Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Central Cordillera Of Mexico And The Rocky Mountains
Follow The Direction North 10 Degrees West, From Latitude 25 To
38
degrees; the chain from that point to the Polar Sea prolongs in the
direction north 24 degrees west, and
Ends in the parallel 69 degrees,
at the mouth of the Mackenzie River.*
(* The eastern boundary of the Rocky Mountains lies: -
In 38 degrees latitude : 107 degrees 20 minutes longitude.
In 40 degrees latitude : 108 degrees 30 minutes longitude.
In 63 degrees latitude : 124 degrees 40 minutes longitude.
In 68 degrees latitude : 130 degrees 30 minutes longitude.)
In thus developing the structure of the Cordilleras of the Andes from
56 degrees south to beyond the Arctic circle, we see that its northern
extremity (longitude 130 degrees 30 minutes) is nearly 61 degrees of
longitude west of its southern extremity (longitude 60 degrees 40
minutes); this is the effect of the long-continued direction from
south-east to north-west north of the isthmus of Panama. By the
extraordinary breadth of the New Continent, in the 30 and 60 degrees
north latitude, the Cordillera of the Andes, continually approaching
nearer to the western coast in the southern hemisphere, is removed 400
leagues on the north from the source of the Rio de la Paz. The Andes
of Chile may be considered as maritime Alps,* (* Geognostically
speaking, a littoral chain is not a range of mountains forming of
itself the coast; this name is extended to a chain separated from the
coast by a narrow plain.) while, in their most northern continuation,
the Rocky Mountains are a chain in the interior of a continent. There
is, no doubt, between latitude 23 and 60 degrees from Cape Saint Lucas
in California, to Alaska on the western coast of the Sea of
Kamschatka, a real littoral Cordillera; but it forms a system of
mountains almost entirely distinct from the Andes of Mexico and
Canada. This system, which we shall call the Cordillera of California,
or of New Albion, is linked between latitude 33 and 34 degrees with
the Pimeria alta, and the western branch of the Cordilleras of
Anahuac; and between latitude 45 and 53 degrees, with the Rocky
Mountains, by transversal ridges and spurs that widen towards the
east. Travellers who may at some future time pass over the unknown
land between Cape Mendocino and the source of the Rio Colorado, may
perhaps inform us whether the connexion of the maritime Alps of
California or New Albion, with the western branch of the Cordilleras
of Mexico, resembles that which, notwithstanding the depression, or
rather total interruption observed on the west of the Rio Atrato, is
admitted by geographers to exist between the mountains of the isthmus
of Panama and the western branch of the Andes of New Grenada. The
maritime Alps, in the peninsula of Old California, rise progressively
towards the north in the Sierra of Santa Lucia (latitude 34 1/2
degrees), in the Sierra of San Marcos (latitude 37 to 38 degrees) and
in the Snowy Mountains near Cape Mendocino (latitude 39 degrees 41
minutes); the last seem to attain at least the height of 1500 toises.
From Cape Mendocino the chain follows the coast of the Pacific, but at
the distance of from twenty to twenty-five leagues. Between the lofty
summits of Mount Hood and Mount Saint Helen, in latitude 45 3/4
degrees, the chain is broken by the River Columbia. In New Hanover,
New Cornwall and New Norfolk these rents of a rocky coast are
repeated, these geologic phenomena of the fjords that characterize
western Patagonia and Norway. At the point where the Cordillera turns
towards the west (latitude 58 3/4 degrees, longitude 139 degrees 40
minutes) there are two volcanic peaks, one of which (Mount Saint
Elias) perhaps equals Cotopaxi in height; the other (Fair-Weather
Mountain) equals the height of Mount Rosa. The elevation of the former
exceeds all the summits of the Cordilleras of Mexico and the Rocky
Mountains, north of the parallel 19 1/4 degrees; it is even the
culminant point in the northern hemisphere, of the whole known world
north of 50 degrees of latitude. North-west of the peaks of Saint
Elias and Fair-Weather the chain of California widens considerably in
the interior of Russian America. Volcanoes multiply in number as we
advance westward, in the peninsula of Alaska and the Fox Islands,
where the volcano Ajagedan rises to the height of 1175 toises above
the level of the sea. Thus the chain of the maritime Alps of
California appears to be undermined by subterraneous fires at its two
extremities; on the north in 60 degrees of latitude, and on the south,
in 28 degrees, in the volcanoes of the Virgins.* (* Volcanes de las
Virgenes. The highest summit of Old California, the Cerro de la
Giganta (700 toises), appears to be also an extinguished volcano.) If
it were certain that the mountains of California belong to the western
branch of the Andes of Anahuac, it might be said that the volcanic
fire, still burning, abandons the central Cordillera when it recedes
from the coast, that is, from the volcano of Colima; and that the fire
is borne on the north-west by the peninsula of Old California, Mount
Saint Elias, and the peninsula of Alaska, towards the Aleutian Islands
and Kamschatka.
I shall terminate this sketch of the structure of the Andes by
recapitulating the principal features that characterize the
Cordilleras, north-west of Darien.
Latitude 8 to 11 degrees. Mountains of the isthmus of Panama, Veragua
and Costa Rica, slightly linked to the western chain of New Grenada,
which is that of Choco.
Latitude 11 to 16 degrees. Mountains of Nicaragua and Guatimala; line
of volcanoes north 50 degrees west, for the most part still burning,
from the gulf of Nicoya to the volcano of Soconusco.
Latitude 16 to 18 degrees. Mountains of gneiss-granite in the province
of Oaxaca.
Latitude 18 1/2 to 19 1/2 degrees.
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