feet, being de- 

 pendent, in the absence of barometrical observations, on 

 uncertain estimations of the declivity of streams. As a 

 trigonometrical measurement can hardly ever be undertaken 



