Central Part of British North America. 215 
When travelling in any of the transverse valleys, by which 
the chain is cut through almost to the prairie level, the moun- 
tains are seen to be composed of successive ranges formed by 
the escarpments of highly disturbed limestones and quartz- 
ites of paleeozoic age. * 
The average altitude of the highest part of the Rocky 
Mountains is 12,000 feet, but they never rise into marked 
peaks, and their cliff-like structure still further detracts from 
the grandeur of their appearance. The forest extends in alti- — 
tude to 7000 feet; and as some of the passes are much under 
this elevation, the chain cannot be considered as a direct bar 
to the passage of the more striking kinds of vegetation. 
Meteorological observations were obtained for the winter 
and spring seasons of both 1857-58 and 1858-59, at Fort Ed- 
monton, which is situated in the plain country, and about 100 
miles east of the Rocky Mountains, in Lat. 53° 32' N., Long. 
113° 20’ W., and at an altitude above the sea of 2000 feet. 
In order to show more exactly the nature of the climate at 
these seasons of the year, the following abstract of the ther- 
mometric observations 1s given :— 
I. From Daily Observations, excluding Maxima and Minima. 
No. of 
Highest. | Lowest. | Range. | Mean. | Observa- 
tions. 
ee —| 
1858. January, . . | 45° |-195 | 645 | 11-2 | 62 
February, . 55'5 |—41°5 97° 9°3 61 
Moreh, .. . 56° o 51° 34°9 93 
pel. 76° 24° 52° 45°1 90 
October, . . 53° 16° 37° 38'5 49 
November, . 47°5 |—19 66°5 27:1 85 
... December,. . °29°3 |—27°5 68° /—~ 2:9 93 
1859. January, . . 42- |—26° 68° 2; 93 
waeeeepriary,. 42° |—37° 79° 5:1 84 
Marci; .. 44:5 |— 2:5 477° 24:9 91 
a ae 65° 1 54: 32°5 90 
MBV, 0 8s 64: 37° ari 50°8 22 
Mean for January, February, March, and April 1858, . 25°12 
Bye et do, do... 1859) "> “18°62 
* A sketch of the geology of this country will be found in the “ Geological 
Journal.” November 1861. 
