32 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 



2 GEORGE V., A. 1912 



Mountain Trench, these mountains forming the ' Purcell division of the Selkirk 

 system ' ; but he did not fix either a northern or a southern limit to the group 

 so named. 



The same usage appears in the maps and texts of most geographers pub- 

 lishing during the last twenty-five years. It was officially adopted by the 

 Canadian Geological Survey, and by the British Columbia Government (1897). 

 It appears in the general geological map of the Dominion, edited by Selwyn 

 and Dawson, and issued by the survey in 1884. The name was accordingly 

 entered in most of the American and European atlases of the world. For some 

 unknown reason, the second edition of the official geological map of the Domin- 

 ion (1901) represents the Purcells as constituting merely Palliser's original 

 small group of summits, and this tradition has been followed in the new general 

 map of the Dominion issued by the Canadian Department of the Interior 

 (1902). Both official and general previous usages conflict with this quite recent 

 official return to Palliser's mapping. In reality, the Palliser usage is not 

 familiar to the people of British Columbia; it is subject to the criticism that 

 the rangelet mapped by Palliser is not defined on the west by natural limits. 

 The lack of definition in Palliser's exploratory sketch-mapping is such that it 

 may even be doubted that Dawson really broke the law of priority in giving 

 : Purcell range ' its broader meaning. The name is practically useless if it 

 be not so extended. The long-established tradition of the influential atlases 

 following the lead of Dawson makes it expedient to use the title in the broader 

 meaning. 



The question remains as to the northern and southern limits of the Purcell 

 range. As a result of compiling all the available information, the writer has 

 concluded that the range has no natural boundary to the northward, short of 

 the confluence of the Purcell and Bocky Mountain trenches. The conclusion 

 has been strikingly corroborated by the detailed studies of Wheeler along 

 Beaver river. There is, similarly, no natural boundary on the south, short of 

 the great bend of the Kootenay river in Montana. However vaguely supported 

 by definite knowledge of the field, the latter conclusion has been anticipated 

 by the editors of the Century Dictionary Atlas (map of Montana), of the 

 Encyclopedia Americana (maps of British Columbia, Montana, and Canada), 

 of Bartholomew's English Imperial Atlas, of Keith Johnson's Royal Atlas, 

 and of Stieler's Handatlas. Maps occurring in all of these works represent 

 the Purcell range as continuing southward into the United States as far as the 

 Kootenay river. So far as known to the writer, there is no popular or official 

 de-ignation for the mountains lying between that river and the Canadian 

 Boundary. The Cabinet mountains lie entirely south of the Kootenay river. 



The first attempt on the part of the United States Geological Survey to 

 name, in published form, the natural subdivisions of this extensive group of 

 mountains was made in 1906. In Bulletin No. 285, published in that year and 

 bearing the title ' Contributions to Economic Geology, 1905,' an outline map of 

 northern Idaho and northwestern Montana was issued in connection with Mr. D. 

 E. MacDonald's report on mineral resources of the district (page 42). On this 



