OCR Text |
Show 58 STEPPES AND DESERTS. Captain Fremont, in his Report, p. 27 4, "we hau snowy peaks always in view j we had surmounted the Hocky Mountains by the South Pass at an elevation of 7027 (7490 E.) feet, but we found ihe passes of the Maritime Alps, which are divided into several parallel ranges, more than 2000 feet higher;" therefore, only about 1170 feet (124 7 E.) below the summit of Etna. It is extremely remarkable, and reminds us of the difference between the eastern and western Cordilleras of Chili, that it is only the chain of mountains nearest to the sea (the Californian range), which has still active volcanoes. The conical mountains of Regnier and St. Helen's are seen to emit smoke almost constantly, and on the 23d of November, 1843, Mount St. Helen's sent forth a quantity of ashes which covered the banks of the Columbia for forty miles like snow. To the volcanic Coast Range also belong (in Russian America in the high north) Mount St. Elias, 1980 toises high, according to La Perouse, and 2792 toises, according to Malaspina (12,660 and 17,850 E. feet), and Mount Fair Weather (Cerro de Buen Tempo), 2304 toises, or 14,732 E. feet high. Both these mountains are supposed to be still active volcanoes. Fremont's Expedition (which was important alike for it.s botanical and geological results) collected volcanic products, such as scoriaceous basalt, trachyte, and even obsidian, in the Rocky Mountains, and found an extinct volcanic crater a little to the east of Fort Hall (lat. 43° 2·', long. 112° 28' W.); but there are no signs of volcanoes still active, that is tJ say, emitting at times lava or ashes. We are not to confound with such activity the still imperfectly explained phenomenon of "smoking hills;" "c6tes brillees," or "terrains ardens," as they are called by the English settlers, and by natives speaking French. An accurate observer, M. Nicollet, says, "Ranges of low conical hills are covered with a thick black smoke almost periodically, and often for two or three years together. No flames are seen." This phenomenon shows itself principally in the district of the Upper Missouri, and still nearer to the eastern declivity of the Rocky Mountains, where a river bears the native name of Mankizitah-Watpa, or the "river of the smoking earth." Scoriaceous pseudo-volcanic products, such as a kind of porcelain jasper, are found in the vicinity of the "smoking hills." Since the expedition of Lewis and Clark, an opinion bas become prevalent that the |