Excerpt from Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, Vol. 6: 1882

Whitney, to be a comprehensive appellation for the whole system of mountains, from the most eastern Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevada inclusive, and the continuation of the latter in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and British Columbia. The region which we are to treat botanically might take the name of the Cordilleran Region of North America. But it will, on several accounts, be better to adhere in this essay to the designation used in our title. For, although the term cor dilleras would be the only appropriate one if we had the whole vast mountain system in view, from Patagonia to the Arctic sea-coast, it is a term which belongs primarily and mainly to South America, and our survey is to embrace only a few parallels of latitude, in fact just those which contain the ranges which early took the name of the Rocky Mount ains, both at the north, where they were traversed by Lewis and Clarke at the beginning of this century (1803 and at the south, where they were reached on the frontiers of New Mexico by Pike a year or two later.

With these Rocky Mountains proper, i. E. The eastern and dominating ranges, as the central line of our field of view, the horizon should extend eastward to where the gradually subsiding plain becomes green with a rich prairie vegetation, to be at length fringed with forest, and westward to the base of the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades, the eastern verge of the Pacific forest region.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.