REPORT OF THE CHIEF ASTROXOMER 21 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 25a 



however, declared that there is but one Cordillera in North America. The 

 expression 'Pacific Cordillera' is, according to such established usage, redun- 

 dant. ' The Cordillera of North America,' ' The Cordilleran system,' ' The Cor- 

 dilleran Region,' or, with the proper context, simply ' The Cordillera,' seem to 

 be to-day the best variants on the Humboldt root-word. 



The fine, dignified quality of the word, convenient in adjective form as in 

 noun form, its unequivocal meaning and its really widespread use in atlas and 

 monograph make ' Cordillera ' incomparably the best term for technical and 

 even for the more serious popular works. In fact, there seems to be no good 

 reason why the name should not be entered in elementary school atlases. The 

 objection tbat the word is likely to be mispronounced by teacher or scholar 

 would equally exclude ' Himalaya ' and ' Appalachian ' from school-books. In 

 teaching or learning what is meant by ' the Cordillera,' the teacher or scholar 

 would incidentally learn so much Spanish. If, in the future, this should be 

 deemed an intolerable nuisance, speakers in English could, in their licensed 

 way, throw the accent back to the second syllable and avoid the unscholarly 

 danger. The second objection that a cordillera is hereby made to include the 

 extensive plateaus of Utah and Arizona or the great intermontane basins of the 

 United States is more serious. It will, however, hardly displace the word from 

 its present technical use as designating a single earth-feature ruggedly moun- 

 tainous as a whole, but bearing subordinate local details of form and structure 

 not truly mountainous. If this objection be regarded as invalid by advanced 

 scientific workers, it will have still less weight for popular or educational use. 



The ordinary connotation of the term ' highland ' makes it unsuitable as 

 part of the name indicating the world's vastest mountain group. Like Powell's 

 name ' Stony Mountains,' suggested for the majestic Front ranges north of 

 the Union Pacific Railroad, ' highland ' is ' belittling.' To most readers it 

 would inevitably suggest Scotland's relief. If the word be raised to the dignity 

 proposed in ' Western Highland ' or ' Rocky Mountain Highland,' the writer 

 on the natural features of the Cordillera runs the risk of ambiguity in employ- 

 ing the indispensable common noun ' highland,' while dealing with local pro- 

 blems of geology, geography, or natural history. 



For popular use, the best title alternative with ' Cordillera ' is, in the 

 writer's opinion, ' The Pacific Mountain System.' It is suggested by Russell's 

 • The Pacific Mountains.' The addition of the world ' system ' . .ems advisable 

 ai stating the unity of the whole group. The proposal of J. D. Dana to restrict 

 the common noun ' system ' to mean merely the group of ranges formed in a 

 sh.gle geosyncline has to face overwhelming objections. The usage of genera- 

 tions is against it; the difficulty of actually applying it in nature is, perhaps, 

 yet more surely fatal to the idea. 



The restriction of the titles 'Pacific Ranges' (Hayden), 'Pacific Moun- 

 tains' (Powell in his earlier use of that term; he later applied it to the 

 whole Cordillera), and 'Pacific Mountain System' (A. C. Spencer and A. II. 

 Brooks) to the relatively narrow mountain belt lying between the ocean and the 

 so-called ' Interior Plateau ' of the Cordillera, seems particularly unfortunate. 



