The Mississippi Valley: Its Physical Geography, Including Sketches of the Topography, Botany, Climate, Geology, and Mineral Resources ; and of the Progress of Development in Population and Material Wealth |
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Alleghanies animal Arctic Atlantic Slope Azoic Basin become beds belt California Carboniferous Caribbean Sea character coal Coast Colorado Colorado Desert Continent Cretaceous cultivation deposits desert developed Devonian earth east eastern elevation extending feet fertility forest forms Fort Riley fossils Frémont Geological grasses Gulf Gulf of Mexico heat height hence hills igneous Illinois islands Kansas Lake Michigan Lake Superior land latitude lignite limestone lines Loess Mexico Michigan miles Mississippi Valley Missouri moisture mouth navigable nearly northern northwest observed ocean Ohio origin Pacific Pacific Railroad Surveys plains plants population portion prairies precipitation rain range region ridges River rocks Rocky Mountains sand sandstone season shales shores Sierra Nevada Silurian southern southwest square miles steppes strata streams summer surface temperature Tertiary thickness tion trees Triassic tropical United Upper vast vegetation volcanic western wheat whole winds winter zone
Popular passages
Page 78 - Beyond this flood a frozen continent Lies, dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms Of whirlwind and dire hail ; which on firm land Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems Of ancient pile ; all else deep snow and ice...
Page 130 - The common benefits of water are an object of desire and contest ; and such is the scarcity of wood that some art is requisite to preserve and propagate the element of fire.
Page 67 - Lands intersected by a narrow frith Abhor each other. Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
Page 300 - Coal mines are overhung. The roof is covered as with a canopy of gorgeous tapestry, enriched with festoons of most graceful foliage, flung in wild irregular profusion over every portion of its surface. The effect is heightened by the contrast of the coal-black colour of these vegetables with the light ground-work of the rock to which they are attached.
Page 295 - By his admirable contrivances it has become a thing stupendous alike for its force and its flexibility, for the prodigious power which it can exert, and the ease and precision and ductility with which it can be varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant, that can pick up a pin, or rend an oak, is as nothing to it.
Page 24 - ... they remark that the shocks were clearly distinguishable into two classes, — those in which the motion was horizontal, and those in which it was perpendicular. The latter were attended with the explosions and the terrible mixture of noises that preceded and accompanied the earthquakes in a louder degree, but were by no means as desolating and destructive as the other.
Page 296 - The trunk of an elephant, that can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it ; draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider muslin and forge anchors, cut steel into ribbons, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves.
Page 7 - O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
Page 87 - With the change in the geological formation on leaving Fort Laramie, the whole face of the country has entirely altered its appearance. Eastward of that meridian, the principal objects which strike the eye of a traveler are the absence of timber, and the immense expanse of prairie, covered with the verdure of rich grasses, and highly adapted for pasturage. Wherever they are not disturbed by the vicinity of man, large herds of buffalo give animation to this country. Westward of Laramie river, the...
Page 115 - At length, after 26 the long drought, the welcome season of the rain arrives £ and then how suddenly is the scene changed ! The deep blue of the hitherto perpetually cloudless sky becomes lighter ; at night the dark space in the constellation of the Southern Cross is hardly distinguishable ; the soft, phosphorescent light of the Magellanic clouds fades away ; even the stars in Aquila and Ophiucus in the zenith, shine with a trembling and less planetary light.