The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1858-11-27
INDEPENDENCE, Mo-, Aug. 6, $50.

ANOEG ANOhuNG1 HAOs, aug. VI OOs
This is an immense department of our
country of primary significance and in
terest. Vaguely denominated as the
"Stony or Rocky Mountains" occupying
an inhospitable waste beyond the energies
of social adventure, mankind has hereto
fore heard the name with indifference,
and all minute details with dogmatic
aversion. To establish its title to esteem
in the popular opinion Of the world, the
complete reverse of this, is my object.
Prominent in the Mountain System of
the Globe" is an immense girdle of
mountains, gigantic in formation, crested
with snow, having volcanoes on its TANKS,
and auriferous throughout. This COM
mences at Cape Horn, travsrsss the whole
length of America to Bhering's Strait,
traverses Asia and Europe to the Pillars
Of Hercules, traversss Africa and appears
in the Islands of Madagascar, Australasia
and New Zealand. If the single strait of
Hercules were closed, and Suez opened,
this continuous mountain crest would ex-
actly contain all the salt and fresh waters
of the Pacific Ocean in closed circle,
and divide them from those of the Allan
tic
This continuous girdle becomes, in
some localities, very much condensed in
breadth and altitude, as at the Isthmus of
Central America, and in France. Else
where it assumes immense expansion in
area and altitude, spreading out and ele-
waiting itself int the continental plateau,
which occupies the whole of Central Asia
and the still granaer plateau of the Ia
bic Lands" of our North America. The
mountain formation of North America
is, then, an important section of this i'm
mense girdle, which bisects all the CONT
nents. 1t has an area, massiveness and
altitude, position and climate, fertili.
ty, q variety which blends all the peculi.
arities of all other sections, simplicity of
CONFORMATION, and sublimity Of profile
which transcends all the rest. Thus, in
the "Cordillera Nevada de los Andes" is
found the full equivalent of the South
American mountains, volcanoes, active
and extinct, crowned with glaciers and o.
immense altitude, bAttlements of colum.
mar basalt, pedrigals of lava, subterranear
and thermal streams.
The plateau and its primary chains out.
rival in area and interest those Of South
America and Asia combined. Finally
the stern and stupendous masses of the
Himalay find themselves surpassed by the
primeval bulk, the prodigious length and
breadth, the immense mesas, the romantic
parks, the far-protruding llanos, and the
cloud-compelling icy peaks Of Cordillera
Of the Sierra Madre.
"The chain Of the Mother Mountain, u
il the generic name which piety awards to
this continuous crest, down whose TANKS
descend all the feeders of the oceans
Let me name them the Athabasca, the
Saskatchewan, the supreme Mississippi
the Texan rivers and the Rio Gran6e de-
Norte, the Fraser, the Columbia and the
colorado, in the Northern Continent. II
the Southern, the Nagdalena, Oronoco
the Amazon, the La Plata, the Patagonis
MYERS, and those of the Pacific slope. Il
not this COrdillera rightly called the
mother of rivers?
The fresh waters of the earth come
nom the clouds; the clouds come BY
evaporation from the expenses of the
oceans. We shall know that the Sierrs
Madre divides and rules the invisible flu.
lbs OF the atmosphere, equally as the wa.
tanks.
but let me at present restrict myself tC
OOfoiliera, As it runs athwart our own do.
nestle country, and define its varied fea.
lures as they display themselves to my
eye, looking out, as / now am, henct
westward to the Pacific.
e Is where the mountain mass debou.
.nes north from the Isthmus Of Tehuan-
sepec' that it bifurcates into the two pri.
may Oordilleras, which continue to ex.
p@uu from enc another. The mother
az G, on the east gives its form t.
que uui Of Mexico, whose shore it pur.
Suss nearly to the Pass Of Monterey and
0AlIliio. Hence to the Arctic Sea the
no ~ss preserves very regular line to the
tSan sn-north-west. At the point Of en-.
lance into our present territory, it ii
so5gea oy the canon of the Rio Grands
Srr Norte. This canon is q gorge eut
Tnquely through and through the bow.
~ 81 the Cordillera, where the river, bur
loving chasm LIS miles in length, &C.
Omphshes at once its exit into the mari
anne, e region, and its descent from tn,
a:eau OF the Table Lands" This i'm
p'Sctlcaole gorge is the only water cur
oas oy which the Sierra Madre is perfo
so anywhere between the extremitiel
me continent. have elsewhere spok
c ~ Of aniS canon together with that Of Ii,
SEOlofado and that Of the Columbis, as III,