t 



380 Observations on the Physical Geography 



Maine. But north of latitude 43° even to Greenland, as any- 

 good map will show, the fiords are numerous, deep, and intricate 

 in their ramifications. In South America, beyond the parallel of 

 42°, they begin to characterize the coast, especially the western, 

 and long narrow channels of water become exceedingly numer- 

 ous. Tierra del Fnego is cut through by them and severed 

 into many parts. Moreover. Chiloe and numerous islands stand 

 off the coast like Vancouver's and others of northern America. 

 North of 42°, the coast has few bays and consequently an even 

 outline. 



In Europe, the fiords of Norway and the deep bays of Scot- 

 land are well known ; the coast contrasts strikingly with the out- 

 line of France, Spain, and Africa. The African continent does 

 not reach below lat. 36° and has a simple outline throughout. 



There are then certain fiord latitudes — or a fiord zone for the 

 ^lobe, both north and south of the equator. New Zealand and 

 the Auckland and other islands partake much of the same char- 

 acter, and are the only lands in the southern hemisphere besides 

 the extremity of America, which reach into the southern fiord 

 zone. These facts lead to interesting conclusions respecting ex- 

 tended areas of subsidence encircling our globe ; for the fiords 

 may be shown to be former valleys of the land now filled with 

 the sea: but we pass on with this bare allusion to the subject* 



II. Mountains. — The parallelism between the coast and the line 

 of the Rocky Mountains has been remarked upon. The same 

 parallelism characterizes a large part of the great features of the 

 surface, 



1. The most prominent of the lofty dividing lines of heights, 

 lies about 150 miles from the coast and separates a Western sec- 

 tion from the interior of the territory. It is called the Cascade 

 Range in Oregon, from its crossing the Columbia at a place named 

 from its rapids, the Cascades. In California, the Cascade range 

 gives way to another ridge, — the Sierra Nevada or Snowy moun- 

 tains. The two are properly one long chain of mountains ; yet in- 

 stead of being continuous, the Oregon range gradually dies out in 

 Northern California, while the Sierra Nevada is rising'to its snowy 

 altitude on a meridian a little farther to the east, exemplifying a 

 common feature of the constituent parts of mountain chains 

 their interrupted continuity with overlapping ends, rather than a 

 direct lineal course; — a feature which if mountains were more 

 carefully studied, would be oftener discovered and marked on our 

 maps. 



The Cascade Range has a nearly north and south course. Al- 

 though in general more than one hundred miles from the sea, it 

 approaches the coast near Ptigefs Sound, and obviously because 



* Geol. Report Expl. Exped., p. 675. 



