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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They Are Separated By Hills Little Striking To The Eye Of
The Traveller Because They Rise Only From 250 To 400 Toises Above The
Surrounding Plains.
The basins are sometimes closed, like the valley
of Tenochtitlan, where lie the great Alpine lakes, and sometimes they
exhibit traces of ancient ejections, destitute of water.
Between latitude 33 and 38 degrees, the Rio del Norte forms, in its
upper course, a great longitudinal valley; and the central chain seems
here to be divided into several parallel ranges. This distribution
continues northward, in the Rocky Mountains,* where, between the
parallels of 37 and 41 degrees, several summits covered with eternal
snow (Spanish Peak, James Peak and Big Horn) are from 1600 to 1870
toises of absolute height. (* The Rocky Mountains have been at
different periods designated by the names of Chypewyan, Missouri,
Columbian, Caous, Stony, Shining and Sandy Mountains.) Towards
latitude 40 degrees south of the sources of the Paduca, a tributary of
the Rio de la Plata, a branch known by the name of the Black Hills,
detaches itself towards the north-east from the central chain. The
Rocky Mountains at first seem to lower considerably in 46 and 48
degrees; and then rise to 48 and 49 degrees, where their tops are from
1200 to 1300 toises, and their ridge near 950 toises. Between the
sources of the Missouri and the River Lewis, one of the tributaries of
the Oregon or Columbia, the Cordilleras form in widening, an elbow
resembling the knot of Cuzco.
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