CORDILLERA OF CALIFORNIA. 323 



and in the Alto de los Kobles (lat. 2 20' north), on the west. 

 The ridge that separates the Kocky Mountains extends from 

 west to east, towards Lake Superior, "between the basins of 

 the Missouri and those of Lake Winnipeg and the Slave 

 Lake. The central Cordillera of Mexico and the Kocky 

 Mountains follow the direction N. 10 W., from lat. 25 to 

 38 ; the chain from that point to the Polar Sea prolongs in 

 the direction N. 24 \V~., and ends in the parallel 69, at the 

 mouth of the Mackenzie River.* 



In thus developing the structure of the Cordilleras of the 

 Andes from 56 south to beyond the Arctic circle, we see 

 that its northern extremity (long. 130 30'), is nearly 61 

 of longitude west of its southern extremity (long. 60 40') ; 

 this is the effect of the long-continued direction from S.E. 

 to N.W. north of the isthmus of Panama. By the extra- 

 ordinary breadth of the New Continent, in the 30 and 

 GO north lat., the Cordillera of the Andes, continually 

 approaching nearer to the western coast in the southern 

 hemisphere, is removed 400 leagues on the north from the 

 source of the Bio de la Paz. The Andes of Chile may 

 be considered as maritime Alps,t while, in their most 

 northern continuation, the Rocky Mountains are a chain in 

 the interior of a continent. There is, no doubt, between 

 latitude 23 and 60, from Cape Saint Lucas in California, 

 to Alaska on the western coast of the Sea of Kams- 

 chatka, a real littoral Cordillera ; but it forms a system of 

 mountains almost entirely distinct from the Andes of 

 Mexico and Canada. This system, which we shall call the 

 Cordillera of California, or of New Albion, is linked between 

 lat. 33 and 34 with the Pimeria alta, and the western 

 branch of the Cordilleras of Anahuac ; and between lat. 45 

 and 53, with the Kocky Mountains, by transversal ridges 



* The eastern boundary of the Rocky Mountains lies 



In 38 lalitude 107 20' longitude. 



40 108 30' 



63 124 4(X 



68 130 30* 



f Geognostically speaking, a littoral chain is not a range of mountains 

 forming of itself the coast ; this name is extended to a chain separated 

 from the oaast by a narrow plain. 



T 2 



