GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 7 



of the Columbia from those of Fraser's River on the west, and constituting 

 another natural boundary to the territory drained by the former stream. 

 Of the interior of California, little is known with certainty : it is, however, 

 probable that a ridge extends from the Snowy Mountains, near their 

 junction with the Rocky Mountains, about the 42d degree of latitude, 

 southward, to the great westernmost chain, near the 32d degree, where the 

 Californian peninsula joins the continent, forming the western wall of the 

 valley of the Colorado River. 



The territories west of the Rocky Mountains abound in lakes, several 

 of which present surfaces of great extent : some of them communicate 

 with rivers ; others have no outlet, and their waters are consequently salt.* 

 The largest, called the Timpanogos, or Utah Lake, among the Snowy 

 Mountains, between the 40th and the 42d degrees of latitude, belongs to 

 the latter class, and is probably not less than two thousand miles in area. 

 The most extensive of the fresh-water lakes is the Kullispelm, or Clarke's 

 Lake, formed by the expansion of the Clarke River, in a valley surrounded 

 by high mountains, under the 48th parallel. 



The countries on the Pacific side of North America differ materially in 

 climate from those east of the great dividing range of mountains situated 

 in the same latitudes, and at equal distances from and elevations above the 

 ocean. These differences are less within the torrid zone, and beyond the 

 60th parallel ; but in the intermediate space, every part of the Pacific sec- 

 tion is much warmer and much drier than places in the Atlantic or the 

 Arctic sections under the same conditions as above expressed. Thus the 

 north-westernmost regions of America appear to be as cold, and to receive as 

 much rain and snow from the heavens, as those surrounding Baffin's Bay, 

 or those in their own immediate vicinity in Asia ; but in the countries on 

 the Pacific side corresponding in latitude and other respects with Wis- 

 consin, Canada, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, the ground is rarely 

 covered with snow for more than three or four weeks in each year, and it 

 often remains unfrozen throughout the winter. In the countries on the 

 west coast, opposite to Virginia and Carolina, the winter is merely a wet 

 season, no rain falling at any other time; and in the Californian peninsula, 

 which is included between the same parallels of latitude as Georgia and 

 Florida, the temperature is as high as in any tropical region, and many 

 years in succession pass by without a shower or even a cloud. It is 

 likewise observed, especially between the 30th and the 50th parallels, that 

 the interior portions of the Pacific section are much more dry, and the 



* Wherever water runs on or passes through the earth, it meets with salts, in 

 quantities greater or less, according to the structure of the soil, and the space passed 

 over or through : these salts it dissolves, and carries to its final recipient, either the 

 ocean, or some lake or marsh, or sandy region, having no communication, either above 

 or below the surface, with any lower recipient; and, as the water can only escape 

 naturally from this recipient, by evaporation, which cannot abstract a single saline 

 particle, it follows, as a necessary consequence, that the salt must always be accumu- 

 lating there. Thus the Dead Sea, which has no outlet, is saturated with salts, while 

 the Lake of Tiberias, from which it receives its waters through the Jordan, is per- 

 fectly fresh ; and innumerable other instances may be cited. In like manner, the 

 ground in countries from which the water is not regularly carried off by streams or 

 infiltration, is generally impregnated with salt ; of which examples are offered in the 

 high plains of Mexico, in some valleys west of the Rocky Mountains, and in many 

 parts of the United States. The reverse may not be always true ; but the saltness of 

 a large body of water, or a large extent of ground, affords strong reasons for suspect- 

 ing the want of a drain from it into a lower recipient. 



