Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/138

Lake Michigan is wholly within the territory of the republic; so is nearly all of Lake Champlain. Near the S. end of the last, in New York, is Lake George, renowned for its beautiful scenery, a feature equally characteristic of other lakes in the neighboring wilderness of the Adirondacks and in New England. Among the last mentioned, the most important are Moosehead in Maine, Winnipiseogee in New Hampshire, and Memphremagog, partly in Vermont and partly in Canada. The central parts of Maine are thickly strewn with lakes of great beauty and considerable size; and in almost every part of New England sheets of water are abundantly found under the designation of ponds, which in Europe from their size and beauty would be classed as lakes. The central and western parts of New York contain several large lakes, the most remarkable of which are Otsego, Oneida, Skaneateles, Cayuga, Seneca, Keuka (formerly Crooked), and Chautauqua. In the southern states lakes of fresh water are rarely found except in Florida, where the principal is Okeechobee, and in Louisiana, where there are many lakes formed by expansions of the numerous rivers. In the states of the northwest, lakes are very numerous in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota; the great number and size of those in the last form indeed one of its most remarkable geographical features. The most noted on the Pacific slope is Great Salt lake. In the Great Basin, in Utah and Nevada, are many other lakes or sloughs, most of which, like this, are salt. In California and E. Oregon are several similar bodies of water. The area of the United States, with reference to its watersheds, is divided, according to Walker's “Statistical Atlas of the United States,” as follows: 1. The Pacific slope, 854,314 sq. m., including the basin of the Columbia, 219,706 sq. m.; Great Basin, 210,274; basin of the Colorado of the West, 264,386; coast basins, 159,948. 2. The Mississippi valley, 1,257,545 sq. m., including the Missouri basin, 527,690 sq. m.; upper Mississippi, 179,635; Ohio, 207,111; Arkansas, 184,742; Red river, 92,721; lower Mississippi, 65,646. 3. The gulf slope W. of the Mississippi, 279,768 sq. m., of which the Rio Grande basin occupies 101,334, and the gulf slope E. of the Mississippi 145,990 sq. m. 4. The Atlantic slope proper, 304,538 sq. m. 5. The basins of the St. Lawrence and Red river of the North, 184,339 sq. m.—The United States is crossed in a general N. and S. direction by two great systems of mountains, the Rocky mountains in the west and the Appalachian or Allegheny chain in the east, between which is the extensive and fertile Mississippi valley. The great mass of the Rocky mountain system is W. of the 105th meridian. Its two main chains are the Rocky mountains proper, extending through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and the Sierra Nevada in California, with its extension, the Cascade range, in Oregon and Washington territory. Between these two chains is a plateau, crossed by numerous mountain ranges, which through its centre E. and W. is from 4,000 to 5,000 ft. high, falling off toward the north and south from that line. The Wahsatch mountains are the most important range of the plateau. They extend S. and S. W. through Utah and S. E. Nevada, and form the E. rim of the Great Basin, the W. rim being the Sierra Nevada. They rise from 4,000 to 6,000 ft. above the plateau, Mt. Nebo being 11,992 ft. high. The Blue mountains in E. Oregon are little known. The most elevated portion of the plateau is between the Wahsatch and Rocky mountains, and embraces the Colorado “parks” and the Laramie plains in Wyoming. The average elevation here is from 7,000 to 9,000 ft., being greatest on the N. edge of the South park, whence there is a gentle decline in either direction. The loftiest portion of the Rocky mountains is in Colorado, where there are many peaks upward of 14,000 ft. high. The Wind River mountains in N. W. Wyoming, and the Bitter Root mountains, forming part of the boundary between Idaho and Montana, are important spurs of this chain. In the Wind River mountains rise the Missouri river, the Green river, forming the main branch of the Colorado of the West, and the Snake, one of the main branches of the Columbia. The Black hills, on the border of Wyoming and Dakota, may be considered an outlying group of the Rocky mountains. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains run nearly parallel with the Pacific coast, from 100 to 150 m. from it. In the former are several peaks more than 14,000 ft. high, Mt. Whitney (14,887 ft.) being the highest in the United States. The Coast range is the westernmost of the Rocky mountain system, running through California, Oregon, and Washington territory, at a distance of from 10 to 50 m. from the coast. It averages from 2,000 to 3,000 ft. in height, but a few peaks rise more than twice as high, and Mt. San Bernardino, the loftiest (which is however not generally considered as belonging to the Coast range), to an elevation of 11,600 ft. The Rocky mountain system embraces an area of nearly 1,000,000 sq. m. It is widest between the 36th and 41st parallels, where the breadth is from 800 to 1,000 m. It is lowest along the 32d parallel, where the greatest elevation is not more than 4,000 ft. The Appalachian chain extends S. W. from Canada to Alabama. It includes among other ranges the Green mountains in Vermont, the Catskills in New York, the Blue Ridge in Virginia, the Black mountains in North Carolina, and as outlying spurs the White mountains in New Hampshire and the Adirondacks in New York. Mt. Washington in the White mountains is 6,293 ft, high (according to Prof. Hitchcock); the loftiest peak of the chain is the Black Dome in the Black mountains, about 6,700 ft. The greatest width of the chain, not in-