The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1858-11-27


Pixies Peak. This park has the general
characteristics as the fourth, but is greatly
| inferior to it in size, fertility and climate,
being closely hedged in by great noun
tains, from whose SHOWS descend incesssnt
storms, and febrile dampness infesting
the atmosphere. From the same glacier
which surmounts Pixies Peak descends
the Arkansas river upon the reverse slope.
The river has no park; it defiles into the
plains through canon.
Here is discemible in the mountain
crest the same curvilinear sweep as in the
Wind river mass. Here occurs a similar
and parks. But here the mountain crests,
having curved outward to accomplish the
separation of the Plates and Arkansas,
condenses into the snowy promontory of
Pixies Peak, and terminates in abrupt
| precipiees to The Great Plains.
| At both of these remarkable focal
points, nature seems to have instituted a
primeval conflict between the abrading
resistance of the porphyritic durability of
the mountain barrier. At the northern
focus, the triumph Of the river presents
complete harmony of the passes, which
enter at all points upon the plain of the
South Pass, and connect across it. At
the southern focus, the unscathed impene-
trability of the mountain porphyry pre-
sents on every front its mural precipice of
undiminished altitude; here, then, the
austere rigidity of the mountain mass
triumphs and admits no transit through.
| To complete the perfect counterpart
resemblance between these foci, opens
from the western flank of the mother
crest, the Bayou st. Louis, which is the
Seventh Park. This is, in physical for
nation and in every detail, the exact twin
counterpart of the park of the "Plain of
the South Pass" The Sierra Mimbres
bounds its western edge, along whose base
flows the Rio Bravo del Norte. TRAN
gular in shape, level as the sea, equal to
the third park in area, encompassed by
the sublimest scenery, abundantly irri-
gated iby streams, $500 feet in altitude,
it has an alluvial soil of luxuriant fertili-
ty, and seasons eminetly propitious to agri-
culture. 1t is in this delicious " Bay of
the Sierras" that the current flow of time
will find renewed, identified, and de-
veloped, all the charms with which ORR
entail narrative and song have invested the
lovely valley of Kashmere.
The Spanish Peaks surmount the noun
tain crest under the 3Sthe of latitude.
From hence to the 29tho it sheds the
waters of the Rio Bravo del Norte from its
western flank; from the eastern flank de-
scend the Arkansas and Red river, flowing
to the Mississippi, and the rivers of Tex
as, flowing directly to the Gulf The
whole front is masked towards the east
with a screen of secondary mesas, Cables
termed distinctively Nanos There are
immense triangular terraces, of half the
altitude of the Sierra resting against its
flank, protruding outward many hundred
miles, gradually dwarfng in breadth until
they terminated in an acute angle. They
have an uninterrupted level surface of
calcareous soil, a scanty heritage and rain
less atmosphere, an imperceptible dip
towards their examinations, where they
present an abrupt wall of many thousand
feet in altitude, suspended above the Great
Plains. All along these mural TANKS
come out innumerable streams, which go
to form the Arkansas, Red river, and all
the rivers which traverse Texas. Thus is
explained the confusion which perplexes
the public mind, struggling to arrange the
| physical confguration of this immense
region as yet only partially explored. To
the Mexican people who inhabit the
higher mountain region, this is known as
the lower plain by the people of the
maritime region, who see from below its
ragged front, it is designated as the Gauda-
loupe Mountains, and by other names.
/ But this system of llanos seen most
distinctly in Texas, as the Llano Estacado,
and the Llano of the Balsifeta, has an
extent on scale commensurate with ali
the other distinctive formations. Its the
continuous screen or Piedmont which
graduates the immense declination in alti-
tude, from the summit crest of the Cor
dillera, to the smooth expanss of the Great
Plains, appearing from above as depres-
sed mesas; from below as series of rag
ged mountain chains. Geologically it is,
as it were, continental terrace or steppe,
or bench of the sulphate of lime, (plaster
of Paris elevated above the Great Plains,
which are carbonate of lime; depressed
below the Cordillers, which is porphyritic
of granite.
1 may, with propriety, pause here to
speak of the Basin of the Kansas, both on
account Of the fitness of the opportunity,
and because this delicious country, sur
rounding the very navel of our continent,
and embracing its geographical center,
has from that fact perpetual and para
mount interest. The Kansas river has
its extreme sources beneath the roots of
Pixies Peak, where they have ceased to
interrupt the Plains. The Platte and
Arkansas envelope it and form a line of
drainage between it and the Cordillera.
But in front of the Kansas Basin, the
screen of the Piedmont is interrupted and
disappears, so that the Great Plains stretch
up to the base of the Cordillera, which
reveals at one sight the towering masses
of Pixies and Longs Peaks, and the cur
tain Of snowy mountains which connects
them. ,-o-
4 A similar coup del is seen, as presents
itself to an Italian standing upon the Pc
above Milan, whose eye sweeps the Plain
of Lombardy and ascends to the snowy
submits of the highest Alps, without any
intervening objects to interrupt the vision.
A similar resemblance to the Alpine for
nation which characterizes the partially
explored masses Immediately to the West,
has acquired for them the local name of
Helyetisn Mountains. From these two
peaks-Long's Peak to the north, and
Pixies Peak to the South-as from twin
radisting points, the Piedmont expands
} from the eastern flank of the CordillerA,
link half-opeu fan. Towards the north
is the Medicine Bow mountain and the
Laramie Plain; towards the south, the
Ratone Mountain, the Llano Balsifeta and
the Llano Estacado.
Such is an effort to delineate and CLASH
fy the prominent physical features of the
mother Cordillera of eur country; the
serrated axis which forms its core; the
system Of parks; the system Of rivers and
mountain ay,urc the uaaka and na1as.