2 GEORGE V. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 25a A. 1912 



CHAPTER III. 



NOMENCLATURE OF THE MOUNTAIN RANGES CROSSED BY THE 

 FORTY-NINTH PARALLEL. 



INTRODUCTION AND OUTLINE. 



Although, the section covered by the Boundary Commission does 

 not extend to Vancouver island, it is about as long as the longest 

 line of cross-section of the entire Himalayan group of ranges from 

 peninsular India to the Tibetan plateau. If the whole of Vancouver island were 

 included in the Eorty-ninth Parallel section, it would be nearly one hundred 

 Tniles longer than any section-line crossing the Himalayan complex at right 

 angles. Plate 2 shows the reliefs of Himalayas and Alps at their broadest as com- 

 pared with the partial section of the North American chain covered by the 

 Boundary Commission. The great size of the North American chain is further 

 indicated by a comparison of areas. The chain of the Himalayas, using that 

 term in its larger sense, covers about 300,000 square miles; the Alps of Europe 

 from Nice to Vienna, not more than 70,000 square miles; the Andes, about 

 1,000,000 square miles; and the western chain of North America, over 2,300,000 

 square miles. (See also Plate 3.) 



The vast mountain region crossed by the International Boundary between 

 Canada and the United States has always been very sparsely inhabited. In the 

 orographic features it is generally complicated, often to the uttermost. Its 

 exploration is only well begun. There are thus excellent reasons why the moun- 

 tain units of this region are so inadequately named and systematized in geogra- 

 phical works, whether issued as official Government reports, as educational text- 

 books or atlases, or as popular records of travel. Yet, whether he will or not, 

 the explorer responsible for a report on any part of this region must confront the 

 question of names. He returns from his rugged field, and, to tell of his findings, 

 must use common nouns to indicate what kinds of land-relief he has found, and 

 proper names to aid in individualizing and locating those reliefs in the huge 

 backbone of the continent. 



This duty has fallen to the writer in the task of reporting on the geology 

 of the mountains crossed by the Forty-ninth Parallel. Though the same trans- 

 montane section has been described by the geologists attached to the 1857-61 

 Commission, though it occurs along the most thickly settled part of British 

 Columbia, and though it is nowhere very far from the lines of two transcon- 

 tinental railroads, a complete and systematic grouping of the mountains on the 

 Boundary has never been made. The difficulty of supplying the lack was felt by 



25a— Vol. ii— 2 17 



