48 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1045 



THE BELIEF OF OVM PACIFIC COASTt- 



EvEE since the landing of the Pilgrims 

 on Plymouth Rock and the founding of 

 Jamestown, if not even in the Garden of 

 Eden, "Westward Ho" has been the cry, 

 and the inspiration of this call of the wild 

 is well portrayed by Leutze in his famous 

 painting at the national eapitol. 



"Westward the Star of Empire takes 

 its way" is no less true to-day than two 

 centuries ago, but from a more commercial 

 point of view. 



The near sea level transcontinental 

 water route of the Panama Canal is in 

 strong contrast with the bold relief of the 

 immigrant route of the early days in 

 wagons across the Great Plains and Rocky 

 mountains, with the privations of the Great 

 Basin to the ranges of the Pacific coast 

 with luxuriant wealth of forest and field, 

 affording the framework for the Golden 

 Gate where the Panama-Pacific Exposition 

 is about to celebrate the opening of the 

 great canal. 



Many a traveler will find his way from 

 the Atlantic coast to California on that 

 occasion, and to prepare him for the strong 

 contrast between the surface features of 

 the two ocean borders I have selected as 

 my theme on this occasion "The Relief of 

 Our Pacific Coast." It will indeed be a 

 great relief to the generous heart of the 

 Pacific coast to welcome a large number 

 of visitors to the Panama-Pacific Exposi- 

 tion, but that is not the relief to which I 

 refer. It is to the form of the land sur- 

 face, its ups and downs with reference to 

 the sea level along our Pacific coast, that 

 your attention is invited. It is the sub- 

 ject which in one form or another has held 



1 Address of the Vice-president and Chairman 

 of Section of Geology and Geography, American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 Philadelphia meeting, December, 1914. Published 

 with the permission of the Director of the U. S. 

 Geological Survey. 



my attention as a field of investigation in 

 connection with the United States Geolog- 

 ical Survey for many years. Do not be 

 dismayed at this length of service as 

 affording a suggestion of the duration of 

 this discourse. But quite the contrary, 

 the proportion should be inverse, for it 

 seems quite probable that my eminent pred- 

 ecessor. Professor Lesley, was right when 

 he declared that geologists talk too much, 

 and I shall heed his admonition. 



The backbone of the North American 

 continent is in the Rocky Mountain system 

 relatively near the Pacific coast. The 

 great valley of the Mississippi lies to the 

 east with the Appalachians and the coastal 

 plain of the Atlantic States beyond. A 

 200-mile wide belt on the Atlantic coast, 

 at least from Virginia southward, is a 

 coastal plain and piedmont region without 

 mountains or even big hills, but on the 

 Pacific coast the 200-mile belt is mountain- 

 ous in the extreme from Canada to Mexico. 



The mountain belt of the Pacific coast 

 is but a member of that merged group of 

 mountain systems, the Cordilleran, that 

 runs through the western United States 

 and Mexico and forms the continental 

 bond of Panama, now so happily pierced 

 for the commerce of the world and so fit- 

 tingly and attractively celebrated in the 

 Panama-Pacific Exposition. 



Indeed, it is believed that the mountain 

 belt of our Pacific coast is no small part 

 of the attraction to the exposition. It 

 constitutes not only the framework of the 

 Golden Gate, the scene of the great event, 

 but in itself embraces some of the finest 

 scenic features of the world among which 

 are four national parks, the Yosemite, 

 General Grant, Crater lake, and Mount 

 Rainier, besides three national monuments, 

 the Pinnacles and Cinder Cone in Cali- 

 fornia, the caves of Oregon, and Mount 

 Olympiis in Washington, all districts of 



