

of Oregoji and Upper California. 383 



The height above the sea of Wallawalla at the forks of the 

 Columbia is but 1,286 feet. 



Profile of the route from the South Pass across the Great Basin to Francisco Bay, 

 by J. C. Fremont in 1845. Spaces between the parallel lines each _' 00 feet; hori- 

 zontal scale one-thirtieth the vertical. 1. South Pass. 2. Green River. 3. Bear 

 River Mountains. 4. Beer or Soda Spring. 5. Mouth of Bear River. 6. Great 

 Salt Lake. 7. Humboldt R. valley. 8. Humboldt Lake. 9. Sierra Nevada. 10. 

 Francisco Bav. 



Among the east and west or transverse ranges in this eastern 

 section, there are the Salmon river mountains and the Spokane 

 range m Oregon : and the northern and southern limits of the 

 Great Basin are laid down by Fremont with the same direction. 



3. The region west of the Cascade Range, or Western Section 

 of the Territory, is bordered on the coast side by a mountain- 

 ous region varying from a few hundred to five thousand feet in 

 height, yet mostly below three thousand feet. It occupies a 

 breadth of ten to fifty miles near the sea, constituting £ very bro- 

 ken country, and in some parts consisting of two or three parallel 

 ridges. The general direction is parallel with the coast and the 

 Cascade Range, conforming thus to the great system of the West. 

 A few lofty peaks to the north rise beyond the snow limit. Mt. 

 Olympus, south of the straits of De Fuca, is a high peak, proba- 

 bly extinct volcanic, having an altitude as Captain Wilkes states, 

 of 8,138 feet. Mount Fairweather, 15,000 feet high, and Mount 

 St. Elias, 17,000 feet, near latitude 60° N., properly belong with 

 the Coast Mountains. Swalalahos is an ancient crater, south of 

 Astoria, and not far from 3U00 feet in height. East of Fran- 

 cisco, Mt. Diavolo, according to Fremont, is 3,770 feet high. 



The subdivision of the Coast Range into parallel ridges is well 

 seen south of the Bay of Francisco, and it is also as decided in 



some parts north. 



Besides the north and south ridges, there are others of a trans- 

 verse course, or east and west direction. The Elk Moun- 

 tains near latitude 43° 40', the Umpqua mountains in latitude 

 42° 50', and the S hasty just north of 41°. are natural bounda- 

 ries, extending east and west across the western section of the ter- 

 ritory, and dividing it into geographical districts, — the ( mpqua, 

 and the Shasty, with the Willammet on the north, and the Sac- 

 ramenta on the south. The Elk Mountains were crossed by the 

 writer about thirty miles from the sea, and in this part they were 

 1,200 to 1,500 feet in height. The Umpqua mountains, nearly 

 at the same distance inland, were 2,000 to 2,500 feet in height 

 a steep and rugged collection of ridges. The Shasty mountains, 

 west of the Shasty Peak, were from 2,000 to 6,000 feet high, 





