40 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP THE COUNTRY. 



if 



A general description of the topographical features of the country along the houndary bc- 



U 



made 

 itself. 



in the same view the great outline of the continent 



4 



It is now well known that the most extensive feature in the continent is the plateau^ or table- 



froni 



from 



the Andes of South America, its least elevation and breadth on the Isthmus of Panama and in 



America 



On the 



northern portion of the continent^ this plateau attains its greatest height in Mexico, where 

 it is ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. Its lowest depression is along the line of 

 boundary^ about the parallel of 32^ north latitude, where it is about four thousand feet 



above the sea. 



from 



thousand feet, to near the 49th parallel^ where it is again depressed. This plateau, both in 



Americ 



the sea, and in South America is Mount Aconcf 

 features in this plateau, within the United Stai 

 temperature between night and day, often as m 



America, is Mount Elias, 17,000 feet above 

 , 21,500 feet above the sea. The climatic 

 ire excessive dryness and great changes of 



mountains in North America, namino: them 



their proximity to 



California 



Oregon, or the Coast Kange of mountains 

 denotes, is a ridsre of mountains andcrasrerv 



Nevada, (which 



and craggy rocks, covered with snow ;) third, the Sierra Madre, 

 another range of mountains, which was supposed to separate the waters flowing into the two- 



oceans : 



fourth, the Eocky mountains, 



)nveyed by the name Sierra Madre is very generally 

 much if anv continuous rida^e or chain of mountains 



D 



from those flowing 



I am also q[uite well 



mountains 



mountains known as Sierra Madre, in New Mexico, are not the same r; 

 hat name in Chihuahua and Sonora, and that both are distinct from th 

 : Monterey of the same name ; but the Coast Eange, the Sierra Neva< 



preserve a very considerable continuity throughout the limits 



United States. The Coast Eange follows the generally northwest direction of the beach of the 

 Pacific coast, and, for a very considerable distance, rises abruptly from the sea. Along the 

 whole coast it is in view of the navigator, presenting an Imposing and ever-changing panorama. 

 It may be said to ter.minate at Cape San Lucas, the southern extremity of Lower California. 



mountains 



the and region, and is, m my judgment, the only contmuous agricultural country w< 

 100th meridian. There are many detached valleys and basins affording facilities for ij 

 where the cereals, the vine, and all the plants which conduce to the comfort of man 



form 



mountains 



The Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Eange, and the Eocky mountains, preserve a general 



ism 



ge. Commencin 



can be traced continuously until we reach to within a few degrees of latitude of the region 



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