PHYSICAL GEOGEAPHY. xxxix 



iirection, into the Sierra Nevada systenij about latitude 42°,- 

 md in a south-easterly direction almost to the great bend of 

 Euniboldt Eiver ; "thence it passes a little northward again, as 

 the ranges north of the Great Basin indicate, between that 

 riyer and the Snake, until it enters the northern extremity of- 

 ihe Wahsatch Mountains. 



From the northern extremity of these Wahsatch Moun- 

 tains a short range, named the Bear Mountains, passes, as I 

 have before said, into the Rocky Mountain chain. This range 

 "-'separates the Columbia from the Colorado Basin, and is the 

 '^ridge by which this divide unites with the main diyide of the 



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continent. 



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Between the main chains of the Eocky Monntains and the 



' sierra Nevada, the Wahsatch range is the largest and most 



^^Jttfcmportant. It extends from latitude 41^^, north of Great 



1 ^alt Lake, almost to lat. 34^. For the first half of this distance 



^Ijts general direction is nearly sontli; for the latter, sonth- 



^'. jjTest; so that it passes from the 111th to the 115th meridian, 



^Thron^hout its entire length it forms the divide between the 



' paters of the Colorado at the Great Basin. 



Abont the head-waters of Bear Eiver, one of the three 

 tribntaries of Great Salt Lake, this divide appears to reqnire 

 1^* some slight explanation. Although Great Salt Lake is 

 4,290 feet above the sea, and the "Wahsatch Mountains rise 

 in magnificent proportions to the east and north-east of it, yet 

 this most western part of the range does not represent the 

 rim of the basin — the dividing ridge between the waters of 

 Salt Lake and the Rio Colorado — for the country behind is 

 still higher ; and the mountains themselves in this locality 

 are some seventy miles across. The consequence is, that the 

 rim of the basin is found to lie some sixty miles east of the 

 western slopes of the mountains. 



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